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NutriCalc

Calculate nutritional goals

Calculation of energy and protein requirements using established equations

Please choose equation(s)

Multiple selection possible

Harris Benedict
Schofield (WHO)
Mifflin-St.Jeor
Owen
Cunningham
Ireton Jones

Input

Gender

Age

Weight

Fat free mass

Height

Activity factor

Immobile, bedridden

Partially mobile, occasional mobilization

Mobile, frequent mobilization; exclusively sedentary with little or no strenuous leisure activity, (e.g., office workers, precision mechanics)

Sedentary work, at times also additional energy expenditure for walking and standing activities, (e.g. laboratory assistants, students, assembly line workers)

Predominantly walking and standing work, (e.g., salesperson, waiter/waitress, mechanic, electrician)

Physically demanding professional work (e.g. construction worker, farmer, forestry worker)

 

For sports or strenuous leisure activities (30 to 60 minutes, 4 to 5 times per week), 0.3 PAL units can be added per day

Disease factor

Assessment according to situation e.g..
  • Select OP (1 - 1.1)
  • malnutrition (1.3)
  • sepsis (1.1 - 1.4)
  • malabsorption (1.2 - 1.5)
  • hyperthyroidism (1.1 - 2)
  • burns (1.4 - 1.5)
  • polytrauma (1.4 - 2)
Other factors:
  • For each degree of fever (+ 0.1 - 0.2)
  • > 75 years of age (- 0.1)
  • ventilation (- 0.1 - - 0.2)

Severe renal failure without dialysis

GFR < 30ml/min/1.73m2

Spontaneous breathing

State of trauma

State of burn

Calculation

Equation Resting energy expenditure (REE) Energy requirement Protein requirement
Harris Benedict
Schofield (WHO)
Mifflin-St.Jeor
Owen
Cunningham
Ireton Jones –
BMI:
Weight adjustment:
DE EN

Information NutriCalc

Calculation of energy and protein requirements using established equations

Harris-Benedict Formel1

With the present nutrition calculator, individual nutrition goals can be easily calculated online. The calculator presented here is based on the ESPEN guidelines for polymorbid, internal medicine patients and was used in the EFFORT study 10,11.

  • Energy requirement: REE x (AF + DF); REE according to Harris Benedict with adjusted body weight.
  • Protein requirement: 1.2 - 1.5 g per kg body weight 0.8 g in severe renal failure without dialysis (GFR < 30 ml/min/1.73 m2)

Equation1

  • Men: 66.5 + 13.8 * weight in kg + 5.0 * height in cm – 6.8 * age in years

  • Women: 655.1 + 9.6 *kg + 1.8 * cm - 4.7 * Jahre

Schofield Equation (WHO Equation)1

The Schofield equation, also known as the World Health Organization (WHO) equation, calculates resting energy expenditure in kilocalories per day. It is based on work of the WHO, which summarizes 114 publications. The equation can be used for people of different weights and ages, including children. Height does not have to be specified. When the equation was being developed, the data used significantly more men than women, with a significant number of healthy, athletic, and young men. This may mean that the equation overestimates energy needs for hospitalized individuals.

Equation2, 3

Age (Years) Men Women
< 3 59.512 * weight (kg) – 30.4 58.317 * weight (kg) – 31.1
3-9 22.706 * kg + 504.3 20.315 * kg + 485.9
10–17 17.675 * kg + 657.8 13.375 * kg + 692.2
18-29 15.047 * kg + 691.7 14.808 * kg + 486.3
30-59 11.465 * kg + 872.5 8.121 * kg + 845.0
60–74 11.918 * kg + 699.8 9.219 * kg + 686.7
≥75 8.359 * kg + 820.2 9.793 * kg + 623.4


Mifflin-St. Jeor Equation1

The Mifflin-St. Jeor equation was developed in 1990 using 498 healthy adult participants. Half of the participants were overweight. This equation calculates a lower requirement for people with very high weight and is therefore particularly suitable for overweight and obese people. It was not developed for clinical use. 

Equation1

  • Men: 10 * kg + 6.25 * cm – 5 * age in years + 5
  • Women: 10 * kg + 6.25 * cm – 5 * years - 161

Owen Equation

The Owen Formula was developed in 1986-1987 in a study of 44 female and 60 male participants. One formula was developed for healthy, non-athletic lean and overweight men and a second for healthy, non-athletic lean and overweight women. The formula tends to underestimate the needs of women especially with a BMI >40.4.4, 5

Equation6

  • Men: 879 + 10.2 * weight (kg)
  • Women: 795 + 7.18 * weight (kg)

Cunningham Equation

Cunningham published a study in 1980 in which he analyzed data from the Harris-Benedict study. Trained athletes were excluded. He developed a new equation for calculating resting energy expenditure that uses a person's fat-free mass.8 The equation overestimates measured expenditure 14-15% of the time9. Haaf and Weijs (2014) validated the equation for recreational athletes. In this study, air displacement plethysmography was used to determine lean body mass.

