How to know how many calories to consume?

[NickW]

So, I am no nutritionist and I am certainly not very good at figuring out how to lose weight via nutrition. I do know that if you eat too many calories you may not lose weight and I also know that if you eat too few calories you may not lose weight. Talk about confusing. Anyone have any tips on how to know if you're over eating or under eating? I've been really working on trying to eat healthier and cut out all the processed crap and eat mostly whole foods as well as watching my portion sizes. I lost maybe two pounds and then stabilized when I did this. I am really frustrated as I used to just be able to go and work out more and I could lose weight very easily and fast. Now, not so much. I normally eat a bowl of fruit (grapes or watermelon) plus a protein shake mixed with a banana and milk for breakfast. Then I have a large salad with one half of a serving of ranch (30 calories according to the label as one serving is 60) and some ham cubes for lunch. Dinner is usually some sort of meat (not usually red meat, mostly chicken and fish), vegies, and maybe a potato or rice. Thanks for any suggestions! Oh and I forgot to mention that lately, I've been feeling not really hungry at lunch so I don't know if I should keep forcing myself to eat lunch or should I start just skipping it and just eating snacks of raw vegies (kind of what I prefer for snacks) as I get hungry later in the afternoon?

 

[ElyDave]

Start with your basal metabolic rate.

It's age and sex dependant. For me, I'm in the age bracket 30-59 and male, so for me it's 11.5xWeight in kilos + 873 = 1655 cal/day or 69 cal/hr. That's the energy cost of just existing.

Then multiply that by an activity factor. 1.4 if sedentary, 1.7 if moderately active and 2.0 if very active - This is not related to how much exercise you do, but is simply related to your daily activity in work etc., so if you're sat in an an office take 1.4, if you have a very active job like construction, take 2.0. I use 1.7 as I'm not always behind a desk, but can be for at least part of the week.

That gives me approx 2800 cals per day.

Then add on your exercise. For rowing and cycling, I can make calculations, or take the readout from the machine. The rowing calculation is quite complicated and the table won't post here, but I can e-mail separately if you like.

For running, work on about 0.63 cal/lb/mile (sorry for the mixed units). So for me, that's about 94 cals per mile.

That gives your total, then you can start thinking about calorie deficit if you're interested in weight reduction.

Hope that helps

 

[SillyC]

Dunno what your training volume is, but weight loss plans that incorporate smaller meals and frequent snacks tend to work better for athletes. You'll have difficulty training if your hormones have you cycling between starvation and food coma. The frequent snacks will keep you feeling more comfortable.

 

[NickW]

Start with your basal metabolic rate.

It's age and sex dependant. For me, I'm in the age bracket 30-59 and male, so for me it's 11.5xWeight in kilos + 873 = 1655 cal/day or 69 cal/hr. That's the energy cost of just existing.

Then multiply that by an activity factor. 1.4 if sedentary, 1.7 if moderately active and 2.0 if very active - This is not related to how much exercise you do, but is simply related to your daily activity in work etc., so if you're sat in an an office take 1.4, if you have a very active job like construction, take 2.0. I use 1.7 as I'm not always behind a desk, but can be for at least part of the week.

That gives me approx 2800 cals per day.

Then add on your exercise. For rowing and cycling, I can make calculations, or take the readout from the machine. The rowing calculation is quite complicated and the table won't post here, but I can e-mail separately if you like.

For running, work on about 0.63 cal/lb/mile (sorry for the mixed units). So for me, that's about 94 cals per mile.

That gives your total, then you can start thinking about calorie deficit if you're interested in weight reduction.

Hope that helps

Ok, so I am 34 yrs old so I would be in the same age bracket, so I would take 11.5 x 91.8 kilos (tubby I know) + 873 = 1928.7 calories just to exist. Then I am going to say I am pretty sedentary so multiply by 1.4(1928.7)= 2700.18. Now is where I get confused though. I run 3 times a week, bike 2-3 times a week, and lift weights 3+ times a week.

 

[ElyDave]

Dunno what your training volume is, but weight loss plans that incorporate smaller meals and frequent snacks tend to work better for athletes. You'll have difficulty training if your hormones have you cycling between starvation and food coma. The frequent snacks will keep you feeling more comfortable.

Absolutely. Also works if you're trying to gain weight, eat more often rather than more at each meal.

 

[ElyDave]

Ok, so I am 34 yrs old so I would be in the same age bracket, so I would take 11.5 x 91.8 kilos (tubby I know) + 873 = 1928.7 calories just to exist. Then I am going to say I am pretty sedentary so multiply by 1.4(1928.7)= 2700.18. Now is where I get confused though. I run 3 times a week, bike 2-3 times a week, and lift weights 3+ times a week.

You'll need to find a calculator for the bike. I take it direct from my turbo trainer normally, although that tends to differ from my Garmin. It all depends on the algorithms they use. As for the weights, your guess is as good as mine. You could work out energy applied to the weights in moving mass X through distance Y, but then you'd need to factor in an efficiency for your expended calories.

I've read somewhere that where the bike is concerned, it's about 3 x power output i.e. it takes 600W to put down 200W

 

[NickW]

So, I just tried 9 different calorie calculators that I found on google. For staying same weight, the lowest one said I should consume 2100 calories while the highest one said a little over 3600 calories. In case no one caught that, that's a whopping 1500 calorie difference!!! No wonder the average joe has no freaking idea where to start when trying to lose weight and figure out nutrition. Was hoping that I could get relatively similar answers from them so that I could just take an average and go and figure out how to make a deficit of 500 calories a day only. I believe that is the number I read that people need to create a deficit of in order to lose 1 pound a week. Back to the drawing board I guess....

