Determining how much you should be eating

How Much Should I be Eating?

Before you can plan your diet you need to come up with your basic calorie requirements given your current stats(height, weight, activity level.) This is very similar to what we discussed in the previous post on goal setting.  Your weight loss success is not based on guessing or hope (I hope I am eating the right amount…I *think* I weigh 120lbs…I  *think* I am active…etc)

No.

You need to know exactly how much you can eat (in terms of calories) right now to maintain your current size. This can be calculated here. The BMR Calculator will tell you the amount of calories you would burn if sitting in bed all day doing nothing. This is essentially your base existence.

How to Know Exactly How Much You Can Eat

To get the most accurate estimate of your total daily caloric needs based on activity levels (ie. what you are *really* burning on average), use the activity multipliers found here. What you will want to do is take the first number (something depressingly low) and multiply it by the second number (also likely depressingly low.)

Here’s an example using myself:

As a 5 foot 1/2 in tall 27 year old female weighing 118lbs, my daily maintenance calories are 1325.75.

Using the activity level multiplier I determine that I fit number 2 “If you are lightly active (light exercise/sports 1-3 days/week) :

Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.375.

So 1325.75 (base calories) x 1.375 (activity multiplier) = 1822.90 calories burned per day.

This means to stay exactly the same weight as I am now, I can eat 1822.90 calories per day provided my activities stayed the same.

If I eat more than 1822.90 I will gain weight.

If I eat less than 1822.90 I will lose weight.

What happens if I change my activity levels?

If I decreased my activity levels – the amount I could eat and still stay the same weight would  go down to 1590.9 calories per day (activity level matching number 1 (sedentary))

What if I became more active?

The number of calories I could eat per day and stay the same weight would go up to 2054.91 assuming moderate exercise 3 – 5 days per week (number 3)

Just to review – these numbers each reflect how many calories I can eat per day (depending on how active I am) without gaining or losing weight.

This was a huge shock to me initially. Yes I knew I wasn’t exercising. Yes, I knew I was probably eating too much. But 1325? Really? I blame it on being short. Anyways, looking at the real data allowed me to estimate I was probably over eating my 1000 calories per day.

In the next post I will show you how to determine how much you are really eating. Its not what you think.

By the way, if this seems really complicated, don’t be discouraged. I didn’t figure this out on my own. Maybe I could have if I was smarter. But I had help. Don’t be afraid to check out similar resources as all that matters is that you get the information you need to move forward.