At balantia, we believe that effective nutrition guidance should be science-based and fully personalized.
For this reason, all calculations within the app are based on internationally recognized scientific equations, up-to-date guidelines, and proprietary algorithms developed by balantia’s scientific team.
The calculations are performed automatically based on the personal information you enter in the app, such as your gender, age, height, weight, activity level, and weight goal. Whenever any of these details change, the calculations are automatically updated to ensure that your nutrition recommendations remain accurate and personalized.
The following sections provide a detailed overview of how balantia performs the key calculations used to estimate your energy needs and provide personalized nutrition recommendations.
What information does balantia use?
Find out which personal data are used in balantia’s calculations.
Your gender, age, height, and weight are the foundation of all calculations performed by the app.
balantia uses these data to calculate:
Body Mass Index (BMI)
Resting Metabolic Rate (RMR)
Total Energy Expenditure (TEE)
Your recommended healthy weight range
Your protein needs
Your macronutrient and micronutrient needs
Your fluid needs
The calories you burn during exercise
These calculations are automatically updated whenever your weight, height, age, or goal changes, ensuring that balantia’s recommendations remain as accurate as possible.
How is Body Mass Index (BMI) calculated?
Learn how Body Mass Index (BMI) is calculated and how balantia uses it.
Body Mass Index (BMI) is an internationally recognised index used to assess the relationship between your weight and height.
It is calculated using the following formula:
BMI = Body weight (kg) ÷ Height2 (m2)
For example, a person who weighs 70kg and is 1.72m tall has a BMI of:
BMI = 70 ÷ (1.75 x 1.75) = 22.9kg/m2
balantia uses Body Mass Index (BMI) to:
Assess your nutritional status
Determine safe weight goal limits
Display personalised alerts when needed
Body Mass Index (BMI) is a useful screening tool. However, it cannot on its own assess body composition or body fat percentage. For this reason, balantia also takes other factors into account, such as your age and body type, where this information is available.
How is your ideal weight calculated?
Learn how your recommended ideal weight is calculated.
balantia calculates your recommended ideal weight differently depending on your age, as your body’s needs change over time.
For adults under the age of 65
To estimate your ideal weight, balantia uses the Hamwi equations, which are based on your sex and height. These equations are widely used by clinicians to estimate a person’s reference weight.
For men
Ideal weight (kg) = 48 + 1.06 x (Height – 152)
For women
Ideal weight (kg) = 45.2 + 0.89 x (Height – 152)
Where:
Height: Height in centimetres (cm)
For adults aged 65 and over
For adults aged 65 and over, balantia uses a different approach based on current scientific guidelines. As we age, maintaining a slightly higher body weight is often considered more appropriate to help preserve overall health, functionality, and muscle mass.
Adjustment based on frame size
When your wrist circumference is available, balantia estimates your frame size (small, medium or large) and adjusts your recommended ideal weight accordingly. This helps ensure the estimate better reflects your individual body characteristics.
How are my daily calorie needs calculated?
Learn how balantia calculates your daily energy needs.
The daily energy needs calculated by balantia aren’t based on a generic estimate. They are tailored to your personal characteristics and your goal.
To calculate your daily energy needs, the app follows a four-step process.
Step 1: Calculating Resting Metabolic Rate (RMR).
First, balantia calculates your Resting Metabolic rate (RMR).
RMR represents the amount of energy your body needs to maintain essential functions, such as breathing and the activity of your heart, brain, and other organs, while your body is at complete rest.
To calculate RMR, balantia uses the Mifflin-St Jeor equation, one of the most reliable and widely accepted equations in clinical practice and nutritional science.
For men
RMR (kcal/day) = (10 x Weight) + (6.25 x Height) – (5 x Age) + 5
For women
RMR (kcal/day) = (10 x Weight) + (6.25 x Height) – (5 x Age) – 161
Where:
Weight: body weight in kilograms (kg)
Height: height in centimetres (cm)
Age: age in years
RMR is calculated automatically when you create your profile and reaclculated whenever your body weight, height, or age changes, ensuring that your energy needs remain accurate.
Step 2: Calculating Total Energy Expenditure (TEE)
Following RMR, Total Energy Expenditure (TEE) is calculated. This represents the total number of calories your body needs throughout the day to maintain your current body weight.
This value is calculated based on your Resting Metabolic Rate (RMR). At baseline, the app uses a sedentary lifestyle level, providing a safe and realistic estimate of your daily energy needs.
Next, balantia separately calculates the calories you burn from the physical activity you record, such as exercise and steps, and dynamically adds them to your daily energy needs.
This approach prevents double-counting of physical activity, which could lead to an overestimation of total energy expenditure, ensuring greater accuracy in the calculations.
Step 3: Adjusting according to your goal
Once the calories required to maintain your current body weight have been calculated, balantia adjusts them according to the goal you have selected.
Depending on whether your goal is to:
Lose weight
Maintain your weight
Gain weight
the app applies the appropriate calorie deficit or surplus.
If your goal is to lose or gain weight, you can set your desired rate of weight change using the slider. As you adjust the rate, balantia automatically recalculates your recommended daily calorie intake and updates the estimated date for achieving your goal.
Step 4: Continuous and dynamic adjustment
Your energy needs do not remain constant, since they change over time as your body weight changes.
balantia automatically recalculates your energy needs whenever one of your key characteristics changes, such as:
Body weight
Height
Age
Weight goal
Physical activity level
At the same time, the app continuously evaluates your actual progress by taking into account changes in your body weight and your adherence to your nutrition plan. When sufficient tracking data is available, the algorithm can make small, gradual adjustments to your recommended calorie intake, ensuring that the recommendations better reflect your actual energy needs.
In this way, the calories displayed in the app are based not only on your profile characteristics, but also on your body’s actual response throughout your journey.
Why do my calorie needs decrease as I lose weight?
Learn why your energy needs change during weight loss.
This is completely normal.
As your body weight decreases, the amount of energy your body needs also decreases, both to maintain essential functions and to support daily activities. As a result, both your Resting Metabolic Rate (RMR) and Total Energy Expenditure (TEE) gradually decrease.
balantia takes this natural adaptation into account and recalculates your daily energy needs, ensuring that your recommended calorie intake remains personalised and reflects your body’s actual needs.
At the same time, when sufficient tracking data is available, the algorithm can make small dynamic adjustments to help maintain a safe and realistic rate of progress towards your goal.
What makes balantia’s calculations reliable?
Understanding the science behind balantia’s calculations.
balantia’s calculations are based on internationally recognised scientific equations, current evidence-based guidelines, and proprietary algorithms developed by the app’s scientific team.
The equations used, such as the Mifflin-St Jeor and Hamwi equations, are established tools in clinical dietetics and are routinely used by healthcare professionals to estimate energy needs and reference body weight.
At the same time, balantia does not rely solely on static calculations. Your energy needs are dynamically recalculated as your personal data and progress change, ensuring that your nutritional recommendations remain personalised.
Important note:
balantia’s calculations are designed for the general adult population. Some life stages and medical conditions, such as pregnancy, breastfeeding, or certain health conditions, energy needs may differ. In these cases, consultation with a healthcare professional is recommended, as they can further personalise your recommendations according to your individual needs.
Sources for dietary recommendations
Scientific sources and bibliography
