Determining maintenance calories

[qbkilla]

I'm seeing with refeeds and planned diet breaks becoming popular a lot of approaches to cutting require you to know your maintenance calories..

Without wasting days and weeks to determine this, what are some calculators or formulas that are relatively accurate for bodybuilders?

 

[juggy38]

Body weight x 15 calories.

Endos will be a little lower

Ectos will be a little higher

Also it’s highly determined by NEAT. An example is billy is a desk jockey and bob is a construction worker. That could swing maintenance calories by 1000.

But BWx 15 is a good place to start

 

[livinlean]

I found the easiest thing to just buy a fitbit and wear it for 24hrs and use that as a guideline. My fitbit had me at 3600 calorie burn on a typical day however I found my maintenance to be closer to 32-3300.

I later found out that fitbits aren't THAT accurate but I still personally found it a handy tool.

 

[IronLion2]

Experiment, it takes a long time and a lot of adjusting variables to nail down TDEE during periods of dynamic dieting.

 

[qbkilla]

I found the easiest thing to just buy a fitbit and wear it for 24hrs and use that as a guideline. My fitbit had me at 3600 calorie burn on a typical day however I found my maintenance to be closer to 32-3300.

I later found out that fitbits aren't THAT accurate but I still personally found it a handy tool.

I wish they worked with androids. anyone know if there is another watch or APP that you don't need an iPhone to determine this? Fitbit sounds better than simply multiplying by a number.

 

[jeroendebleser]

I don't believe in these formula's. You gotta go by trial and error here.

 

[Beti ona]

Experiment, it takes a long time and a lot of adjusting variables to nail down TDEE during periods of dynamic dieting.

That's the reason why I hate dynamic diets, they're a pain in the ass.

 

[Delt123]

I don't believe in these formula's. You gotta go by trial and error here.

This. By scale is your best bet imo.

These formula's can give you a rough idea but ime they are very 'rough' estimations.

 

[Sandpig]

This. By scale is your best bet imo.



These formula's can give you a rough idea but ime they are very 'rough' estimations.

True but for someone that has no clue, it is a place to start at least

Sent from my LG-M430 using Tapatalk

 

[Tank211]

Here is a a pretty basic chart for figuring out your calories

 

[danieltx]

I've never found a formula or calculator that was remotely accurate for me. When you throw in PEDs and other things that alter metabolism, they're even less accurate.

Nobody wants to hear this, but the best way to get your maintenance calories is to track everything you consume for a week. See how much your weight changed over that week and adjust as needed until it's steady, then you're at maintenance calories.

It really isn't hard with tools like MyFitnessPal.

 

[qbkilla]

I track my calories per day and week, but I am dieting so I am purposefully eating below maintenance and achieving my goal to lose weight and maintain muscle. The issue is , a refeed should be at maintenance and I dont know what maintenance is because I am always either gaining or cutting, I never just sit around and eat and say "I want to look exactly the same"

I want to get a rough estimate of what maintenance is without stopping my diet for the sole purpose of toying with calories to determine maintenance, thsts counter productive.

Hope this makes sense. Once you are into a cut and losing weight you no longer know what maintenance is because you dont want to be there you are in a deficit by design.

I have seen some calculations online just wondering if some are considered better than others

 

[b-boy]

I wish they worked with androids. anyone know if there is another watch or APP that you don't need an iPhone to determine this? Fitbit sounds better than simply multiplying by a number.

I have a polar watch and an android phone. My watch gets my maintenance calories really close.

 

[b-boy]

My BW x 15 is really close to my maintenance calories

 

[USMuscle9403]

If you're dieting, calculate how much you're losing every week and backtrack from there to get your maintenance calories. Obviously metabolic adaptation plays a huge role, not to mention how much water you're holding/losing and the fact that a "pound of fat" is more than just pure fat, but at least you'll have a better idea than you do now. I know I'm basing this all on the calories in/calories out dynamic, which is way oversimplified, but it's a starting point.

For instance, if you're consistently losing two pounds of "fat" every week, fat loss drugs notwithstanding, consider that a 1,000 calorie average daily deficit. Add a thousand to your average daily intake and voila...maintenance calories.

