Skip to main content

Calculation of Caloric requirements of a normal and sick person

Total calorie requirement calculationWhen you become ill or after an acute injury, you need more energy and calories to recover. You should take the right amount of food in order to make sure that you are getting enough calories.
Now a question arises, how do you know about your caloric requirement? In order to do that, we have a formula and a chart.
The formula to calculate calorie requirement is as follows;

Total Calorie Requirement = (Basal Energy Expenditure) x (Activity Factor) x (Injury Factor)

Now we have to put 3 values in this formula to get the result in the form of total calorie requirement.

Basal Energy Expenditure

First of all, let us find out the way of calculating basal energy expenditure. Basal energy expenditure is 25/kg for a normal person. So in order to calculate your basal energy expenditure use the following formula.
Basal Energy Expenditure = (25) x (Weight in Kg)
So by using the above formula, we will get the basal energy expenditure.

Activity Factor

Next in the formula is an activity factor.
If you are confined to bed then your activity factor is 1.2. If you are not confined to bed and are able to get out of bed then your activity factor is 1.3.

Injury Factor

Next in the formula is the injury factor.
Injury factor varies with the extent and nature of the injury.
If there’s no injury and you are perfectly normal then your injury factor will be 1.
If you have some problem then use an injury factor according to the details given below.
Nature of Injury

INFECTION



TRAUMA



SURGERY


BURNS
Severity of Injury

MILD
MODERATE
SEVERE


SKELETAL
BLUNT
HEAD INJURY


MINOR
MAJOR


0-40%
41-100%

Injury Factor

1.2
1.5
1.8


1.35
1.35
1.6


1.1
1.2


1.50
2.1
Now you have all the three variables to calculate your or your patient’s total calorie requirement.
Let’s us take an example.
Let’s say your weight is 70 kg and you’re suffering from mild sore throat and otherwise you’re healthy and aren’t confined to bed.
So your basal energy expenditure can be calculated by using this formula, (also see the formula of BEE above)
Basal energy expenditure = 25 x 70 = 1750 calories
Your activity factor = 1.3 (as you aren’t confined to bed)
and your injury factor = 1.2 (as you’re suffering from mild sore throat).
Now we have the values of all the variables that are need to calculate total calorie requirement.
Now, as we know that;
Total calorie requirement (TCR) = (basal energy expenditure) x (activity factor) x (injury factor)
So in your case;
TCR = 1750 x 1.3 x 1.2
So Total Calorie requirement = 2730 calories.
So you need 2730 calories daily in order to recover quickly and maintain your current status of weight and health.

Also, See;
How to calculate your total protein requirement? (next article, follow on facebook, email or twitter for updates)
Caloric Value of Common Foods

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Human Parasites, Types of Parasites, and Classification

Parasite: A parasite is a living organism which gets nutrition and protection from another organism where it lives. Parasites enter into the human body through mouth, skin and genitalia. In this article, we will generally discuss the types and classification of parasites. It is important from an academic point of view. Those parasites are harmful, which derives their nutrition and other benefits from the host and host get nothing in return but suffers from some injury. Types of Parasites Ecto-parasite: An ectoparasite lives outside on the surface of the body of the host. Endo-parasite: An endo-parasite lives inside the body of the host, it lives in the blood, tissues, body cavities, digestive tract or other organs. Temporary parasite: A temporary parasite visits its host for a short period of time. Permanent parasite: Permanent parasite lives its whole life in the host. Facultative parasite: A facultative parasite can live both independently and dependently. It lives in the

How to taper off, wean off beta blocker, atenolol, Propranolol, Metoprolol

Beta blockers include, atenolol (Tenormin), propranolol (Inderal ) and metoprolol (Lopressor) and are used to treat high blood pressure, certain cardiac problems, migraine and few other conditions. People usually take atenolol, propranolol or metoprolol for many years as a treatment of high blood pressure or after having an episode of heart attack . Sometimes, it becomes necessary to withdraw these beta blockers due to their potential side effects that trouble the patients or sometimes doctor wants to change the drug and shift the patient to some other anti-hypertensive medicine. No matter whatever the cause is, whenever, a patient who has been using a beta blocker for a long period of time, and he needs to be stopped from further usage of that beta blocker, must not stop taking it. One should taper off the dose of a beta blocker. Now a question arises how to wean off or taper off a beta blocker? The method of tapering off beta blocker varies from individual to individual. Allow you

Difficulty in standing up from a sitting or squatting position, Causes & Solution

People who feel it difficult to stand up from a sitting or squatting position may have problem in one or more of the following structures. 1. Knee joint 2. Muscles of legs, thighs or buttock 3. Muscles of arms 4. Cerebellum Let’s now explain one by one, what kind of problems in above structures may cause difficulty in standing up from a sitting or squatting position. 1. How do problems in knee joints lead to difficulty in standing up? Knee joint is one of the primary and most affected joint that takes part in standing up. Other joints that take part are hip, ankle, knee, elbow, wrist and shoulder joint. Knee joint gets the most strain , and also knee joint is comparatively less supported. That’s why usually it’s the knee joint that starts to cry first because of arthritis. Knee joint arthritis causes long term knee pain , that makes the movement difficult at knee joint. Arthritis also makes the knee joint stiffer and slower and its range of motion also decreases. All these affects coll