How many calories should I eat in a day?

April 18, 2008 7:32 AM

What is my metabolic rate?

Where is St. Louis can I get the medgem or other test to measure my resting metabolic rate? Who performs these tests and are they covered by insurance? I would like to figure out what my daily caloric intake should be.

posted by rglass to Health & Fitness (6 answers total)

Bally Fitness offers this test, I believe in the neighborhood of $50 (usually free if you buy a personal training package.) You don't need to be a member, but you do need to be prepared to deal with a sales pitch.
posted by ferociouskitty at 7:54 AM on April 18, 2008

I don't know about St. Louis but I had mine done at a nutritionist's office. She was a Registered Dietician and used the machine as part of her normal evaluation. Maybe call around to a few RDs and see if they a) have a machine or b) can recommend a place that might. Mine wasn't covered by my insurance but that will vary based on your plan.
posted by Bella Sebastian at 7:56 AM on April 18, 2008

I would expect any weight-loss clinic selling HMR products would be able to do a medgem test for you. You could try this place in St. Louis.
posted by thomas144 at 8:04 AM on April 18, 2008

In the meanwhile you could estimate it:
http://books.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=10490&page=112
posted by tiburon at 8:08 AM on April 18, 2008

i've previously answered this question here...
posted by dawdle at 8:46 AM on April 18, 2008

I think the reality is that it's really hard to come up with a true number. The only way I could determine to figure it out was to make a log of what I was eating, log my exercise, tally up the calories in/out and watch what my weight does. With the knowledge that burning 3500 calories is about equal to losing one pound, you can do the math and figure out what your daily caloric requirement is.

The thing is, it's nearly impossible to know exactly how many calories are in the things you're consuming, and it's equally difficult to identify how many calories you burn while doing any activity.

I kept track of this information for about a year while I was trying to lose weight/get in shape. In the end, I think I had a decent idea of my caloric requirements, but even then, it felt like a nebulous number.
posted by soplerfo at 12:53 PM on April 18, 2008