The human body has to master many tasks every day in order to function. Depending on the type of load, it consumes different amounts of energy.
The personal energy requirement – and therefore also the calorie requirement – depends on various factors, such as age, gender, body weight or ambient temperature and, last but not least, how physically active someone is. There are also special circumstances, such as pregnancy. Illnesses, pain or stress can also increase energy requirements.
With our calorie requirement calculator you can easily calculate your personal energy requirements and get an overview of basal metabolic rate, performance metabolic rate and total turnover.
Experts also refer to the daily energy requirement or calorie requirement as the total turnover. It is made up of basic metabolic rate and performance turnover (= work turnover). The total turnover ultimately describes the amount of energy that the body needs per day to maintain body weight.
Anyone who regularly exceeds their energy requirements and constantly consumes more calories than their body uses will gain weight in the long term. However, if you consume fewer calories than your body needs in the long term, you will lose weight in the long term. This also applies if the usual calorie intake remains the same, but the daily amount of exercise is increased.
Calculate basal metabolic rate
The basal metabolic rate (also called resting metabolic rate) is the amount of energy that the body needs when completely at rest and a constant ambient temperature in order to maintain vital functions such as breathing, metabolism, digestion , circulation and an appropriately regulated body temperature for 24 hours.
The basal metabolic rate is different for every person. It is influenced by factors such as weight, height, age and gender.It also depends on how muscle mass and body fat are distributed as a percentage. Because muscles use more energy than fat. On average, men have more muscle mass and less fat than women. The basal metabolic rate of men is therefore usually around 10 percent higher. Both women and men who gain muscle through exercise can increase their basal metabolic rate in this way.
Calculate performance turnover
Experts refer to the amount of energy that the body uses in excess of the basal metabolic rate within 24 hours as the power turnover or work turnover.
In addition to the personal basal metabolic rate, the energy consumption must be calculated, which arises, for example, through physical and mental activity or through the body’s thermoregulation in order to adapt to different ambient temperatures.
In addition, there may be other existing physical characteristics, such as the body’s growth or recovery phases after injuries or illnesses, pregnancy or breastfeeding. Anyone who is physically active and does sports, for example, can significantly increase their output.
The so-called PAL factor is used for the calculation, which differs depending on the activity. The abbreviation PAL comes from English and stands for “physical activity level”. The PAL factor is considered a measure of physical activity.
However, the PAL factor changes throughout the day. For the calculation, the average PAL value for 24 hours must therefore be determined:
Mean PAL value = ((hours of work x corresponding PAL factor) + (hours of free time x corresponding PAL factor) + (hours of sleep x corresponding PAL factor)) / 24
Example calculation: A person sleeps 8 hours per day (sleep = PAL factor 0.95), works 8 hours with predominantly standing and walking activities (PAL factor 1.8) and does 8 hours of (leisure) activities (such as sitting Activity with temporary walking or standing) with a PAL value of 1.6.
The individual, average PAL value for 24 hours is then calculated as follows:
Average PAL value = ((8 hours x 0.95) + (8 hours x 1.6) + (8 hours x 1.8)) / 24 = 1.45