 

[SillyC]

NickW - people I know who have gone through sustained weight loss have used MyFitnessPal and SparkPeople.

 

[NickW]

Thanks SillyC! I'll look into those.

 

[NickW]

Ok SillyC, so I looked at the first one and it says I should consume 1520 calories a day to lose up to a pound and a half a week. That seems exceptionally low to me. Considering most sites that I have seen say 2500-2800 for me to lose that much weight... See, this is why people get so dang confused on what to do. I'll look into the other one and see what it says. I do like that it gives a break down of how much fat, carbs, and protein you should eat in a day though.

 

[NickW]

The Sparkpeople site just randomly gave me an amount of calories based on my height, weight, and age. It had nothing to do with how active I am or anything, it didn't even ask and I couldn't find anyway to add my activity level.

 

[NickW]

So I decided to just go and actually count my calories for breakfast and lunch and I'm only about 900-1000 calories for those two meals. Dinners vary while breakfast and lunch is the same day in and day out. Now I do tend to eat pretty well for dinner, but I am starting to think that maybe I am just starving my body for fuel.

 

[SillyC]

With SparkPeople, there's a pretty reasonable exercise calculator. Do you have a gram scale? It's pretty important if you want to do calorie counting that you weigh your portions.

 

[NickW]

Ya I measure and weigh everything SillyC. I like my little weight scale and it has come in very helpful for me. I think I have been underfeeding myself. Today I am barely at 2000 calories and according to the bmr formula thing I just figured out and the harris b. formula I should be eating about 3000 calories a day to maintain my weight. So to lose weight I need to eat closer to 2500. I think I need to have a few beers now to close the gap in calories.

 

[Jaybird]

Nick, you aren't sedentary with all that exercise Oh, and losing a pound and a half a week is very aggressive,
it might work, but it won't lead you into a lifestyle that you'd be able to maintain longer term, at least not IMHO.

I've lost 50 pounds (my picture is from back when i was a lot chunkier), 190ish down to 145ish over about a year
and a half I think, but its been something that I could sustain. Counting calories is certain good initially, it helps
you understand your nutrition, but I personally dropped it at some point, now just common sense guides me.
I keep a daily watch on my weight though, if I have a cheat day the next I may be a bit more rigorous.

When I first started worrying about all this I found http://scoobysworkshop.com/ to be very helpful, he is very
funny, but also has a lot of good insights, and even though I have no interesting in looking like Mr. Universe,
I find his stuff to have been of use. Peruse the site and enjoy the youtube clips, some are hysterical

 

[NickW]

I used to use FitDay.com and kept track of everything for about 3 months straight. I don't really keep a strict count anymore but I had plateaued and still have a bunch of weight to lose. I only weigh myself once a week now because it can get depressing to never see the scale move. I was actually surprised yesterday when I saw that I had lost 3 pounds since last week. I do attribute part of that maybe to dehydration from the long run the day before despite drinking 4 24oz bottles of water and 1 beer after the big run. I am going to weigh myself again tomorrow just to see where I really am. I guess part of my concern too is because my family has a history of thyroid problems and I want to be able to catch it early if I notice that maybe I am doing everything right yet not losing weight or gaining weight. My Mom ballooned for 15 years before the doctors figured out what was wrong. I don't want that to be me.

 

[ElyDave]

Nick, you aren't sedentary with all that exercise

The choice of sedentary/moderately active/active is not related to exercise in the model I described. It's related to your level of activity in normal life. For me, today I've been mainly sedentary as I've sat behind my desk all afternoon and done about half an hour's light gardening. Monday was moderatly active as I was on my feet auditing a factory, as an example.

 

[Abide]

I like this one.

http://fnic.nal.usda.gov/fnic/interactiveDRI/

I'd also probably use the very active level. Which if you are 6' tall you means you are pretty close to 4,000 calories for maintenance. When I use the calorie counters I really focus on over-estimating my meals and typically double what I think the amount actually is. I think if you go this route it all equals out in the end because most people underestimate how much they actually eat.

If you have thyroid problems then none of this really matters.

 

[ElyDave]

I tried some serious calorie counting for a few odd days over a few weeks to look at my macro nutrient balance. It was harder work than I thought and I found out that I was generally under-eating vs my estimated calorie needs.

I think the two sources of error here are going to be estimate of calorie intake and estimate of calorie needs with 9 potential outcomes depending on whether you are over/correct/under with each. Whichever way you go I think you'll be neediong some trial and error.

 

[NickW]

Yes Dave I consider myself sedentary because of how much time I sit on my bottom everyday and I do not count my exercise in that.

Abide, I don't really think I have thyroid issues yet, but it is a fear and I keep a very watchful eye on my weight. My Mom used to be anorexic looking she was so skinny, now she could stand to lose a couple hundred pounds. It's taken her over 2 years to lose 20 pounds now that they figured out it was her thyroid causing all her problems. I don't want to end up like that so it is a huge fear of mine. My grandpa had thyroid problems too but he died before he got big. My cousin just found out she has thyroid problems too, luckily they caught hers when she was only 50 pounds or so overweight.