How to go about calculating the amount of each nutrients required by your body on a daily basis? Let’s take an example of an average Indian 35 year old male assuming his height to be 5ft 8inches and weighs around 70kg/154 pound, let’s also assume that the goal of this person is to increase his lean body mass and simultaneously reduce his body fat
The first step is to calculate the total amount of daily calories intake for this person.
There are three methods to calculate daily calorie requirements:
1. Harris Benedict Equation for Resting Metabolic Rate (RMR)
RMR = 88.36 + (4.8 ×ht. in cm) + (13.4 ×wt. in kg) – (5.68 ×age)
In our example:
RMR= 88.36 + (4.8 ×173) + (13.4 ×70) – (5.68 ×35)
RMR= 88.36 + 830.4 + 938 – 198.8
RMR= 1657.9 calories
To estimate total caloric needed, multiply your RMR by one of the activity factors below:
RMR ×1.5 = weight maintenance for light exercisers
RMR ×1.8 = weight maintenance for moderately active people (up to 1 hour per day of activity)
RMR ×2.0 = weight maintenance for athletes exercising over an hour per day
RMR ×2.4 = weight maintenance for endurance athlete
Let’s assume the person in our example is exercising over an hour per day. So the total calorie requirement per day will be:
RMRx2.0 = 1657.9×2.0 ~ 3315 calories
2. Macrobolic Caloric Equation suggested by MHP(Maximum Human Performance)
Total Caloric Requirements = (Bodyweight (Pound) x MGV) + (Bodyweight(Pound) x Lifestyle) + (Exercise Expenditure)
MGV variable is the Macrobolic Goal Variables which is defined as below:
MGV = 13 if your goal is to increase muscle mass and increase body fat
MGV = 10 if your goal is to increase muscle mass and maintain the current percentage of body fat
MGV = 7 if your goal is to increase muscle and decrease body fat. Use value as 6 if you are currently carrying a large amount of body fat (over 15 %)
Lifestyle variable is defined as below:
Lifestyle = 3 if you are following a Sedentary lifestyle which means you don’t have a full-time occupation or you do very little voluntary or physical activities outside of the gym.
Lifestyle = 5 if you are following a Moderate/Active lifestyle which means if you are a student or a working professional, this will be the category for most of the people.
Lifestyle = 10 if you are following a very active lifestyle which means you are into a profession which requires lot of running around or physical work.
Exercise Expenditure = Length of workout (minutes) x 10
If you are doing a low intensity cardio, let’s say 30 minutes of low intensity cardio and 60 minutes of workout then your exercise expenditure will be (60+30) x 10. If you are doing a high intensity cardio, let’s say 30 minutes of high intensity cardio and 60 minutes of workout then your exercise expenditure will be (60 x 10) + (30 x 12) . Low intensity cardio is performed at heart rate of more than 65% to less than 80% of maximum heart rate. High intensity cardio is performed at heart rate of more than 80% of your maximum heart rate.
In our example let’s assume the person has a high body fat percentage and is following a sedentary lifestyle with 30 minutes of low intensity cardio and 60 minutes of weight training, so his Macrobolic Caloric requirement would be:
Total Caloric Requirements = (Bodyweight (Pound) x MGV) + (Bodyweight (Pound) x Lifestyle) + (Exercise Expenditure)
Total Caloric Requirements = (154 x 6) + (154 x 3) + ((60+30) x 10)
Total Caloric Requirements = (924) + (462) + (900) = 2286 calories
Total calorie requirement for a non-workout day = 2286 – 900 = 1386 calories
3. An approximate calorie required can be calculated by the following formula:
RMR = Body Weight in Kg x 1 calorie/kilogram body weight/hour ×24 hours
RMR in our example would be:
RMR = 70 x 1 x 24 = 1680 calories
Calories needed = 1680 x 2 = 3360 calories
Out of the above three methods Method 2 is the widely accepted formula as it factors in your workout duration and your fitness goals.
After calculating the daily calories intake apply the 45/35/20 proportion to find out the daily nutrients requirements for developing lean mass and a six pack physique. Read more…
