Calculating Daily Calorie Intake & Macronutrients

Let’s get a few things straight.

Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE) is an estimate of how many total calories you burn in a day.

Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) is the total amount of calories needed to keep your body functioning. Your sex, age, weight, and height will all affect the number of calories you need. You can find yours on the bottom right hand side of your InBody Scan or you can calculate yours by clicking here and using the Harris Benedict Formula.

Since your BMR includes the calories you need while resting, we’ll also need to factor in movement and exercise.

To do this, we’ll take your BMR and multiply it by an “Activity Factor.”

ACTIVITY LEVELS CAN BE THOUGHT OF AS THE FOLLOWING:

Sedentary (BMR x 1.2): You regularly have to tell Netflix you are still watching.  You don’t intentionally exercise at all.

Lightly Active (BMR x 1.375): You casually stroll through your neighbourhood a few times a week. On average, you walk for exercise about 30 minutes a day. Another way to think about this would be 15 minutes per day of vigorous exercise like running of lifting weights.

Moderately Active (BMR x 1.55): If we called the gym on a weeknight looking for you, they’d find you. This averages out to about one hour and 45 minutes of walking (for exercise, not going around your house) a day, or 50 minutes of vigorous exercise a day.

Very Active (BMR x 1.725): You work in construction during the day and you’re on the company softball team. This averages out to about four hours and 15 minutes of walking (again, for intentional exercise) a day, or two hours of vigorous exercise.

If you’re following along at home, you may notice that different Activity Factors can make a big difference in the calories burned.

Let’s run some number:

The name of our candidate today is Joe, their BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate) is 1420 calories

To calculate TDEE we will multiply Joes BMR by the appropriate number listed above which relative to their level of activity, in this instance we are using Moderately Active (1.55).

Therefore we calculate 1420 x 1.55 = 2201
We now know Joes TDEE is 2201 calories

Next, we need calculate the daily macros which is the amount of Protein, Carbs & Fats that Joe will be eating. A reminder on calories per gram for each macro:
Carbs - 1 gram of Carbs = 4 calories (eg. 100 grams of Carbs is 400 calories)
Protein - 1 gram of Protein = 4 calories (eg. 120 grams of Protein is 480 calories)
Fats - 1 gram of Fats = 9 calories (eg. 80 grams of Fat is 720 calories)

Using 30% Carbs, 30% Protein, 40% Fat split is the best split to start with.
How this looks when using Joe’s TDEE is:
Carbs - 2201(TDEE) x 0.3 (aka. 30%) = 660/4 = 165 grams of Carbs
Protein - 2201(TDEE) x 0.3 (aka. 30%) = 660/4 = 165 grams of Protein
Fat - 2201(TDEE) x 0.4 (aka. 40%) = 880/9 = 97 grams of Carbs

Joes daily calorie intake and macro split then looks like this:
2201 calories
Carbs = 165 grams (30%)
Protein = 165 grams (30%)
Fats = 97 grams (40%)

Entering & tracking Calories and Macros in My Fitness Pal

Please refer to the below video on how to enter and track your calories & macros in My Fitness Pal. This also be done on a desktop version but is much easier and convenient using your phone.