But I'm still on the 2.5 lb barbell weights...
February 14, 2012 4:42 AM Subscribe
I am a small yet active female. How many calories should I eat in a day?
I am 25 years old and 4'11" tall. Right now I am 102 lbs. Last year I lost around 7-10 lbs by getting sober and I have kept it off.
In the last month or so I started to get really serious about exercise. I've always run around 5-10 (at most) miles/week, but lately I've been running 16-20 miles a week, plus attending BodyPump (weight lifting class) 2x/week.
My goal is to get stronger, lose a little body fat (I know that 102 lbs sounds little, but I have a very small frame) and gain muscle mass. This may actually involve weight gain for me since I have not much body fat, but not much muscle mass either. My problem is that I can't figure out how many calories to eat in a day. The various online calculators give me wildly different numbers.
I don't know if I'm lightly active, moderately active, etc. I am not really on my feet much outside of the gym. Maybe it would be easier to figure out my BMR, then add the activity to it? But even that is confusing.
I'm a total numbers person so I want to figure this out. Right now I've been eating (a well-rounded) 1500 calories/day. Can anyone tell me how much I should really be eating?
I am 25 years old and 4'11" tall. Right now I am 102 lbs. Last year I lost around 7-10 lbs by getting sober and I have kept it off.
In the last month or so I started to get really serious about exercise. I've always run around 5-10 (at most) miles/week, but lately I've been running 16-20 miles a week, plus attending BodyPump (weight lifting class) 2x/week.
My goal is to get stronger, lose a little body fat (I know that 102 lbs sounds little, but I have a very small frame) and gain muscle mass. This may actually involve weight gain for me since I have not much body fat, but not much muscle mass either. My problem is that I can't figure out how many calories to eat in a day. The various online calculators give me wildly different numbers.
I don't know if I'm lightly active, moderately active, etc. I am not really on my feet much outside of the gym. Maybe it would be easier to figure out my BMR, then add the activity to it? But even that is confusing.
I'm a total numbers person so I want to figure this out. Right now I've been eating (a well-rounded) 1500 calories/day. Can anyone tell me how much I should really be eating?
Can anyone tell me how much I should really be eating?
In my experience, no. The variation is too large, with too many factors (genetic, environmental, etc.). The best you can do is keep an eye on yourself (weight, body composition) and adjust your diet as needed.
posted by anaelith at 5:01 AM on February 14, 2012
In my experience, no. The variation is too large, with too many factors (genetic, environmental, etc.). The best you can do is keep an eye on yourself (weight, body composition) and adjust your diet as needed.
posted by anaelith at 5:01 AM on February 14, 2012
The short answer is no, no one can tell you. All of those calculations are estimates - there is large variation between individuals in calorie needs.
But you can figure it out for yourself, by starting with some value, tracking your calories and weight for a few weeks, and then making adjustments. Look into the Hacker's Diet for lots of info on how to do this.
posted by medusa at 5:02 AM on February 14, 2012
But you can figure it out for yourself, by starting with some value, tracking your calories and weight for a few weeks, and then making adjustments. Look into the Hacker's Diet for lots of info on how to do this.
posted by medusa at 5:02 AM on February 14, 2012
THere's no way to say, really. (To my ears, 1500 for someone who exercises regularly sounds low; but like you said, you're pretty tiny.) If you want to gain some muscle, eat more, especially protein. It's really that simple.
posted by notsnot at 5:04 AM on February 14, 2012
posted by notsnot at 5:04 AM on February 14, 2012
Best answer: There are some tests that can be done, that calculate how many calories your body needs. You have to breathe through special for ten minutes, while lying still. From this, your basic calorie consumption is measured. Then they add calories based on your level of weekly activity.
It wasn't an exact science, but got a person close to a number, which a trainer would then advise on adjusting.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 5:29 AM on February 14, 2012
It wasn't an exact science, but got a person close to a number, which a trainer would then advise on adjusting.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 5:29 AM on February 14, 2012
Best answer: Tangentially, in order to put on muscle mass, you'll need to eat an excess of calories, specifically protein. Doing this while also attempting to use up excess energy stores (fat) will take some time and a lot of effort. Simply increasing your muscle mass will drive down your bodyfat %, as the same amount of bodyfat will be on a more muscular person.
