Knowing your basal metabolic rate (BMR) is the key to knowing how many calories you should, or shouldn't eat in a day. Simply put, your BMR is the minimum amount of calories your body requires on a daily basis to complete its basic functions (i.e. breathing, sleeping keeping your heart beating or regulating your internal temperature). Your BMR is dependent upon your age, height, and weight and gender. If you've noticed that every year, it becomes harder to eat whatever you want and stay slim, then, you may have discovered that your BMR decreases as you age. The good news is that a regular routine of cardiovascular exercise (walking, jogging, swimming, aerobics, etc) can increase your BMR.
Once you know your BMR, then you can determine your Total Daily Caloric Expenditure by adding to that number, the number of calories used (i.e. energy burned) in your physical activity and the energy burned in digesting your food … yes digesting your food is work and uses caloric energy.
Once you have estimated your total daily caloric expenditure, you can more accurately calculate how many calories you can afford to eat (i.e. your daily calorie budget) and how much exercise you need to do every day to maintain, gain or lose weight to meet your healthy weight goals.
Chat with our AI personalities