About how many calories per day do you consume?

[ASammy1]

The reason I ask, is that I have no idea how many I consume and have recently started food journaling (as in today :rolleyes:). How many should I be eating? I'm working out like a fiend and the weight isn't coming off. It seems like the more I work out, the hungrier I get, which means I'm eating more. It's a vicious circle...

[michelem]

Hi ASammy1,

This is really too personal/individual of a thing -- one size does NOT fit all when it comes to caloric needs. Many factors need to be taken into consideration, such as height, weight, activity level, and much more.

Here is a VERY BASIC calculator you can use to get yourself started. Of course, you'll need to tweak it from there based on YOU! :D

http://www.nutritiondata.com/tools/calories-burned

Good luck to you! :)

[singletrackmind]

Too many.










And Michelem makes sense.

[ny biker]

There are lots of places online that calculate the number of calories you need per day. Here are a couple more:

http://www.cancer.org/docroot/PED/content/PED_6_1x_Calorie_Calculator.asp

http://walking.about.com/cs/calories/l/blcalcalc.htm

One thing to keep in mind - if you're not getting enough calories, your body goes into starvation-protection mode and slows down your metabolism, which keeps you from losing weight. So it is important to make sure you eat enough.

I've recommended this book elsewhere but I'll say it again - Nancy Clark's Sports Nutrition Guidebook is an excellent resource for answering questions like this, and in general for making sure you eat the right amounts of the right kinds of foods.

http://www.nancyclarkrd.com/books/sportsnutrition.asp

[OakLeaf]

I'm a huge believer in timing. You're supposed to eat immediately after a workout to replenish muscle glycogen - ideally within 30 minutes, but no more than 2 hours. For me, that's when the thought of food just nauseates me, but if I make myself eat right after a workout, then (1) I'm stronger the next day and (2) more importantly for weight loss, I don't have the rebound where I'm just STARVING several hours to a day later.

I have no idea how many calories I eat, though. And I would take the calorie expenditure calculations in HRMs and similar software with a grain of salt.