What is my BMR and how many calories do I burn in a day?

Your BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate) is an estimate of how many calories you'd burn if you were to do nothing but rest for 24 hours. It represents the minimum amount of energy needed to keep your body functioning, including breathing and keeping your heart beating.

An easy way to calculate your BMR is by using an online calculator.  A friend of mine showed me THIS ONE that I really like or if you are interested in the exact formula here it is:

Women: BMR = 655 + ( 4.35 x weight in pounds ) + ( 4.7 x height in inches ) - ( 4.7 x age in years )
Men: BMR = 66 + ( 6.23 x weight in pounds ) + ( 12.7 x height in inches ) - ( 6.8 x age in year )

Ok great so I know my BMR…now what?  Well know that we know your BMR we can figure out how much food you can consume based on the calories you expend every day to figure out how many calories you need to eat to lose weight.

To figure this out we now use the Harris Benedict Equation You get to pick between five choices, Sedentary, Lightly Active, Moderately Active, Very active, or Extra Active.  You can also use an online calculator to figure this out.  I suggest THIS ONE.

Now to put all of it together!  Using these two sites my BMR is 1485.  I chose very active and multiplied my BMR by 1.725.  1485 x 1.725=2,561.  2,561 is the number of calories I need to consume in a day to maintain my weight.

However, as you know I am trying to lose weight.

It is better to lose weight slowly.  The faster you lose it the more likely you are to gain it all back.  I suggest only shooting for 1-2 lbs a week.  There are 3,500 calories in one pound so to lose 1-2 lbs a week we need to create a deficit of 3,500-7,000 calories a week.  That deficit can be created by working out more, eating less or a combination of both.

So, how do you figure out calories consumed & calories burned?  You can use an app like My Fitness Pal or Sparkpeople, or you can do it the good old fashion way of writing it all down.  I recommend an app or website because they do all the calculations for you and you can scan barcodes for fast tracking.

How do you determine how many calories you burn?  The above mentioned fitness apps can tell you an educated guess on how many calories you burned by tracking your activity with them too.   To have a much more exact measurement wear a heart rate monitor.   SparkPeople it gives you a range of cardio minutes you need to get in each week, to reach your weight goal and you can enter in 45 minutes of spinning, 22 minutes of walking at a 3.0 mph pace, 29 minutes of house work, etc…

I know this can be frustrating and annoying to get started.  But which is more annoying…setting this up and tracking or not getting results?!