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.