How to figure out correct maintenance calories?

Options
jarablue
jarablue Posts: 127 Member
edited October 2016 in Goal: Maintaining Weight
How can I figure out what my maintenance calories will be? I am 10 to 15 pounds from goal weight. I am a 6'1 male, medium to medium large frame. Are the calculators on the web accurate enough? Or should I go to a lab and run a gamut of tests to see what they are? I have been eating 1200 to 1400 calories now daily.

What is the best way, accurate calories?

Replies

  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,371 Member
    edited October 2016
    Options
    1200 to 1400 is really low for a man... do you weigh your food?

    Anyway, I figured out mine by just doing the math, and weighing myself regularly. I used http://scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator/ as a baseline though (it overestimates it a bit unfortunately).
  • queenliz99
    queenliz99 Posts: 15,317 Member
    Options
    It's trial and error.
  • girlgroves
    girlgroves Posts: 235 Member
    Options
    I used the MFP calorie calculator to estimate mine when I first moved to maintenance - just switch your MFP goal to "maintain current weight" and it will calculate it for you. It proved a good starting point, however, as useful as that was, it is only an estimate, and I've only more accurately worked out what my maintenance calories actually are by continuing to log accurately over time and watching for any changes in weight.
  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,811 Member
    edited October 2016
    Options
    jarablue wrote: »
    How can I figure out what my maintenance calories will be? I am 10 to 15 pounds from goal weight. I am a 6'1 male, medium to medium large frame. Are the calculators on the web accurate enough? Or should I go to a lab and run a gamut of tests to see what they are? I have been eating 1200 to 1400 calories now daily.

    What is the best way, accurate calories?

    Sorry but that's a crazy low level for a man your size!
    Eat more, slow down your weight loss otherwise you are going to have a difficult transition to weight loss quite apart from the other issues of badly under eating.
  • karl317
    karl317 Posts: 87 Member
    edited October 2016
    Options
    jarablue wrote: »
    How can I figure out what my maintenance calories will be? I am 10 to 15 pounds from goal weight. I am a 6'1 male, medium to medium large frame. Are the calculators on the web accurate enough? Or should I go to a lab and run a gamut of tests to see what they are? I have been eating 1200 to 1400 calories now daily.

    What is the best way, accurate calories?

    I can tell you what works for me (47yo, 6'4" man, 175lb eating at maintenance).

    I stick to the "sedentary" setting for daily fitness level in MFP (though I walk 8 miles a day, every day - that only accounts for 2.5hours of my day, so I guess I still am technically "sedentary" for the rest of the day).

    MFP tells me my maintenance calories (without exercise) is 2300 calories per day. I've been eating up to that level **WITHOUT** eating into my exercise calories, which typically is reported as an additional 800-1000 calories per day.

    I've been sustaining my 175lb weight with around a 1 or 2 pound variance for a few months by simply sticking to the "food" calorie limit, but I must ignore my "exercise bonus". If I eat into that more than a couple of hundred calories daily over time, I start to gain weight.

    I've brought this 2300 calorie/day number up at other fitness forums, and I always hear the same s**t - that i'm not eating enough. Yet my scale weight hasn't wavered more than a pound or two overall in either direction. This causes people to blame my logging/accounting, which makes me laugh heartily (if they only knew how damn OCD I truly am about this).

    Many of the CICOpaths of these forums all still believe that my exercise calories somehow all count towards my eatable bottom line somehow, when clearly they don't (and science seems to say the same thing if all those 'exercise is a crappy way to lose weight' articles are to be believed). So, my pattern may not mimic yours. Perhaps you'll be able to eat some or all of your exercise calories, I don't know. But for me, if I stick to the MFP "food" calories value and eat that while ignoring any exercise "bonus" calories, my weight stays right where it is.

    Good luck chasing the Maintenance Unicorn :) I caught it, chances are you will too.
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
    Options
    jarablue wrote: »
    How can I figure out what my maintenance calories will be? I am 10 to 15 pounds from goal weight. I am a 6'1 male, medium to medium large frame. Are the calculators on the web accurate enough? Or should I go to a lab and run a gamut of tests to see what they are? I have been eating 1200 to 1400 calories now daily.

    What is the best way, accurate calories?

    No test could tell you what your maintenance calories are - unless you pay big bucks for double-labeled water research or carry around and breath into a metabolic tester.

    How much are you currently losing per week?

    Weekly weight loss x 3500 / 7 days = apparent calorie deficit from maintenance.

    Average eaten + deficit = maintenance for current level of activity.


    Big huge assumption here though that as mentioned above, probably doesn't apply to you.
    This is for fat only loss - and for your size but low calorie eating - you likely are losing muscle mass too.
    And protein used as energy source rather than rebuilding muscle is only 600 cal / lb.
    The end result will also make maintenance lower since body doesn't have as much muscle to work with.

    Now, perhaps not much in way of workouts (which also increases amount of muscle lost in diet), and your weight loss amounts are appropriately slow (like 1 lb in 2 weeks which is good), and your weigh-in days to do the math are valid with minimum water fluctuations - in which case that formula is close enough.

Categories