MFP has set my caloric intake to 1230 based on my weight loss goals and the fact that I entered 'sedentary' for my activity level because I 'sit at a desk all day'. Do you think that's too low for Turbo Fire? Should I change my activity level from 'sedentary' to something else since I'm working out 6 days a week?

:flowerforyou: Straight from a Beach Boy Coach:
(http://getatonedbody.com/uncategorized/how-many-calories-should-i-be-eating/)


All of the products you see in the grocery stores base their values on a 2000 cal/day diet. But is 2000 calories what everyone should be eating? Each of Beachbody’s workout programs come with a book about nutrition and how to calculate your caloric intake to achieve optimal results. Here is one formula( from Insanity) you can use to see how many calories you should be eating:

Step One: The Harris Benedict Equation (This formula determines your basal energy requirements or the amt of calories you need everyday without exercise):

WOMEN:
655 + (4.35 x your weight in pounds) + (4.7 x height in inches) – (4.7 x age in years)

MEN
66 + (6.23 x weight in pounds) + (12.7 x height in inches) – (6.8 x age in years)

Step Two: Factor in your activity level:

Exercise Factor:
1.2 = Sedentary- little or no exercise
1.375= Lightly Active- Light exercise 1-2 days per week
1.55 Moderately Active- Moderate exercise 3-5 days per week ** use this for Insanity or P90X or Turbo Fire workouts**
1.7 Very Active- Hard exercise 6-7 days per week
1.9 Extremely Active- hard daily exercise and job

Step Three:
Take the # from step 1 ( this is your caloric intake without exercise) and multiply by the # in step 2 (exercise factor) and this will give you the amount of calories you should be consuming daily with your workout to maintain your weight. This is what your body needs to keep energy up.

** If you have weight to lose:
Subtract 500 calories each day from your daily caloric intake

**If you want to gain weight”
Add 250 300 Calories daily

Example: this is my equation:
655 + (4.35 x 163.5lbs) + (4.7 x 65 inches) – (4.7 x 31yrs) = 1526.03 calories just to keep my body working properly
1526.03 x 1.55 (exercise factor) = 2365.35 calories day with exercise

Since I want to LOSE weight I would subtract 500 and consume around 1865 calories per day, which almost MATCHES (19 cals off) Scooby's Calulator (for those who think in BMR/TDEE terms).

After seeing these numbers, I set my MFP to ACTIVE and 1# LOSS weekly which gave me 1610, but I can eat my calores back!
:bigsmile: :bigsmile: :bigsmile:

Hope this helps!

MFP gives me 1200 calories, but between the different calculations (TurboFire booklet, Scooby's, etc), I should be eating between 2,100 and 2,300 calories per day. The thing that confuses me is that if I adjust my calorie goal on MFP based on these equations, then I should NOT eat my calories back, right? Because the calculations take into account my daily exercise, and if I log and eat back exercise calories, I'd be double-dipping, right?

But I enjoy logging my workouts (for motivation), so maybe a better way to do it is tweak my "goals" with MFP to see if I can get MFP to give me something like 2,200 calories. Then I can log and eat back, right?

(I honestly don't know why this all confuses me so much!!!)

Tara -

Maybe you could do an average of how much you burn in a day and set your custom MFP goals to your calorie goal - average daily burn. So that way when you burn your calories, you can eat them back?