Calories

[Cookie]

Calories. How many do we actually need?

The government & various other sections usually state 2500 for men but what exactly does that cover?

What happens if you have a strenuous job. How many extra calories are you supposed to increase the 2500 by to remain in a healthy way?

Been pondering this for a while now because of all the monitoring I do with the pedometer & heart rate monitor during training & daily activities.

On average I'll burn off ( heart rate monitor) 550-600 during a steady state run. Another 500-600 whilst I'm out at work for 4 hours walking flat out. Not to mention what I use when hitting the weights & stretches, foam rolling etc. All this eats into your supposed 2500 per day.

So if 2500 is recommended for your average, active, healthy male what about the rest of us

[Scott]

The government & various other sections usually state 2500 for men but what exactly does that cover?

unfortunately you just cant take any notice of the governments recommendations. They were compiled about 20 years ago and they factored in the physical activity based on diaries and questionnaires. Also, they really dont have a clue about nutrition. They have with one hand recently increased their recommendations by a little over 100 calories per day and at the same time issued a statement that people need to eat less to curb obesity!! Politicians know nothing about the subject and issue statements and directives which imo just add to peoples confusion.
Basically the governments advice is that they underestimated the calorie levels and people should eat more.... and also people should eat less ummm what?
Im having to constantly manipulate my calorific level yet the government come out with some random figure in 1991 and sit back for 20 odd years secure in the knowledge they have nailed it for the whole county!

stop allowing food companies to disguise shit as 'healthy' food. Allow for nutrition to be taught properly in schools.

[Cookie]

Which is exactly what I'm asking.

How do we know exactly how many calories we need to consume to continue to improve at what ever sport we do without gaining any useless excess weight (fat)?

Minefield.

[Scott]

Which is exactly what I'm asking.

How do we know exactly how many calories we need to consume to continue to improve at what ever sport we do without gaining any useless excess weight (fat)?

Minefield.

its an individual thing. you need to know what level you are at each day, keep track of your intake and adjust.

but it is a total minefield because as you know it is very easy to get by on a day to basis and function well enough yet still be under eating. I dunno it gets more complicated depending on your gpals. mine at the moment is probably the easiest to determine as it is basically a cutting diet.
A different goal would require a different nutritional plan but I suppose it comes down to gaining weight, losing weight or maintaining weight. each of those will require a different level of calories but it would be impossible to pre-determine what they would be, you could make an educated guess but you would need to adapt it as you went.


probably

[Chris]

Whilst deployed last year I consumed an average of 4600 calories daily and came back at the end of six months 6kg lighter. If I ate that much now I definitely gain weight! you have to constantly adjust depending on what your doing.

[samurai69]

i used to have a calculation thing that worked out levels needed

will check it out