Question about calorie intake

[leighanne1941]

Well I guess I am looking for opinions. New here, obviously Made my way over from my fitness pal when someone posted a like to Staci's transformation story. And I like the focus here better!

So here's my situation. I am currently training for a half marathon and am running 2+ hours 2x a week and a third short run (~45 minutes). I am also doing 30DS. I am a 5'4" women who weighs 214 pounds currently. I have been tracking my calories for a few weeks now in my attempt to lose weight (down 8 pounds since Feb 1). I'm hitting around 1800 calories a day. BMR without activity comes out to 1700. With moderate activity I come in at 2600 but I think this is probably low given my long runs. I cut sugar out of my diet the beginning of February (probably 95% of the time) and I eat when I am hungry with a focus on fruits, veggies, protein while still eating whole grains 2-3 times a day.

I'm trying to figure out how many calories I need to eat in order to lose weight but still fuel my body for my workouts. I would love any insight you guys could give me.

[unicornassassin]

I'm on MFP, too. I log my food and eat back my exercise calories, and I figure that fuels my workouts.

That said, lately I'm really de-emphasizing calories because I'd rather have the right nutrients. So I eat protein, protein, protein and veggies veggies veggies. I'd rather be healthy than a particular weight... I mean, I figure if I exercise and eat healthily, eventually I'll get to a healthier weight, you know?

[Corbab]

I love this calculator, and it should factor your running in nicely.

The calories per day isn't nearly as important as your overall average calorie intake. You'll definitely take in more calories on training days, and probably less on off days, so as long as your total calorie deficit remains, you'll be fine. Just remember to make the most of everything you eat (wholesome, natural foods in sensible portions). Eat when you're hungry, and stop eating when you're satisfied (not bursting). Even without tracking, this will take you far.

[Waldo]

You can also calculate your own BMR. You need to know what your intake was, how much you burned (estimates are find for both, just always estimate the same way), and how much you weigh every day. For a more advanced version you need a way of calculating a reasonably accurate BF% daily. Find a trendline for your weight, and use that info with your calorie in/out data to solve for BMR. If you have BF% info, you can correct the scale measurements for lean mass change and use fat mass change in your BMR calculation instead of weight change.

[leighanne1941]

Corbab - great calculator!! I used it for the last 24 hours which includes a 16km long run and came in at 4400 calorie expenditure!!! I ate when hungry yesterday. minimal processed food (oatmeal for breakfast, chews on my run and pasta with my dinner). Came in at 2200 calories intake (including nutrition on my run ~300 cals).

waldo - I don't have a way to measure body fat % but I do weigh in daily. How would I go about calculating it using that?

Thanks for all the info guys. While I am worried about weight loss, I am more concerned about making sure I am not going too low in my calories and losing muscle on my long runs.

[Waldo]

waldo - I don't have a way to measure body fat % but I do weigh in daily. How would I go about calculating it using that?

Thanks for all the info guys. While I am worried about weight loss, I am more concerned about making sure I am not going too low in my calories and losing muscle on my long runs.

Find the slope of the trendline of your weight. There are lots of ways to go about this, various methods of moving averages. The important point is to extract the average from the day to day datpoints which vary too much to be useful. A real basic mehtod would be to average your weight for the last 7 days each day. To find the slope, just pick a time scale such as a week or two and find the difference between the average values.

Once you know the slope convert it to lbs per day lost from whatever time scale it was in and multiply by 3500 cal/lb. This give you how many calories per day your average deficit is.

Now do the same thing with your intake and burn. Find your average daily calorie intake for a period of time, and your average daily exercise burn. A week seems to be a good time scale to use.

Then combine it all to solve for BMR. BMR = Calories In - Calories Burned + Daily Deficit. All the #'s you use will be averages, but even then you'll find it fluctuates over time. I find it helps to graph whatever the BMR calculates out to. Over time you should be able to get a good idea about where it is this way. There will be weird periods, mine tends to fluctuate quite a bit, calcuated this way it tends to be in the 2500 area at its low points, if I averaged it it would be in the 2800 area.

Because of that fluctuation I've sought out a more accurate way and currently do it based on fat mass, I also take daily tape measurements to estimate my BF%, and I calculate it from carb and fat intake alone. Both of these items smooth it a great deal and I'm able to model my BMR with a high degree of precision now. But the above method will give you a "good enough" number so to speak, better than an estimate formula will give you.