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For the last year or so I've been consuming around 1500 calories per day, as per the target set by myfitnesspal.com based on my weight, height and activity level (male, aged 45, 5'8"). My weight has consistently hovvered around the 168 pounds mark (12Stone or 76 Kg). I'd like to get nearer 10.5 stone (66Kg = 147 pounds). using the BMR calculator here I see that my BMR = 1670.24 With my current levels of activity (cardio or bodyweight workout 6 days per week), I estimate my daily calorie burn is something like 2588 to 2923. So I'm guessing my 1500 calories per day intake probably isn't enough? I also track my cardio through mfp so if I run off 500Kcals, then I do replace them with nutritious food. If I up my intake to 2000Kcals of healthy food am I likely to see my weight drop? That seems counter-intuitive, has anyone experienced this?

I just got a scale today and used it to weigh myself and my body fat % so I could figure out what calories I should be eating in a day to lose weight. I got that I should be looking at eating 1700 cals a day as I'm not currently exercising (I plan to when I'm more confident with my food) I've bitten off more than I can chew in the past (pun not intended) and I want to make sure that what I have is achievable. Here are the deets: 5'4.5inches female 30 100.7kg 53.3% body fat 34.5% body water ( idunno what this means exactly but my scale told me so) 37.4 BMI I decided to use lightly active as I'm not exercising yet. (bar the 15 walk to classes every other day) with that in mind I got a BMR of 1750 and a TDEE of 2130. are these numbers right? Am i right in aims for 1700 calories a day? Please let me know if I'm on the right track I can provide more details if needed. thank you

In several of the stories that I love, the hero must face a near-insurmountable number of stairs. For Link, it's the final spire of Zelda's overrun castle, Ocarina of Time around his neck, sword in hand. Up and up the stairs he went. Within the forest, Utena climbs the Mirrored Arena, an ever-winding spiral of steps, to defend her claim to the Rose Bride. At the end of all the worlds, Roland faces the Black Tower, the fall and rise of each staircase running him ragged. Those don't all have the same ending, though. Link faces the boss for the final time. Utena makes the journey several times with different foes. Roland faces his greatest adversary, and himself. I'm fighting a lot right now, and it's done some bad things to my health. I struggled through the last challenge. I'm not happy that I haven't lost weight. Thing is, I don't want to give up. I've seen that making these changes and putting in the work can have results. It's really easy to undo those results, too, if I'm not consistent. So. No more excuses. No more "My anxiety hurts, I'll just snack instead." No more "I'm stiff I just want to sit on the couch." No more "It's too hot to cook, let's go out." Especially because I do NOT eat smart at the places I go. Goal: 5 lbs. That's it. I did it the first challenge. I'll do it again, and more. Clean Your Guns: BBWW Tu/Th/Sa @ .20 for potential 3.6 to STR. Ifrit won't let you cheat or bail. Do it when you get home, Ever. That ass doesn't hit the couch unless it's sweaty. Shadow Puppets: Steps or Yoga M/W/F @ .25 for potential 4.5 to DEX. Stress and anxiety have been leaving me sore and crunched-up. Stretch on days when this is an issue; use Netflix for at least 20+ minutes. If tension/movement are not an issue, walk loops in the park until hitting the stepcounts goal. This is the part where you make Ifrit go. You help him, he helps you. Love That Lon-Lon: Food tracking. All day e'ry day at .1 for potential 4.2 to CON. Work at elimating one 'problematic' food item per week. Follow beginner keto/paleo guidelines. Make a Dress Out of a Tablecloth: You Want To Do How Many Cosplays Now? With the next con looming right at the end of this challenge, that's my Personal Quest. That's my boss fight for this round. With that in mind, each character completed will be 1 to CHA, with 3 points total. 1 hour each working day, 4 hours weekends. You Caught a Fairy! That final .3 left over will be for WIS, should I manage to finish a book during this challenge.

