Friday, February 27, 2009

Caloric Intake Wakeup Call

I saw this on a thread at Livestrong.com where I frequently lurk. It is quite eye opening and somewhat confusing, particularly to me... someone who obsesses to stay between 1400-1800 calories a day. I know I've posted about this issue before, but my daily caloric maintenance is something around 2200 calories, and should still be around 1400 a day to lose two lbs per week. That means I should be consuming the amount of calories it takes to feed a healthy, growing child.

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Although it was inspired by a recent post, I don't want anyone to think that I might be bashing those who ask about relatively low caloric goals. Rather, I think that some real-world examples might just give you an idea of where you stay above, calorie-wise.

All of these recommendations are straight from doctors, or where applicable, vets.

A 22 pound cat


Calorie recommendation for weight maintenance - 660 cals

Moderately active 1 year old human child


Calorie recommendation for healthy growth - 1300 cals

Average adult coma patient


Calorie recommendation for weight/health maintenance - 2400 cals
(American Journal of Clinical Nutrition)


Alehmer (the guy in the middle)


Exercise Days - 4692
Rest Days - 3942
(Based on John Berardi's calculator, set for maintenance)

189lbs lean mass
2x exercise sessions daily


While you probably won't need as much as me, please eat more than a housecat or small child!

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So! For those of you who are counting or recording calories... what is your intake? I'm just curious. And does this information sway your decision? For me, it still doesn't change what my eating looks like.

On that note, here's my little chartadoodle for lately:

4 comments:

M said...

Eek! I dont count calories, maybe I should start. I just stopped eating out and cut out sugar foods(usually) and I just always assume Im eating right.

But you know what they say about assuming...

Katie said...

As a rule, I don't count calories. I just plugged a couple sample menus into Fitday though, and it looks like I probably get anywhere from 1300-1800/day. Honestly, there are probably days where I have 2000 calories, but even then I still lose weight because I don't eat flour/sugar/very carby things.

Hanlie said...

I've never counted calories and wouldn't even know how. To me it's all about eating healthy and when I stick to it, I lose weight. In parts of the world where people eat predominantly plant-based natural diets, even the people about 30% more calories than Westerners, but even the least active are on average about 20% thinner. That's the eating style I've been adopting. It's more about the quality of the food than the quantity.

Ria said...

Very interesting post.

I'm 5'8" and currently around 245 lbs (down approx 65 lbs). I track calorie intake and expenditure via FitDay, and aim for an average daily deficit of 1,000 calories.

I eat around 1,800 calories on days I don't work out and up to 2,200 on days I do work out, depending on the intensity of the workout. This definitely puts me on the high end of the calorie intake I read about in blogland, but I've experienced a very consistent 2 lbs per week weightloss with this approach.