Guest guest Posted January 28, 2004 Report Share Posted January 28, 2004 Unfortunately, Ari, we can be heavy on thoughts but short on facts. The truth about calories is that it simply is not cut and dry. There are some general guidelines that form a good starting point - for example, I think it would be insane to go less than 8 x your body weight in calories and certainly few people would ever need to go over 20 x their body weight, but you can see even that is a huge variety. Some people get a warm fuzzy from basal metabolic rate. The premise is straightforward - punch in your height, age, gender, and weight, and you get a magic number. You can even multiply it by another number and get some sort of estimate of calories you burned. This was popular in the days where it was extremely expensive to afford true respiration tests that measure the exact calories you burn. These days, however, trainers can purchase test kits for a few hundred dollars and more studies have been performed. It turns out that if you fill a room with a dozen women who are all the same height, weight, age, and perform about the same amount of activity, their metabolic rate STILL varies by up to 500 from the lowest to the highest. A 500 calorie / day mistake equates to 1 pound of fat per week! That is a huge margin of error. Your activity level will change from day to day. You might train more intensely or less intensely. When you read calories on food labels, guess what? The FDA only requires 20% accuracy, EITHER WAY (up or down). So six meals of 200 calories could be 180 x 6 = 1080 or 220 x 6 = 1320 calories. That is a huge variation! Stress can lower your metabolism. If you consume more protein, your metabolism may raise. It is a complicated issue! Therefore, you should find a baseline. Calories are one way to create a baseline, but they are probably the most ineffective way unless you know how to manage them. Why? Because if you constantly consume the same amount of calories, your body slows itself down to keep pace. This is homeostasis - remaining the same. BFL was designed to overcome this by having fist and palm sized portions. It builds in a fluctuation of calories automatic. People trying to force some ratio or calorie level upon BFL are defeating the purpose, because it was never intended to be the exact same calories, every day. If you look at a palm-sized portion of steak with a fist-sized portion of potato, and compare that to a palm-sized portion of chicken breast with a fist-sized portion of apple, you'll see there is a huge difference in calories. This is OKAY! See, by following that method, and integrating variety, you automatically fluctuate your calories. The biggest mistake people measuring calories make is to pick a level and stick with it. This is a recipe for disaster. When I count calories or put a client on a program with calories, I must ramp the calories. For example, let's say we choose 2000 as a baseline for you - that is approximately what we estimate you can eat and maintain your weight. Then my calorie program might look like this: Week 1: 1900 Week 2: 1700 Week 3: 1500 Week 4: 2200 Week 5: 2000 Week 6: 1900 Now my AVERAGE was 1866 calories for you over 6 weeks - about one pound weight loss every other week. HOWEVER, if I simply put you straight on 1866 and did that every day, day in and day out, I can guarantee after a few weeks, your baseline would be 1866 instead of 2000. This is why I don't like seeing people complicate matters by trying to count calories before they understand a lot more about fitness and nutrition. Nutrition is very complex and there is so much to learn - I will spend a lifetime learning about it. It is far easier to find a system based on common sense and convenience, and to follow that system. I guess it is human nature to focus on a specific, empircal goal and jump to that. However, far more important here is to embrace the -for- LIFE part of the equation. When you are living healthy for LIFE, it does not matter if you drop 1 pound or 30 pounds in a 12-week period. The important part is you are making changes and moving towards good health. The healthy weight will come with a healthy lifestyle - but focusing on a faster fix and getting to the weight will not bring enduring health, only a temporary moment of relief before the old habits creep in and wipe away the change. So don't get frustrated - stick with it ... if you need to make adjustments, try doing FIST adjustments. By this I mean, do a little LESS than your fist, for example. Or pick containers, cups, etc, to measure out foods. The only complaint I have about the palm-fist method is what I call " portion creep. " This is when your hands mysteriously become bigger based on the size of your appetite or cravings - LOL. I hate to give an answer that beats around the bush, but if your focus is fat loss, I think you are doing the right thing. 