Determining maintanance calories

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  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,811 Member
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    In the end all the numbers do is give you a guide. But other factors can mean that the past doesn't accurately predict the future. For example being "fully fuelled" may make you feel more energetic so you are more active in your daily routine, perform better in your workouts, make different choices (walk don't drive, stairs not elevators...).

    Be prepared to experiment and fine tune.
  • ConicalFern
    ConicalFern Posts: 121 Member
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    sijomial wrote: »
    In the end all the numbers do is give you a guide. But other factors can mean that the past doesn't accurately predict the future. For example being "fully fuelled" may make you feel more energetic so you are more active in your daily routine, perform better in your workouts, make different choices (walk don't drive, stairs not elevators...).

    Be prepared to experiment and fine tune.

    Yep, the plan is to re-evaluate every 2 weeks.
  • allyphoe
    allyphoe Posts: 618 Member
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    I back-calculate my maintenance calories from changes in trend weight and known caloric intake. It takes three months of data to get a number that isn't thrown off by random fluctuation. For shorter periods, I see a lot of variation - more than 10% plus or minus for a month-long period.

    But I knew my maintenance calories before I switched to maintaining, because I'd been calculating them all along.
  • ConicalFern
    ConicalFern Posts: 121 Member
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    allyphoe wrote: »
    I back-calculate my maintenance calories from changes in trend weight and known caloric intake. It takes three months of data to get a number that isn't thrown off by random fluctuation. For shorter periods, I see a lot of variation - more than 10% plus or minus for a month-long period.

    But I knew my maintenance calories before I switched to maintaining, because I'd been calculating them all along.

    3 months is a long time to wait before adjusting your calorie number if you're losing though!!

    My problem is that my daily activity levels tend to fluctuate around a bit from month to month, so one maintanance value is likely to serve in perpetuum.

    I also agree with sijomial's comment that you're likely to be more active as your caloric intake increases.

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