How Many Calories Do You Need? (I love latin women!)
I got another comment today on my post the six meals per day myth about “how many calories”, specifically Elizabeth asked this:
“Hey Caleb,
Love your site…quick question: some of us ladies who need to eat 1200 calories a day to maintain body weight are confused as to how much we should eat if we’re trying to lose fat and gain muscle…any tips on where to start?”
How Many Calories Do You Need?
This is a confusing question, because without knowing anything else about a person, it’s almost impossible to answer.
Add to the fact that Elizabeth wasn’t exactly precise on whether she wanted to lose fat OR gain muscle … but I’ll answer this one anyways.
There are lots of “formulas” to try and figure out how many calories you need, but they’re all kind of just “guidelines” because your daily activity levels are going to vary.
E.g. if you watch 7 hours of T.V. a day like the average american and never get off the couch, then you don’t need a calorie more than your daily resting metabolic rate consumes … but … if you’re a super-soccer mom that spends those same 7 hours a day running errands and hits the gym for two hours even before your gym starts (like a lot of crazy women) then you probably need a little more calories.
Here’s what I suggest: first, use a unique tool like this to figure out your “resting metabolic rate” or how many calories you burn each day by just being alive. http://www.webmd.com/diet/healthtool-metabolism-calculator then move on to step two …
The Best Way To Figure Out Your Calories
Start with what you think your basil metabolic rate is. For most people it’s your bodyweight in pounds X 15 … then keep track of your calories on a daily basis and look in the mirror.
It’s as simple as that.
Go Up and Down By 500 Calories
The key here is to keep track of what you’re:
- Eating and
- Doing
Example: if you ran a marathon on monday and you found you ate 10,000 calories that day and were still hungry, that doesn’t mean you can eat 10,000 calories every day! So record about how active you were (sedentary, light, moderate, crazy active or something like that–don’t make it too complicated)
Keep track of your calorie levels too. If you’re going to decrease calories do it by about 500 calories per day and keep it at that level for a few days. Not looking like you’re losing weight after about 3-4 days? Decrease the calories by 500 again … keep repeating.
Keep Track Of It!
You’re NOT going to be able to estimate this. This has been proven time and time again in clinical trials that people suck at figuring out how many calories they actually eat V.S. how many they actually do.
Real world, “look around” you clinical trials show this too! People say all the time, “I don’t know how I’m gaining weight, I haven’t changed my eating habits!” Yeah right, that frapaccino 1,000 calorie bomb and extra muffin a day aren’t helping things buddy 
So here’s what you do: use a free service like fitday.com to keep track of your calories. Do this for at LEAST the first month or however long the experiment lasts.
Then you’ll find yourself repeating favorite meals, etc and you’ll get a better idea of how many calories you’re eating per day.
Lastly, You NEED To Do Resistance Training!
This is so important, YES EVEN IF YOU’RE A LADY!
You need to be doing Strength Training while you’re dieting! Especially since your question was “how much we should eat if we’re trying to lose fat and gain muscle…any tips on where to start?” because you can, in fact, lose fat while gaining muscle (or at least maintaining it) … which then leads to losing more fat.
Why?
Because it’s been proven women can lose a significant amount of fat while maintaining their muscle mass and even slightly increasing it which helps increase your metabolic rate … and because you’re dieting (as low as 800 calories per day in this cited study) … you’re burning extra calories just by having muscle and losing (fat) weight!
So it’s vitally important to keep up the resistance training no matter whether your goal is fat loss or muscle gain. If you are doing resistance training plus cutting calories by 500 every 3-4 days you’re going to see some differences in the mirror–I guarantee it– really fast.
You’ll start looking “firmer”. Harder, more solid. And you’ll be losing weight at the same time. So that’s the long answer to “how many calories do you need?”
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Great advice – I’d only add that you especially want to make sure you don’t eat too few calories because if you’re not bringing enough in then it doesn’t matter how active you are; you are going to gain fat. If your body thinks you are in a famine it’s gonna start storing fat so that you have reserves to keep you going when the food completely runs out.
