Adarq.org

linked by vag: http://www.exrx.net/Calculators/CalRequire.html

i put in the following:

26 years old*
176 pounds
71 inches tall

8 hours resting
11 hours very light
1 hour light
4 hours moderate
0 hours heavy

calculator gave:

1893 BMR
1617 activity
3510 total kcal required

seems kind of high. that's my best guess for a typical day, but i guess i should keep track. would be interesting to journal that alongside intake to see how the two compare. my default over the course of a week is to eat right at maintenance for ~175 pounds body weight.

new project! who wants to join?

*technically still 25 but i'll be 26 in less than three weeks, so, you know. close enough.

^^^ those give me 2796-2925 kcal required. seems more realistic. but we'll see.

i guess that would be for weight lifting days. i spend two hours lifting weights and similar things and around an hour walking. i walk about 4 mph when i'm not in a hurry. maybe 3 hours moderate is more accurate.

EDIT: if i shift that hour from moderate to light, it has no effect on kcal requirements. still gives 3510. non-workout days (8 hour resting, 14 hours very light, 1 hour light, 1 hour moderate) would be 2879 kcal.

Here's what I do (you can check my log for it). Instead of using calculators to determine how many calories I burn generally over the course of the day, I ONLY do that for my BMR. So I calculate my BMR (~2,000cal) and then I calculate the separate activities by looking them up... not by using a calculator for "light activity for 2hrs."

Example from my log:

-= Calorie Log =-

FOOD / ACTIVITY                      CALORIES
2 slices of pizza                             +540
5 eggs                                          +310
4 cups whole milk                          +600
2 scoops protein                            +240
Chicken platter                             +850
1 serving grapes                           +60
Total in                                     +2,600   
 
BMR                                            -2,000
Walked 8 miles                             -800
Worked out                                  -200
Thermic effect of food                   -300
Total out                                  -3,300   

Balance                                   -700cal

After cutting for 6 weeks at -500cal a day and only losing 4lbs (instead of the predicted 6), I simply am now cutting at -700cal.


There is some estimating/rounding involved (like with how many calories I've burned lifting or walking, but I look those up for ballpark figures), so I just adjust the caloric balance for the day and continue for there.

Even if my numbers are way off, as long as I drop weight consistently and at the right pace it doesn't matter to me because I've found a balance. Kind of like how you use an old scale, and you're not sure if its 5lbs heavy or 5lbs light, but as long as its consistent and you go from 230lbs to 220lbs, you know you've dropped 10lbs.

Hey vag saw your post. I don't really use the calculators, I don't think they work very well for me except if they're just rough guesses to start with. But for that, I find the old bodybuilder rule of 10xbw (in lb) to work well enough. So if i'm 180 then i should be eating 1800 kcal a day to lose weight.

It's not perfect but it seems to work ok. For maintenance you're supposed to use a multiplier of 12-15. 12 if you're not very active, 15 if you're really active (not me). So that's about a good place to start.

Of course after a week or so if your bodyweight is going up, then you re-adjust your maintenance value - and if it's going down and you're happy with the rate of change, then keep it, otherwise bump off another 500 cal or so and see how you go. It's an experimental thing short of using doubly labelled water, or a bodybug or something like that.

Thanks for the input. You are consuming ~1500 kcals cutting about 20% so your estimated TDEE is 1800kcals@178lbs. That should be about right, i tried a 20% deficit with a TDEE of 2000kcals@198lbs this week but lost too much. Now trying TDEE 2200 ( 2400 in workout days ). That would have my consumed kcals target at ~1900 which is right about 10*BW as you said above. Let's see how it works , i am trying to achieve a steady loss of 1lb/week.