Calculating Calories and Macros - How To

[Mrpb]

Hi guys, I have been training a little over 3 years on and off without paying serious attention to my diet. My body is skinny fat and I have been on a cut since the new year. It has been over 7 weeks already and here is my progress

1st jan weight: 87kg
15 feb weight: 83.5kg
Height: 188cm

If you're getting stronger while losing about 1 to 1.5 pound per week you're doing everything right. Even maintaining strength would be fine.

[PaulHudson4]

I was informed by my gym trainer that I need at least 3200 calories in a day. In which protein content should be 1.5 or 2 times than my body weight and carbs should be eaten roughly 5 times more than my bodyweight.

[Mrpb]

I was informed by my gym trainer that I need at least 3200 calories in a day. In which protein content should be 1.5 or 2 times than my body weight and carbs should be eaten roughly 5 times more than my bodyweight.

Ignore what your PT said. Read the first post of this thread.

[adarbyem]

Thank you! This COMPLETELY changed the way I am looking at my diet changes for weight loss. I find it easier as well to watch macros instead of flat calories.

[LHFlyer]

For those just starting to figure out the Macro / Calorie game, I've been watching my numbers like a hawk for the last 3 weeks (30% Carb / 35% fat / 45% protein target with a 2200 calorie plan) and I've lost 8 pounds. Also added about 15% in weights at the Gym. The concept works just give it enough time to prove it. My weight at the start was 256lb.

[dax702]

I'm at 2,800 trying to add muscle, it's not easy

[Mrpb]

I'm at 2,800 trying to add muscle, it's not easy

Building muscle is generally never easy, unless you're new to lifting.

[areyoucereal]

My problem is every calculator is giving mixed results

Stats:

Weight 170lbs
Age 31
Height 5'9 (69cm)
Activity level: Extremely hard workout (full body) 3x a week, and steady state cardio 2x a week.

MyFitnessPal says to eat 1,800 calories
Mifflin-St Jeor says to eat 1,950 calories
Katch-McArdle says to eat 1,700 calories
Harris-Benedict says to eat 2,038 calories


The national institute of health also released their own calculator, backed by studies... and that one says 2,800 calories.
https://www.supertracker.usda.gov/bwp/index.html
https://www.usda.gov/media/press-rel...d-and-activity




Goal is to cut.


Which of these am I supposed to use?

[Mikeez0]

MyFitnessPal says to eat 1,800 calories
Mifflin-St Jeor says to eat 1,950 calories
Katch-McArdle says to eat 1,700 calories
Harris-Benedict says to eat 2,038 calories

It is bmr to lose weight you have to eat ~500calories above TDEE.
TDEE = BMR + TEF + EAT + NEAT.
Just pick a random number let's say 2500calories, eat for 2 weeks, monitor weight. Find out real TDEE, and adjust.

[Mrpb]

My problem is every calculator is giving mixed results

Stats:

Weight 170lbs
Age 31
Height 5'9 (69cm)
Activity level: Extremely hard workout (full body) 3x a week, and steady state cardio 2x a week.

MyFitnessPal says to eat 1,800 calories
Mifflin-St Jeor says to eat 1,950 calories
Katch-McArdle says to eat 1,700 calories
Harris-Benedict says to eat 2,038 calories


The national institute of health also released their own calculator, backed by studies... and that one says 2,800 calories.
https://www.supertracker.usda.gov/bwp/index.html
https://www.usda.gov/media/press-rel...d-and-activity




Goal is to cut.


Which of these am I supposed to use?

If your goal is to cut start with 2200 calories and see what happens on the scale.

[fit4life404]

You shouldn’t count calories. Only count macros. Calories were invented about 200 years ago to help bring an end to the obesity epidemic. Protein is the single most important macro. For Bulking have a high carb- moderate protein low fat and when cutting use a 20-30g of carbs per day approach with slightly high protein and high fat. I want to be clear that I am not referring to keto.

[Rebinho]

My goal is losing about 700grams a a week. I am intermediate, doing Fierce 5 upper/lower. How does those macroes look ?

I am 176cm tall.(About 5'9) And I weight 80 kg(176lbs) 20%bodyfat

1830 kcal:
Protein: = 160g (640 kcal)

Fat: = 70g (630kcal)

Carbs= 140g (560kcal)

[Pete9393]

So i'm losing weight on 3100 calories exactly...

