How to further adjust Daily Caloric Needs

Regarding Daily Caloric Needs (DCN), if you want to be more precise, you can work out the exact caloric expenditure on a given training day by multiplying your BMR by 1.2 (sedentary) and by then adding to that the exact caloric expenditure during your training sessions/physical activity.

If you use a heart rate monitor where you enter your height, weight, activity type, etc. you may be able to track how many calories you burn during exercise.

Competitive athletes typically use a heart rate monitor (example) paired with a transmitter belt (example), which tend to give you more accurate readings than just a wrist watch (example). Technology evolves fast so make certain to compare brands, analyse features, check compatibility, and read product reviews before making a purchase.

Alternatively, you can use the Caloric Expenditure Per Hour of Exercise Table for that (you can find it in your Downloadable

Client Materials and Session Handouts section from Module 1); or this exercise calorie-calculator from MyFitnessPal: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/exercise/lookup

If your level of physical activity or training type and volume varies from day to day, you'll want to compute your total expenditure in a given week, and then divide that by 7 days to obtain your daily DCN average.

Updated on: 28/10/2026