Out of curiosity, is there anyway to obtain a rough estimate of caloric needs on a daily basis that is actually accurate? I'm not hyper/hypo in any clinical sense, but the calorie calculators estimate calorie amounts that keep me hungry or low on energy--which leads to binging when I can't take it anymore. Any1 have any calorie calcs that they have had good results with..etc?
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Let me preface with a short story. I used to row lightweight crew. During the winter, we would practice indoors on the ergs (rowing machines) which are equipped with a device that says how much work you are doing. For example, over a 10,000 meter row, you may pull an average 500 meter split of 1:52. The whole time you're on the erg and rowing, you think your pushing yourself as hard as you can go, because last time you rowed, say, a 1:53 split and you think you've pushed your limit. After a few practices, coach would have us row blind- that is with the ergometer turned away, so only he and the coxswains can see what we're pulling. Invariably, everyone pulls harder and sets a new PR. That is, we did better and pushed ourselves further because we didn't have a frame of reference to judge our efforts on. Apply this to BMR calculators and trying to eat accordingly, and the same is true (at least for me, I do not believe that I am an anomaly). I have no idea how many calories I burn during the day, and I generally have no idea how many calories I eat. However, when I am leaning up, I try to eat around 1gram of protein per pound to preserve muscle mass. For me, that is roughly 135-145 grams of protein. I set that target of protein and eat to get that in. Once I've got it, I stop eating aside from some berries post workout (I do not count the calories in non-starchy vegetables/roughage). It turns out, when I'm leaning I eat around 50-70% of my calories from protein (about 560 calories), which means I'm only taking in around 900 calories. Now, if I knew my BMR I'd be freaked out and would be like "that's way too little" and would actually try to consume MORE if I had known. BUt, it works for me, as it only takes about 10 days of this to be where I want to be again (with 2 higher carb reefed days where I eat some starch, some honey, and more fruit to refill glycogen so I can still workout with intensity as well as to boost leptin). When I'm maintaing, again, I have no idea how much it is- I just listen to my body's cues, go by the mirror, appetite, energy levels, etc. I think you should learn to do this too, as it really builds a sense of awareness and trust between you and your body, which a lot of people lack. The only reasons you should not try listening to your body's signals is if 1) you eat when hungry and stop when satisfied but you eat poor quality food or 2) you are morbidly obese and the self control centers in your brain are destroyed so if you only eat when hungry, it will likely be to often or too much, or 3) you are anorexic and your body's cues hunger cues have been suppressed, so that if you only eat when hungry, you'll never gain weight. If you can rule out those 3 things, then screw the calculators and master your own body yourself. it will steer you the right way and tell you when where you're at much accurately than a computer can. Hope that helps. Just my two cents :) |
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Most metabolic rate calculators are next to useless. They can give you a ballpark figure, but you have to keep in mind that the error margin could be as high as 30%! They are usually based on the idea that people with similar height, weight, age, sex and body composition have similar resting metabolic rates. Not so! Studies show invidual variations in RMR can be as high as 30%, and that translate up to 500 calorie difference. 500 calorie error margin kinda throw a wrench on any calorie calculation! See a good overview of metabolic rate studies here: http://www.howtoloseweightfastguide.net/metabolic-rate-how-many-calories-you-burn-per-day/ Then there's the fact that some people seem to be able to ramp up their metabolic rate during overfeeding. I don't have any studies to back this up, but I've seen this written about in a couple of credible blogs. All this doesn't mean calories doesn't matter, but that those calculators should be left for weight watchers meetings! The best idea is just to listen to your body. If you want to lose weight make sure you keep yourself little hungry every day. If you want to gain weight, eat a bit past the point you are full. I don't think it has to be any more complicated than that. |
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I use the FitBit. It gives me the caloric expenditure from walking and moving around, and I then manually add any additional activity from lifting, rowing, cycling etc. I've found that if I subtract 250 calories off the final number it gives me every day I have a very accurate picture of calories expended. |