1 pound per week is GREAT progress - in fact, it is tough to go beyond that. The people who lose more are exceptional. Make no mistake - shooting for exceptional is fine by me! At 214 pounds, you will probably need your calories between 1700 - 2600 hundred depending on any multitude of factors. > There have been a few posts about calories which have left me > confused. I am a 6' 2 " man, 33 years old, large frame (broad > shoulders) and I weigh about 214 pounds (3 weeks ago I weighed 221 > before starting BFL). I am not particularly muscular (yet) and > carry most of my extra weight in my gut and chest. > > While muscle growth is an important long-term goal for me, my more > immediate goal is to lose fat. I am trying to ascertain how many > calories I should be eating per day. Now I know that Bill in BFL > talks about fist-sized portions, etc. and calorie counting is not > supposed to be a focus, but I still want to know the answer. > > Any thoughts? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted March 4, 2004 Report Share Posted March 4, 2004 Are you calculating your calories by your body weight or lean body mass? > Need some help from the more experienced BFLers. I'm curious as to > the results of the BFL website Calorie Counter. I'm 6' tall and 215 > lbs. The Counter states that I should be eating 2580 calories a day > for weight loss/muscle gain. 2580 sounds like a lot!!! > > My current meals I'm sure don't add up to that: > > M1 Egg subs. omelette,WW toast, coffee > M2 Myoplex deluxe shake > M3 Turkey sand on WW, cut up veggies > M4 Apple & cheese sticks > M5 EFL Meatloaf, yam, gr. beans > M6 EFL Key Lime shake (Myoplex deluxe) > > I would certainly guess this is under 2000 calories. Any idea if the > 2580 number is correct and what to suggest that I make up the missing > 500 calories with?! > > Thanks all! > > -Chuck Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted March 4, 2004 Report Share Posted March 4, 2004 A calculator on a site is not going to be able to determine this for you. There are simply too many parameters involved. Even the way you combine foods impacts this. I have bulked on calorie levels as high as 4200 calories and as low as 2400 calories, and it has all depending on the type of training, the time of year, my stress levels, amount of rest, etc. Calculators are in no way, shape, or form THE result. The way to do it is to use it as a starting point - its probably better than a guess pulled out of thin air - and then adjust accordingly. 2580 actually sounds LOW for bulking to me, but then I don't know how intensely you train. Two people doing BFL might be the same height, weight, and body fat, but if one is bench pressing 300 for their high intensity set, and the other is bench pressing 100, they will require different amounts of calories! I would recommend keeping consistent portion sizes using whatever works for you - the size of your fist/palm, containers, weight, calories, whatever. If your goal is to gain muscle, increase those portion sizes until you are gaining weight no more than a pound every week or two. That's it. It's not about adding or substracting or doing anything else - just small adjustments until you are moving in the right direction, and then consistent action. Don't be surprised if you gain a little fat with that muscle. The idea of gaining all muscle and no fat lives mainly in the mind's of advertisers. Most people (elite bodybuilders and Tom Venuto included) will add a little fat with a lot of muscle, the trick is doing it slowly, then turning around and trimming the fat while maintaining the muscle. I hope this helps! Best of health and success. > Are you calculating your calories by your body weight or lean body mass? > > > > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted March 5, 2004 Report Share Posted March 5, 2004 I tried the calculator using total body weight, not just lean. For fat loss, it says I should consume 1690, lose fat and gain muscle (2028), and size and strength, 2535. Seems to be reasonable for me except that I couldn't gain on only 2535 calories and I probably wouldn't go as low as 1690 to lose fat since I've had success at higher calories. With BFL it is about portions, but I still have an idea how many calories that I consume. Andy > Good question. The Calulator just asks for your weight: > > http://www.bodyforlife.com/calcalc.shtml > > -Chuck Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You are posting as a guest. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.