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Daily Caloric Needs

The first step to calculate your Total Daily Caloric Needs you must first calculate your BMR.

Calculating your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR)

Men:

66 + (6.23 x weight in pounds) + (12.7 x height in inches) - (6.8 x age in years) = BMR (in Calories)

Women:

655 + (4.3 x weight in pounds) + (4.7 x height in inches) - (4.7 x age in years) = BMR (in Calories)

The second step is to calculate your daily activity caloric needs. Pick the from the following list that best describes you and take your BMR and multiply to find Total calories:

Sedentary - not very active (watch T.V., read books, listen to music, etc.) : BMR x 1.20 percent
Lightly active - doing house chores, playing musical instrument, cooking etc. : BMR x 1.375 percent
Moderately active - You exercise 3-5 days a week : BMR x 1.55 percent
Very active - intense workout/sports on a daily basis : BMR x 1.725 percent
Extra active - you do hard labour or are in athletic training (Professional) : BMR x 1.9 percent

Example: of finding daily caloric needs for a Male weighing 150 pounds, 5'8", and is 25 years old, for workout days and non workout days for someone Very Active(when calculating non workout days move one level up). :

BMR

66 + (6.23 x 150 pounds) + (12.7 x 68 inches) - (6.8 x 25 years) = BMR (in Calories)

66 + (934.5) + (863.6) - (170) = BMR (in Calories)

1694.1 = BMR (in Calories)

Calculate Calories for Workout Day

1694.1 * 1.725 = Total Daily Caloric Needs

2922.326 = Total Daily Caloric Needs

Non Workout day

1694.1 * 1.55 = Total Daily Caloric Needs

2625.855 = Total Daily Caloric Needs

Find your Macronutrients in Calories and Grams

Now that you have your Macronutrient Ratio and Total Daily Calorie Intake its time to convert everything into calories then grams to make things easier for you when you are reading nutrition labels.

Say we are using the Lean Mass Gaining Ratio 35/45/20 (Protein/Carbohydrates/Fats) with the 150 pound male (used above). To find calories of each we do the following:

Workout Day

Non Workout Day

Now that we have each macronutrient in calories we convert it into grams:

1 gram of Protein = 4 Calories
1 gram of Carbohydrate = 4 Calories
1 gram of Fat = 9 Calories

Workout Day

Non Workout Day

You can go one step further and divide your Totals by 6 because you should be eating 6 meals a day. Eating 6 small meals a day will keep your metabolism going, keep your body from storing fat and keep your body in an anabolic (muscle building) state . Now you have all your nutrition numbers, you can now go ahead and make your diet plan.

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