Calorie Confusion

Well kinda confused about calorie intake. from what ive learned so far, you need to be eating as many calories as how much you weigh, add a zero to the end of how much you weigh (my weight- 180, so i should be eating some where around 1800, to stay the same weight, but in order to lose weight you need to creat a deficit. so if i burn about 500 cal a day from working out and doing my job ( Acura technitian) that would be about 3500 cal a week, which would be 1 lb. thats what ive been doing and ive lost a good amount of weight and inches. what im confused about is i was reading a Maximum Fitness mag, and they have an Ab's 08'' article. they have all these ab exercises and what not. they also have a food list of different things you could pic from through out the week. well they have the total calories a day to be around 2300. also i read on arnels site that he was eating around 2000-2200 cal. so am i not eating enough. how do i find out how much i need to eat the right way. sorry so lond but hopefully someone can help me and maybe answer someone else's question. thanx in advance.

Hey there bro!

Sorry for the late reply man, been quite busy these days! From what I know and read is that 2300 calories is about for the average sized male, obviously if you are much bigger than most males you will have to consume more calories. So to break up all the confusion about calories you need to work out mathematically how many calories you need in order to be in a safe caloric deficit

These calculations are based on your gender, age, weight, height and level of activity. Visit http://www.inch-aweigh.com/dcn.php fill in all your info and it will work out how many calories your body needs per day then you can reduce is so that you are in a caloric deficit, I myself go for a 15 - 20% below maintainance

Hope that helps you out man
Steve

thanks for the help bro. i went to the site and filled in my numbers, but i dont know if its right. it says i need 720 cal a day to stay the same weight. if you want to see what im talking about here are my numbers: age 32, weight 180, height 5'7". im an Acura technitian, which i do alot of walking and moving, so i did the most active level

Yea that sounds way off to me, they must have summin incorrect with there calculations. But here is the site that I used when I calculated my BMR ( basal metabolic rate). It's accurate and has worked for me here's the site http://walking.about.com/cs/calories/l/blcalcalc.htm

wow, it says i should be eating 2685 cal. some one said to add a 0 at the end of how much you weigh and that would give me 1800 cal. thats how much i should be eating to stay the same. man they were way off. but on the site it says to lose weight i should take off 500 cal a day and that you create the defitcit. so 500 from 2685 gives me 2185. so if im eating the 1800 they told me, this should be good then, right. the thing is im pretty much always hungry every 2 hrs. some times earlier. i usually eating every 2 1/2- 3 hrs. should i do the whole 2185 cal.

Yea i would definately go for more than 2000 calories. If you hungry all the time thats a pretty good sign that your not eating enough calories, as long as your daily caloric intake is below your BMR then you will lose weight.

thanx for all the input Steve. im going to redo my food plan this weekend. do you know where i can find a weight lifting guide on what are some good exercises to do for lifting to bulk up. im going to do the usual, bench press, squats, etc. also, my goal is too look like the Bowflex guys, not to big not to small. do i want to lift more weight with less reps or less weight with more reps. thanx again.

Basically in order to bulk up you have to eat more calories than you spend. So u gotta eat big, lift heavy (8 -10 rep range) and reduce cardio a little bit.

I tried both those sites and they seemed a little off. The first one told me i needed 720 cals a day and im 6 foot 180, so i dunno, then the next one said 2800, haha,

I went on FitDay.Com and added up everything from one of Arnels sample diets and it came out to 1400 calories. Any ideas?

It's all trial and error man, if you get to caught up in the calories then you make it a chore instead of just enjoying the meals. After awhile you will get pretty good at getting the portion sizes and macronutrient ratios right. Train hard, eat clean food and you will get awesome results!

Steve