Standard advice for people seeking to put on muscle mass is to consume 1 gram of protein per lb of weight per day.
posted by the man of twists and turns at 5:50 AM on February 14, 2012
Standard advice for people seeking to put on muscle mass is to consume 1 gram of protein per lb of weight per day.
posted by the man of twists and turns at 5:50 AM on February 14, 2012
As medusa ssays, the best way to figure out how many calories your body needs is to eat normally, log it all (fitday for example), excercise normally, and see whether your weight is stable for about 2 weeks (or one hormonal cycle, if you want to do it right). Take an average of your daily calories eaten, and that's your functional "zero change" caloric level. If you wanted, you could try to track how many calories you were burning on exercise, and add those in to get a real baseline, but different people can burn vastly different amounts of calories on a very similar exercise depending on not only how much weight they're lugging with them, but how efficient the motion is or how enthusiastically they fling themselves into it. Heck, since you're tracking, try it both ways.
posted by aimedwander at 6:33 AM on February 14, 2012
posted by aimedwander at 6:33 AM on February 14, 2012
That test I mentioned is the Resting Metabolic Rate Testing (RMR). The link describes the test and has a photo of the test being administered. I would caution you not to take it as gospel (moving can through off the test) but as a good guess.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 7:46 AM on February 14, 2012
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 7:46 AM on February 14, 2012
Best answer: Meet Staci: Your new powerlifting hero
More directly: you'll probably need to eat more than you do now.
posted by jander03 at 7:58 AM on February 14, 2012
More directly: you'll probably need to eat more than you do now.
posted by jander03 at 7:58 AM on February 14, 2012
Best answer: I'm your size; minus about 4 lbs, and I get a lot fewer calories to play with. I gain if I eat more than 1200 a day. I work out like you, too. It's really, really variable and I had to track a lot of data to figure out my maintenance calories. There are so many errors in measurement going on that you can really only track it over time to get a good sense of what is happening. Count calories and your weight daily, plunk the data in Excel, and graph it to figure out how many calories you can eat. You'll want at least 2 weeks of data to get going, then switch it up and see what happens.
posted by k8lin at 8:03 AM on February 14, 2012
posted by k8lin at 8:03 AM on February 14, 2012
When I say I gain, I mean fat, not muscle. It's pretty easy to see in the mirror if you know where on your body the fat likes to run to first.
Also, you might want to add some more strength training and free weights to your regimen. I saw a lot of improvement when I started doing squats and stuff. I'm not sure what you do in BodyPump, so maybe that's enough. You should be almost unable to do the last few reps of every set; if it's easy, add more weight.
posted by k8lin at 8:08 AM on February 14, 2012
Also, you might want to add some more strength training and free weights to your regimen. I saw a lot of improvement when I started doing squats and stuff. I'm not sure what you do in BodyPump, so maybe that's enough. You should be almost unable to do the last few reps of every set; if it's easy, add more weight.
posted by k8lin at 8:08 AM on February 14, 2012
Best answer: I'm a 3rd year nutrition and dietetics student, so bear in mind the following is just so much semi-educated guessing and not proper dietetic advice at all. And an extra word of caution: I find estimating caloric expenditure and intake a terribly, frustratingly imprecise part of the work I'll be doing as a dietitian (and I would generally encourage people to find other ways to keep an eye on the balance). There are the significant individual differences in body composition, digestion and metabolism, there's the impreciseness of the real caloric value of different foods as well as the amounts consumed, there's a general tendency to misestimate one's intake... to name but a few.
That said, your current intake of 1500 kcal/day, if accurate, seems way too little. Is this low intake something you put effort into, or is your appetite generally poor? How often do you feel hungry and/or tired? How's your athletic performance and progress? How regular is your eating pattern?
According to the software we use, the basic resting metabolism for someone your size and age already accounts for 1234 kcal. Normal daily activity - not including any sports - would already easily bring you somewhere around or above 1600 kcal/day. The sports dietitian who recently taught us an extra course on sports nutrition recommended about 400-500 kcal for every hour of strenuous sports activity on days when you're active. (Most dietitians I know aren't very precise with calories, because they all know from experience it's such a rough figure anyway.) So, these are some figures I can come up with as an answer to your question, and again encouraging you to also use other ways to keep an eye on your nutritional status (your performance, weight, size, various circumference measurements, body composition, general health and well being, energy level...).
