Bodybuilding Forums

How did you guys decide how many calories your body needs at maintenance? I realize there are always formulas that take into account size, gender, activity level, etc, but how can I be sure that I'm getting the right results?

Currently, I'm finishing up TSPA, and that's worked decently well for me, but near the end I had to drop my calorie intake pretty significantly to see any results. Also, as of late, it's been really difficult for me to get body fat readings because I don't have anyone around that can help do the calipers, and the tape measure isn't super accurate. I don't know if the amount of calories I'm consuming now are too high or too low because I'm unable to measure my progress (aside from visual confirmations in the mirror).

I plan to start a bulking phase in a few weeks, and according to Mark I should be eating my maintenance calories or possibly a few hundred more than that. What should that number be? What do you guys use? Maybe someone can help me determine mine?

I'm a 20-year-old, 5'7" tall male, weigh roughly 135-137, and I'm somewhere around 8.5-9.5% body fat. Activity level is probably the thing that's toughest for me to gauge:
I have a desk job that I work 60+ hours at per week, and when I'm home, the only things I really do are cook/clean/sit at a computer. Obviously that's purely sedentary. I do, however, work out 6 days a week just like Mark suggests with intense 30-60 minute sessions. Which activity multiplier should I use? They usually are described as "desk job/sit around" or "play sports/ work out 6-7 days a week". Well, I do sit around a lot, but I also do work out 6 days a week. I don't play sports though.

It's not really in my budget to buy a bodybugg or anything like it.

Thanks for any suggestions you can give me.

My gym was able to calculate my body fat and also gave me an idea of the number of calories I should be eating. That number is less than Mark's calculations. What I've been doing is closely monitoring my measurements and photos to see if I'm getting the results I want and adjusting calories accordingly. Hope that helps.

You first need to know your body fat percentage to work out your calories. Take your body fat reading by measuring with a calipers buy a Accu-Measure which are quite cheap and use the chart to find out body fat percentage you only need one site reading so you can do this by yourself without any problems.

download the Body Fat Caliper Demonstration copy and paste into browser.
http://rapidshare.com/files/420617730/Fitness_Monitors___Body_Fat_Caliper_Demonstration.rar

1. To get your calories start by multiplying your fat percentage by your total body weight in lbs.
2. Take the result and take away from your total body weight in lbs this will be your lean body mass now convert to kilos by dividing your lean body mass in lbs by 2.2 this will be your lean body mass in kilos.
3. Now take your lean body mass in kilos and multiply by 21.6 and add 370 the result will be your Resting Metabolic Rate.
4. Take your RMR and multiply by your LIFESTYLE below

Desk Job No Exercise 1.2 x RMR
Light Exercise 1-3 times per week 1.375 x RMR
Moderate Exercise 3-5 time per week 1.55 x RMR
Heavy Exercise 6-7 time per week 1.75 x RMR
Very Heavy Exercise twice a day, physical job 1.9 x RMR

If you are doing THT use the 1.55 x RMR for bulking add 100-200 calories for cutting subtract 500-650 calories

Thanks guys. I'll definitely have to check out that demonstration when I get home. I apparently suck at using those things.
I guess I'll use 1.55 as my activity multiplier then.
I've known about this method of finding caloric intake, I just never had any sort of assurance that it's accurate. Have you guys found it to be pretty correct?

Nothing is 100% accurate just weigh yourself once a week take your fat measurements and body tape measurements and compare week to week.

A quicker way to work out calories for maintenance is to multiply your total body weight in lbs by 15.