How Many Calories Do I Burn Everyday?
Even during your sleep, you burn calories. A calorie is the common name given to a unit of food energy that creates heat in your body. When you consume more calories than you burn, your weight will increase. Vigorous activity requires more energy, so you will burn calories quicker when you participate in physical exercise.
Function
Everything you do, even drawing a breath, takes energy. Your body is like a car--it requires fuel as food to run efficiently. However, unlike a car, you can overfill your body with food energy and when this happens; your body stores the extra fuel as fat reserves. By monitoring the number of calories you consume and how many you burn daily, you can alter your lifestyle to achieve your desired body weight.
Identification
How much you currently weigh contributes to the rate at which you burn calories. While there are more complicated equations, one easy method for determining how many calories you burn on a daily basis is called your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR). To calculate your BMR, multiply your current weight by 10. If you weigh 125 pounds, your BMR will be 1,250. However, your physical activity also plays a part.
Types
Your activity level indicates how many additional calories you burn. After you determine your BMR, multiply it by 20 percent if you are sedentary, by 37.5 percent if you are slightly active, by 40 percent if you are fairly active or multiply it by 50 percent if you are a very active person. This number tells you how many calories you burn on a daily basis. Now, multiply your BMR by 10 percent to allow for calorie burned during digestion and add the numbers together.
Features
The sum of these numbers is the amount of calories you burn every day. In the example, your BMR is 1,250 and you are slightly active, so you will multiply 1,250 by 40 percent and get 500. Then, multiply 1,250 by 10 percent for your digestive rate and you will get 125. Now, add the three numbers together and you arrive at 1,875. This is the approximate number of calories your body burns daily. You can use a handy online calculator to figure your BMR and calorie-burning rate (see Resources).
Considerations
This equation is only one of many methods of determining how many calories you burn daily. In addition, your body's rate at which it burns calories, increases with a higher percentage of muscle to fat ratio. Also, stress or an illness may alter your metabolic rate (see Resources).
Potential
Once you determine your BMR, you can adjust your weight by increasing or decreasing your activity levels and your caloric intake. One pound of fat is equal to 3,500 calories. Using the above example for a 125-pound woman, she will stay the same weight when she consumes 1,875 calories a day. However, she can lose 1 pound a week by consuming 500 fewer calories a day (3,500 calories, divided by 7) or by using a combination of eating fewer calories and increasing her activity level.
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