How do I find my minimum calorie requirement using my Resting Heart Rate?

Question

I am trying to lose a little extra extra and I am wondering how I can calculate my minimum daily calorie requirement once I know my resting heart rate?

Answer 1

Um.. you really can't . Resting Heart Rate is an indicator of your fitness level, what you use to calculate out the most effective rates for you to train at. (it is called the Karovean method and generally the most effective way to calculate training heartrates)

You would use Base Metabolic Rate and Resting Metabolic Rate to calculate dailiy minimum requirement and add in your daily activities. It is most effective if you know your bodyfat % but you can get a general idea if you know your total body weight. I would bump it up a bit if you work out frequently (lbm burns more calories than fat) and don't forget to add in daily activities.

There are 2 sites below with a calculator and some other info you will need . There is also a calculator

Answer 2

There's a fitness center not too far from my house that has a machine which gives you a resting metabolic test, the results of which tell you how many calories you need each day. You're to be hooked up to the machine after having fasted for a period of time, and preferably early in the morning.

I never went in to get this done, as I believe the entire 9-step test (including this one, as well as other things like VO2 Sub Max Treadmill Test) cost about $300 in total, but it seemed like one of the more reliable ways of accurately detemining caloric needs.

I'm one of those special people that's short and weighs around 103. So many times, simplistic ways of figuring out my calories (like the "multiply your weight by ten" rule) contradict other simplistic caloric guides. In the case of the example I just used, I'd need 1030 cals. a day...but that's under 1,200.

So I'll eventually probably just go in to get the test done, as my anal-retentive mind wants better numbers than general ones used for the whole population.

As far as using the RHR...it's funny I found this, as I was just thinking about a way to do this myself. I have a heart rate monitor, and it measures how many calories I burn during an exercising period. By that token, I figured it should be able to give me a better estimate of the calories I burn in a day if I just have it use my RHR that's stored in the memory.

So I did this today, and after I multiplied the numbers (I only took the reading for 15 minutes, so I had to adapt the results for an entire 24 hour period), I got 1344 as an answer.

This one is pretty darn close to the other numbers I've found at other sites--and especially at ones that feature equations/calculators that need more exacting information from you.

An equation that's helped me in determining a better caloric need is the Katch McArdle equation. If you know your lean body mass (which you can easily get if you know your bodyfat percentage--this can be found by using things like a tape measure, a reliable scale that gives bodyfat readings, getting it done with a caliper, or one of those water-displacement methods. If you do a search online, you can easily find sites to tell you how to get your bodyfat percentage if you don't already know it), this equation will give you an accurate number.

So, what I've done is averaged the number I got from the Katch equation, with the number I got from my heart rate monitor, as well as other BMR calculations I've gotten that used more information than "age, weight, gender," and use the resulting number as a guide.

I hope this helps! Good luck in your weight loss journey.

I've included below the sites for the equation I listed.

Answer 3

An easy way to calculate is to multiply your "target" weight by 10 or 11, but never go under 1200 calories. So if you weigh 130 and you want to drop down to 120, I would eat 1200-1400 calories per day. A more important thing to do though is to increase your exercise. That will burn calories and shed some unwanted fat molecules.