How high is my calorie needs, to get the Weight to maintain? How much can I eat lose weight? And what does your body consume during the day?
With our calorie calculator you can determine this easily. In the article you will also learn which foods support you in this process.
Calculating calorie needs – Why it is useful to know your calories?
Whether you maintain your weight, to– or healthy lose weight want, for the success is always the quantity of the supplied Calories crucial.
Especially for athletes it is important to know your calorie needs in order to achieve optimal training results and to improve your performance.
The calorie requirement depends on several factors: Gender, height, age, sleep, body composition and especially of the physical Activities, you perform during the day.
The more you exercise, the higher your calorie needs will be. This means that the calorie requirement is not the same every day, but it is a good guideline for achieving success.
With the help of these tables you can calculate the different Calorie requirement woman and the Calorie requirement man read.
Calorie requirements for losing weight
Essential for an increase or decrease is always the energy balance. If you take in exactly the amount of calories you consume, you will maintain your weight.
However, if you want to lose weight, the calorie/energy balance must be negative, which means that you either eat below your daily calorie requirement or increase the requirement through exercise – but leave your calorie intake unchanged.
Often the question arises, how many calories may be eaten, if one wants to lose weight healthy. There is no generally accepted figure for this.
The starting point of your calculations is your individual total metabolic rate, also called maintenance or daily calorie requirement, which you can determine very easily and quickly with a calorie calculator.
This is the amount of calories at which you maintain your weight. To lose weight, however, you need to eat in a calorie deficit.
We recommend a daily deficit of 300 to a maximum of 500 calories, so as not to put too much strain on the body, as it still needs energy (from food) to function and perform during the diet.
If the deficit is too large, fatigue, (performance) weakness, cold feeling, cravings, the yo-yo effect or mood swings occur and can in the worst case lead to health problems.
It is better to choose a moderately high calorie deficit at the beginning and increase it if you are not successful. In this way, the change will be easier and you will not feel that you have to give up everything.
"I want to lose weight quickly, what else can I eat at all?"This answer may surprise you, hopefully even please you: You can eat anything. The decisive factor is the calorie balance.
As long as it is negative at the end of the day, you can reduce your weight. However, it is not beneficial to eat only cookies, potato chips or chocolate, as these contribute less to satiety than other foods and also have hardly any health-promoting properties.
In fact, there are foods that support weight loss and a calorie deficit – first and foremost, oats.
healthy diet contains. It has a high content of vitamins (B1 and B6), minerals (magnesium, iron, phosphorus, zinc) and soluble fiber beta-glucan.
Beta-glucan regulates blood sugar levels, lowers blood cholesterol 1 and provides long-lasting satiety 2 , as the fiber swells strongly in the digestive tract.
This results in a greater stretching of the stomach wall, whose receptors consequently send the "satiety" signal to the brain earlier and stop food intake.
Furthermore, beta-glucan counteracts constipation and is the food source for the bacteria contained in the intestines. Maintain a natural intestinal flora, which is important for digestion and overall well-being.
Oats and oat products, such as oatmeal, can help you lose weight because the fiber and protein they contain make you feel full quickly and for a long time. They keep blood sugar levels stable, which means hunger pangs don’t occur until later in the day.
In addition to a balanced diet, your physical activities also play an important role in losing weight. The more you move, the higher your personal calorie needs will be.
In addition to the calorie deficit, you can therefore accelerate your weight loss by walking or exercising.
However, make sure that you do not fall below your basal metabolic rate, which we will explain later, as this is counterproductive and not healthy for your long-term goals.
So if you don’t yet do any or hardly any exercise and are just starting out, it may be that you only need to reduce your calorie intake minimally, if at all, in order to lose weight.
How many calories do I need to build muscle?
The energy balance also plays a role in muscle building. If you eat more than your maintenance calories, you gain weight. We recommend a daily calorie plus of approx. 300 calories to gain healthy weight.
Again, don’t get the extra energy purely from cookies or unhealthy foods, but from healthy sources such as our nut or seed mixes.
The all-rounder oats can also help with gaining weight and building muscle, as the proteins they contain are important for muscle growth and the fiber protects against constipation. In particular our sport mueslis support you on your way.
