How many Calories do I Burn per Day?

It is a bit complicated to answer when someone asks, “How many calories do I burn per day?” How many calories to burn depend heavily on the purpose of a person: to lose, gain, or maintain weight. Next, the amount of calories to burn is subject to the current body weight, fat proportion, muscle, and other body tissues. Per pound of muscle burn 6 calories at rest and 9 calories at active times, in each day. Re-synthesis and muscle generation accelerate during exercises, resulting in more amount of calories to burn. Per pound of fat, on the other hand, burns 2 calories per day. Apart from muscle and fat, each organ in the body burns calories. Per pound of kidneys and heart burns about 200 calories per day. The same case applies to brain and liver, 109 and 91 calories, respectively. When a lightly active man and woman have healthy muscle to fat ratio, they respectively burn 13.3 and 13.9 calories each pound each day. However, depending on the purpose, burning total calories per day takes more wide-ranging calculations.

The BMR
BMR is the amount of calories an adult body burns. Therefore, when a person asks, “how many calories do I burn per day?” the general answer refers to the BMR. Referring to a BMR calculator, a person can also count how many calories to consume in a day for weight maintenance. To constantly working, the body needs minimum amount of calories per day for heart pumping, normal temperature maintenance, growing, breathing, repairing damage, etc. For the overall body system to work, 60% – 70% of total calorie needs to burn in a day, without exercising. Because of the different body composition of each person, different persons have different BMR, depending on the height, weight, gender, and age. As a person grows older, the BMR decreases. On the other hand, cardiovascular exercises, walking, jogging, aerobics, swimming, etc., on regular routine increases the BMR.

Calories for Digestion
After estimating the BMR, it is possible to calculate how many calories to consume in a day. In addition to determining the caloric intake, it is important to bear in mind that digesting the foods alone requires energy. Indeed, the activity of calorie burning also comes from food digestion. Meals with high protein contents use up more calories to digest compared to meals with high fat or high carbs compositions. In general, food digestion accounts for 5% – 10% of total calories burned.

The Caloric Expenditure
In addition to BMR and food digestion, calorie-burning calculation comes from daily physical activities, comprising about 25% – 40% from the total amount. Summing up the BMR, calories from daily physical activities, and calories for food digestion, the total caloric expenditure is obtained, on daily basis. Online calculator, once more, is an efficient device to help everyone calculate the calorie burned per day. As the number of caloric expenditure is obtained, the amount of caloric intake and burning are predictable, based on the purpose: gaining, losing, or maintaining weight.

The Necessity of Counting Calories
Now, it is important that each person ask, “What is my purpose?” before asking, “How many calories should I lose a day?”To lose weight, someone must burn more calories than one consumes, which is quite the reverse when the goal is to gain weight. Unfortunately, there are factors that affect how much and long someone can lose or gain weight, but drinks and foods are the main and controllable sources of calories that one can reduce or add. Now, if it is too complicated to answer, “How many calories do I burn per day?” what someone can do is managing to control the calorie sources.