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Ok, I know that ridding 3500 calories will kill a pound of weight, but can anyone tell me how you can figure the amount of calories your body needs to maintain your current weight? Is there a formula or do you need to seek a dietician...help, I'm clueless! I'm 130 lbs at 5'4'' and would like to lose some small body fat (5-8lbs) and gain some muscle (clothes are ill-fitting lately) :confused:
You can do two things. One is you can do a Google search for "calorie calculator" and quite a few will pop up. Follow the instructions and you will get various results. The second option is to wear a heart rate monitor for a 24-hour period on a day when you don't engage in any vigorous activity, and the calories burned will be your base rate. If you do the heart rate monitor option, do it several times, and then take the average.
Darcy
It can also be calculated based on your lean muscle mass but then you have to get properly measured. There are a lot of different ways to get your lean muscle mass figure but the most accurate, and the only truly reliable way IMO, is with a hydrostatic weighing. If you live near a major University you can usually get this done through the Phys Ed or Exercise Physiology Departments.
Once you know your lean muscle mass you can figure out your caloric needs per day using a formula. An exercise phys lab woulod be able to help you with that as well. Although, as suggested by Darcy, I'm sure there's a calculator on the net that will work.
OTOH haven't we heard within this forum that HRMs overestimate your burn rate by about a third?