Total Daily Calorie Intake – Do's, Don'ts, & How To's

Your total daily calorie intake is a very important number to understand and keep track of if you're at all serious about losing weight the healthy way.

The correct term to use is TDEE (Total Daily Energy Expenditure) and it simply represents:

"an estimate of the amount of calories you need to consume per day in order to maintain your current weight, taking into account your current activity level, weight, height, age and sex."

But for usability purposes of this topic, I'll keep using the more familiar "daily calorie intake" term.

So – to be able to make use of this 'number' you first need to know your BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate – a rough estimation of how many calories your body needs to sustain life (in rest state) – according to your weight, height, age and sex.) and then your Activity Level Score.

Then you calculate your daily calorie intake recommendation, and adapt it for your purposes, i.e. weight loss, weight gain or maintenance.

Step 1: Calculate your BMR

Here are the formulas for your BMR – the first in metric units, and the second in pounds and inches:

BMR = 655 + (9.6 x Weight(kg)) + (1.8 x Height(cm)) – (4.7 x Age(years))

BMR = 655 + (4.35 x Weight(lbs)) + (4.7 x Height(in)) – (4.7 x Age(years))

Just substitute your own measurements into this formula and you'll get to your BMR.

Step 2: Choose your Activity Level Score

OK, so if you're to lose weight the healthy and more importantly in an efficient way – you should become more active. But, the extent to which each of us gets active is different. Hence why the different activity level scores.

The table below gives you a multiple which to use for the next step of your total daily calorie intake calculation. Have a look at which applies to you and use that.

Step 3: Calculate your Total Daily Calorie Intake (TDCI)

This step is easy – just use the formula below and substitute your own numbers in it.

TDCI = Basal Metabolic Rate (cal) x Your Current Activity Level Score

The number you get here is your personally unique number according to how active you are.

Now – you have to keep in mind that, even though this is a unique number – it is not absolutely accurate.

But worry not – it is accurate enough to give you the results you're after. If you ever choose to dig in even further and take this very seriously – you'd need much more than a formula :o)

Step 4: Adapt your Total Daily Calorie Intake for your purposes

We're almost there ;o)

Just take your Total Daily Calorie Intake number, and:

1. For weight loss – multiply it by 0.2. Then subtract that from the total number again.

   The reason you're doing this is to create a calorie deficit. I.e. to make sure that you consume less calories than you use up in a day.

   By creating a caloric deficit you force your body to tap into your fat storages for energy, once the energy from your food has been depleted.

2. For weight gain – multiply it by 2. Then add that from the total number again.

   That way you're creating a calorie surplus.

3. For weight maintenance… you guessed it – just use your Total Daily Calorie Intake number if you want to maintain :o)

Step 5: Know what to do with your Total Daily Calorie Intake to get results

This is almost as important as knowing what your Total Daily Calorie Intake number is.

There's no use in you knowing how many calories you should eat a day if you don't know how many calories you're ACTUALLY eating. And – what those calories look like. In other words – do you know how many calories your food adds up to?

Most people are clueless when it comes to accurately predicting the calorie content of the foods they eat.

So this is where calorie counting actually makes the difference.

You should record at least one full week of your food intake. EVERYTHING that passes your lips.

Then go to a site like CalorieKing.com and get the calorific value of each item on your list.

Total it up per day and then average it out. If your number is a lot more or a lot less than what you estimated your Total Daily Calorie Intake number to be for your goals, then you must do something to correct it.

If you haven't done steps 1 to 4 above – go ahead and do them now. Go on – it'll only take 2-3 minutes. The number may not mean much to you right now, but I bet you that when you do a week's food diary of your current calorie intake — you'll be shocked.

In my experience – people get one of two results. Either they grossly under-eat in a day, or grossly over-eat. Either result is not good for your metabolism. You have to try to strike a balance on the average.

Let me know what your results are :o)

Once you know what you need to adjust, you should also look into the types of foods you're eating. Creating a calorie deficit is great for weight loss. But it may not be good for your health.

There's a few more important things you must know about creating a healthy weight loss, and this page isn't long enough to do that. But start with this step, and if you fee you want to know more, watch the free video I have recorded for you here – it will give you the complete formula :o)