You should also pay attention to what and when you eat, and to preferably adjust your daily meals to your activity pattern, or vice cersa. Aim to eat maybe about an hour or a couple before you excercise and again within 2 hours afterwards to improve your glycogen storage. Listen to your body for what and how much precisely, aim for generally healthy stuff but don't fuss about that either - as a young athlete you've got a lot of leeway. Don't be afraid of carbs; an active body really needs them for energy. Don't overestimate your need of protein, although if you're building muscle mass it's important, too, and you could include some into your meal/snack both before and after weight exercise. And don't forget to drink! Before excercise, during and afterwards. A lot. Don't wait until you feel thirsty, that signal comes after your dehydration has reached a level where it starts to impair your performance. If you sweat a lot, include electrolytes.
Sports Dietitians Australia have some good factsheets on sports nutrition you might find useful.
posted by sively at 8:18 AM on February 14, 2012 [3 favorites]
That said, your current intake of 1500 kcal/day, if accurate, seems way too little. Is this low intake something you put effort into, or is your appetite generally poor? How often do you feel hungry and/or tired? How's your athletic performance and progress? How regular is your eating pattern?
According to the software we use, the basic resting metabolism for someone your size and age already accounts for 1234 kcal. Normal daily activity - not including any sports - would already easily bring you somewhere around or above 1600 kcal/day. The sports dietitian who recently taught us an extra course on sports nutrition recommended about 400-500 kcal for every hour of strenuous sports activity on days when you're active. (Most dietitians I know aren't very precise with calories, because they all know from experience it's such a rough figure anyway.) So, these are some figures I can come up with as an answer to your question, and again encouraging you to also use other ways to keep an eye on your nutritional status (your performance, weight, size, various circumference measurements, body composition, general health and well being, energy level...).
You should also pay attention to what and when you eat, and to preferably adjust your daily meals to your activity pattern, or vice cersa. Aim to eat maybe about an hour or a couple before you excercise and again within 2 hours afterwards to improve your glycogen storage. Listen to your body for what and how much precisely, aim for generally healthy stuff but don't fuss about that either - as a young athlete you've got a lot of leeway. Don't be afraid of carbs; an active body really needs them for energy. Don't overestimate your need of protein, although if you're building muscle mass it's important, too, and you could include some into your meal/snack both before and after weight exercise. And don't forget to drink! Before excercise, during and afterwards. A lot. Don't wait until you feel thirsty, that signal comes after your dehydration has reached a level where it starts to impair your performance. If you sweat a lot, include electrolytes.
Sports Dietitians Australia have some good factsheets on sports nutrition you might find useful.
posted by sively at 8:18 AM on February 14, 2012 [3 favorites]
Bouncing off what k8lin said about trracking weight, and looking for fat, track your measurements. I track upper arm, chest, waist, hips, thigh, and calf measurements. If I see weight go up, and measurement go dorn, that indicates muscle. It also helped me to figure out that fat sticks more on my upper thighs than my belly. I use FitBit, for tracking food, weight, measurements & activity (I have one of the little FitBit tracker thingys, great if you can swing it).
posted by kellyblah at 8:56 AM on February 14, 2012
posted by kellyblah at 8:56 AM on February 14, 2012
Rather than trying to seek out one static number, what I think you need to do is go through a periodic, ongoing process of figuring out your correct caloric intake.
What I'd do (and have done) is begin tracking all your calories. There are lots of websites that will help you do this, and have big databases of foods so that you don't have to be constantly analyzing packaging or restaurant menus. But you need to capture exactly what you're eating right now. Also either weigh yourself, or take some other measurements of whatever you feel like changing -- body fat percentage, waist/hip ratio, whatever. (For some people, using weight is a bad metric.)
Then, start changing your diet. I'd reduce calories by some reasonable amount, like 10%, and see what happens over the course of a week or two, keeping your activity about the same. If your weight (or other key metric) doesn't change, drop another 10%. Basically, what you're trying to do is find your "floor" below which you start to lose weight, given your current activity level. If you do this for a while, it will eventually start to become pretty clear where the break-even line is, for a particular activity level. It gets more complex if you are changing your activity level at the same time, but it seems like you have a pretty set exercise regime so that's very helpful.
