How many Calories do I need?

[smoaky]

Info:
Age - 18 yrs in 1 month.
Weight - 136 pds
Height 5'10"

First of all, I am not a bodybuilder. About a year ago I weighed 170pds. Dieting and some light weightlifting, and now Im down to 135-136. My low was 133 about a month ago. I do about an hour of abs (crunches w/ 20lb dumbell) plus about 200 pushups (hands together in triangle) a day. My body is defenitely starting to shape up, I have a '4 pack', (still a little bit of fat on the bottom of my belly. My goal is not to loose weight, or even gain weight, but to maintain my weight unless it is gained in the form of muscle. But again, I dont want to bulk up.

So this brings up the question, how many calories do I need in a day to maintain my weight. I have used a million different calculators, and they range from 2200-3000 a day. Lately I have had an intake of 2500-2900 calores. For instance, today I had an intake of:

Calories:2742
Fat:63.5g
Carbs:388
Dietary Fiber:90 (hehe coarse bran pancakes accounted for about half of that)
Protein:219g

I hardly eat sweets or very fatty foods, and all my fats except for eggs and meat are from good oils. Basically, I eat healthy food, and a lot of it. But, I know that if you eat enough healthy food, you will gain weight. I do not take protein supplements, that 219g protein is all from whole foods.

I live in new york city and I walk a lot. I bicycled to school when I was dieting, but i have not done regular cardio in 6 months, except for soccer on the weekend sometimes, but that has stopped because its too cold.

I general I eat 5-6 meals a day. Breakfast, snack during my period off at school (apples usually 2-3), lunch (lean protein, salad), 2 snacks before dinner, dinner, meal before bed (little cottage cheese, glass of milk)


So my question to all you nutrition experts, how many calories do I need in a day. On my current eating regimen, I'd say I'm gaining a pound in 2 weeks, but I think some if not all of that is muscle, as my body fat has stayed the same or diminished recently.(especially in the ab area.) So any info you guys can give me, a rough estimate of intake would be great. I was so used to taking in fewer than 2000 calores when i was dieting, it always seems as though I am eating too much now that I eat 2500+ per day. THANKS!

[Jvan88]

http://www.hpathy.com/healthtools/calories-need.asp

[smoaky]

ive used that and ive used 10 others and they are all different by up to 700 calories.

[RipStone]

ive used that and ive used 10 others and they are all different by up to 700 calories.

Calculators, formulas, etc will only give you a ballpark estimate of how many calories to eat. Thats all you should use them for...a baseline to start with. The you tweak and thats where all the fun is.

Here is what you need to do. Keep track of everything you eat for a few days and total up the calories, carbs, protein, and fats for each day(you can use fitday.com for help with this). If this is how you typically eat(which I dont see why it wouldnt be) then you should get a great idea of how many calories you are consuming per day currently.

Then ask yourself have you been gaining/losing/maintaining weight eating like this? Depending on the answer and your goals(lose/gain weight) you can make changes to your current diet.

For example, lets say you find out you are eating 2500 cals a day right now. And eating this amount you are maintaing your weight. However, you want to lose weight. So you would start eating 250-500 cals less per day in order to lose about 1/2-1lb a week. The opposite(eat 250-500 cals more) if you want to gain weight.