Eating Calculator: How much food do YOU have to eat??

[dnephi]

I got a kick out of this  . 

I better start shoving in the calories.  Maybe this is why I don't have all of the energy I want/need.  I usually eat ~2K Kcal/day. 

Calculator says: 4226 Kcal/day on moderate workout days: more on heavier days!

5000 on heavy days.

Wait- where are attachments? I thought I could add them.

Let me know how I can add attachments please.

[Bob]

What's this calculator?  I'm curious.

[dnephi]

OK.  Here it is in text form.

I got it from https://www.johnberardi.com/articles/nutrition/masseating_1.htm. 

Unfortunately, I'm not a 200 pound, 5% body fat behemoth, as the article writer is, so those AREN'T my stats he's using .

Step #1: Resting Metabolic Rate

Resting metabolic rate (RMR) is the energy it costs the body to basically keep alive. This doesn't include the costs of getting your butt out of bed and moving around; those numbers are calculated in later. Although you might not guess it, about 50 to 70 percent of your entire day's calorie expenditure is a result of the RMR. So, let's figure out your RMR right now.

Determining RMR:

To start off with, you need to take your body weight in pounds and convert it to kilograms. (International readers, please bear with us silly non-metric Americans for a moment.) This is a simple conversion. Just divide your body weight by 2.2.

Next you take your percent of fat and multiply it by your body weight (which is now in kilograms). This will give you your fat mass (FM) in kilograms. Next simply subtract this number from your total weight in kilograms and you'll have your fat free mass (FFM) in kilograms.

Before we go on, why don't we try this out on me. Since I'm an athlete with a body weight of 200lbs at 5% body fat, I'd take my total body mass and divide it by 2.2:

    Total body mass in kilograms = 200lbs / 2.2 = 91 kg

Next I'd multiply this kilogram number (91 kg) by my percent of body fat. Remember, percents are really decimals so 5% equals 0.05, 12% bodyfat will be .12 etc.

    Fat Mass = 91kg x 0.05 = 4.55kg FM

Next I subtract this fat mass number (4.55 kg) from my total body mass (91kg):

    Fat Free Mass = 91kg - 4.55kg = 86.45kg

Therefore my fat free mass is 86.45 kilograms. From that I can determine my RMR. The formula for RMR is as follows:

    Resting Metabolic Rate for Athletes (in calories per day) = 500 + 22 x fat free mass (in kilograms).

Again, for me, I'd multiply 22 times my fat free mass and add 500 to that number as shown below:

    RMR= 22 x 86.45 + 500 = 2402

Therefore my resting metabolic rate is about 2400 calories per day. Everyone have their RMR figured out? Good, let's move on.

Step #2: Cost of Activity

The Cost of Activity represents how many calories are required to move your butt around during the day. This includes the cost of walking out to your car, scraping the ice off the damn thing, driving to work, pinching the secretary's ass, going to lunch with the boys, and of course, training after work. These factors make up about 20 to 40% of your daily caloric intake based on your activity level. So let's figure out your costs of activity. I'll use myself as an example again.

Determining Activity Costs:

Cost of Daily Activity is equal to the RMR you calculated above multiplied by an activity factor that fits your daily routine. I've listed some common activity factors below.

Activity Factors:

    1.2-1.3 for Very Light (bed rest)
    1.5-1.6 for Light (office work/watching TV)
    1.6-1.7 for Moderate (some activity during day)
    1.9-2.1 for Heavy (labor type work)


Note: Don't consider your daily workout when choosing a number. We'll do that later.

With this information we can get back to determining my calorie needs. Since I work at a university, most of my day is pretty sedentary. Even though I run back and forth between the lab and classes, I've selected 1.6 as my activity factor. Therefore the amount of calories it takes to breathe and move around during the day is about 3800 calories as shown below:

    RMR x Activity Factor = 2400 calories x 1.6 = 3800 calories

Costs of Exercise Activity:

Next, we need to determine how many calories your exercise activity burns so that we can factor this into the totals. Exercise activity can be calculated simply by multiplying your total body mass in kilograms (as calculated above) by the duration of your exercise (in hours). Then you'd multiply that number by the MET value of exercise as listed below. (MET or metabolic equivalent, is simply a way of expressing the rate of energy expenditure from a given physical activity.)

