How to calculate your calorie requirements!
Post fasting meal: sirloin steak, mixed nuts, sweet potato, and blueberries.
How do you figure out how many calories you should be eating daily, to achieve your desired goals?
There are numerous formulas out there to calculate calorie requirements. Many of these formulas are automated online so you can easily punch in the numbers.
Over the last 20 years of coaching people in sports & fitness nutrition, my research has led me to adopt a particular formula for calculating calorie requirements.
In my nutrition program that I teach, I use the activity values of 13 for low activity, 14 for moderate activity, and 15 for high activity.
You multiply the activity value by your body weight to get your maintenance calories.
For fat loss goals, you would the subtract 500 from your maintenance calorie number to get your “deficit calories”.
You would then divide your deficit calories by the number of your planned meals for the day, to determine your calories per meal.
Example:
Low activity value of 13 x my body weight of 230lbs = 2990 for my maintenance calories.
2990-500= 2490 for my deficit calories.
2490 divided by 6 meals = 415 calories per meal.
Adjustments are made, plus or minus, as necessary, in 200 calorie blocks per week for easier tracking.
You also need to apply the proper macronutrient ratio of protein, fat, and carbs to your meal plan. That is a for another period of instruction.
This calorie calculation formula has been very effective for many of my clients over the years. It is just one part of the meal planning protocol that I teach.
There is a lot more to all of this than to simply “eat less and exercise more”.
Get your copy of Simply Slim here:
Posts
