How to work out your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) and Physical Activity Level (PAL)
Generally speaking, BMR uses 11 calories for every 500g of a woman’s body weight and 12 calories per 500g of a man’s. For example, the BMR for a 60kg woman would be as follows: (60 x 2) x 11 =1320 kcal.
PAL levels are as follows:
- Mostly inactive or sedentary (mainly sitting): 1.2
- Fairly active (including walking and exercise once to twice a week): 1.3
- Moderately active (exercise two to three times a week): 1.4
- Active (exercise hard more than three times a week): 1.5
- Very Active (exercise hard every day): 1.7
To work out you daily calorie needs, multiply your BMR by your PAL. For example, for an active 60 kg woman = 1320 x 1.5 = 1980 kcal. That’s the number of calories that you need to burn daily to maintain your weight.
I would be very interested in any further information on the above subject which I can download. I have put myself forward to go on a Health & Nutrition course and any information that I can have would be gratefully received.
Thanking you for your time
Sallye Hooker
please help i am a woman who weight is 98kg age 43yrs i work a 7 hour shift in a care sector and in that 7 hours i would walk for a least 6 hours i walk my dogs 2xdaily for a half a hour each time i also do about an hour cleaning each day.i need to now my pal and bmr thankyou jenny
The easiest thing for you to do, Jenny, is to go on http://www.bmi-calculator.net and put in your details. You can then download and use their calorie calculator.
Guessing from your height your BMR is around 1600 calories per day (this is calories burnt without exercising). PAL is more difficult to judge as everybody is different, but I would guess with what you say you probably use around another 1000 calories.
This has to be balanced with calories consumed and the type of calories, such as sugar or fat versus carbohydrates.