MET values for common activities:

    high impact aerobics... 7
    low impact aerobics... 5
    high intensity cycling... 12
    low intensity cycling... 3
    high intensity walking - 6.5
    low intensity walking - 2.5
    high intensity running... 18
    low intensity running... 7
    circuit-type training... 8
    intense free weight lifting... 6
    moderate machine training... 3

So here's the formula:

    Cost of Exercise Activity = Body Mass (in kg) x Duration (in hours) x MET value

And here's how I calculate it for myself:

    Exercise Expenditure for weights = 6 METS X 91kg x 1.5 hours = 819 calories
    Exercise Expenditure for cardio = 3 METS X 91 kg x .5 hours = 137 calories

Add these two together and I burn 956 total calories during one of my training sessions.

Since my training includes about 90 minutes of intense free weight training and 30 minutes of low intensity bicycling (four times per week), my exercise energy expenditure might be as high as 1000 calories per training day!
The next step is to add this exercise number to the number you generated when multiplying your RMR by your activity factor (3800 calories per day in my case).

So 3800 calories + about 1000 calories = a whopping 4800 calories per day! And we're not done yet! (Note: I rounded 956 up to 1000 for the sake of simplicity. If you're a thin guy trying to gain muscle, it's better to round up anyway than to round down.)

Step #3: Thermic Effect of Food

TEF is the amount of calories that it takes your body to digest, absorb, and metabolize your ingested food intake. This makes up about 5 to 15% of your total daily calorie expenditure. Since the metabolic rate is elevated via this mechanism 10 to 15% for one to four hours after a meal, the more meals you eat per day, the faster your metabolic rate will be. This is a good thing, though. It's far better to keep the metabolism high and eat above that level, than to allow the metabolism to slow down by eating infrequently. Protein tends to increase TEF to a rate double that of carbs and almost triple that of fats so that's one of the reasons why I'm a big fan of protein meals.

Determining the Thermic Effect of Food:

To determine the TEF, you need to multiply your original RMR value (2400 in my case) by 0.10 for a moderate protein diet or 0.15 for a high protein diet. So this is what the formula looks like:

    TEF = RMR x 0.10 for moderate protein diet (1 gram per pound of bodyweight)
    TEF = RMR x 0.15 for high protein diet (more than 1 gram per pound of bodyweight)

Since I eat a very high protein diet (about 350 to 400 grams per day), I use the 0.15 factor and my TEF is about 360 calories per day as displayed by the calculation below:

    Thermic Effect of Food = 2400 calories x 0.15 = 360 calories per day

Now add that to your calorie total.

Step #4: Add it all up

[zheer]

How much food do YOU have to eat??

   I'm into sports, I've discoverd that the more active  you are the more food you need to eat. Ideally ( for me) it's a good idea to eat LOADZ and work-out LOADZ.

[dnephi]

How much food do YOU have to eat??

   I'm into sports, I've discoverd that the more active  you are the more food you need to eat. Ideally ( for me) it's a good idea to eat LOADZ and work-out LOADZ.

THe way I was told:

Work your butt off and eat a ton!  Not very scientific, but I can't think of a better way to describe 4000 calories a day.

[imbetter]

If i dont have my eight square meals a day i go insane

[goldentone]

If i dont have my eight square meals a day i go insane

Eight?

[morningstar]

OK sorry if this sounds really stupid but how do you find the fat percentage? The only weight calculation I ever performed was the BMI calculation.

[max_letni]

@Author - Thanks for the contribution, this is a good chunk of valuable information here.

If your still looking for a body fat calculator check out the https://www.FitClick.com website or find something similar by using Yahoo! search...

Thanks again for your community input, I appreciate it

+Max Letni
p.s. remember to never give up and think positive

[thalbergmad]

I wonder if you can lose weight by eating spam.

[ahinton]

I wonder if you can lose weight by eating spam.

Brilliant!

Actually, why not try it and see?...

