Calculating Total Daily Energy Needs

Estimate your activity level by selecting the description that most closely fits your general lifestyle.

Sedantary/inactive Involves mostly sitting, driving, or very low levels of activity.
Men - 25-40% Women 25-35%

Lightly Active Involves a lot of sitting; may also involve some walking, moving around, and light lifting.
Men 50-70% Women 40-60%

Moderately Active Involves work plus intentional exercise such as an hour of walking or walking four to five days per week; may have a job requiring some physical labor.
Men 65-80% Women 50-70%

Heavily Active Involves a great deal of physical labor, such as roofing, carpentry work, and/or regular heavy lifting and digging.
Men 90-120% Women 80-100%

Exceptionally Active Involves a lot of physical activities for work and intentional exercise. Also applies to athletes who train for many hours each day, such as triathletes and marathon runners or other competitive athletes performing heavy, regular training.
Men 130-145% Women 110-130%


Knowing our BMR we can take that value and multiply it by the decimal equivalent of the lower and higher percentage values for your activity level. In my case I will consider myself Moderately Active

1,570.8 kcal/day x .65 = 1,021 kcal/day

1,570.8 kcal/day x .80 = 1,256.6 kcal/day

These calculations mean I will expend about 1,021 to 1,257 kcal/day doing daily activities.

TOTAL DAILY ENERGY OUTPUT

By adding BMR and the energy needed to perform daily activities.

1,570.8 kcal/day + 1,021 kcal/day = 2,592 kcal/day

or

1,570.8 kcal/day + 1,256.6 kcal/day = 2,827 kcal/day

Assuming I am maintaining my present weight of 144 lbs, I am required between 2,592 and 2,827 kcal/day to stay in energy balance.

Calculating BMR

Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) - is the energy we expand just to maintain our body's basal, or resting, functions (respiration, circulation, maintaining body temperature, etc..).

First we convert our weight in lbs to weight in kg

My last weigh in on 05/27 was 144 pounds / 2.2 pounds per kg = 65.45 kg

Men multiply your body weight in kg by 1 kcal per kg body weight per hour

1 kcal per kg body weight per hour x 65.45 kg = 65.45 kcal per hour

Women multiply your body weight in kg by 0.9 kcal per kg body weight per hour

Now we calculate our BMR for the total day (24 hours)

65.45 kcal per hour x 24 hours per day = 1570.8 kcal per day is the amount of energy I need to maintain my body's resting functions.

Kaizen once again!

Its that time again to put the Kaizen method to work. I dropped 10 pounds in the last 2 months, and now I want to gain 10-15 pounds of muscle mass. Considering my next endurance event might be in November (El tour de Tucson) I have the time to weight train now and train for endurance later if I decide to ride.

The plan is to last 100 days begining on June 1, 2008 and ending on September 8, 2008. Cardio will be performed for 20 minutes, 3 times a week and done as High Intensity Interval Training. Weight training will be done 3 times a week, using heavy weights and working two muscle groups per day.

Calorie intake and nutritional needs will be discussed in the next entry.