 

[danieltx]

I track my calories per day and week, but I am dieting so I am purposefully eating below maintenance and achieving my goal to lose weight and maintain muscle. The issue is , a refeed should be at maintenance and I dont know what maintenance is because I am always either gaining or cutting, I never just sit around and eat and say "I want to look exactly the same"

I want to get a rough estimate of what maintenance is without stopping my diet for the sole purpose of toying with calories to determine maintenance, thsts counter productive.

Hope this makes sense. Once you are into a cut and losing weight you no longer know what maintenance is because you dont want to be there you are in a deficit by design.

I have seen some calculations online just wondering if some are considered better than others

I didn't realize you were looking at this in the context of a refeed.

If you need to hit a certain amount of calories on your refeed to say on tack - outside of someone in the last few weeks of contest prep - I'd say you're not dieting like you really should be the rest of the week.

You're not going to gain fat from going overboard for one day - and you need those excess calories help keep things going in a prolonged diet. Either eat a lot more clean food or go have a cheat meal you're craving and get right back to your diet the next day.

In a worst case scenario you stall progress for 2-3 days, but you should still come out lighter by the end of the week unless you just really can't control yourself.

 

[old timer]

The issue is , a refeed should be at maintenance

I hear you but I don't think everything's going to come crashing down if you miss your actual maintenance calories by a couple hundred points, and Juggy's estimate of 15XBW is probably going to put you close enough IMO. In fact, considering that it's a refeed, erring on the high side by a small margin isn't the worst idea in the world ;-)

 

[qbkilla]

If you're dieting, calculate how much you're losing every week and backtrack from there to get your maintenance calories. Obviously metabolic adaptation plays a huge role, not to mention how much water you're holding/losing and the fact that a "pound of fat" is more than just pure fat, but at least you'll have a better idea than you do now. I know I'm basing this all on the calories in/calories out dynamic, which is way oversimplified, but it's a starting point.

For instance, if you're consistently losing two pounds of "fat" every week, fat loss drugs notwithstanding, consider that a 1,000 calorie average daily deficit. Add a thousand to your average daily intake and voila...maintenance calories.

Good thinking, I lost 3lbs in 2 weeks so for me it looks like 1.5lb a week, or 750calorie daily deficit.

Since I am doing ADF (fasting every other day), and on feeding days 4520, so a daily average of 2260 cal per day +750 = 3010 per day would be my maintenance.

Does anyone know if I need to adjust this at all for cardio per week? Does the 3500 deficit per week =1lb "fat" lost per week only account for food, or the cardio etc as well?

 

[old timer]

Since I am doing ADF (fasting every other day)

Do you know the best diet?

It's one that you'll stick to!!!

With that said, have you tried any other diets? You could eat 2260 calories every day and lose essentially the same amount of weight you are now, and it's probably more muscle sparing too since you're not starving your body of protein for so many hours.

 

[qbkilla]

Do you know the best diet?

It's one that you'll stick to!!!

With that said, have you tried any other diets? You could eat 2260 calories every day and lose essentially the same amount of weight you are now, and it's probably more muscle sparing too since you're not starving your body of protein for so many hours.

I agree with the first part lol

reasons why im doing adf..

1. IMO, way easier to stick to and more enjoyable. To me eating 2260 calories per day is hell, I love to eat, thats starvation. But eating 4500, thats a good day. Eating 4500 keeps me full for the next day so the fast isn't bad at all. Im actually never hungry on ADF, while if I were to eat a mere 2260, id be starving and miserable every day, I have a huge appetite.

2. As far as being ideal or not, not sure. Its basically an every other day reseed, so in theory leptin and the negative affects of dieting should not kick in where eating a tiny 2200 a day long term I feel like they would. About half my training days end up being fasted days, but I actually feel better training fasted than with food in me, I get a better pump, much better.

Basically for me....

I have a feast day, followed by a fast day, then repeat

is preferable to....

Eating like a bird every day

I actually WANT to try to do it when I bulk back up, but I may cut it to 3 fasting days per week and make these my non training days. What this allows me to do is take the calories I would eat on those 3 days, and put them into my eating/training days, so im in heaven

But at the end of the day its calories in vs calories out and weekly calories, its just a more enjoyable way to spread them out over the week and not feel like your dieting every day