How to Calculate Calories

Counting and calculating calories can be difficult to do while trying to lose weight or maintain a healthy lifestyle. There are several different ways to do it, and be aware that many calculators tally total calories differently. However, rather than depending on a calculator that may or may not provide an accurate answer, you can actually count and calculate your calories yourself with a simple formula.

Instructions

1. • 1
     Determine your current weight situation. Before calculating calories it's very important to determine what your weight goals are. Your calorie calculations will vary depending on whether you want to lose a large amount of weight or simply keep your current weight and muscle mass.
   • 2
     Calculate your resting metabolic rate, or RMR. Your RMR is what you burn everyday to maintain your current weight. To calculate this value, take your current weight and multiply the number by your metabolic rate. The metabolic rate values are 10, 11 and 12, with 10 representing a slow metabolism, 11 being a medium rate metabolism, and 12 being a fast metabolism. Which number to use depends on your observation on how fast your body digests foods.
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   • 3
     Add or subtract calories based on your weight goals. If you're aiming to lose weight, subtract a small amount of calories from your RMR value. For example, if you'd like to slowly lose weight, subtract about 100 calories from your RMR. The resulting value will be your new RMR, or how many calories you are allowed to consume in a daily period in order to lose weight. To gain weight, add an amount of calories to the RMR value to determine how many calories you must consume to gain weight on a daily basis.
   • 4
     Count your daily caloric intake. You can do this by looking for the total calories value located in the nutrition facts label on the back of packages of food that you consume. The calorie value is broken down into calories per serving, which makes it easy to know how many calories you've consumed from a package or serving of food. Take careful note of everything that you eat in a day and add up the total amount of calories.
   • 5
     Compare your daily caloric intake value to your new RMR. Your daily caloric intake should be fairly close to your new RMR value in order to reach your weight gain or weight loss goals.

How to Calculate Calories