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Here's my view. Calories matter. However, so does food quality/sourcing, timing of intake, hormonal response/activity and other activity. Paying attention to any of them by itself could cause issues with the others. If done singularily, none of the other 4 can go without check without negative results. I've consumed insane amounts without any increase in body fat. I've also had issues getting shredded and losing a bit even with micromanagement of this stuff as much as possible. |
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I joined a gym a few years ago and the most useful thing that came out of that for me was that they calculated on a machine how many calories I use a day. It seems at female, 5'2" and fairly sedentary apart from the dogwalking I use about 1480 a day. I think this is spot on as I find if I eat more than this I put weight on. I've found since doing paleo though that if you eat enough of the right oils it stops you being hungry. Very hard to resist things when your stomach is gnawing. Sorry can't be more help than this. |
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Most gyms or personal trainers will calculate your BMR and then use the Harris Benedict Equation - all of the info and calculators are at the following link and also see below for the formulas The BMR formula for Women is: BMR = 655 + ( 4.35 x weight in pounds ) + ( 4.7 x height in inches ) - ( 4.7 x age in years ) Harris Benedict Formula If you are sedentary (little or no exercise) : Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.2 Basically, 3500 calories (restriction required to lose a pound), applied over the course of a week is going to require a caloric restriction of 500 calories/day (7 days * 500 calories = 3500) - ideally, this restriction should come from a combination of diet (maybe 2/3 to 3/4 of the calories restricted through diet) and exercise (1/4 to 1/3 of the restriction via exercise) See how these numbers line up with what you have been eating - use an online calorie tracker like fitday.com for a week to gain a sense of how many calories you are really eating and what your nutrient ratios look like and this should give some better insight |
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Have you thought about the BodyBugg? I used it for a while and I don't know if it was "spot on" but I had a # everyday and I could change my intake based on that #. they say it is accurate within 10%. Like I said, I don't know if it was accurate but I could adjust my intake based on the # it gave me each day and I was able to drop the 10 lbs that were bugging me. Having said that, it stopped working after 1 year and never gave an accurate read for some activities like cycling. |
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You can calculate a pretty good estimate using the above mentioned Harris-Benedict method, but if you want a exact look at what is going on, you'll have to go in for some metabolic testing. http://labtestsonline.org/understanding/analytes/cmp/tab/glance http://www.themetabolic-institute.com/more_info.htm (Less reputable, but a nice overview) http://www.shape.com/weight-loss/weight-loss-strategies/metabolic-testing-should-you-try-it That would show the full state of your body's metabolism and allow you to find the exact number of calories you need. Granted that number will change with activity levels, but that's a different critter altogether. |
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It's not very many. I just calculated I need only 1700 a day or a bit less to maintain weight and would need to go down to about 1200 even just to lose 1 pound a week. How do people do it? I can easily eat 1000 calories at once of almonds. |
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I'll start my answer with that Einstein platitude-like quote: "Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted." The types of food we eat can have significant affect on what horomones our body responds with which can lead to many different feelings, especially appetite. Back in my pre-paleo day I could eat 2,000 calories of pasta at one meal and still feel hungry. Carbs like that will do that to you. 400 calories of grass-fed butter and 6oz of quality protein will make me feel fuller than 2 pounds of pasta. Rather than trying to shoot for a target calorie goal (for a while at least), focus on trying different foods combos that are known to curb your hunger and monitor how the food makes you feel and what calories they contribute to your overall energy. (Hence the term "empty calorie".) There's days where I can stuff 3,000 calories in me and it feels right. Today, for instance, I've only had 1,600 and they were 65% from healthy fat and I'm not sure if I'm even going to have enough appetite to eat another 400 calories for dinner. No worries 'cause I know I can crush 400 calories with some wine ;-) I know it's a slight perspective change, but focusing more on feeling healthy, full of energy, and satiated by accounting the calories that get you there by food choices may be of more advantage to you in the long run when you start to dial in that right target by eating more of what makes you feel full and right. That said, that target calorie goal will move on you as your metabolism adjusts and your activity levels fluctuate. There's no solid fixed perpetual number to hit. How you feel and what your body is telling you via testing may ultimately matter more than how you feel about how you look at the end of the day. |
