Watch the this video before starting your 12 week challenge

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The importance of knowing your individual calorie requirement is key in helping us manage our weight so how to we work out your TDEE (Total Daily Energy Expenditure).

TDEE refers to the amount of calories our bodies need to maintain our weight. Once we know this all we have to do is eat less calories than our TDEE to create a calorie deficit and we will lose weight. So even if you do or don’t want to track calories its important to have an idea of the amount of calories we need in order to achieve weight loss. This way we can get an idea of the right portion size to achieve this. For example you may need 1700 calories to lose weight so you may aim for 3 x 400 calorie meals and 2 x 250 calorie snacks in a day.

This is how we work out how many calories our own body needs.

First of all we need to work out our BMR and here is the formula I use to do this (MIFFLIN-ST JEOR FORMULA).

• Men: (10 × weight in kg) + (6.25 × height in cm) - (5 × age in years) + 5

• Women: (10 × weight in kg) + (6.25 × height in cm) - (5 × age in years) - 161

Once we have this we need to then times your BMR by your activity level.

• Sedentary - BMR x 1.2 - Little or no exercise, desk job.

• Lightly active - BMR x 1.375 - Light exercise/sports 1-3 days/week.

• Moderately active - BMR x 1.55 - Moderate exercise/sports 3-5 days/week.

• Very active - BMR x 1.725 - Hard exercise/sports 6-7 days/week.

• Extra active - BMR x 1.9 - Hard daily exercise/sports 6-7 days/week and physical job.

This will give us our calorie maintenance requirement. Then we will need to minus 300-500 calories from this number in order to create a calorie deficit, which will lead to fat loss.

If you would like further help with this you can watch the weight management videos or if you still need help then feel free to email me at: benblake@bbfitness.co.uk

Here are some helpful ways to monitor your calorie intake.

Take a look at the tracking methods video where I will run through the MyFitnessPal app, how to use your hands to guide your portion sizes or you could try to keep a food diary. Feel free to download the PDF’s to find out more too.

This Is How We Lose Weight

Having an understanding of your daily calorie intake is an important reminder of the amount of calories our body actually needs in order to maintain, lose or gain weight. If you eat more than our body needs that is called a calorie surplus and this will result in weight gain. If you eat less than your body needs that is called a calorie deficit and you will lose weight. Ultimately that is how all FAD diets work they just restrict your calories to less than your body needs in order for weight loss to occur, however this tends to be over restricted and unsustainable. The key factor to any weight loss diet is being in a calorie deficit. This is where making good healthy diet changes will make this process easier to stick to. Once we have a good understanding of our own calorie allowance we will then be ready to take on the challenge!