This is approaching the problem from the other direction, as opposed to finding your resting metabolic rate (RMR) and then estimating the number of calories you burn on top of that. I've found that it works a lot better for me, and doesn't require any specialized equipment.
Over time, the number will change... so you didn't do anything "wrong" if you find that suddenly you're losing more weight (or less, or not at all), provided you're still keeping track of everything you're eating. It can be that the number has just changed.
To build muscle, I'd first figure out your calorie "floor" and then -- keeping the number of calories around or slightly above that -- raise the percentage of calories you are getting from protein, while reducing the percentage from carbs and fat. But at least in my experience I think there's a tendency to way overdo it on the calories in general if you start bulking up on protein without having an idea of what your break-even number is. But then again, I really despise the cyclical bodybuilder "bulk and cut" thing that a lot of people do; I'd rather just slowly change my diet over time to approach some value that I can sustain indefinitely.
posted by Kadin2048 at 9:07 AM on February 14, 2012
What I'd do (and have done) is begin tracking all your calories. There are lots of websites that will help you do this, and have big databases of foods so that you don't have to be constantly analyzing packaging or restaurant menus. But you need to capture exactly what you're eating right now. Also either weigh yourself, or take some other measurements of whatever you feel like changing -- body fat percentage, waist/hip ratio, whatever. (For some people, using weight is a bad metric.)
Then, start changing your diet. I'd reduce calories by some reasonable amount, like 10%, and see what happens over the course of a week or two, keeping your activity about the same. If your weight (or other key metric) doesn't change, drop another 10%. Basically, what you're trying to do is find your "floor" below which you start to lose weight, given your current activity level. If you do this for a while, it will eventually start to become pretty clear where the break-even line is, for a particular activity level. It gets more complex if you are changing your activity level at the same time, but it seems like you have a pretty set exercise regime so that's very helpful.
This is approaching the problem from the other direction, as opposed to finding your resting metabolic rate (RMR) and then estimating the number of calories you burn on top of that. I've found that it works a lot better for me, and doesn't require any specialized equipment.
Over time, the number will change... so you didn't do anything "wrong" if you find that suddenly you're losing more weight (or less, or not at all), provided you're still keeping track of everything you're eating. It can be that the number has just changed.
To build muscle, I'd first figure out your calorie "floor" and then -- keeping the number of calories around or slightly above that -- raise the percentage of calories you are getting from protein, while reducing the percentage from carbs and fat. But at least in my experience I think there's a tendency to way overdo it on the calories in general if you start bulking up on protein without having an idea of what your break-even number is. But then again, I really despise the cyclical bodybuilder "bulk and cut" thing that a lot of people do; I'd rather just slowly change my diet over time to approach some value that I can sustain indefinitely.
posted by Kadin2048 at 9:07 AM on February 14, 2012
My experience was very similar to that of the girl in the link that jander03 posted. tl;dr: I switched to a paleo-ish diet (no grains, no sugar, sparing full fat dairy) and ate as much as I wanted without counting calories, lost body fat and gained muscle. I'm very very happy with my body composition now.
I'm at the competitive level for weight training now so I actually have to force myself to eat more food than I'm always hungry for in order to get enough calories, but in general eating paleo approved whole foods until you're full will work for the majority of women.
posted by telegraph at 11:47 AM on February 14, 2012
I'm at the competitive level for weight training now so I actually have to force myself to eat more food than I'm always hungry for in order to get enough calories, but in general eating paleo approved whole foods until you're full will work for the majority of women.
posted by telegraph at 11:47 AM on February 14, 2012
This thread is closed to new comments.
Your ideal calorie intake will be unique, depending not just on your frame and activity-level, but also on your metabolism and the nature of the calories (not all calories are equal).
I would concentrate on eating the right sorts of calories - lean protein, high fibre, avoid sugars not in whole fruit form - and listen to your body as to how many are right for you. You've got a ballpark number as a portion guide.
as for exercise - you sound very active compared. Exercise is the best way to lose fat and gain muscle - but make sure that you listen to your body and give it fuel when it says it is hungry.
posted by jb at 4:59 AM on February 14, 2012