Advice on the best online calorie calculator please

Firedance

Hi folks, I've recently moved from WW points to CC and am using the myfitnesspal app which is telling me my daily cals should be 1220 (I'm female, 5ft 4 and 157lbs with another 12 lbs to lose). I wanted to double check my recommended calorie intake so went online to a few different sites (just gooled calorie calculator), the results ranged from 1300 to 1800! quite a difference so i'm wondering if there's a well known reliable one that will give me close to 100% accurate answer? cheers

muffinn

http://www.exrx.net/Calculators/CalRequire.html

Also loads of other calculators, articles and tips about fitness and weight loss.

Firedance

Thanks Muffinn, thats telling me 2053 a day... confusing indeed :-)

muffinn

If you don't mind doing a bit of calculation yourself you can try this:

1. Use this calculator and put 24h of resting to calculate your BMR and multiply this by 7 - http://www.exrx.net/Calculators/CalRequire.html

2. Now use this one and breakdown every day of the week on activities you perform each day - http://www.exrx.net/Calculators/Calories.html

3. To calculate calories expended you have to subtract calories of activity that otherwise would have been performed ( for example 1h of running (600 kcal) - 1h of lying/sitting (86 kcal) = 514 net kcal expended

4. Sum up all the calories from all the activites performed and add it to your result from point 1.

5. Divide the final result by 7 to get your average daily calories intake.

That's what I'm doing for a while and it works out to be fine for me, whether i'm bulking or cutting weight.

Cheers.

EDIT: Don't forget this is your calories intake to maintain your current weight. You will have to subtract 200-300 calories if you want to lose weight.

Firedance

thats great thanks a mil, I'll def give it a go

EileenG

Or to keep it a bit simpler, I reckon about 13 cals per pound of lean mass (total weight minus bodfyat) should give you a level that will allow you to lose weight and still have the occasional cheat meal.

Mellor

the problem with these is that they include a lot of subjective terms, like "hard excercise" what you consider hard excercise, might actually be quite light (in terms of an global average). Its too hard to quantify.


The same applies to the above method, which is by far the best way, running, walking etc is fine as you can go by kmph, but rowing, weight training and all the other sports are 'casual", "moderate", "vigourous". if you are unsure, use the lower intensity level