Calculate caloric needs
This is a calculator of human caloric requirements needed to maintain the basic bodily functions taking place in the nervous system, liver, kidneys, heart and other organs of your body.
Physical activity (working on the move / workouts, etc.) increase caloric requirements by burning more calories by which your energy expenditure can increase strongly.
You need to know about the fact that your body burns calories at different rates, so it is important to get all the ratios right.
Children and adults, as well as pregnant women, have different daily calorie burn and different daily calorie requirements this is due to age, height and weight, among other factors. The calculator takes into account the average results of calorie burning, where the result is influenced by very many factors, such as:
- Gender
- Internship
- Training level
- Amount of body fat
- Amount of muscle mass
- Health status
- Individual predisposition
A more trained person, with less body fat and more muscle mass, expends energy differently during a 40-minute cardio workout or a 60-minute strength training session.
This is something that no calculator can estimate accurately – it is based on your own feeling and knowledge of your capabilities. So it is always worth assuming a certain limit of error.
When it comes to macronutrient supply, remember that it is affected by a great many factors, such as:
- Age
- Gender
- Lifestyle
- Body composition composition (levels of body fat and muscle mass)
- Physical activity (including intensity, amount and type, such as aerobic or strength training)
- Training seniority
- Goals (e.g., mass building, reduction, maintenance)
- Health issues
People who are overweight or obese, minimal activity (reduction):
- Protein: 1-1.2 g per kilogram of body weight
- Fats: 0.9-1.1 g per kilogram of body weight
- Carbohydrates: what remains after protein and fats are taken into account
People with health problems must decide for themselves under their own needs whether to give less carbohydrates and more fats.
People who are overweight or obese, sedentary work with additional activity (reduction):
- Protein: 1.2-1.6 g per kilogram of body weight
- Fats: 0.9-1.2 g per kilogram of body weight
- Carbohydrates: what remains after protein and fats are taken into account
People with health problems must decide for themselves under their own needs whether to give less carbohydrates and more fats.
People who are overweight or obese and do mostly strength training:
- Protein: 1.7-2.0 g per kilogram of body weight
- Fats: 0.9-1.2 g per kilogram of body weight
- Carbohydrates: what remains after protein and fats are taken into account
People with health problems must decide for themselves under their own needs whether to give less carbohydrates and more fats.
Individuals with optimal body composition, reducing, strength training:
- Protein: 2-2.5 g per kilogram of body weight
- Fats: 0.9-1.1 g per kilogram of body weight
- Carbohydrates: what remains after protein and fats are taken into account
People with more seniority, well-trained:
- Protein: 2.5-3 g per kilogram of body weight (above 2.5g – very individual decision)
- Fats: 1-1.2 g per kilogram of body weight
- Carbohydrates: what remains after protein and fats are taken into account
Here also enters the question of rotation between carbohydrates and fats. This is a very individual matter – some people reduce better with higher carbohydrates and low fats, others prefer the opposite distribution. Therefore, it is worth testing different variations to find the optimal macronutrient distribution for yourself.
People who want to build muscle mass, with good seniority:
- Protein: 2-2.5 g per kilogram of body weight
- Fats: about 1 g per kilogram of body weight
- Carbohydrates: what remains after protein and fats are taken into account
Some use higher values of protein, treating it as the main building block – this is also an individual issue.
Rather, no calculator has the option to choose whether the work is walking, standing, or typically physical let alone to accurately estimate energy expenditure (this is too extensive data). In addition, having such options to choose from is really hard to estimate because a builder with more muscle mass will consume quite different calories than a builder 20 kilos overweight. That’s why we decided not to include such detailed data in the calculator itself because it will confuse people even more.
For example, a lady working in a warehouse will say that she has a physical job, and a gentleman working on a construction site will also say that he has a physical job. However, the lady in the warehouse will burn, for example, 200 calories a day, and the gentleman on the construction site, for example, 600. And if there is one option to choose from, i.e. physical labor, how to take the caloric value here when between the lady in the warehouse and the construction worker there may be 400 or even more calories of difference.
Therefore, if someone is working physically or semi-physically, he or she has to estimate his or her extra energy expenditure (whether it is needed and, if so, how much it is) on his or her own based on his or her own observations; no calculator will do it.
1. sedentary work:
- You don’t add anything to the final score
2. work typically standing (few steps in the work itself):
- On average, an additional 100 calories are taken in each day
- You count the demand with the number of daily steps
- You can add +- 100 kcal to the final result (individual estimation)
3. work mainly on a no-load walking system:
- A larger store with support for several workstations, a team leader walking around the workstations all day, etc.
- You don’t add anything because the steps already included in the QUANTITY OF STEPS field count.
- If you have a pedometer/GPS then you enter the number of steps from the whole day
- If you don’t have a pedometer then you have to estimate the number of steps by eye
4. typically physical (heavier) work:
- The caloric range is very wide and should be estimated on its own, since different occupations generate different energy expenditure
- You can take in an extra 200 to 400 or more calories per day
- This includes jobs such as warehouse with lifting, belt work where we are constantly on the move and have to flip/transfer something, construction workers, fitters, repair services, heavy physical labor, etc.
- In the calculator you take into account the steps from the whole day (pedometer/GPS or by eye)
- You can add 200-400 and more extra calories to the final result due to hard work (you have to estimate somehow by eye yourself)