Cunningham used the following formulas to calculate lean body mass:

  • Lean body mass males = (79.5 – 0.24 * (weight in kg) – 0.15 * (age in years)) * kg ÷ 73.2
  • Lean body mass women = (69.8 – 0.26 * kg – 0.12 * years) * kg ÷ 73.2

Ireton-Jones Equation

The Ireton-James equation was first developed in 1992 in a study with 200 participants. In 2002, the equation was evaluated and adapted with another 100 people. For this equation, hospitalized subjects were studied for the first time. This resulted in two different equations for artificially ventilated and independently breathing patients. For the Ireton-James equation, no adjusted weight should be used for overweight individuals. Note that this equation calculates total energy requirements; it is not necessary to multiply the result by a disease or activity factor.1, 7

Equation7

  • Breathing independently: 629 - 11 * (age in years) + 25 * (weight in kg) - 609 * (overweight).
  • ventilated: 1784 - 11* (age) + 5 * (weight) + 244 * (sex) + 239 * (injury) + 804 * (burn)

  • Overweight: if BMI > 27kg/m², then 1, otherwise 0
  • Gender: Man=1, Woman=0
  • Diagnosis of an injury: Yes=1, No=0
  • Diagnosis of a burn: Yes=1, No=0

Protein requirements calculation

In NutriCalc, protein requirements are calculated as 1.2 – 1.5 g per kg body weight and 0.8 g per kg body weight for severe renal failure without dialysis (GFR < 30 ml/min/1.73 m2). This is consistent with the approach used in the EFFORT study10,11. Disease-specific energy and protein recommendations can be found in "NutriGo"

References

  1. FERRIE, S. & WARD, M. (2007). Back to basics: Estimating energy requirements for adult hospital patients. Nutrition & Dietetics, 64(3), 192–199. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1747-0080.2007.00124.x

  2. FAO, Organization, W. H. & University, U. N. (2004). Human energy requirements: Report of a joint FAO/WHO/UNU expert consultation : Rome, 2001. Food and nutrition technical report series: Bd. 1. FAO.

  3. Subramaniam, A., McPhee, M. & Nagappan, R. (2012). Predicting energy expenditure in sepsis: Harris-Benedict and Schofield equations versus the Weir derivation. Critical care and resuscitation : journal of the Australasian Academy of Critical Care Medicine, 14(3), 202–210.

  4. Frankenfield, D. C., Rowe, W. A., Smith, J. S. & Cooney, R. N. (2003). Validation of several established equations for resting metabolic rate in obese and nonobese people. Journal of the American Dietetic Association, 103(9), 1152–1159. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0002-8223(03)00982-9

  5. OWEN, O. E. (1988). Resting Metabolic Requirements of Men and Women. Mayo Clinic Proceedings, 63(5), 503–510. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0025-6196(12)65649-3

  6. Haaf, T. ten & Weijs, P. J. M. (2014). Resting energy expenditure prediction in recreational athletes of 18-35 years: confirmation of Cunningham equation and an improved weight-based alternative. PloS one, 9(9), e108460. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0108460

  7. Ireton-Jones, C. & Jones, J. D. (2002). Improved equations for predicting energy expenditure in patients: the Ireton-Jones Equations. Nutrition in clinical practice : official publication of the American Society for Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition, 17(1), 29–31. https://doi.org/10.1177/011542650201700129

  8. Cunningham, J. J. (1980). A reanalysis of the factors influencing basal metabolic rate in normal adults. The American journal of clinical nutrition, 33(11), 2372–2374. https://doi.org/10.1093/ajcn/33.11.2372

  9. Mifflin, M. D., St Jeor, S. T., Hill, L. A., Scott, B. J., Daugherty, S. A. & Koh, Y. O. (1990). A new predictive equation for resting energy expenditure in healthy individuals. The American journal of clinical nutrition, 51(2), 241–247. https://doi.org/10.1093/ajcn/51.2.241

  10. Gomes F, et al. ESPEN guidelines on nutritional support for polymorbid internal medicine patients. Clin Nutr. 2018;37(1):336-53.

  11. Schuetz P, et al. Individualised nutritional support in medical inpatients at nutritional risk: a randomised clinical trial. Lancet 2019; 393(10188), 2312-2321

List of abbreviations

AF Activity factor
DF Disease factor
EFFORT Effect of Early Nutritional Therapy on Frailty, Functional Outcomes and Recovery of Undernourished Medical Inpatients Trial
ESPEN European Society for Clinical Nutrition and Metabolism
GFR Glomerular filtration rate
REE Resting energy expenditure

Nutritional algorithm

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