Calculating the calories you burn daily is essential as it helps you manage your activities and control your weight. When you eat or drink, your body gains calories which it burns to produce energy. However, if you consume more calories than you burn, the calories are stored in the form of fats in the body. If you continue to consume more calories than you burn, it results in weight gain.
According to research, the average daily caloric intake is 2,639 kcal/day for men and 1,793 kcal/day for women. These values also depend on size, age, and other factors because all body types are unique. But how do you know how many calories you’re burning daily? Calories-burned calculator or exercise calorie calculator helps in providing the estimates for the calorie burn.
Find out how to calculate the number of calories you burn so that you keep moving on the right track to lose body weight.
How To Calculate The Calories I Burn Daily?
Calculating the calories burned daily is essential if you’re concerned about your weight. According to an estimate, most people burn around 1800 calories daily without exercising. To calculate the calories you burn daily, you must note down the activities you do daily.
For instance, the duration you walk, run, cycle, exercise, or perform other activities. After noting down all the activities, you’ll have to calculate the MET values to calculate the number of calories burned per day. The TDEE (Total Daily Energy Expenditure) describes the energy you need to maintain weight. The TDEE includes all the MET values of the activities you’ve performed per day.
Every activity has a value called MET value that calculates the energy expenditure. Metabolic Equivalent of a Task (MET) helps measure the number of calories burned per hour of an exercise or activity per one kilogram of your body weight.
If the russian twist exercise requires more energy, the MET is higher. For example, during sleep, the MET value is 1; on the other hand, while running, the MET value increases to 7.5 or can be higher. The benefit of these MET values is that it allows you to compare various activities. However, MET doesn’t measure energy or calorie expenditure directly, and you’ll need another formula to calculate calories burned during a workout.
For many, the term ‘calories’ is just about junk food and excess weight. In fact, a calorie is a broad term, but in the context of diet and weight gain, the term indicates how much energy your body needs to perform activities.
Technically, the energy needed to heat one kilogram of water by one degree Celsius. Besides that, there are large and small calories, where one large calorie equals 1000 small calories.
How To Calculate The Number Of Calories I Burn During An Activity?
Following is the formula for calculating the number of calories burned per activity:
Calories = MET x T x W
Here, T is the time required for an exercise, and W is the weight in kilograms. This is a simplified version of the formula for calculating the number of calories burnt. Follow these steps to calculate the burned calories accurately:
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- Choose an activity and evaluate its MET value. There are a few activities for which you can find the MET value online. For example, the MET value for cycling is 8.
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- Suppose your body weight is 45 kg; enter this weight into the formula.
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- Now determine the time duration of the activity. For instance, you cycled for 2 hours and input this value into the formula.
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- After entering all the values in this formula, you’ll get the answer as follows:
Calories = 3 x 45 x 8
Calories = 1,080 kcal
Cycling for 3 hours will help you burn 1,080 kcal, which is too much. If you want to achieve a calorie burn of 1000 calories per day, you must also consume enough calories to help your body function normally.
If you’re trying to lose weight, burning calories is important as it speeds up the weight loss process. However, it is equally important to know how many calories you need to burn to keep a balance.
You should also know how many calories you should take.
How To Count Macros For Calculating The Calories Burned?
Macro is short for ‘macronutrient’; it is an essential factor for calculating the calories burned. The macronutrients include carbohydrates, fats, and proteins. For instance, the following are the macro recommendations for most people:
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- Carbs: 45 to 65% calories
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- Fats: 25 to 35% calories
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- Proteins: 10 to 30% calories
You can also use a macro calculator to determine the level of exercise required. For example, a 25-year-old woman, 45 kg weight, height 5 foot 3 inches, walks 0.5 hours a day. She will burn 135 calories daily, and according to the macro calculator, her activity level is light. We often overestimate our exercise levels which is why our calculation for burned calories is inaccurate.
Thus, it is important to determine the exercise level, for example, light, moderate, and heavy, to accurately calculate burned calories.
For some people a low-carb diet is better for weight loss, while for others, a low-fat diet is more suitable. Health and wellness experts have different opinions when it comes to choosing between the two diets.
It is important to note that carbs, protein, and fats are the three main macros and all of them are required for healthy functioning and energy production.
What Is My Activity Level?
As mentioned above, your exercise or activity level can be light, moderate, or heavy. To calculate the number of calories you burn during an activity, you must also know the activity level. Following are the figures that describe the activity levels:
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- 1.2 means little or no activity
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- 1.375 means light activity
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- 1.55 means moderate activity
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- 1.725 means very active
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- 1.9 means extra active
The activity level is heavy if you score 1.75 or 1.9. For example, a rider who delivers food all day will ride a bike and walk thousands of steps. His activity level will be around 1.725, which means heavy. On the other hand, an employee with a desk job who goes to the gym once a week will have an activity level of 1.55 which means moderate. In this case, the employee will burn fewer calories than the rider. The higher the activity level, the more calories you burn.