Going to switch my macros up but currently I'm on 190g protein 300g carbs and 110g fat.

I weigh 158lbs so I'm definitely off with my macros

I rearranged my diet so now I'm going to eat 175g protein 425g carbs 80g fat

Hopefully I gain weight with this.

3100 calories to 3300 calories...

[LHFlyer]

Now that I'm starting month 3 of my 5x/week lifting, I'm starting to see the first serious signs of changes with body shape etc. I'm sitting at about 240-242lbs down from mid to upper 250s from February, so there is still a lot of cutting to go (about 50-60 pounds worth). I did a body fat analysis via InBody 2-3 weeks and my LBM was 161 pounds and I'm carrying about 90 pounds of fat. What scares me is the idea of taking in more calories than my BMR which is 1954 calories a day. Even with my workouts (where I think I'm burning 400-500 calories a session according to a heart rate monitor), I'm scared s**tless to take in more carbs than the 1954. Right now I target 1800/day to account for small overages. I'm hitting my macro targets 90% of the time. But is it really counterintuitive with cutting? Does it really make sense to add more 'right' calories in order to cut? Or is running a 500-600 calorie/day deficit the best thing to do until I shed most of the fat pounds? I hate the idea of lifting for 5 days a week, taking in more calories, and having the net effect of not losing any weight. I'm at a bit of a crossroad with this concept. Any serious advice out there? thx

[Heisman2]

Now that I'm starting month 3 of my 5x/week lifting, I'm starting to see the first serious signs of changes with body shape etc. I'm sitting at about 240-242lbs down from mid to upper 250s from February, so there is still a lot of cutting to go (about 50-60 pounds worth). I did a body fat analysis via InBody 2-3 weeks and my LBM was 161 pounds and I'm carrying about 90 pounds of fat. What scares me is the idea of taking in more calories than my BMR which is 1954 calories a day. Even with my workouts (where I think I'm burning 400-500 calories a session according to a heart rate monitor), I'm scared s**tless to take in more carbs than the 1954. Right now I target 1800/day to account for small overages. I'm hitting my macro targets 90% of the time. But is it really counterintuitive with cutting? Does it really make sense to add more 'right' calories in order to cut? Or is running a 500-600 calorie/day deficit the best thing to do until I shed most of the fat pounds? I hate the idea of lifting for 5 days a week, taking in more calories, and having the net effect of not losing any weight. I'm at a bit of a crossroad with this concept. Any serious advice out there? thx

If you are losing 1% of your body weight each week then you are eating an appropriate amount of calories, especially if you are getting stronger in the gym at the same time.

By the way, you should make your own thread to ask this type of question.

[LHFlyer]

If you are losing 1% of your body weight each week then you are eating an appropriate amount of calories, especially if you are getting stronger in the gym at the same time.

By the way, you should make your own thread to ask this type of question.

strength is definitely going up consistently. So I'll assume for now that I'm doing enough things correctly. I didn't want to start another thread just for the one quick question. Thanks for the answer!

[APolaris82]

I'm in a bit of a unique situation. I'm a math teacher at a Korean school who is, among other things, instructing some students on "consumer math."

Our textbook has a chapter on "food," which includes, as you can imagine, lots of information on calorie expenditure and similar calculations, including education on bulking and cutting.

Unfortunately, our textbook also includes what I'd charitably describe as painfully bad formulae in many chapters (it even lists specific price quotes for auto insurance - US only, of course - and cost of driving one mile as if they were universal - as of 2003, when the book was published). Of course, one such formula is calorie expenditure. They provide the following table (first number male, second number female):

Sleeping: 0.5/0.46 cal/lb of weight/hour
Very light exercise: 0.74/0.69 cal/lb of weight/hour
Light exercise: 1.24/1.15 cal/lb of weight/hour
Moderate exercise: 2.5/2.3 cal/lb of weight/hour
Active exercise: 3.5/3.2 cal/lb of weight/hour
Very active exercise: 4.8/4.1 cal/lb of weight/hour

It gives a decent summary of what each one means, but... well...

