A Guide For Calories
I’ve only
just realised that I’ve been blog posting for a good few months now and I have
never covered a topic that is one of the main influences on body composition
and individual’s ability to performance. This is the topic of CALORIES!
I remember a
couple of years ago I got sucked into the dogma of “calories don’t matter” and
“as long as you eat healthy food you will get lean and gain muscle”, at the
time I was a true believer of this as all I wanted to do was believe I could
eat as much as I wanted of healthy foods and still get into the shape I wanted.
However after a very sharp learning curve, I would soon find out that calories
DO matter! Calories have to work together with macronutrients and energy expenditure
to help you progress in losing mass or gaining mass.
It was
around a year and half ago that I truly began to understand how important
calories are when it comes to body composition and performance, I started
enquiring into various studies, listening to the top dogs in the fitness
industry and reading articles online all about calories and how much an
individual would need to consume to build, lose or maintain. I already had a
good understanding of calories from years prior but it was more so the specific
manipulation of them that I would read up on and study.
Before I go
on any further, I’m going to get into the good stuff, first ill define calories
so you understand exactly what they are and then I will give you a little equation
to use to find out your bare minimum requirements to maintain your body weight
day in day out and function healthily.
Calories
Calories are quite simply our
body’s fuel source for energy, just like a car needs petrol, we need calories
to perform every single task we do. When a car runs out of petrol it stops, if
you try driving a car without any fuel you aren’t getting anywhere. This goes
exactly the same for us, except if we go long enough without calories our
engine packs in and to be quite blunt, dies.
Moving on to calorie intake,
this can be predicted for each individual by calculating their basal metabolic
rate (BMR). BMR is an individual’s basic requirement of energy at rest. This
energy should be adequate to maintain the body’s basic function without any
movement.
The Schofield Calculation is a fairly sound method to calculate
BMR, simply search “Schofield calculation” online or use this method below:
Men:
|
Age
|
Equation
(kcal/day)
|
SEE
|
|
< 3
|
59.512 × W - 30.4
|
70
|
|
3–10
|
22.706 × W + 504.3
|
67
|
|
10–18
|
17.686 × W + 658.2
|
105
|
|
18–30
|
15.057 × W + 692.2
|
153
|
|
30–60
|
11.472 × W + 873.1
|
167
|
|
> 60
|
11.711 × W + 587.7
|
164
|
Women:
|
Age
|
Equation
(kcal/day)
|
SEE
|
|
< 3
|
58.317 × W - 31.1
|
59
|
|
3–10
|
20.315 × W + 485.9
|
70
|
|
10–18
|
13.384 × W + 692.6
|
111
|
|
18–30
|
14.818 × W + 486.6
|
119
|
|
30–60
|
8.126 × W + 845.6
|
111
|
|
> 60
|
9.082 × W + 658.5
|
108
|
Key:
W
= Body weight in kilograms
SEE
= Standard error of estimation
In
addition to this calculation you may want to add on or account for your
physical activity level:
BMR
x 1.4 inactive men and women
BMR
x 1.6 moderately active women
BMR
x 1.7 moderately active men
BMR
x 1.8 very active women
BMR
x 1.9 very active men
Once you have used this equation you will have a number, this
number is a rough estimate of how many calories you need to maintain weight and
maintain efficient bodily function. I say “rough” because it isn’t 100%
accurate for every single person, as you know we are all different and all have
different body types, different lifestyles, different types of training etc... Which
all adds up to different amounts of fuel needed for each individual.
Think of it this way, its common sense that a truck needs more fuel then a small car, especially if the small car only does 20 miles a day and the truck does 100. This why after you have used the equation to figure out an estimate for YOUR needs, you then again need to mess around with this estimate, use it for two weeks and see whether you lose, maintain or gain weight. If you lose weight then you know it’s not enough to maintain, if you maintain then you know it’s not enough to build, but you know it’s too much to lose, if you build then you know it’s too much to lose or maintain.
There are two states the body can be in, it can either be in a hyper-caloric state (calories surplus) or a hypocaloric state (calories deficit), hyper means consuming more then you need which results in anabolism (gaining) and hypo means consuming less then you need which results in catabolism (loosing), therefore you must float between the two to help you achieve your goals.
