I received several questions on my previous Part 1 article and I would like to highlight one of the questions here.
I find that the Malaysian adult RNI (Recommended Nutritional Intake) confusing. Isn’t the value recommended of between 1780 kcal to 2000 kcal per day for a women is too high? How do you calculate your BMR ? How do you factor in exercise level on the BMR equation and get your daily RNI?
The above RNI is the daily nutritional intake recommendation based on average Basal Metabolic Rate as well as average activity level of Malaysians of different age group and gender. In reality, individual Basal Metabolic Rate varies from one individual to the other due to factors such as muscle build, genetic factors, insulin sensitivity and other factors. The level of activity, on top of your Basal Metabolic Rate is an important factor, which determines your daily nutritional requirements. For an active person, the daily nutritional requirements will be more than someone who is living a sedentary lifestyle. Therefore, it is important to know your own specific BMR, and also to know how to calculate additional calories intake needed based on your activity level to accurately estimate your actual individual RNI. The easiest and more accurate way to do this is know how to calculate your BMR (http://www.myfitnesspal.com/tools/bmr-calculator) and use of Calories tracker such as Heart Rate Monitors (Suunto, Polar, etc.) or newer products i.e Nike Dual Band or Fitbit (http://www.livescience.com/41556-best-fitness-trackers.html). You can also get your BMR reading using some good upper range body fat analyzers. You can then sum up your average calories burned for that day with your BMR to accurately estimate your RNI. If you don’t have any calories tracker and not planning to buy one, you can calculate you daily RNI by the following factoring based on your physical activity below:
Factoring Exercise into the BMR Equation
| Amount of Exercise | Daily Calories Needed |
| Little to no exercise | BMR x 1.2 |
| Light exercise (1 to 3 days per week) | BMR x1.375 |
| Moderate exercise (3 to 5 days per week) | BMR x 1.55 |
| Heavy exercise (6 to 7 days per week) | BMR x 1.725 |
| Very heavy exercise (intense workouts twice per day) | BMR x 1.9 |
Lt Col (Dr) Mohd Arshil was previously the Director for Preventive Medicine and Medical Ops , Military Health Division and is currently pursuing his DrPH. Find out more about him at The Team page.
[This article belongs to The Malaysian Medical Gazette. Any republication (online or offline) without written permission from The Malaysian Medical Gazette is prohibited.]