Calculating Caloric Needs

Hi, lately I've be focusing heavily on eating strictly paleo, but I'm curious about how much I should be eating.

I'm about 165-170 lbs, 5'10". I don't know how to figure out what my BF% is, but I randomly guess that it's less than 15% (hopefully considerably less). I train WODs and FSPs 4x/week, martial arts practice 3-4 x/week, and tabata 1-2x/week. I also play tennis with a wall, a concrete square, and my family dog often (3-4 x/week) which, although not vigorous, is somewhat taxing because it's so hot down here in South Mississippi. That comes down to about 6-10 hours of intense physical activity a week.

My goal is very rare... to drop BF and increase strength and size. I'd like to get down to 7-10 percent by Christmas, but I have no idea of what is reasonable. At the least, I am being very strict with my eating and consuming no carbs that are not from vegetables. It's surprising how hard it is to get over 130g of carbs when all you eat are vegetables!

I've been thinking about doing a heavy day and light day pattern with the heavy day being 3000 ((about 190g of Protein, 160g of Fat, and the rest (<150g I think) from carbs)) calories and the light day being 2500 calories (mostly the same ratios).

With that said, is there a particular caloric requirement calculator you can refer me to, or can you make a good guess simply by what I've written?

Thanks a lot!

Use a LeanBodyMass calculator to get a base idea.

There are some forum threads out their on forums that can guesstimate your body fat percentage. Or just go find a BodPod, water tank or get a caliper test done.

You can then guesstimate how many calories are burned per activity/hour and there you go.

More than likely at least 2500 will do you up to 3000.

Thanks, Blairbob!

As long as I'm within a hundred or two of what I should be taking, I'm happy. 2500-3000 does feel right, and since you think so too, that's what I'll stick to. I guess I'll add more if I feel like I need it, although I don't really think I will.

Wouldn't eating by instinct of feeling full and not tired during the workout be in off to drop BF? I mean is calculating nessasary ? I have been counting calories for a year now and I would hopefully like to stop now that I am on a semi paleo diet I hope my diet is somewhat fixed

I'm not really calculating calories as I am generally estimating them. I don't think of it as calories anyway. I just try to get within X grams of fat, protein, and carbs. I think it's actually preferable (as long as you don't get obsessed) to not doing it because if you keep a food log, you can go back and look at what you ate.

Sorry, in a rush.

I was reading at Strong Lifts, and in the nutrition section the writers say:

"You need at least your body-weight in lbs x 20kcal daily to gain weight."

I'm generally getting about 800-1000 kcal less then that. Do you think this statement is true? I'm trying to gain weight right now and I'm gradually increasing the amount of training that I do as well as DL, BS, and HC.

Patrick Smith said:

I was reading at Strong Lifts, and in the nutrition section the writers say:

"You need at least your body-weight in lbs x 20kcal daily to gain weight."

I'm generally getting about 800-1000 kcal less then that. Do you think this statement is true? I'm trying to gain weight right now and I'm gradually increasing the amount of training that I do as well as DL, BS, and HC.

It's not an exact science, but that is the largest recommendation I have ever seen.

It may be because it is old school, where the point of bulking was to get big muscles regardless of fat added (which would then be cut).

But if you are not counting calories, then how would you even implement it?

You need to pick a number, work with it for a while, and see how your body responds.

If it is way off you will find out and can adjust it accordingly.

As you lose or gain weight it will need to be adjusted as well.

In general the maximum norm for addking lean body mass is .5 pound per week.

Also in general the higher BF% you are at, the more of the weight that will be put back on as BF.

Cutting may be more effective for you now and in the long run, with bulking later when you are down

at a lower BF%.

Hey, guys, is there a general recommendation for meal size to avoid unnecessary fat storage? My breakfast is usually 5 scrambled eggs with extra virgin olive oil and some greens. Closely estimated to about 55g fat, 34g protein, and about 10g carbs. That's about 400-500 kcal, I think. Is that too big? I don't want to eat more than necessary at a given meal...

