How Many Calories Should I Be Eating?

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How Many Calories Should I Be Eating?

 by Lee Labrada (with Chris Mohr)

USA Today reports that in a national survey of consumers, only 12 percent of those questioned had any idea how many calories they should be consuming on a daily basis. About 11 percent of those questioned overestimated how many calories they should take in, 34 percent underestimated the number, and a whopping 43 percent of those surveyed didn't even want to hazard a guess.

The survey was conducted by the International Food Information Council Foundation.

The paper reports: "There's other confusion over calories, the poll found. Only 29% of people agree with the statement 'that calories in general are what cause weight gain.
"Another 20% say it's the calories from carbohydrates that pack on pounds; 26% say it's calories from fat; 2% say calories from protein; and 22% aren't sure what is most likely to cause weight gain."

And while cutting carbs isn't the fad it used to be, it remains "a subject of great interest: 51% of the respondents are concerned about the amounts of carbohydrates they consume (breads, cereals, pastas) and 47% are concerned about the types of carbs they eat."

People are STILL confused about how many calories they should eat and where those calories should come from. As an athlete, you may have wondered just how many calories you need to feed muscle tissue, while keeping the fat off. Let's revisit Chris Mohr's recent article on metabolic rate:

------- Chris Mohr -------

Calculating Metabolic Rate

Basal metabolic rate (BMR) is simply the energy your body needs in a 24-hour period not including any activity at all. Basically, if you woke up and laid in bed for the next 24-hours, this would be equivalent to your BMR. You would still "burn" that amount of calories, with basic functioning. It is dependent on gender, body mass, and age.
The most recent formula for predicting BMR was published in the 2005 Dietary Guidelines. It's absolutely not 100% perfect and it may under- or overestimate for some of you, but it's a good start. These formulas and an example are below:

For Men
BMR = 293 - (3.8 * age) + (456.4 * height) + (10.12 * weight)

For Women
BMR = 247 - (2.67 * age) + (401.5 * height) + (8.6 * weight)

NOTE: age is in years, height is in meters, weight is in kilograms
So, let's go through an example for a 25 year old bodybuilder who weighs 200 lbs (91 kg) and is 5'9" (1.75 meters).
BMR = 293 - (3.8 * 25) + (456.4 * 1.75m) + (10.12 * 91kg)
BMR = 2107 calories/day

Remember, though, this is just what's necessary for basic needs (breathing, organs functioning, etc). Here's the next part of the equation:

Activity Level Factor	Activity Level
1.0	Sedentary (super coach potato)
1.2	Very light activity (nothing physical at all-those with desk jobs)
1.4	Light activity (you perform some activity during the day, such as walking lightly, but mainly still a non-physical job)
1.6	Moderate activity (mainly still non-physical, but you do some activity during the day in addition to your workout)
1.8	High activity (physical job, like construction, plus your training)
2.0	Extreme activity (very physical job and hard training in the gym)

Now, many of you may lift hard in the gym for 30, 40, maybe up to 90 minutes. Keep in mind, though, that most are still in the moderate activity range. Let's say you train intense for 60 minutes most days of the week; there are still 23 other
Going back to our earlier example, let say our bodybuilder is a college student who trains hard 5 times/week. That puts him in the moderate category so you would multiply your BMR value from above by 1.6.
2107 * 1.6 = 3371 calories

Remember BMR was the calories required to basically do nothing (aside from breathing). Now the activity factor accounts for the activity you do, meaning in the example here, this person would need 3371 calories to maintain their weight. That may seem like a lot to many readers. However, remember, that's just weight maintenance. Since you're interested in becoming a moving freight train, you need to pack in more calories to pack on the slabs of beef called muscle!

Nutrient Requirements

After that's determined, it's time to figure out where those calories should come from. It's easy to pack in calories by washing candy bars down with milkshakes, but then we go back to the scenario described earlier-a lot of layers of fat packed on some muscle. Let's look briefly at this-much more information, with specific meal plans, is found on http://www.weaponsformass.com/