Balance in everything tends to be the key…
@ Blaine: it’s actually really hard to put your body into the “famine” mode so many fitness “experts” say is so dangerous and that you need to avoid at all costs.
They’ve done studies where individuals were fasted — No food at all — for over 36 hours and their resting metabolic rate was unchanged even after those 2.5 days of going without any food.
It takes a while to get into that famine state everyone warns of. Think about it, the famine idea makes sense right? Your body stores fat for what? For fuel for you body when it senses it’s not getting enough calories … so eventually it’s planning on USING those fat stores, right? Yup! And as long as you’re resistance training – your body will preferentially burn the fat first for fuel instead of your muscle if you go into calorie deficit mode.
But on your final point, “Balance in everything tends to be the key…” I agree. My point is just that none of us reading this (because we’re in developed countries with plenty of access to food) have ever been anywhere close to this famine mode all the “experts” warn of
Caleb definitely has a better sence of it than you Blaine. Not that you’re entirely wrong, it’s just that when someone doesnt eat enough, they wont gain fat. Their body will not allow them to lose it as fast. Thats why people who starve themselves for a few days up to a few weeks see no major decrease in body fat as opposed to those who eat correctly and exercise. And then due to a lack of muscle (caused by a lack of proper nutrition and exercise) and body preservation mode, the crash dieters will gain any lost weight back with a rapid pace. As Caleb has said before, Rome wasnt built in a day. Some people realize this but most dont. But hey, gotta expect that. There’s alot of dumb out there.
Hi Caleb,
Just saw that my question was answered, thank you! To clear things up, I did mean fat loss while gaining lean muscle. I think I had bought into the “starvation mode” misinformation out there and was worried that I would work hard and not see results, basically being counter-productive. Not to mention all the other factors that play into minimal weight loss: lack of sleep, lapse in diet, unbelievable amounts of stress…when we think of “balance,” I believe we need to think further beyond the “balanced diet” and focus on a “balanced lifestyle.” I know that’s why I have gained so much body fat in the past 2 years, despite periods of cardio and weights. Let this be a lesson to all of you who push your workweek hours and sacrifice sleep!
I think Blaine makes a good point. I know there are a lot of women out there who do not eat enough (barely 1200 cals a day) and that definitely slows the metabolism, especially if they’re working out on top of that.
I also think it’s pretty outrageous to eat only 1200 cals a day to maintain, as stated in the original question. That was my diet for about a year, and it freaking sucked! I always felt like I was restricting and was often quite hungry. I’m 5′7 and weighted around 120-125. Once I started working out and eating a healthly1700 -2500 a day, I dropped to 116, and I’ve hovered there ever since. You’ve got to eat to lose!
Hey Caleb. Thanks for the articles and advice. Its great! I have a question though, what do we do when we get ’stuck’ at a weight plateau. No matter how much we mix up food intake and mix up exercise intensity, it seems our bodies don’t want to let go of the weight.
A friend and I both have ~40 pounds to loose to be at our healthy weight. We’ve been working out 6 days a week for at least an hour and eating a 1000-1300 calorie diet mostly made of lean protein, veggies, and complex carbs. We’re taking out as much sugar and salt of our diet as much as possible and drinking 2 liters of water a day. We’re doing around 30 min. cardio (the panting and can’t breath kind/no slow walks here) followed by 30 min. resistance training, and ab workouts. In two and a half weeks, we’ve so far lost only ~7pounds each. Which is good, but frustratingly slow. How is it that you lost 23 pounds in 14 days like it said in your ‘life kicks you in the teeth’ entry?
Hi Randa,
I'll be putting together a special report on this. But basically it involves a REALLY strict diet for that short period of time.
And about 6 of those pounds were water weight, but still 17lbs of real fat/weight lost in 14 days is nothing to sneeze at