Best,

Alistair

[thalbergmad]

I am on a diet at the moment. Giving up cream eggs was worse than giving up smoking, but my efforts in the gym and reduced meals appear to be having some effect. I have also cut my Wheetabix down from 12 to 4 for breakfast.

I did try the Atkins diet last year, but that gave me guts like a cement mixer and i don't think it is a long term solution.

I will post a slimmer version of myself in a couple of months on the pictures thread.

Thal

[richard black]

Speaking as a skinny bugger, if I don't eat as much food as I can get my hands on I get moody.

[thalbergmad]

I do not wish to converse with anyone that eats all they want and stays slim

Thal

[ahinton]

I am on a diet at the moment.

So am I. I eat daily, therefore I am on a diet.

Giving up cream eggs was worse than giving up smoking

Starting either would be a whole lot harder for me than giving up either was for you, I promise you!

but my efforts in the gym

Mon Dieu! The very prospect of you in lycra or spandex working out in one of those places beggars belief!

I have also cut my Wheetabix down from 12 to 4 for breakfast.

Cut the superfluous "h" out of all of them and you could well lose another kilo or three.

I did try the Atkins diet last year, but that gave me guts like a cement mixer and i don't think it is a long term solution.

It's quite an effective "solution" for some people, particularly those with an acute death wish. Don't ever try that again, Thal, for it can be really quite dangerous; like your "Wheetabix" that needs the "h" taken out, the Atkins diet might well be regarded as a "diet" that already has the "t" taken out. Read chef Raymond Blanc on it...

I will post a slimmer version of myself in a couple of months on the pictures thread.

I'm sure that we look forward to that immensely! A BMI statistic lower than the figure that represents Britain's total indebtedness when measured in Zimbabwean dollars is never a bad idea, frankly.

Seriously - the best of good luck with your new slimming régime!

Best,

Alistair

[gep]

I am on a diet at the moment. Giving up cream eggs was worse than giving up smoking, but my efforts in the gym and reduced meals appear to be having some effect. I have also cut my Wheetabix down from 12 to 4 for breakfast.

I did try the Atkins diet last year, but that gave me guts like a cement mixer and i don't think it is a long term solution.

I will post a slimmer version of myself in a couple of months on the pictures thread.

Thal

I know I'm a bit too rotund, but I do not do diets of any sort, unless you count my normal daily veggie (50+% from own garden), daily 2(+) fruit, no liquor and no smoking.
Some are build for speed and some for comfort I guess. And there is something to say for aerodynamic! And I read people who a a bit chubby have less chance of breaking things when falling too.
There are those who eat healthy sawdust and cardboard (müëslï and "soy-meat"), look like a fatigued beanstalk, can chat about food for three hours no interval on a dry creaker, and no doubt they're healthier than I am.
A few years ago on my work we had a "health check", one of the items was a lung-capacity test. I had a hoot when I left a collegue of mine, who is a runner by hobby, almost three liters behind me... he still hurts

I heard about a Diet of Worms, anyone tried that?

the figure that represents Britain's total indebtedness when measured in Zimbabwean dollars

That figure is roughly the amount of millimeters from here to the other side of the universe multiplied by the number of atoms of said universe? At least, today at 12:00. By 12:00 tomorrow you have to cube that figure I think...

A BMI statistic lower than the figure that represents Britain's total indebtedness when measured in Zimbabwean dollars is never a bad idea, frankly.

I'm on the safe side then, if just..

gep

[littletune]

Well I think I got a little fat during the winter... because today I wore this jeans pants for the first time after winter and it kinda seemed a lot tighter than before  Well maybe it's cause I eat really A LOT of sweets all the time now And last year I didn't feel like eating that much but then I started looking really sick in the face (and people were asking what's wrong with me).... Sometimes I really wish I could look all tiny like some girls do cause I guess that looks more cute and nice and prettier for girls  but I don't think I could look like that, because I was never so very tiny (not even when I was a baby ) and if sometimes I don't eat enough I start looking really sick right away.... and that's not cute and nice and pretty either.... 

[ponken]

I don't want to know. I eat when I am hungry. Lol