Here is the dropbox link to the excel file: https://www.dropbox.com/s/rrwdfj7b2e2v02d/EggsareSides%20%28for%20bacon%29%20-%20Blank.xlsx?dl=0 Hey all, So... I don't know about you, but I am always confused by how much I should eat... I know there are schools of thought that say if you eat the right types of foods, just eating till you are full will probably be fine. I like more concrete numbers than that. http://www.muscleforlife.com/healthy-meal-planning-tips/ Using this article as a guide I came up with an excel sheet so that a person can quickly and easily figure out your BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate), Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE), Daily Caloric Requirement/Grams of macronutrients based on whether you are bulking, cutting, or maintaining. To use this, you need to know your weight, body fat %, and how many hours a week you spend working out. It uses the Katch-Mcardle BMR calculator. It provides recommendations for %'s of your macros, but you can completely disregard them and put whatever you want in there if you have your own system for calorie distribution. A breakdown of the features: 1) I wanted it to be useful to as many people as possible, so it allows adjustment for %'s of each macro. 2) I also included a protein calculator for those who want to get in 1.3, 1.8, 2.2 (whatever) grams per pound of protein. You input how many grams/lb. you want, and it spits out what % of your total intake that is (then the math is simple to input whatever % of dietary fat and carbs you want to get to 100% of daily calories). 3) The recommended protein and carb %'s are not static for bulking and maintenance. They take into account recommendations of 1G protein/lb., 20% from dietary fat, and then automatically calculates and plugs in the appropriate percentage/grams of carbs. Again, this only affects the recommendation. 4) I protected the worksheet so that those unfamiliar with excel do not accidentally destroy all of the formulas. The worksheet is totally functional while protected. There was no password set, so removing the protection is as easy as going to the review tab and clicking on "unprotect worksheet". I did this so if someone was curious as to how I did the formulas (and if they wanted to edit them a bit themselves) it would be simple to do. 5) I fell off the wagon.. I am back on the wagon now... I did a little more tweaking to the sheet (30 Aug 2015). Some tips I have come across: Avoiding carbs before bedtime may increase secretion of growth hormone while sleeping.Taking a slow digesting protein such as egg or casein just prior to going to bed can increase muscle repair while sleeping.If you train fasted, taking 10G BCAA 10 minutes prior can help prevent muscles from being used as fuel. NOTE: This can also hurt performance, which would effect your ability to make improvements.If you aren’t going to train fasted, try eating 30 grams of high GI (glycemic index) carbs and 30 grams of fast digesting (like whey) protein 30 minutes before training. After training try getting 80G high GI carbs and 30-40 grams of fast digesting protein.Intermittent Fasting (basically skip a meal and cram all of your daily calories into a short feeding window) may help accelerate fat loss.You will see in the calculator that there is a 20% fat intake recommendation for when cutting. I’ve read lots of stuff that says going a bit higher with fat (at least 30%) can help keep your metabolism up. Personally, I like a bit of a higher fat content, because it makes my life easier when counting calories. I also am not a big eater, and you can eat more fat calories with less poundage of food. Keeping the metabolism up won’t be as big of a deal when bulking or maintaining since you will be giving your body all of the calories it wants.People always talk about bodyfat percentage. First off, it's important to remember that this is an *ESTIMATED* body fat percentage. Also, I would rather work with raw numbers. Your amount of body fat can not change one ounch, but your body fat % will change due to hydration levels, how much food/waste is in your GI system, muscle mass changes, etc etc etc . I like to take the bodyfat% and convert it to pounds of body fat (again, remember, estimated). I have this built into the excel sheet. The way to do this without the sheet is simple. Take your weight, and multiply it by your body fat % (remember when multiplying percentages the percentage becomes a decimal. 10% would be .10). If you weigh 100 pounds and your body fat % is 10, that means you have 10 lbs of body fat. If I am trying to get rid of fat, I would rather look at lbs of fat versus percentage of fat to see if I am making progress. Again... I can't stress this enough.... Estimated body fat. It can be very difficult to get accurate fat readings, so assume that there will always be a high margin of error. Maybe you actually gained fat even though the numbers show a little loss, or perhaps you lost fat even though the numbers show a bit of a gain. Use averages and looks for trends over time. I hope you guys like it and find it useful!

Hello, i have been having trouble trying to figure out the correct number of calories i should consume daily. I used to eat 1200 and under when i hit a a freeze in my weight-loss and was fatigued all the time. i am not sure if i am using the calculator right since i recently started using it i have been gaining weight and i am working to lower my weight and body fat at the same time. my most recent calculations have advised i have a bmr of 1396 cal and i have been eating close to and over that amount, working out 5 days a week (18 min hitt, and walking around my work building on breaks). I have been doing this for 3 weeks and been slowly gaining weight and my body fat percentage lowered a little ... i am not sure if i am doing something wrong or slightly confused on what i should be expecting. currently use the following calculator and i would love some feedback if i am using it wrong: step 1: to find my BF% i use http://www.fat2fittools.com/tools/mbf/ Step 2: to find my BMR/ tdee i use http://www.fat2fittools.com/tools/bmr/ step 3: i have been subtracting 200 cal from totals but leaving the bmr the same. Please help i am not sure if i am confusing myself and not accepting or realizing the obvious.

I hope this would the intended spot for this question given it is calorie related. So, I did quite a bit of research and understand that your BMR is your basic "coma state" burn rate of calories for your bod. However, I'm using MyFitnessPal which calculates that calories to lose automatically for losing two lbs a week (7000 calorie for lose) and my question is what is my ACTUAL activity level? I work at a desk job five days out of the week, however, right when I get home it's straight to the gym for: Approx 30 minutes elliptical or other cardio five days a week. Approx 30-45 minutes Endurance Strength training five days a week. One hour of Krav Maga twice a week Two hours of Parkour a week And whatever else I can get into either sparring or rock climbing as well MyFitnessPal sets my BMR calculation to the lowest given that I have a desk job but after reading these: Little or no exercise : Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.2Lightly active (light exercise/sports 1-3 days/week) : Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.375Moderately active (moderate exercise/sports 3-5 days/week) : Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.55Very active (hard exercise/sports 6-7 days a week) : Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.725Very hard exercise/sports & physical job or 2x training) : Calorie-Calculation =BMR x 1.9Am I more realistically in the Moderately active range? The reason I ask is the last month and a half I've been doing my thing with cardio and lifting and I've gained two pounds (it's muscle for sure which is nice) but I haven't really had an excessive lose in fat because, what I'm assuming, I'm eating too few calories and my body isn't giving up the fat. I hope that all makes sense and understandable, if anymore information needs to be provided let me know and thank you for reading~!