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I have tried a lot of calorie calculators, but I suspect that calorie restriction was never the cause of my carb cravings (I assume we're talking about carb binging here). I reduced my carb cravings once I started making sure that I met at least the RDA micronutrient recommendations. I also noticed that I have more carb cravings if I don't sleep enough. Then, my cravings for binging went away once I started doing weekly carb refeeds, which I usually do on Saturdays. In the days right after the refeed, I don't think about binging and I'm barely hungry at all. The closer I get to the refeed day, the harder it gets, but then I "binge" on coconut oil, which is "sweet" enough. Here are some good MDA articles on carb cravings (1, 2) and carb refeeds (3, 4, 5). |
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my personal belief is that conventional calorie needs estimates are a complete hoax: most of the energy derived from food is consumed for digestion and dealing with the various stresses ensuing from it: eating less often (much less) streamlines and optimizes functioning of the human body, so the 'furnace' doesn't operate in vain: so, yeahh, that's it: eat less, eat paleo, move more... |
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Yeah I appear to have the same problem, I plan to follow the limit but perhaps at the final meal of the day add a little extra fat such as a Tbsp or two of butter and see how you feel? |
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Truly, the only way to calculate your calorie needs would be in a lab type closed system. The best we can do is a ballpark. That's okay though, because you can only really ballpark your intake, anyways. Unless you are eating only packaged foods (and basically, not even then as manufacturers error is quite high) you can only really guesstimate your caloric intake even if you measure carefully, since the calorie info for various foods is only an AVERAGE of typical samples of that food. I use fitday to track my foods most days, and have for years. Fitday.com is easy to use and will ballpark your calories in/calories out. But you will see how much the calorie counts vary, when going from various measurements. EG: 200 g lean beef, raw will have x calories. Then, cook that same amount of beef and weigh it again. It now has a different number of calories, according to various calorie charts. Instead, put it in as 2/3 cup of raw beef. Different count again. How is this possible? It isn't, it's simply the limitations of the tools we have at our disposal.This can be about 30% difference. How lean is "lean?" Is it a wet or dry cooking method? What does that even mean? You can see how the issues start to arise. If you try and get more "accurate" about calories, you will make yourself insane. Try using fitday for awhile and mucking about with your nutritional needs and ratios. They have some handy pie charts and bar graphs that will tell you about your macro and micronutrients. Amazingly, if I have exceeded my micronutrients by about double the "recommended intake" in all zones, I will usually feel full. So the issue for me was not calorie control all along, but eating foods that are more nutrient dense. That being said, you asked about calorie control- -When using any calorie charts, always weigh and calculate your food raw before cooking. This is a pain in the ass but more accurate. -Always calculate food by weight, never by volume. -Lowball any estimates you get for calories burned during exercise, especially if you are fairly fit. Especially gym machines, they will inflate your calorie count because everyone likes to see the number of biscuits they can eat go up! -Talking about feeling sated and filled with energy, make sure you are getting enough protein and fat. Play with your macro/micronutrients are various calorie levels and find what works for you. Unfortunately, I don't have a better system than BMR+Lifestyle factors= number that you hope is only somewhat bullcrap. *emphasized text*But that's okay, because you are not a lab rat or a line of algebra. A ballpark is the best you will get, and then YOU have calibrate intake vs quality vs ratios, nobody can do that for you. And nobody can tell you you're right or wrong, except your energy levels and the mirror. Happy hunting. |
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You can get a newleaf assessment (or other brand) that will give you your resting calories (RMR) VO2 max. Newleaf comes with a 12 week workout plan as well. You learn your aerobic and anaerobic heart rates as well as max heart rate. I did this and it is very good. |
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