How Many Calories Do You Eat? (Weight Loss)

[FH Cyclist]

How does one get a BMR? I've never had one and would like to get one just to see what I need to maintain my weight. I too am gaining weight - I even gained a pound after giving blood and then doing a couple of rides this week (slow rides - I don't have much energy for about a week after I give blood).

Also, what method are people using for the body fat composition? I've had the skin fold but when I was really serious I went the underwater route. I would prefer not to do that - I'm hoping to find an easier way.......

[limewave]

How does one get a BMR? I've never had one and would like to get one just to see what I need to maintain my weight. I too am gaining weight - I even gained a pound after giving blood and then doing a couple of rides this week (slow rides - I don't have much energy for about a week after I give blood).

Also, what method are people using for the body fat composition? I've had the skin fold but when I was really serious I went the underwater route. I would prefer not to do that - I'm hoping to find an easier way.......

I had a BIA done at my doctor's office. They stick little things to your feet that shoots an electronic pulse through your body. Then it feeds out all sorts of interesting facts about yourself. Like how much of your weight is fat, muscle, and water. How much of the water is intra- vs. extracellular water. You want water in your cells more than you want it outside your cells. It also tells the doctor stuff about how well your organs are functioning. I'm in a program where my doctor is going to do this once a month for 5 months. I've had two done so far. It's pretty cool. I think it cost about $50 to have each one done but I'm not certain.

[michelem]

From what I understand, BIA isn't as accurate as the underwater method.

http://www.unc.edu/~zartman/BIA/error.html

Seems like it's harder to prepare too:

No food or liquid 4 hours before test
No exercise for 12 hours prior to test
Urinate completely before test
No alcohol for 48 hours prior to test
Test at the same time of day (first thing in the morning is recommended after drinking one glass of water)

[espirit]

Hi Everyone

I am a personal trainer and this is the formula I use to work out BMR and then the total amount of calories a person should consume. I find it works really well.

To work out BMR
-Men: BMR= 66 + (13.7 x weight in kg) + (5 x height in cm) – (6.8 x age in years)
-Women: BMR= 655 + (9.6 x weight in kg) + (1.8 x height in cm) – (4.7 x age in years)


Eg. Kelli is 36 years old, is 171.5cm tall and weighs 70kg
BMR = 655 + (9.6 x 70) + (1.8 x 171.5) – (4.7 x 36)
= 655 + 672 + 308.7 - 169.2 = 1805 calories per day

Then to work out how many calories to add to that number based on your activity you multiply your BMR by;
1.2 if you are sedentary (little or no exercise, desk job) or
1.375 if you are lightly active (light exercise or sports 1-3 times per week) or
1.55 if you are moderately active (moderate exercise or sports 3-5 days per week) or
1.725 if you are very active (hard exercise or sports 6-7 days per week) or
1.9 if you are extremely active (hard daily exercise, sports & physical job or marathon/ultraendurance events)

So if Kelli in the above example was moderately active we would multiply her BMR of 1805 by 1.55 to get 2798 calories per day. That’s what she needs to consume to maintain her current weight… if she wants to lose weight we would reduce that by a maximum of 20% which equates to 80% of 2798 = 0.8 x 2798 = 2238.

[PinkBike]

darcy et al,

i just found this thread accidentally looking for something else.
i'm glad i did, because i have concerns that i dont know where to turn to for answers. i've gained over 20 pounds in the last couple years. i was 127 pounds, then i quit smoking, then i quit chewing nicorette a year ago, then i went thru menopause, then i was hypothyroid so now i'm on levoxyl, and voila! now i'm 150 (pounds not years!). it just feels like overnight i got love handles from nowhere.

i've been riding for 10 years. i've been eating lo-fat for about a hundred years now but it suddenly stopped working. i looked into south beach but the first two weeks would have been impossible with the riding i'm doing. so i tried a "modified" south beach based on the glycemioc index, and FIVE WEEKS LATER i had lost nothing. zero. what a letdown! so i joined weight watchers 2 weeks ago.

my concerns are this: our riding season has started, the first major race is the tour de scottsdale oct.14, i've upped my mileage to like 150-220 miles a week. so when we do our 70+ mile rides i need to increase my calorie intake to sustain me, but to what? can i carb load? on WW there's "activity points" that are swapped for "food points" but the numbers are really high, like i am allowed way more food than i think i should to still lose weight. i know from recent experience that i just cant lose the weight. also, all my weight gain seems to be in my waist.

so i'm frustrated that i cant lose the weight and waaaaaaay upset about the way i look now. i had to find a new doctor and i've brought it up to her every time i've seen her and she either doesn't understand or doesn't care. i would love to find a nutritionist or personal trainer but that is so not financially possible.

so has anyone had any successes at all? at my 1 week weigh-in at WW wednesday i had lost 2.2 pounds. i'll give this WW a try. thanks for letting me vent! i'll be back!

[Zen]

You can either eat as you should to fuel long rides or you can do WW and ride shorter and with more intensity.Pick one.

Weight loss takes time and it's not easy You might be able to eat for fuel but you'd have to do it to the decimal. Weigh and measure everything.
WW probably would be good since the points system has you do this anyway. but your activity level is off their charts. You may have to give yourself a couple of extra points.

Also keep track of how you feel and how your performance is.
How's your thyroid?

[VeloVT]

This is a timely topic for me too. Last year from Thanksgiving to New Years I gained 5 or 6 pounds which I vowed to lose over the summer. Although I rode a decent amount (less than I wanted due to schedule and life events), I didn't lose a bit this summer. (Last summer I got my bike and the pounds just melted off, I expected a repeat...). Then school started, and suddenly I found myself having a really hard time fitting in exercise (this won't be a lasting phenomenon, it's just because the first few weeks can be like that) -- and looking another Thanksgiving in the face, I don't want to add another five pounds this winter and wake up in 2008 ten pounds heavier. I've realized that, in addition to starting to train regularly again, I need to diet if I'm going to take the weight off (I'd like to lose about 10lbs, then I'd really feel like I was down to fighting weight).

Here's a website I found that has a pretty good piece of software for tracking diet and exercise. I'm doing the free trial right now but I'm seriously considering buying it, it makes calculating net calories very easy & much less tedious than the old-fashioned way:

http://www.calorieking.com/software/ckdietdiarymac.php

Of course, it still doesn't answer the math question in any kind of definitive way...