To be perfectly honest, I had never heard of TDEE before this morning. After doing some research, I found out that it stands for "Total Daily Energy Expenditure", and is a gage of how many calories your body needs to function based on numerous factors (activity level, age, weight, etc). Subtracting a percentage of that (10-20%) will result in weight loss! Magic! Hooray! Ok, obviously it's not quite that simple, but it seemed like TDEE would be a good gauge for a target calorie consumption. So I ran my numbers and ended up with.... 2,610??? Through some trial and error, I've found that 1800-2000 calories results in good losses for me, though to be fair, that's largely in comparison with the 1500 area. I've never tried keeping track of calories and consuming 2600 in a day... A few factors: I am about 100 pounds overweight, tall, and young. So yes, obviously, I will need more calories than a 120 lb girl who is 5'4". Cuz, you know... Science. But 2600? That would be a 20% deficit from my "maintaining weight" target. Does that seem right? If so, am I way under-eating?

Hey all. Need some insight. In the past, I was a huge MyFitnessPal/weekly weigh-in on a scale tracker. Then came here and joined the "eff the tracker, eff the scale, and just eat smarter" mentality. Per some recommendation, I began tracking my food on the battle logs. I was then asked about my calories, so I plugged in some of my journal entries to get my calories. The day -most- typical to my habits maps like this: Consumed 1,358, burned 488 The calories come from about 85% paleo foods. I did some looking into BMR and other things that suggests "the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) recommends that calorie levels never drop below 1200 calories per day for women or 1800 calories per day for men" My question is.... my INTAKE meets this criteria, but my NET falls below. Even MORE challenging.... Myfitnesspal recommends 1440 calories as my max NET. My usual workout BURNS 399 calories, so I feel like I'm already set up to fail My Stats: 5'8" tall 152lbs BMR: 1513.6 Any solid advice is highly appreciated!!

Hi, I’m new here. I have been lurking about for a few months and finally decided to join because I need some advice on diet and exercise but first, a little about me. I’m a 28 year old male, happily married with a two year old daughter. I’m not quite sure that I would pass the nerd entrance exam as I am not a gamer(unless you count spending hours playing Command and Conquer back in elementary school) and I only really started reading heavily about 7 years ago. However, I do love fantasy novels (halfway through A Memory Of Light, right now) and I am a big Doctor Who fan. Also, my wife would definitely pass the nerd exam so I maybe I can slid through with a nerd green card. I am 5’10†and currently around 187 lbs. I have been dabbling in paleo/primal eating for around a year but finally committed in September of 2012 (biggest loser type contest at my job). Since September, I have lost about 55lbs (starting weight 242 lbs) and around 7 inches around my stomach. From September through November, the only exercise I performed was walking during my lunch break. In January, my wife decided she would like to lose a few pounds so we both joined My Fitness Pal to track our exercise and food intake. Around the same time, I started the Simplefit body weight program and recently completed L5D3. Since starting to track my calorie intake, I have averaged around 1600 calories and 130 g of protein per day. I just started Starting Strength, in lieu of Simplefit, this week. Everything I have read about BMR and TDEE says I should be eating more but I’m currently just eating when I’m hungry. Sample menu: Breakfast: 4 hard boiled eggs ½ avocado 2 cups spinach Lunch: 2 cups romaine Various veg (cucumbers, radishes, pepper, etc.) 6 oz chicken or can of tuna 2 tbsp olive oil 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar Snack: Protein shake Apple or orange or banana Dinner: Lots of variation but generally just meat and veg My goals: Get to a respectable mid-teen body fat percentage(15%) Increase my Lifts(200 bench, 300 deadlift) Run 5k in under 20 min(would like to beat a friend in a race in September ’13) So what do you guys think? Should I eat more? Should I keep doing what I’m doing?

So I've been contemplating having my RMR tested. Over the past year I started strength training and initially noticed great results and progress, body wise. After the first few initial months though I noticed my lifts were still improving, but my body was pretty much staying the same. I was taking measurements and they weren't really moving, and my weight never really budged. I follow a paleo diet and I'm in the process of doing a Whole 30 right now. Over the holidays I indulged in foods that I normally wouldn't eat, so I'm glad to be back to clean eating and feeling great again. However, I want to make sure I'm eating enough. I'm making sure to get at least 100+ grams of protein a day, and I am strength training 3 times a week. Has anyone else done this? Do you think it would be beneficial or not? I figure more data couldn't really hurt things. What I'm really looking to do is cut down my body fat. I know that weight isn't a great indicator of fitness, so I'm going to start taking pictures starting this Saturday for progress tracking (probably should have started that a long time ago). I'm thinking that if I have my RMR it will be a good jumping off spot for me to better gauge how many calories I should be consuming on a normal day. I normally don't track, but I'm doing it this month as a basis for myself. Thoughts?