Lean muscle % and calorie requirement

Febgirl

Hi everyone,

After gaining and losing the same 2kg for a month or two I decided to go to see a dietician. She was very thorough, asked me lots about my lifestyle then weighed and measured me including calculating my lean muscle mass. She then used this to calculate how many calories I should be eating and I was surprised to be told that I should be on 1800, when MFP has always recommended around 1500 for me.

Can anyone explain the difference to me in terms of calculating calorie requirements based on lean muscle % versus total weight? It will be interesting to see how I go at my next appointment in terms of weight loss!

Thanks

timlord

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glad to help
Tim L

ambermichon

was it 1800 to lose weight or maintain? I wonder the same thing. I have been lifting for 2 years now and have built a lot of muscle but keep losing and gaining the same 2 lbs as well

Febgirl

Lose weight. She said I should lose between 1kg - 2kg in a fortnight at this level of calories. The meal plan she gave me is all natural food, lots of veges and protein but a few high calorie things in there like almond nuts for snacks and avocado which I never used to eat due to the calories...

songbyrdsweet

Muscle requires more calories than fat to stay at the same weight, if that makes sense. Fat is not very active as it's not a site for energy production.

Febgirl

Thanks everyone - so would that mean I have a greater percentage of lean muscle for my weight than average? (to explain the difference between MFP calcs and the dietician calcs?) I probably should have asked what it was, will do so next time. Either way I feel a bit more confident about eating at 1800 now.