Calories per pound of body weight

CarmenSRT · November 2012

If you're like me, you like numbers. You do the math to figure out how many calories per pound of body weight your body requires for maintenance and then use that information for weight loss. That's been my mode of operating for decades. That brings me to a question. For the others who do this how many calories per pound of body weight do you need for maintenance? Please add your age, amount of daily exercise, gender - the basics.

Me: 45 year old female, minimum one hour (12.5 to 13.5 miles) exercise bike at maximum resistance daily. My body requires 10.62 calories per pound of body weight to maintain. (This is a far cry from my pre-menopause younger days. Back then I could approach 19 cals ppbw)

How 'bout you?

Chief_Rocka · November 2012

14-16 calories per pound

stines72 · November 2012

says i require 1060 calories, L O L yeah thatll never happen

bronnyd · November 2012

Really interesting, I'd never heard of being able to calculate it like that before. How do you figure out how many calories you require per pound?

SideSteel · November 2012

14-16 calories per pound

^ This.

MinnieInMaine · November 2012

If I do BMR (per fitnessfrog.com) times 1.2 for sedentary, mine comes out to 10.78 calories per pound to maintain.

magerum · November 2012

14-16 calories per pound

^^ This

rainbowbow · November 2012

13.9 so let's just call it 14.

I thought, however, this was very common and that women generally range between 10 (inactive) and 13 (active) per pound and men 13 (inactive) and 15 (active) per pound.

ChitownFoodie · November 2012

19-20 on rest, 20-25 on active

CarmenSRT · November 2012

Really interesting, I'd never heard of being able to calculate it like that before. How do you figure out how many calories you require per pound?

The most accurate results will come from a significant period of time. A month would be fairly accurate.

First, get the averages you need.

**Average body weight over that time period.

**Average per day caloric intake for the period.

**Average calories per day you were either over (if you gained weight over the time period) or under (if you lost weight over the time period). There are 3500 calories per pound of weight gained or lost.

Here's a hypothetical woman who lost 8 pounds in a month, going from 160 to 152 and ate an average 1500 calories per day during the month.

Her average weight for the month would be halfway between 160 and 152: 156 lbs

Her average daily caloric intake is given as 1500 calories

Since she lost weight she had a daily deficit. 3500 calories per pound x 8 lbs=28,000 calories
28,000/30 days= 933 calories average per day deficit

Take the calories she ate on average (1500) add to that the average calorie deficit she had (933) and the result is 2433 calories per day would have maintained her weight at her normal overall level of activity.

2433 calories divided by 156 pounds of body weight yields a figure of 15.6 calories per pound of body weight.
Using that number she can better decide how best to set realistic weight goals.

This isn't necessary, it's just something some people do.

CarmenSRT · November 2012

13.9 so let's just call it 14.

I thought, however, this was very common and that women generally range between 10 (inactive) and 13 (active) per pound and men 13 (inactive) and 15 (active) per pound.

The range can be quite a bit wider than most consumer level websites state. I figure this website would be likely to have a good number of people who track it, and I'm curious.