I have asked this before but never got a straight answer. I am trying to find the amount of calories I should be consuming to maintain my weight or slightly gain.

Right now I am 5'6", 137-140lbs and 8-10% body fat (last measured at 8%).

I lift weights for 90 minutes (total body workout excluding legs) 3x a week (M,W,F). Tuesday/Thursday I run between 6-8 miles and lift legs for 30 minutes. Sat I normally run 5-6 miles, Sun I either repeat or do one of my long runs (Between 12-20 miles depending on training season).

My average RMR based on several online calculators is 1700. I figure my average amount of exercise puts me at about 2200-2500 calories to maintain (RMR + calories burned during exercise). However, I still seem to be losing weight but can't justify upping my calories because mathmatically it doesn't computer.

Can someone help me make sense as to why my calculations may be off? Is my calculated RMR too low? Maybe I am underestimating the amount of calories I eat in a day?

Here is a sample of my daily diet:

B: 3/4c oatmeal, handful of bran cereal, 3 egg whites, cup of green tea (unsweetened)

Workout

S: Protein Shake: 1 scoop ON 100% egg protein (120 cals, 24g protein), 1 banana, 1/2c of blueberries, ice and water

L: Mixed Greens Salad: bowl of mixed greens, 1/2 cucumber, 8-10 baby carrots, handful of grape tomatos, pepperoncinis, can of tuna or chicken (150 cals, 30g protein). Few handfuls of crackers

S: Can of chicken or tuna, apple or other fruit.

S: Piece of string cheese

D: Chicken breast, 1c brussell sprouts or broccoli, 1 Yam (350g), 1/2 package of tofu (150 cals, 16g protein).

S: 1 scoop of egg protein shake with water, 2 rice cakes w/ jam

I figure that's about 2500 calories but maybe I am underestimating?

Your BMR is 1700, but that's the amount of calories you need just to stay alive. The multiplier for a sedentary individual is 1.2, so your baseline calorie expenditure is more like 2,000 calories/day. From your description it sounds like you're burning 1,000 calories or more per day from exercise. So your maintenance point is somewhere around 3,000 calories. That explains why you're losing weight.

Eat up! :eat:

There is no such thing as a "calculation" for number of calories (unless maybe you are fitted up in a lab with special apparatus that measures things like the amount of oxygen passing in and out of your body - and even then it will only tell you how many calories you burnt during the experiment, rather than how many you'll need to achieve your goals under varying and unpredictable real-life conditions).

The formulas that you've seen are really just summaries of experiments that were done on specific groups of people at various times. Within the group of people tested, there would have been wide individual variations that are not reflected in the formula (which you can think of as a kind of "average"). Also, there are variations between different groups of people that are tested. So you have to see the formula as nothing more than a rough starting point - it'll give you a sane number of calories to use as a sensible initial guess, and after that you must use trial and error to find the right numbers for your goals. This means you might have to gradually increase or decrease your average calories before you reach a level where your body is changing an intended.

If this doesn't make sense, please consider this analogy. Suppose you wanted to buy a new pair of running shoes, and didn't know your shoe size. But you found somewhere a formula that predicts an "average" shoe size based on height and nose length. Furthermore, it turns out the formula has been obtained from a single experiment where twenty "average" college students had their feet, height, and nose lengths measured. The measurements came out with wide variations, and the formula simply gives what the researchers think is the "best fit" correlation between the various things being measured. Well, you wouldn't just accept their formula as the final word for choosing your shoe size. But you might very well start off with their predicted size as the first shoe size you try on in the shop, before taking it up or down as needed.

Right now I am 5'6", 137-140lbs and 8-10% body fat (last measured at 8%).

I lift weights for 90 minutes (total body workout excluding legs) 3x a week (M,W,F). Tuesday/Thursday I run between 6-8 miles and lift legs for 30 minutes. Sat I normally run 5-6 miles, Sun I either repeat or do one of my long runs (Between 12-20 miles depending on training season).


Can someone help me make sense as to why my calculations may be off? Is my calculated RMR too low? Maybe I am underestimating the amount of calories I eat in a day?

?

I think you are under estimating your intake and you might be overestimating your output. Either way you need to define your goals. It will be hard to maintain that 8% BF. You spend so much time in exercise, why? Are you competing?

Formulas generalize, you weigh 140 lbs to maintain that with no exercise, you would need about 10 calories for pound or 1400 calories. With all the activity you might need to add another 7 for exercise if your weight program is intense. or 980 calories, so that is 2380 calories. I suggest you add 400 calories for 6 weeks bringing you to 2780 calories and see where it carries you.

Take that diet and count it up with a close accurate count. Make sure you have a good count on input side.

Why over think?

If you are losing weight you don't want to then eat more.

If you are gaining weight you don't want to eat less.

You are you.

For me 2500 calories at 140lbs and I'm about maintaining but seem to be leaning out some how. Doesn't make sense to me that my waist is some how shrinking but it is. But if I was working out I'd need even more food.

philph...your explanation makes perfect sense. I think I am relying too much on the average calculations and not tailoring it to my higher intensity lifestyle.

I have been upping my calories recently to an above maintenance level and will try this for a few weeks to see what happens. With 2 marathons coming up, I'll really need to eat up as well.

rtestes...to answer your question, I'm not in competition but I will admit an obsession with maintaining definition and muscle mass (two opposing goals). I really try to stick to under 10% BF but realize that is only a temporary goal and eventually I will have to relax a bit and enjoy my life more in regards to food.

Thank you all for the replies, I just needed this to confirm my belief that I was not intaking the correct calorie count.