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daily calories needed

cscheiern
cscheiern Posts: 45
edited February 7 in Goal: Maintaining Weight
When I started here, I was out of shape, no muscle tone and weak. I entered my weight, height, etc. and got my daily calories for my goals. Now I have been working out, much more active and I can see some muscles now. My height and weight have not changed, but I see a difference. Now the question-- wouldnt I need a different amount of calories to maintain muscle than no muscle? I thought (from what Ive read) I would burn more calories overall after I started building muscle. But on this chart there is no allowance for this, am I wrong?

Replies

  • nxd10
    nxd10 Posts: 4,572 Member
    When I started here, I was out of shape, no muscle tone and weak. I entered my weight, height, etc. and got my daily calories for my goals. Now I have been working out, much more active and I can see some muscles now. My height and weight have not changed, but I see a difference. Now the question-- wouldnt I need a different amount of calories to maintain muscle than no muscle? I thought (from what Ive read) I would burn more calories overall after I started building muscle. But on this chart there is no allowance for this, am I wrong?

    Yes. But this is a generic model. You need to change it depending on specifics to your life.
  • abadvat
    abadvat Posts: 1,241 Member
    Seems like u getting rid of fat and putting muscle on - if no weight difference then keep calories as is - maybe play with your macros to better maintain your gains!
  • melaniecheeks
    melaniecheeks Posts: 6,349 Member
    I think it prompts you to reset goals after every 10 pounds lost. Even if it doesnt. you should.
  • DancingMoosie
    DancingMoosie Posts: 8,619 Member
    Yes, if you have a low bf% and a lot of muscle, you will need more calories to maintain than another person your same weight with a higher bf%. I find that mfp underestimates my maintenance calories for this reason.
  • cscheiern
    cscheiern Posts: 45
    thanks everyone who replied. I will look into this further...:smile:
  • geekyjock76
    geekyjock76 Posts: 2,720 Member
    From a psychological perspective, upping calories as you reduce fat mass will make the transition towards maintenance easier since you'd only be anticipating increasing calories by a very small amount compared to sustaining a static intake throughout.
  • TavistockToad
    TavistockToad Posts: 35,719 Member
    When I started here, I was out of shape, no muscle tone and weak. I entered my weight, height, etc. and got my daily calories for my goals. Now I have been working out, much more active and I can see some muscles now. My height and weight have not changed, but I see a difference. Now the question-- wouldnt I need a different amount of calories to maintain muscle than no muscle? I thought (from what Ive read) I would burn more calories overall after I started building muscle. But on this chart there is no allowance for this, am I wrong?

    as someone else says, the calculator is fairly generic...

    MFP has my maintenance as 1600 cals, plus exercise, but i actually maintain at 2000 cals plus exercise.
  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,809 Member
    When I started here, I was out of shape, no muscle tone and weak. I entered my weight, height, etc. and got my daily calories for my goals. Now I have been working out, much more active and I can see some muscles now. My height and weight have not changed, but I see a difference. Now the question-- wouldnt I need a different amount of calories to maintain muscle than no muscle? I thought (from what Ive read) I would burn more calories overall after I started building muscle. But on this chart there is no allowance for this, am I wrong?
    The number of calories burned by resting muscles isn't really large enough to make much of a difference just by adding a few pounds of muscle.
    Although people waffle on about "adding muscle to make yourself a calorie burning machine" it's either hyperbole or misunderstanding.

    Off the top of my head I think the difference between maintaining a pound of fat and a pound of muscle is only about 6 cals a day. (From memory: 3 cals/day to maintain 1lb fat, 9 cals/day to maintain 1lb muscle.)

    Just changing your daily activity / exercise is going to make more of a significant difference to your maintenance calories.
  • cscheiern
    cscheiern Posts: 45
    [
    The number of calories burned by resting muscles isn't really large enough to make much of a difference just by adding a few pounds of muscle.
    Although people waffle on about "adding muscle to make yourself a calorie burning machine" it's either hyperbole or misunderstanding.

    Off the top of my head I think the difference between maintaining a pound of fat and a pound of muscle is only about 6 cals a day. (From memory: 3 cals/day to maintain 1lb fat, 9 cals/day to maintain 1lb muscle.)

    Just changing your daily activity / exercise is going to make more of a significant difference to your maintenance calories.
    [/quote]


    ok, this sounds reasonable, I didnt know the numbers would be so close.
  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,809 Member
    ok, this sounds reasonable, I didnt know the numbers would be so close.

    My numbers from memory were slightly off (that's old age for you....) but not that far.

    Have a read of this.....
    http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/research-review/dissecting-the-energy-needs-of-the-body-research-review.html
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