Originally Posted By: Chucky
56/183/retired.

I got that info from a NHS web-site.It did seem high,I would have thought the lower figure was about right for the average person to maintain weight.


While you should adapt values from calculators to your own body composition (high fat percentages should reduce the impact of high weight on the BMR, as fat is not metabolically active to the same degree as muscle), and metabolism. ... a BMR calculation for these values shows that your basal rate would currently be around 1939 kCal per day. Mifflin St Joer (By comparison my own is given as 1351 (43, 165cm, 53kg).

Your maintenance intake would then be increased from your BMR by some proportion - sedentary from around 40%, moderately active around 70%, vigorously active 100% and extremely active ~140%

The 2700kCal thus seems plausible if you have a 'normal' body composition, but may be somewhat excessive if you carry most of the excess weight as fatty tissue. It would be my dietary requirement if I were a manual labourer (agriculture) or similarly active, but for sedentary living I'd need less than 1900 kCal.

As a rough idea**, the difference in calorific usage between the WHO definitions of sedentary and moderately active is equivalent to around 7.5km, or a little under 5 miles of walking. Between Sedentary and vigorously active is around 15.3km or just under 10 miles of walking, and between Sedentary and Extremely active is around 25km or 16 miles of walking.
Running uses a little more, but not by as much as you might expect (though this has added value from occupying less time too). (5.5km, 11km, 18km)

**My calculations based on a combination of papers covering walking over a range of statures and for sloped and flat terrain (slopes make minimal difference over a loop, maybe 10% over a very hilly round trip, but can be significant for a single direction trip). Walking minimum ~ 1kCal per km per kg. Running 3.5/2.5 the walking rate independent of speed.