how to figure out your calorie needs

Yesterdays totals:

Calories: 1546
Carbs: 43.54%
Protein: 38.1%
Fat: 18.37%

These numbers are probably a little off because I had to manually enter calories for dinner last night and when you manually enter calories in MyPlate, it doesn't let you enter macros (like carbs, fat, protein). This is my one annoyance with the site. Otherwise, I love it. Unless there is actually a way to do it that I just don't know about, but I'm pretty sure it would be obvious if I could.

Water: over 72 oz again - yay me!

Here's exactly what I ate yesterday:
Breakfast: Grapefruit juice (1/2 cup), Freshly juiced veggies (104 calories worth), 3 egg whites, 1 whole egg, Bob's Red Mill 7 Grain hot cereal (1 cup) with a splash of unsweetened almond milk (1/4 cup)
Cal:417  Carb:29.5  Prot:24.25  Fat:6.75

Post-Workout AM Snack: 100% whey protein powder drink, 100% whole grain brown rice (2/3 cup)

Cal:223.8  Carb:23.76  Prot:22.01 Fat:3.17

Lunch: 2 slices Ezekiel Sprouted Grain bread, all natural peanut butter (2 tsp), 3 oz tuna

Cal:310.3  Carb:31.65  Prot:28.64  Fat:6.65

Snack: I didn't have an afternoon snack (naughty me) and I was really hungry at dinner time.

Dinner: steamed broccoli (2 cups), chicken taco noodle bake (1 1/2 cup)

Cal:550  - and everything else here would be inaccurate so I won't post

Evening Snack: 1% cottage cheese (1/4 cup) - I would normally have 1/2 cup but I didn't because I didn't feel I needed that much

Now, I won't list calories and macros for what I ate the previous day (because it's so dang time consuming), but I will tell you what I ate:

Breakfast: grapefruit juice and fresh juiced veg (as always, before I eat anything), oatmeal and 2 eggs
AM snack: protein powder drink & oatmeal
Lunch: Tilapia, steamed broccoli, small yam w/butter
PM snack: 7 grain hot cereal w/unsweetened almond milk
Dinner: Chicken breast, baby spinach, steamed cauliflower
Evening snack: 1% cottage cheese, anchovy stuffed olives

Ok, now how did I figure out what my "maintenance level" of calories was? There are a few different ways to do this. You can find many sites online that offer an average ballpark number for you simply by entering a few variables such as age, weight, etc. I use what's called the Katch-McArdle formula for figuring out my BMR (basal metabolic rate - which is the number of calories your body burns just to function; for digestion, circulation, breathing, temp control, etc). And this formula is supposedly the most accurate method of determining your daily calorie needs because it takes into consideration your lean body mass (LBM). And the only way to know your LBM is to use a caliper. After determining your BMR, you then figure out your maintenance level of calories by factoring your activity level.

Just to give you an example:
If I were to use a quick and generic way to determine my maintenance level calories, I would estimate 15-16 calories per pound of bodyweight. So for me at 118 pounds, that would be around 1770-1888.

Now, with the Katch-McArdle formula, my maintenance level calories is 2012. That to me is a HUGE difference. Because it means to stay at my current weight, I can eat more!

Right now, I am trying to create a 500 calorie a day deficit by staying around 1500 calories (the deficit gets bigger when I factor in exercise). But if I were to create a 500 calorie deficit using a generic method, that puts me at only 1270 calories a day. That is a big difference. And for an active person, that might start to impact my energy levels and my workouts start to suffer. And when my workouts suffer, and I'm not giving it 100%, I'm not losing fat at my full potential.


You can see the Katch-McArdle formula here

P.S. My husband is a computer nerd and he made me a spreadsheet in Excel a few years back that I can enter my body stats into. We put the Katch-McArdle formula into it so all I need to enter is my current weight and body fat percentage (as per the caliper) and BAM! it gives me my BMR. Then I enter my activity level at the current time and BAM! I've got a range of calories to maintain or to lose. It also tracks my progress with a graph so when I enter my body measurements, I can see how I have been progressing. The very first time I made an entry was in March 2010, so it's fun to see how my body is changing over the years!