Maintenance calories
Davide
Tables and calculators all give different results according to what
formula they use and it's not clear how to count minor activites wedo
daily like typing at the keyboard, shopping, cleansing the bedroom,
playing an instrument.
GregB
This assumes that you are counting calories. If you use a
carbohydrate controlled diet, you count carbs instead. However, you
can't calculate precise maintenance carbs, because a person's
tolerance to carbohydrates may vary. In other words, how much insulin
your body releases as a result of what you eat is a personal thing. I
would think the same should be true of calories as well. Everybody
knows thin people who seem to eat a lot. Those people either have a
high metabolism, are eating differently somehow, or they exercise a
lot. Each person is different, so any calculator would just be an
approximation.
That being said, if you still want to know a simple formula for
maintenance calories, see the link below:
http://strength-training.wikidot.com/strength-training-faq:urb-diet-faq-draft
Jason Earl
There is no reasonable way to calculate how many calories you need for
maintenance. Seriously, if you start with that premise you are likely
to be far happier with the results. Numbers that work for someone else
won't work for you. Numbers that worked last week won't work this week.
The best you can do is come up with a ballpark estimate and simply
measure yourself frequently to make sure things are going as planned.
The good news is that if you've been able to get to a weight that you
are interested in maintaining you probably have some idea of how many
calories you burn in a day (on average). You likewise already have
somewhat of an idea as to how many of those calories should come from
the the various macronutrients.
Assuming that's the case, why in the world would you ask a bunch of
random people on the Internet how many calories you need to maintain
your current weight?
I love USENET, but I have found that the standard response to an
open-ended question like that on MFW generally goes something like this:
If you want to accurately measure maintenance calories needed
the first thing that you need is an accurate log of your body
temperature over time. I recommend purchasing a standard
cooking thermometer (one of the glass ones that they use to
measure candy temperatures). This thermometer should then be
inserted in your rectum no less than 10 times daily for at
least 30 minutes each time. Take careful note of the
temperature that the thermometer reads both before and after
the experiment. For added accuracy you can simply leave the
thermometer inserted indefinitely. The thermometer will make
your parachute pants bulge oddly[1], but you'll get a much
better reading.
Once you have your body temperature information subtract the
minimum from the maximum value. This is the all important
A**-value[2] that you will need for all of your calculations.
Now take your A** number and multiply it by your IQ[3]. This
is the maximum amount of calories that you can have a day[4].
Footnotes:
[1] Some of you might already have a similar odd bulge.
[2] I just pulled this out of my A**.
[3] Doubled in the case of Schuh.
[4] You get an extra 50 calories a day if most of your calories come
from bile.
Andrzej Rosa
> Davide <davide...@doramail.com> wrote:
>> What's the most accurate way to calculate maintenance calories?
>
>
> Hop on a scale every once in a while.
>
> If the weight is off, adjust the amount of food.
I do that too, but I found that if my weight is off, the scale needs
adjustments, not my diet.
I'm not joking, that is actually true here. I hop on some scales where
people buy or sell things in bulk, and depending if they buy or sell, I
register low or high. The good thing is, that next time I pop in there
I generally "suddenly" gain or lose some weight. All it takes is
expressing a genuine joy, that I finally managed to gain or lose
some weigh.
> (I adjust food
> rather than calories because I never got to calculate caloric content
> of what I eat)
>
> This has been keeping me probably below 10% body fat for as far back
> as I can remember.
But everybody knows you are a vampire, so you don't count.
>> Tables and calculators all give different results according to what
>> formula they use and it's not clear how to count minor activites wedo
>> daily like typing at the keyboard, shopping, cleansing the bedroom,
>> playing an instrument.
>
> There won't be the same number for different people of the same
> activity, height, weight, etc. Clearly, there is variation between
> species with regard to the metabolic rate
Metabolic rate is not the way to go for fat loss. I read about
experiences of guys who used bug killer diet (they took some bug killing
poison, which increased their metabolism substantially) and it took some
very serious increases in body temperature to lose fat effectively. But
then it surely worked, so everybody is free to raise their metabolism as
much as they dare. It's even legal.
> and the efficiency of
> utilization of different foods. This differences partly originated
> from and related to the within-species variation.
>
> Wait a minute, I recall that you don't "believe" in evolution. My bad!
Good part is, that he doesn't need to. Evolution is a concept which
doesn't require faith as a necessary requirement for being convinced
that it actually exist.
--
Andrzej Rosa 1127R
Andrzej Rosa
Jump on a scale every morning (record and average your measurements, if
you want to be accurate).
--
Andrzej Rosa 1127R
Chris Malcolm
The simplest way to determine maintenance calories is to do it without
calculation. All you need is a weighing machine. If you're gaining
weight you're eating too much. If you're losing it you're eating too
little. Adjust eating as appropriate.
That's not only much simpler, it has the advantage of automatically
adjusting to changes in lifestyle, exercise, temperature, etc..
--
Chris Malcolm c...@infirmatics.ed.ac.uk DoD #205
IPAB, Informatics, JCMB, King's Buildings, Edinburgh, EH9 3JZ, UK
[http://www.dai.ed.ac.uk/homes/cam/]
Homer Simpson
"Chris Malcolm" <c...@holyrood.ed.ac.uk> wrote in message
news:66647iF...@mid.individual.net...
Thats how I do it Chris :)
Steve Freides
news:91685dfd-60f4-438c...@u3g2000hsc.googlegroups.com...
Davide, everyone has told you that counting calories may not be the best
way to do what you need.
I agree.
That said, there are several web sites that _will_ aid you in doing it
the way you want. http://www.fitday.com is one of them. They have a
database that contains calorie counts, as well as nutritional
breakdowns, for many common foods, and the idea is that you can enter in
what you eat and the web site will be able to give you the relevant
information. If you eat something not in their database, the site has
the ability to let you enter your own nutritional information.
The most accurate way to calculate maintenance calories, IMHO, is to use
a site like this in combination with regularly weighing yourself. If
your weight remains stable, then you have been eating at a maintenance
level.
And all _that_ said, I don't believe any site attempts to track the
calories burned by activities of daily living, although some do allow
you to do things like enter in "vigorous aerobic exercise for xxx
minutes" and will give you an approximate value for that, based on your
bodyweight.