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How many calories do I need to maintain energy balance?

To calculate how many calories you need to maintain energy balance athletes can use following formula: [((BMR x PAL) / 24) x hours not exercising + calories burned by exercise]. For a quicker solution, use the FoodCoach app for automatic daily energy calculations.

Image of The Athlete’s FoodCoach
Written by: The Athlete’s FoodCoach, on 19-10-2023
Loe van Belle, Sepp Kuss and Milan Vader weighing their food at the buffet

Why can calculating my calorie needs help me?

Calculating your calorie requirements provides valuable insights into your daily energy requirements. This can be particularly important when circumstances change. Here are specific situations where calorie awareness is especially important:

  1. Increased activity level: When embarking on a new, more intense training routine, such as increased hours, new training loads or attending an intense training camp, your daily calorie needs can increase significantly.
  2. Weight management: Understanding your calorie requirements can assist you in avoiding overconsumption or undereating, which is significant for weight maintenance and achieving weight loss or -gain goals.
  3. Injury: Suffering from an injury can significantly affect your daily energy requirements due to potential fluctuations in your activity level and the increased energy needed for recovery, which depends on the injury's severity.

How do I keep my energy balance on point with FoodCoach?

  1. App: Use the FoodCoach app for two weeks for automatic daily energy calculations. The FoodCoach app uses either the formula Harris-Benedict or Ten Haaf to calculate your BMR and a suited PAL based on your personal settings. Accordingly it calculates your total daily energy need when you add your training.
  2. Compare days: Analyze your energy balance on different training days, check out a rest day and compare this to a light recovery training, an interval training or race. This helps you to gain insights in energy needs on different days.
  3. Calibration: Follow your plan and log all meals in these two weeks. Pay attention to your body signals. If you're still feeling hungry or experiencing weight gain/loss, consider adjusting the app's settings (BMR, PAL, training intensity).
  4. Logging meals: Challenge yourself if you really have logged all your meals: food intake is usually 10-20% under reported due to wrong portion sizing or log discipline.


Example of The Athlete's FoodCoach app

Mindset matters

Calorie calculations offer an approximate daily estimate, never precision. Don't stress over minor calorie discrepancies. Remember that your body's needs aren't confined to 24-hour cycles and minor variations can be balanced gradually over time. Embrace flexibility and balance in your approach. Calculating calories isn't a must. It is a great strategy if circumstances change in your life.

Are you still uncertain if you're on track?
Consider connecting to one of our FoodCoach experts for a consult. They can analyze your energy intake and energy output and help you finetune your app-settings and nutrition strategy.

Dylan van Baarle checking foodcoach app in team bus of Team Jumbo-Visma

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Definitions

  • - Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR): represents the minimum amount of energy (in the form of calories) that your body needs to maintain basic physiological functions while at complete rest. To define your BMR, you can use:
  •     - Harris-Benedict formula: a formula which is widely used by individuals seeking to determine their daily calorie needs.
  •       - Men: 88.362 + (13.397 * weight in kg) + (4.799 * height in cm) - (5.677 * age in years)
  •       - Women: 447.593 + (9.247 * weight in kg) + (3.098 * height in cm) - (4.330 * age in years)
  •     - Ten Haaf formula: is more specific to athletes and therefore more used in calculating daily energy needs in sports.
    •      - Energy need per day = (11.936*weight(kg)) + (587.728*height(m)) - (8.129*age(y)) + (191.027*sex(M=1,F=0)) + 29.279

  • - Physical Activity Level (PAL): a measurement that represents an individual's level of physical activity in relation to their total energy expenditure. PAL values are used to categorize individuals into different activity levels, with sedentary lifestyles having a PAL of around 1.2, moderately active lifestyles around 1.55. In the formulas above, select a PAL that reflects your activity level without considering your exercise, as exercise is accounted for separately.
  • - Energy: refers to the capacity of the body to perform physical work and sustain physiological functions, with energy derived primarily from the nutrients in food and drinks. It is measured in calories or joules.
  • - Calorie: A calorie is a unit of measurement representing the amount of energy required to raise the temperature of 1 gram of water by 1 degree Celsius. In nutrition a calorie is representing the energy content of food and the energy expended by the body through metabolic processes and physical activity.
  • - Calories burned by exercise: This can be calculated by using your powerdata when cycling, or using the estimation by your sports device, or by using METs (Metabolic Equivalents) which is a unit of measurement to express the energy expenditure of physical activities, in which each type of activity has their own value.

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