This method gives as my TDEE: 3124 kcal/day
Nearly every online calculator gives: between 1800 and 2200 (a rare few give much higher values similar to the above)

For the record, I have been able to cut at 1500 until I get down to about 61 kg (at 66 now) and generally begin to see weight gain at about 2400 or so. It's not exactly helping that the above claims my body burns through 1752 calories even if I'm asleep for 24 straight hours.

This has left me understandably confused, and I don't want to give bad information to my students. Has anyone got a reliably sourced formula used by a calculator known to be completely reliable and that I could easily teach to mostly Korean students, such as the calculator used at the start of this thread?

[Rabbey17]

I am 18, 6'1 ish and am 153 pounds and am trying to lean bulk to about 170ish i do about 60-70 mins of intense cardio a day( bike and elliptical treadmill) and lift every day for 2 hours. How many cals do you guys suggest, 3800?

[yertlee]

Im confused man. IIFYM tells me I should be a 1849Cals a day, 167gprotein/ 131gcarbs/ 73gfat. I'm 24 5'11 195lbs. Goal is to drop fat while building muscle. Can't seem to figure out what would help best with my target... All suggestions will be appreciated.

[George213]

nice

[George213]

Forta

[George213]

PICTURE WITH MY DIET PLAN:

What should I add? What should I remove?

50kg, 1.55 heigh, 15 y old.

I've been going to the gym for 2 mouths, I have a low body fat percentage but I still don't want to bulk with crapy foods, I want to stay as healthy as possible with a caloric surplus to gain weight.

[George213]

Superinio

[George213]

bbravo

[goodcook1]

Male
33
148
5'9

This sticky is quite a relief, as I've always followed more of a "minimum amount" as opposed to a specific macro number. I'm an ectomorph, but I've always been able to bulk or cut with success, granted bulking is always a bit harder, but it has been done. That being said, I'd like to get an opinion about my potential caloric intake for gaining. After following the TDEE calculator I was stuck as to which option of activity level to choose. I'm going with a 5 day training split with at least 30 mins of moderate cardio afterwards for roughly 75 minutes total workout. I also work a physical job so I decided to play with two options.

The first, "daily exercise+physical job" put my Kcals at roughly 3000. The other option, "Daily" (given that I work and/or train every day) put me at around 2500 Kcals. I suppose my question would be, which calorie total would seem best suited toward my activity level throughout the week? I was leaning toward the 3000 side and would set up a plan for 3200 and monitor things closely, but it never hurts to have a second opinion.

[Matt413413]

Nice and simple explanation... so pretty much a guarantee that no one who needs this info will use it. Great contribution once again though.

How much sugar does everyone eat?

[DeansDesk]

Age 57
Height 5´8.5
Weight 166
Body fat 19.9 %
Waist 37 inches
Activity level is active, 3 lifting workouts a week, 10,000 steps a day, some HIT every seven days or so.

I have read and applied Primal Blueprint and most recently 4 Hour Body principles and also calculated numbers via Free Dieting and My Fitness Pal. I typically consume 160 grams of protein, 75 grams of fat and under 90 carbs, each day yet I still don´t lose weight, or fat, at 1,500 calories.

I´m fit and considered in good shape but I´d like to reduce body fat and put on some muscle. Ideal would be 170 lbs at 12 % body fat.

Your advice would be appreciated.

[FritoFace]

Thanks, great advice!

[bearsoup]

So I calculated my TDEE. I'm at 1897 calories for maintaining my current weight. I am wanting to add muscle mass and spend a while bulking. So do I only add the 300 calories it suggest and call that surplus? I basically only do resistance training. About 5, sometimes 6 days a week. I try to go as heavy as I can and stay in the 6-10 rep range. I'm sort of new to trying to add mass. I've already (finally) accepted that this means I will gain some fat in the process. Anyone have any additional input for me?

*cheers*
128 lb
5'4.5"
100.4 lb muscle mass

[Nikmico]

I am 27 yo, 5'7, 194 lbs,
My chest, and arms are pretty lean but i am struggling with losing the fat around my lower stomach and the love handles. I've always done 25% fat of my total weight
After reading this sticky i decided to try the .4 x bodyweight for fat amount, but i wanted to continue doing 1.1 x body weight of protein since i've been lifting for a few years and want to maintain as much muscle as possible

My calorie intake will be 2300

P 212 g
F 77 g
C 188 g

does this seem okay?