Energy Requirements

Energy Requirements

Am I eating too much?

How do I know if I’m getting enough calories for good athletic performance?

In order to answer these questions athletes should know how much food fuel their bodies need for maintenance and athletic performance. Your energy needs will vary based on your age, gender, body weight, body composition, and exercise levels.

The simplest way to go about figuring this out is to:

1) find out your RMR or resting metabolic rate, then
2) add in your daily energy expenditure through exercise, then
3) add in your daily energy expenditure through your average daily estimated activity level.
Keep in mind, this is a best guess, not an absolute value so use the information appropriately.

1) Men: body wt. in lbs. x 20 = baseline calorie needs
Women: body wt. in lbs. x 10 or 15 = baseline calorie needs (Some sources say to use 10, some say use 15)

2) Add number of calories expended from exercise from Chart 1 below

3) Add % RMR activity level: high, moderate or low from Chart 2 below

4) Total = daily calories needed to maintain current weight

1. Example: 150 lbs. x 15 = 2250 (RMR)
2. + 142.5 = wt. training for ½ hr (See Chart 1 below)
3. + 40% RMR moderately active = 600 (See Chart 2 below)

Total = 2992.5 calories needed daily to maintain current weight.

Chart 1

Activity Calories per hour per pound body weight:

Badminton 2.6
Bicycling, 10 mph 2.7
Chopping wood, ax 2.3
Dancing, ballroom 1.6
Dancing, modern 2.6
Farming, light 2.3
Farming, heavy 3.2
Gardening, hoe, dig 3.2
Golf, walking 2.3
Horse grooming 3.5
House cleaning 1.6
Hiking, hilly 3.6
Horseback riding, trot 2.8
Jogging, 6 mph 4.2
Jumping rope 3.8
Mopping 1.7]
Painting, outside 2.1
Racquetball 4.1
Rowing machine 3.1
Sawing, by hand 3.3
Scrubbing floors 2.9
Scuba diving 3.8
Skating, ice 2.6
Snow shoveling, light 2.9
Skiing, cross-country 3.7
Skiing, downhill 2.6
Snowshoe walking 4.5
Squash 4.3
Swimming, slow crawl 3.5
Soccer 3.7
Table tennis 1.9
Tennis, singles 2.9
Tennis, doubles 1.8
Volleyball 2.2
Walking, 3.5 mph 2.4
Waterskiing 3.0
Weight training 1.9

Adapted from B. Stamford and P. Shimer. Fitness without Exercise. New York, NY: Warner Books. 1990.

Chart 2

Sedentary = add 20-40% RMR
Moderately active = add 40-60% RMR
Very active = add 60-80% RMR

These levels are apart from regular exercise program. Consider walking to class, biking to class, climbing stairs, sitting at computer, in class, studying, doing laundry and so forth. Unless you have a physical job (like a construction worker) your activity levels will be at the sedentary to moderately active levels. Ex: 40% 1500 RMR = 600.

References

Clark N.Sports Nutrition Guidebook. Human Kinetics. 1989.

Exercise, ETC, Inc. Implementing a Weight Management Program. 1999, 2002.

McArdle W, Katch F, Katch V. Exercise Physiology-Energy, Nutrition, and Human Performance. 3rd Ed. Philadelphia, PA: Lea & Febiger. 1991.

Stamford B and Shimer P. Fitness without Exercise. New York, NY: Warner Books. 1990.

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Last updated 12/6/2005 by MIT Sports Medicine: K. Davis