Estimate my maintenance rate, please.

tomaattikastike
tomaattikastike Posts: 62 Member
edited November 22 in Health and Weight Loss
I'm trying to figure out what my metabolic rate and my maintenance calorie intake should be. I'm 34, male, 1.82m, weigh 77 kg. I have a desk job, I don't have a car and I cycle around 8k daily to commute, and tend to take the stairs etc. I am not particularly muscular and don't know my body composition (you can take a guess from my profile). I run around 40-50 miles per week, although I count those activities separately.

Can you guess my calorie intake required for maintenance? I haven't been counting before, and MFP uses less information than I've just provided you, so maybe you can come up with a better estimate. I'd like to know your best guess, including day-to-day activities, but not including exercise.

Replies

  • middlehaitch
    middlehaitch Posts: 8,486 Member
    Not including exercise, MFP should give you a reasonable maintenance estimate. With the daily cycle commute and other daily activities use the active goal, then include exercise when you do it.

    Keep in mind, all numbers from any person or calculators are educated estemates based on population averages.

    Use the MFP numbers, track your intake, and after 2-4 weeks adjust up or down depending on the results.

    After a couple of months you will be able to take the data you have entered and extrapolate your daily maintenance quite accurately.

    Cheers, h.
  • tomaattikastike
    tomaattikastike Posts: 62 Member
    Thanks! I know I'll find out eventually, but I thought having a good starting value can't hurt.

    For me, the values MFP calculates for "inactive" and "active" are 2180 and 2800 kcal, respectively - I'm almost certain the latter is too high, but those are also vastly different numbers. Maybe it's possible to improve from a "wild guess" to an "educated" one...
  • MegaMooseEsq
    MegaMooseEsq Posts: 3,118 Member
    edited October 2017
    In addition to MFP, I used these two sites: https://www.supertracker.usda.gov/bwp/index.html and https://www.bodyrecomposition.com/fat-loss/how-to-estimate-maintenance-caloric-intake.html/ to create a starting point. That second one is my favorite, as it gives you a general equation that you can tweak yourself once you've accumulated a few weeks of data. I'm far enough outside of the average for women my age and dimensions that calculators are fairly inaccurate unless I tell them I'm male.
  • TavistockToad
    TavistockToad Posts: 35,719 Member
    MFP will tell you... or use Scooby.com
  • middlehaitch
    middlehaitch Posts: 8,486 Member
    edited October 2017
    Maybe start with 2500, add on your exercise calories, and see what happens.

    You could try other on line calculators, but often that just gives you too many differing numbers so you get bogged down with information. Like I said all any number is is an educated estimate.

    Cheers, h.
    ETA my fave off site calculator
    http://www.sailrabbit.com/bmr/
  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 34,419 Member
    I had to use a much higher than estimated number (higher than MFP would suggest, and scooby) - so I agree with middlehaitch, just pick a number (maybe somewhere between the 2100 and 2800) and use it for a month, adjust as results indicate.

    It's an experiment we all get to run on ourselves. :)
  • quiksylver296
    quiksylver296 Posts: 28,439 Member
    It's all SWAG (scientific wild *kitten* guess)
  • middlehaitch
    middlehaitch Posts: 8,486 Member
    Oh and for your running a good method to use is weight x .63 x distance in miles.

    So for you it would be 170 x .63 = 107 x 5 mile = 535 calories.

    Cheers, h.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    tomaattikastike wrote: »
    Thanks! I know I'll find out eventually, but I thought having a good starting value can't hurt.

    For me, the values MFP calculates for "inactive" and "active" are 2180 and 2800 kcal, respectively - I'm almost certain the latter is too high, but those are also vastly different numbers. Maybe it's possible to improve from a "wild guess" to an "educated" one...

    Don't know why you would think 2800 is too high...you're pretty active. If you're consistently active, I'd just use the TDEE method and roll up all of your activity into your activity level.

    I ride about 50 miles per week and lift 1-2x per week and my maintenance is right around 2800 and over 3000 when I'm training for an event or something.
  • tomaattikastike
    tomaattikastike Posts: 62 Member
    Thanks again for all your input. Just to clarify, I was trying to get an estimate of what I should put as my regular rate, excluding those exercises which MFP calculates extra. I believe I'll be assuming 2400 for that, aim for a 500 kcal deficit, i.e. 1900 kcal, and apply a little bit of a discount to the exercise calories that MFP calculates based on my garmin data.
  • lorrpb
    lorrpb Posts: 11,463 Member
    You wouldn't figure a deficit in maintenance. Eat the cals MFP gives you, plus half the exercise cals.
  • tomaattikastike
    tomaattikastike Posts: 62 Member
    Thanks, perhaps that was not clear: I assume that my maintenance rate is 2400 kcal, so if I want a 500 kcal deficit per day, I aim for 1900 kcal, and then I add the exercises on top (with some discount, as you suggest, whether that's 1/2 or 1/3).

    Example: 2400 kcal (assumed maintenance rate) - 500 kcal (target deficit) + 900 * 2/3 kcal (exercise) = 2500 kcal target total.

    I believe MFP's estimate for running (that's my main exercise) is "generous", but not by more than 1/3 at my weight and my typical pace.
  • TavistockToad
    TavistockToad Posts: 35,719 Member
    edited October 2017
    tomaattikastike wrote: »
    Thanks, perhaps that was not clear: I assume that my maintenance rate is 2400 kcal, so if I want a 500 kcal deficit per day, I aim for 1900 kcal, and then I add the exercises on top (with some discount, as you suggest, whether that's 1/2 or 1/3).

    Example: 2400 kcal (assumed maintenance rate) - 500 kcal (target deficit) + 900 * 2/3 kcal (exercise) = 2500 kcal target total.

    I believe MFP's estimate for running (that's my main exercise) is "generous", but not by more than 1/3 at my weight and my typical pace.

    You've got the calculation for running calories upthread....

    Eat net 2400, see what happens after 4 weeks...
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