Calculate Your Calorie Needs

How do you know how many calories you should be eating each day? Nutritionists work with resting metabolic rate (RMR) as the cornerstone for determining that.

The RMR is the amount of calories you need for normal daily activities such as walking, talking and driving the car.

Get your calculator ready. Here are the RMR formulas for men and women according to the widely used Harris-Benedict equation. (To calculate your weight in kilograms, divide pounds by 2.2046; to calculate height in centimeters, divide height in inches by 0.39.)

Men: RMR = 66.5 + (13.75 x weight in kilograms) + (5 x height in centimeters) - (6.8 x age); then multiply the total by 1.3.

Women: RMR = 665 + (9.6 x weight in kilograms) + (1.7 x height in centimeters) - (4.7 x age); then multiply the total by 1.3.