With Clients, Preach Calorie Awareness Not Calorie Restriction
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By Sal | February 17, 2010
Instruct clients to count calories as an exercise to gain an appreciation and awareness for how many calories are needed to fuel their body. Most clients, and active people, need to eat more, not less. As fitness professionals we need to combat the constant onslaught of cookie-cutter, calorie-cutting programs that preach deprivation as the way to improve fitness.
Have clients calculate their Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) and apply the appropriate factor for the level of activity to get a good idea for how many calories are needed in a day. Here is the formula.
- Convert weight in pounds to kilograms by dividing by 2.2.
- Convert height in inches to centimeters by multiplying by 2.54.
- Plug in kilograms and centimeters where appropriate in the following formulas. The numbers that result the calculations are the calories needed in a day to maintain current body weight with little or no exercise.
- Daily Resting Energy Expenditure Formula for Males
- 66 + (13.7 X kilograms) + (5.0 X centimeters) – (6.8 X years)
- Daily Resting Energy Expenditure Formula for Females
- 665 + (9.6 X kilograms) + (1.85 X centimeters) – (4.7 X years)
Apply these factors depending on 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/wk)
- Moderately active = BMR X 1.55 (moderate exercise/sports 3-5 days/wk)
- Very active = BMR X 1.725 (hard exercise/sports 6-7 days/wk)
- Extra active = BMR X 1.9 (hard daily exercise/sports & physical job or 2X day training, i.e marathon, contest etc.)
When you have clients complete this exercise they will realize how ridiculous and unrealistic it is to think that anyone can survive and be healthy on a diet that consists of 1300, or fewer, calories per day. BMR indicates the amount of calories needed just to maintain a person’s physique without any additional energy expenditures. Think, “couch potato.” The factor allows us to get an idea for how many calories are needed to fuel daily activity.
Having clients tuned into the concept of their BMR is a great way to create awareness and appreciation for how many calories they need to consume in a day and is the best way to combat the nonsense of calorie restriction.
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