CONTENTS

• How do you calculate your calorie needs?
• Can we influence the CPM?

One of the fundamental questions a nutritionist asks is: How many calories should I eat? Most people know that each of us has specific energy needs, meaning we need a certain amount of calories to maintain energy and good health daily. Fewer people know how to calculate their calorie needs, how to ensure they are met, and how to burn calories. You'll find the answers to these questions in the following article.

How do you calculate your calorie needs?

STEP 1

To determine how many calories you need to consume each day, first calculate your basal metabolic rate (BMR). This is the amount of energy our body expends during the day, regardless of any activity. In other words, it's the energy expenditure related to the proper functioning of the body (e.g., breathing, heart rate, circulation, etc.). It depends on factors such as gender, age, weight, and height. There are several formulas you can use to easily calculate PPM. Below is one of them:

WOMEN

PPM = 655.1 + (9.563 x body weight [kg]) + (1.85 x height [cm]) - (4.676 x [age])

MEN

BPM = 66.47 + (13.75 x body weight [kg]) + (5 x height [cm]) - (6.75 x [age])

STEP 2

It should be emphasized that PPM is only one part of our daily energy needs. Apart from that, your daily physical activity counts. It's not just about exercise. Every activity, like cooking dinner, making the bed, working, all impacts your physical activity rate (PAL). To define it, you have to answer the question: What does my lifestyle look like? The WHO provides the following classification:

1.21–1.27 sedentary lifestyle, no additional physical exertion
1.4–1.5 sedentary work, moderate additional physical activity 1.6–1.7 work requiring additional physical activity 1.8–1.9 standing work 2.0–2.4 heavy physical work or very intense additional physical activity

STEP 3

Once we know our BPM and PAL, we can finally figure out how many calories we need for our body to function properly. To do this, we calculate our total metabolic rate (CPM) using the formula:

CPM = PPM x PAL

What does the score mean? This is roughly the number of calories your body needs to function properly and maintain your weight. Any calories above this requirement are stored in the body, and if you regularly exceed this amount, they will be deposited as fat. Of course, this number can vary from case to case, but it should be the starting point when considering, for example, a weight-loss diet.

Can we influence the CPM?

Many people, more or less consciously—usually intuitively—consume the same number of calories as their CPM. However, it's common for us to exceed our daily calorie needs. If this happens regularly, it leads to weight gain. To prevent this from happening, we can, of course, pay more attention to our daily diet. However, we can also shape our CPM to a certain extent. How?

The first component of our total metabolic rate (CPM) or basal metabolic rate (BMR) remains constant. It depends on our age, gender, height, and body weight – factors over which we have no control. What we can influence is the physical activity ratio (PAL). The more we increase it, the more our CPM rises. The quickest way to do this is through intense physical exertion, such as sports. But even everyday activities that are performed regularly and are somewhat more demanding can increase our PAL. For example, it makes sense to avoid using the car for short distances, work in the garden, take the stairs instead of the elevator, walk around the room while on the phone, and even work at the computer while standing instead of sitting. All of these small changes, implemented together, can increase our physical activity rate and thus our total metabolic rate.

These days, we often hear about the obesity epidemic. It's worth understanding what drives our energy needs and how we can at least partially control them to protect ourselves from excessive weight gain.