Calories Burned By Walking And Running
To determine how many calories you burn by walking or running for half an hour, you must also determine the speed of walking or running.
For instance, if you’re walking at an average rate of 3 mph, you’ll burn around 105 calories if you’re a woman and 135 calories if you’re a man. Plus, if you’re running at an average speed of 6 mph, you’ll burn 300 calories if you’re a woman and 350 calories if you’re a man.
Exercises That Burn The Most Calories
You’ll have to switch to more intensive exercises if you want to burn more calories in less time. If the activity level is light, you’ll burn fewer calories than you consume. The exercise that burns the most calories is running. It is the most energy-intensive exercise as it burns calories faster than other activities.
However, if you don’t like running, you can perform other activities such as swimming, jumping rope, and rowing. Besides that, you can combine different activities to burn the required number of calories per day. Several factors will also determine the number of calories you burn during exercise—for example, the pace, duration of exercise, intensity, and weight and height.
FAQs Related To Exercise Calorie Calculator
Do I burn carbs during exercise?
During exercise, the body first burns ATP (Adenosine Triphosphate), an energy-carrying molecule. Then it burns glycogens which are made from carbs. A store of energy is present in the body for immediate energy.
Thus, carbs are the first nutrients that are burned by the body to produce energy. Then the body converts this glucose into energy. Once all the carbs are converted into energy, the body uses fatty acids to produce energy.
Are calorie calculators accurate for calculating calories burned?
A calories-burned-calculator is not 100% accurate as it just gives an estimate. Plus, there will always be different results for different calorie calculators and fitness trackers. Sometimes these calculators also overestimate the calories burned, which might confuse you.
With almost all types of online calculators, you must accept inaccuracy. Once you’ve found a calorie counter, you must stick to its results because using different calculators will affect your calorie calculation.
What is TDEE?
TDEE stands for the Total Daily Energy Expenditure. It is difficult to calculate because the activities and their duration also vary daily. Mostly, TDEE is calculated by evaluating a person’s activity level and BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate).
The answer obtained tells you the number of calories burned in a day, taking into account the type of activity.
How many calories do 5,000 steps burn?
If you take 5,000 steps daily, you’ll burn around 200 calories. However, this is only an estimate, and the results may vary according to your weight and speed of walking. According to an estimate, you’ll burn around 400 calories by walking 10,000 steps.
What is HIIT?
HIIT stands for High-Intensity Interval Training. These are the exercises that burn the most calories. One of the biggest advantages of these exercises is that they help you burn the maximum number of calories quickly. A HIIT workout can take around ten to thirty minutes, and you’ll burn a lot of calories during this time.
For example, some of the HIIT activities include running, cycling, sprinting, and jumping rope. Even after you’re done with a HIIT workout, your metabolic rate will be high, and you’ll keep burning calories after you’ve finished exercising.
How many calories should I burn daily?
Burning 200 to 500 calories daily is a perfect calorie-burning schedule for most people. You must burn around 2000 calories per week to achieve your weight loss goal. Once your body has started losing weight, you can reduce these calories to 1500 daily.
What is a macro ratio?
A macro ratio tells the energy produced from each macronutrient. The macronutrients include carbs, protein, and fats. For example, the American diet contains 50% carbs, 15% protein, and 35% fats.
Macro ratios help you understand the amount of energy you’re getting from a macronutrient. This way, you can reduce the consumption of a macronutrient so that you don’t gain more calories than you burn.
What is a calorie deficit?
A calorie deficit is a condition that occurs when you consume fewer calories than you burn. Creating a calorie deficit through exercise is tricky as you’ll have to do intensive exercises for a long time.
On the other hand, around 90% of weight loss is through diet. Creating a calorie deficit through diet is more efficient than exercising.
Do men burn more calories than women?
Men and women burn calories at different rates. For this reason, one must consider gender while calculating the calories burned. Men have more muscle mass, so their bodies will burn more calories even at rest. Thus, males burn more calories than women.
However, body composition also plays an important role here. For instance, a thin woman might be facing a higher calorie burn than an overweight man.
How many calories should I consume to lose weight?
A study indicates that you must create a calorie deficit of 500 per day if you want to lose one pound per week. This means that you’ll have to eat 500 calories less than your maintenance level. Besides that, you must also do at least 30 minutes of activity almost daily to support the calorie deficit created through diet.
However, you must ensure that your calorie intake is not less than 1200 calories per day. Consuming too few low calorie meals can cause improper functioning of your organs, which can harm your health.
Summarizing: Can You Really Calculate Your Calories?
There is no direct way to calculate the calories; all the methods will give you an estimate. Estimating calories burned depends on various factors, including gender, weight, height, activity level, and duration of workouts or exercises.
However, an exercise calorie calculator helps you get the estimates to get an idea of how many calories you must burn to achieve your weight loss goal.
Remember that our bodies need a balance of energy to perform daily activities. To maintain a good weight, you must consume a healthy diet and give your body enough energy according to your daily level of activities. If you consume more energy one day, try balancing it by burning more energy the other day.
