How Many Calories Should You be Eating???

Today is going to be a lighter day for my workouts so I figured it would be a perfect time to throw in some nutritional guidance. 
Many of you are most likely changing your diet in some way for the New Year.  Hopefully, you won't be taking the fad diet route.  Fad diets can work for some, however most people I run into continue to attempt them and continue to yo-yo back and forth between heavy and lighter but unhealthy.  The issue with most of these unsuccessful diets is that they are unsustainable long term. Anytime you dramatically change your lifestyle to fit a certain diet, your chances of success dramatically decrease.

Here at Fitness Together, we try to guide you in adjusting YOUR diet to fit YOUR lifestyle.  What a novel idea. 

What I will cover today is one of the most important concepts in losing weight, gaining weight, or just eating right: "calories in, calories out."  Counting calories used to be a huge pain in the _______ (place your preferred noun here).  However, with the boom of both technology and the desire for Americans to finally get back in shape, there is an unlimited amount of resources that make it as easy as checking your Facebook account.

This leads us to the most important question... Now that I am counting the calories I eat, how many calories should I be consuming?  It is a very basic idea, but it happens to be based off of some slightly complicated science and math.  Below, I have layed out a helpful formula to figure it out.  Like everything else, it is not exact for everyone, and if you have any medical conditions that could be affected by a change in your diet, you should contact your doctor before making any of those changes. I have included my numbers so that you can see a practical example.  Just place your numbers in the highlighted areas.

Step 1 - Determine Your RMR

221 (Current Body Weight) x 10 = 2210 (RMR)


Step 2 - Estimate How Many Calories You Expend During Formal, Scheduled, or Planned Exercise on Average in a Day

*Follow these general guidelines for Physical Activity Calorie Expenditure, and be honest with yourself on how hard you are actually working!!!
Low or Easy intensity = 6-10 Calories per minute
Moderate intesity = 11-15 Calories per minute
High or Difficult intensity = 16-20 Calories per minute

Step 2a - Estimate How Many Calories You Expend During Each Regular Activity


13 (Calories Per Minute) x 45 (minutes exercising) = 585 calories expended per PACK training Session

15 (Calories Per Minute) x 15 (minutes exercising) = 225 calories expended per 2 mile run

8 (Calories Per Minute) x 120 (minutes exercising) = 960 calories expended per Basketball Excursion


Step 2b - Estimate How Many Calories You Expend During Formal, Scheduled, or Planned Exercise total for a week

3 (# of PACK Training Sessions Per Week) x 585 (calories expended per PACK Session) = 1755 (Calories expended during PACK sessions per week)

5 (# of 2 Mile Runs Per Week) x 225 (calories expended per 2 Mile Run) = 1125 (Calories expended during 2 mile runs per week)

2 (# of Basketball excursions per week) x 960 (calories expended per Basketball Excursion) = 1920 (Calories expended during Basketball Excursions)

1755 (PACK Calories) + 1125 (2 Mile Run Calories) + 1920 (Basketball Calories) =
4800 Calories Expended during Formal, Scheduled, or Planned Exercise per Week


Step 2c - Estimate How Many Calories You Expend During Formal, Scheduled, or Planned Exercise on Average in a Day

4800 (total calories expended per week) / 7 (days in a week) =
Approximately 686 Calories Expended per Day during Formal, Scheduled or Planned Exercise


Step 3 - Determine how many Calories You use for Daily Activity Seperate from Scheduled or Formal Exercise

*Use these general guidelines for activity
Sedentary - 20% of RMR
Active - 40% of RMR
Very Active - 60% of RMR

.40 (percentage for Active) x 2210 (RMR) = 884 Daily Activity Calories


Step 4 - Add answers from Step 1, 2, and 3 to find Daily Total Calorie Requirement for an Average Day

2210 (RMR) + 686 (Formal Exercise Calories) + 884 (Daily Activity Calories) =

3780 Average Daily Calorie Requirement


Step 5 - Determine How Many Calories You Need per Day to Lose the Desire Amount of Weight

*Most studies have determine 1 - 1.5lbs per week is a healthy amount of weight loss

*1lb of Fat = 3500 Calories, 1.5lb of Fat = 5250 Calories

5250 (calories per 1.5lb of Fat) / 7 (days per week) =
750 Calorie Deficit per Day to Lose 1.5lbs per Week

3780 Daily Calorie Requirement - 750 (Calorie Deficit needed to lose 1.5lbs) =

3030 Daily Calorie Requirement for a loss of 1.5lbs per week