If you want to lose then you will have to spend the majority of your time in a hypo state, if you want to maintain you will have to spend just as much time in both states and finally if you want to gain you will have to spend the majority of your time in a hyper state.
Don’t Be Fooled
Hopefully now you have a pretty basic understanding of calories, but I must again make another clear point, believe me calories are very important but they are not the be all and end all of body composition and performance goals. Where you fuel comes from is also extremely important, you can fuel your car with moonshine and see where it ends up, or you can fuel it with top of the range fuel in its purest form and watch it turn into a jet!
My point here is that if the majority of your food consumption is pretty much crap, unnatural, processed food then your body isn’t going to like it, even if it’s getting in the amount it needs to function. However if the majority of your food consumption is natural, nutrient rich food then your body will love it and upregulate its bodily function to become even more efficient. This will then make you stronger, faster, leaner, happier, etc...
So make sure the fuel (calories) that you’re putting in your car is of good quality and not some horrible cheap stuff that’s going to leave it with problems further down the road.
Summary
To conclude, calories are very important, but so are the source of your calories. I would always advise sourcing natural nutrient rich foods as much as possible to help establish efficient and effective bodily function to help improve and progress to achieve whatever physique or performance goals you may have set. Also remember that even though the Schofield calculation is good, it isn’t 100% accurate, instead please test for yourself, manipulate your calories up and down to help you achieve your goals, the last thing you want to be doing is gaining when your goal is to loose and loosing when your goal is to gain etc...
As usual feel free to contact to further the discussion on calories and I hope this helped you in some way, shape or form. Have a great day and stay away from the moonshine!
Contact & Social Media:
Think of it this way, its common sense that a truck needs more fuel then a small car, especially if the small car only does 20 miles a day and the truck does 100. This why after you have used the equation to figure out an estimate for YOUR needs, you then again need to mess around with this estimate, use it for two weeks and see whether you lose, maintain or gain weight. If you lose weight then you know it’s not enough to maintain, if you maintain then you know it’s not enough to build, but you know it’s too much to lose, if you build then you know it’s too much to lose or maintain.
There are two states the body can be in, it can either be in a hyper-caloric state (calories surplus) or a hypocaloric state (calories deficit), hyper means consuming more then you need which results in anabolism (gaining) and hypo means consuming less then you need which results in catabolism (loosing), therefore you must float between the two to help you achieve your goals.
If you want to lose then you will have to spend the majority of your time in a hypo state, if you want to maintain you will have to spend just as much time in both states and finally if you want to gain you will have to spend the majority of your time in a hyper state.
Don’t Be Fooled
Hopefully now you have a pretty basic understanding of calories, but I must again make another clear point, believe me calories are very important but they are not the be all and end all of body composition and performance goals. Where you fuel comes from is also extremely important, you can fuel your car with moonshine and see where it ends up, or you can fuel it with top of the range fuel in its purest form and watch it turn into a jet!
My point here is that if the majority of your food consumption is pretty much crap, unnatural, processed food then your body isn’t going to like it, even if it’s getting in the amount it needs to function. However if the majority of your food consumption is natural, nutrient rich food then your body will love it and upregulate its bodily function to become even more efficient. This will then make you stronger, faster, leaner, happier, etc...
So make sure the fuel (calories) that you’re putting in your car is of good quality and not some horrible cheap stuff that’s going to leave it with problems further down the road.
Summary
To conclude, calories are very important, but so are the source of your calories. I would always advise sourcing natural nutrient rich foods as much as possible to help establish efficient and effective bodily function to help improve and progress to achieve whatever physique or performance goals you may have set. Also remember that even though the Schofield calculation is good, it isn’t 100% accurate, instead please test for yourself, manipulate your calories up and down to help you achieve your goals, the last thing you want to be doing is gaining when your goal is to loose and loosing when your goal is to gain etc...
As usual feel free to contact to further the discussion on calories and I hope this helped you in some way, shape or form. Have a great day and stay away from the moonshine!
Contact & Social Media:
Email – Info@rikfitdc.com
Website - www.RikFitDC.com