Calorie calculation – this is how your calorie requirement is calculated
The daily calorie requirement, also called maintenance requirement or total metabolic rate, is the sum of several components.
Simplified, however, it can be said that the total metabolic rate consists of the calculation of the basal metabolic rate and the power metabolic rate.
What is the basal metabolic rate?
The basal metabolic rate is the energy that the body needs at rest to maintain all vital bodily functions and metabolic processes.
This means that even if you don’t move all day, your body still burns energy. You must therefore eat this value every day – even if you want to lose weight – because otherwise damage to your health can occur.
The basal metabolic rate is the same every day, but can increase due to a higher muscle percentage.
What does the power metabolism mean?
Metabolic rate is more than the basal metabolic rate and is the energy that the body needs for physical activity.
This includes all everyday movements like writing, talking, walking, cleaning but also physically demanding leisure activities like sports.
The higher your power metabolism is, the higher your total metabolism or. Daily calorie requirement.
The power metabolic rate is variable compared to the basal metabolic rate. This means that if you exercise one day and spend the next day sitting, you will consume more energy on the first day.
Since at the end of the week the average calorie consumption is more meaningful than the individual daily metabolic rate, it makes more sense to determine your average power metabolic rate with the PAL factor (Physical Activity Level).
How to calculate the total metabolic rate
The total metabolic rate results from the basal metabolic rate and the power metabolic rate. First, calculate your basal metabolic rate, which is easy to calculate using the following rule of thumb:
- Men: GU (kcal/day) = 1 x kg body weight x 24
- Women: GU (kcal/day) = 0.9 x kg body weight x 24
You can get more exact values with the formula of Harris and Benedict (1919):
- Men: GU (kcal/day) = 66 + (13,8 x weight in kg) + (5,0 x height in cm) – (6,8 x age in years)
- Women: GU (kcal/day) = 655 + (9.5 x weight in kg) + (1.9 x height in cm) – (4.7 x age in years)
Then you determine your power metabolic rate. For this you take from the following table the PAL factor that most closely matches your lifestyle:
| exclusively sedentary/lying | 1,2 |
| exclusively sedentary, little or no physical leisure activities | 1,4-1,5 |
| Predominantly sitting, in between walking or standing | 1,6-1,7 |
| predominantly walking or standing, moderate amount of exercise | 1,8-1,9 |
| physically demanding (occupational) activities | 2,0-2,4 |
For male and female athletes who exercise 4-5 times per week for 30-60 minutes each, the PAL value can be increased by 0.3 because muscle work and recovery also consume energy.
Finally, multiply your basal metabolic rate by the PAL factor to get your total metabolic rate or power metabolic rate. to get your daily calorie requirement.
It is important to note that this number is only a guideline, which, firstly, varies slightly on a daily basis and, secondly, may differ from your actual calorie needs.
If you want to maintain your weight, you should consume approximately the same amount of calories daily for 2-4 weeks and check your weight weekly.
If you gained weight, the calculated total requirement was too high; if you lost weight, it was too low.
Calorie requirements for men and women
If calculating your daily calorie needs with the formulas is too tedious for you and/or you just want to have an orientation anyway, you can get your approximate calorie needs from the following table.
Note that these values are averages and do not take into account height, age or body composition!
| less than 30 minutes | 2100-2500 kcal | 1800-2000 kcal |
| 30 to 60 minutes | 2500-2700 kcal | 2000-2200 kcal |
| over 60 minutes | 3000-3500 kcal | 2400-2800 kcal |
The calorie needs of men differ from those of women. Men have a higher calorie requirement due to their body composition. A man has a higher percentage of muscle, but a lower percentage of body fat.
Since muscles increase the metabolic rate, the basal and consequently the total metabolic rate increases.
Nutritional recommendations for a healthy breakfast
The first meal of the day plays a big role in your energy level during the day. Therefore you should not skip this meal, even if you want to lose weight.
It is important that your breakfast is balanced, which means that it contains the following food components:
Carbohydrates: best from whole grain products like bread or whole grains like oatmeal. They provide energy, make you feel full and provide you with sufficient fiber.
Fat and protein from milk and dairy products, eggs, soy drink/yogurt or nuts and seeds. Especially nuts like walnuts, cashews and seeds like chia and flax seeds are a recommended ingredient for your breakfast.