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Basal Metabolism Formulas
   
Your basal metabolism is the amount of energy you use every day, just by being alive. It is measured in Calories per day, and is also known as your metabolic rate. Your body uses this energy to keep your heart and lungs working, to maintain your body temperature, as to keep each of your individual cells supplied with energy.

Your basal metabolism depends on a few different factors:
   Weight:   This is the most important factor: the more you weigh, the more calories you use per day.
Lifestyle:   Another factor is your lifestyle. If you usually walk around a lot at your workplace, you will be using more calories than someone that sits at their desk most of the day.

Age:   As you grow older, you generally use fewer calories.

Do-It! Calculates your Metabolism
    There are a number of different ways to calculate your basal metabolism. Do-It! uses the Harris-Benedict equations:

Males (in calories per day) =
    66 + (13.7 x weight in Kg) + (5 x height in Cm) - (6.8 x age in years)

Females (in calories per day) =
    655 + (9.6 x weight in Kg) + (1.8 x height in Cm) - (4.7 x age in years)


Metabolic Modifiers
    In addition to your basal metabolism, you can select a general activity level each day (on the Personal Profile tab).

This activity level will account for typical activities during your normal day that use calories up, but are not considered as exercise.

  Activity Level     Additional calories used each day   Notes
Sedentary:  no additional calories (major couch potato watching boring TV shows)
Low:  100 additional calories (occasional stairs or walking short distances)
Medium:  200 additional calories (stairs or walking frequently)
High:  400 additional calories (a lot of lifting, walking, etc.)
Very High:  800 additional calories (construction or hard labor)

    

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