Is My Daily Caloric Intake Too Low?

[KingOfKong]

I'm 5'8" (172.72cm) and currently weigh 183.5 lbs (83.18kgs). Unfortunately, I don't know my current bodyfat percentage but I do have a pair of calipers coming in the mail.

Based on the Harris-Benedict formula, my maintenance level is 1906.93 cals per-day. Subtracting 700 from this leaves me with 1206.93 cals per day.

Based on the Mifflin-St. Jeor formula, my maintenance level is 1797.39. Subtracting 700 from that leaves me with 1097.39 cals per day.

I have to wait till I get my calipers to figure out the other formula.

Anyways, does this seem too low? 1200 calories a day doesn't seem like much. Can anyone shed some light on this for me? Let me know if you need more information. Thank you for the help!

I posted this in the Losing Fat section as well-just double posting for some more advice. Thanks again!

[WonderPug]

A healthy 5'8" tall, 183 pound male should not be consuming 1,100 to 1,200 calories per day. The is dramatically to low.

It seems likely that your calculations are incorrect and that you made two primary errors:

1. You used your BRM rather than maintenance intake as your starting point. Perhaps you didn't multiple your BMR by an activity factor.
2. You subtracted an arbitrary 700 calories from what you thought was your estimated maintenance intake, rather than reducing your maintenance intake by 10% to 20%.

My suggestion is you read: http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showth...hp?t=121703981 and follow the instructions carefully.

[otterakl]

I'm 5'8" (172.72cm) and currently weigh 183.5 lbs (83.18kgs). Unfortunately, I don't know my current bodyfat percentage but I do have a pair of calipers coming in the mail.

Based on the Harris-Benedict formula, my maintenance level is 1906.93 cals per-day. Subtracting 700 from this leaves me with 1206.93 cals per day.

Based on the Mifflin-St. Jeor formula, my maintenance level is 1797.39. Subtracting 700 from that leaves me with 1097.39 cals per day.

I have to wait till I get my calipers to figure out the other formula.

Anyways, does this seem too low? 1200 calories a day doesn't seem like much. Can anyone shed some light on this for me? Let me know if you need more information. Thank you for the help!

I posted this in the Losing Fat section as well-just double posting for some more advice. Thanks again!

In a word, yes. No reason to subtract 700 cals from those numbers. Just drop about 20% of the calories.
For example in the first formula:

1906 x .20 = 381
1906-381= 1525 cals

And to be honest, even that seems too low to me. I certainly would not go below 1500-1600 per day.

[KingOfKong]

A healthy 5'8" tall, 183 pound male should not be consuming 1,100 to 1,200 calories per day. The is dramatically to low.

It seems likely that your calculations are incorrect and that you made two primary errors:

1. You used your BRM rather than maintenance intake as your starting point. Perhaps you didn't multiple your BMR by an activity factor.
2. You subtracted an arbitrary 700 calories from what you thought was your estimated maintenance intake, rather than reducing your maintenance intake by 10% to 20%.

Thank you for the response. I forgot to include in my OP my question about the activity rate. Which one is the most logical for someone like me to choose? I work out every day, usually for about 40 minutes to an hour (weight training). And you are right about the percentage subtraction-I didn't see that part. Thank you for your help man (repped).

[WonderPug]

^ Depending on how active your lifestyle is and how rigorous your workouts are, you might want to use a multipler between 1.4 to 1.7 when using Katch-McArdle.

Another much more accurate way to determine your maintenance intake is empirically. If you're currently weight stable (neither gaining nor losing weight), then track how many calories you're current consuming and that caloric intake is your maintenance intake.

[KingOfKong]

Thank you for the help WonderPug. I'm gonna bump it up to 1600 cals for the week, weigh in again on Monday and see where I'm at. I'll adjust from there. Thanks again man! Really appreciate it.

[Sqwivivol]

Lifting every day? Whats your routine? Any cardio?

[KingOfKong]

Lifting every day? Whats your routine? Any cardio?

yeah I pretty much lift everyday for about 40 mins (one body part a day) then do about 30 mins of cardio right after. I know the cardio isn't really necessary as long as I'm eating at a deficit, but I really enjoy running

[Sqwivivol]

yeah I pretty much lift everyday for about 40 mins (one body part a day) then do about 30 mins of cardio right after. I know the cardio isn't really necessary as long as I'm eating at a deficit, but I really enjoy running

Thats fine, cardiovascular health is fantastic anyway. But you should look at getting a structured lifting routine to maintain/increase strength and maintain as much lean mass as possible