How to Calculate Daily Caloric Intake and Body Fat Percentage

People who've gone on any type of diet know how important it is for individuals to burn more calories than they consume in order to lose fat and weight. In determining whether or not you need to lose weight, gain weight or maintain your current weight, you need to calculate your body fat percentage and see if it's in the healthy range (see 'Tips'). Then you need to calculate the number of calories your body burns per day in order to either create a healthy caloric deficit, add calories or stay with what you are doing.

Things You'll Need

• Tape measure
• Calculator

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Instructions

Calculating Body Fat Percentage

• 1

  Take your total body weight and multiply it by .732 (for women) or 1.082 (for men). Then add 8.987 (women) or 94.42 (men).

• 2

  Take a measurement of your wrist at its thickest point and divide that by 3.140 (for women; men do not perform this step).

• 3

  Measure your waist at the navel and multiply by .157 (women) or 4.15 (men).

• 4

  Measure your hips and multiply by .249 (women only).

• 5

  Take your forearm measurement at its thickest point and multiply by .434 (women only).

• 6

  Women: Add up all the numbers you got from the preceding steps to get your "lean body mass." Men: Subtract your two measurements to get your lean body mass.

• 7

  Take the number you got for lean body mass and subtract it from your total body weight. Multiply this result by 100.

• 8

  Finally, divide this number by your current body weight to get your "body fat percentage."

Calculating Daily Caloric Needs

• 9

  To calculate your daily caloric needs (also known as BMR, or basal metabolic rate), take your total weight (in pounds) and multiply it by 4.35 (women) or 6.23 (men).

• 10

  Add 655 (women) or 66 (men).

• 11

  Take your height (in inches) and multiply it by 4.7 (women) or 12.7 (men). Add this to the number you got from steps 1 and 2

• 12

  Take your age (in years) and multiply it by 4.7 (women) or 6.8 (men) and subtract this number from the number you got from step 3.