Thanks

Patrick Smith said:

Hey, guys, is there a general recommendation for meal size to avoid unnecessary fat storage? My breakfast is usually 5 scrambled eggs with extra virgin olive oil and some greens. Closely estimated to about 55g fat, 34g protein, and about 10g carbs. That's about 400-500 kcal, I think. Is that too big? I don't want to eat more than necessary at a given meal...

Thanks

The short answer is that if you are eating less calorically than your maintenance requirements for the day you won't store fat.

In any event fat goes in and out of storage, so it's not like if you stored a bit it's going to be in there for life

It is mobilized second-to-second based on available nutrients and applicable energy requirements.

That said, your meal is close to 700 cals because fat counts for 9/gram so 55*9 = 495 on it own. If you are not active during the day, there is a good chance that some of the fat will go to storage at least for some time, because fat is not easily converted to anything else nor excreted. Normally, the equiv of only 10% of the fat eaten can be converted to glucose and/or stored as glycogen. (If you are in ketosis never mind that - whole nother story).

If you are not in ketosis you might consider flipping your protein and fat gram quantities. Amino acids can be used for muscle building and also for glucose (high intensity energy) more readily than fat, and excess can be excreted. The meal's calories would go down about 10%, making fat storage less likely.

So it really depends too many things to answer absolutely.

FutureisNow said:

Patrick Smith said:

Hey, guys, is there a general recommendation for meal size to avoid unnecessary fat storage? My breakfast is usually 5 scrambled eggs with extra virgin olive oil and some greens. Closely estimated to about 55g fat, 34g protein, and about 10g carbs. That's about 400-500 kcal, I think. Is that too big? I don't want to eat more than necessary at a given meal...

Thanks

The short answer is that if you are eating less calorically than your maintenance requirements for the day you won't store fat.

In any event fat goes in and out of storage, so it's not like if you stored a bit it's going to be in there for life

It is mobilized second-to-second based on available nutrients and applicable energy requirements.

That said, your meal is close to 700 cals because fat counts for 9/gram so 55*9 = 495 on it own. If you are not active during the day, there is a good chance that some of the fat will go to storage at least for some time, because fat is not easily converted to anything else nor excreted. Normally, the equiv of only 10% of the fat eaten can be converted to glucose and/or stored as glycogen. (If you are in ketosis never mind that - whole nother story).

If you are not in ketosis you might consider flipping your protein and fat gram quantities. Amino acids can be used for muscle building and also for glucose (high intensity energy) more readily than fat, and excess can be excreted. The meal's calories would go down about 10%, making fat storage less likely.

So it really depends too many things to answer absolutely.

Thanks, Futureisnow.

I think I'm mostly in ketosis... I usually get about 50-80g of carbohydrates a day, and it's exclusively from vegetables (lots) and fruit (some). I guess it's fine, then.

I think you'd like to read about the harris-benedict equation.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harris-Benedict_equation

it's just a starting point...

Cool! I'll read up on it!

swarovski said:

I think you'd like to read about the harris-benedict equation.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harris-Benedict_equation

it's just a starting point...

Wow, less than 1700 basal requirements for me.

I was surprised, too, Random Havoc. I'm taking it with a grain of salt, though, and as swarovski said, it's just a starting point. According to the expression, my daily requirement is about 2400 kcal. I don't know whether that's a good number of me or not, but right now I'm eating about 2700 kcal (rough estimate of 170F, 250P, and ~80C) and I'm growing pretty fast. It's probably my protein intake most of all, though, so I wouldn't be surprised if I did 2400 kcal (about 120F, 250P, ~80C) and did fine..

Understand that basal metabolic rate is what you need if you sleep all day. If you are moving you are looking at RESTING metabolic rate ( words are confusing, I didn't make this crap) and that is 20-30% higher than basal. From THERE you would need to evaluate your activities based on your bodyweight and adjust accordingly. That's pretty much it!

Very good. Thanks for the clarification.

That makes sense.