Caloric Cap — How many calories are right for me?

(Disclaimer: I do not recommend counting calories. Although, I think this is useful information because it gives you an idea of about how much food you should be eating everyday. It is more important the types of foods you're putting into your mouth, rather than the number of calories, because not all calories are created equal. Read more of my nutrition posts to see what kinds of foods we should be eating.)

Unfortunately, for those of us who love food, what we eat is about 80% of what we look like :( Therefore, what and how much we eat is extremely important.

Whether we like it or not, we all have a caloric cap, in which once we eat past a certain amount of calories, our body will use the excess food, and store it as fat. How lovely :)

Some fall into the trap of thinking “I worked out today so I can eat whatever I want.” But at the end of the day, if you ate more than you burned, you’ll still gain weight. That’s because the weight loss balance equation is simple: Less calories in than calories out.

So how do I know how many calories to eat?

There are two ways our body burns calories:
1. RMR (Resting Metabolic Rate)
2. Lifestyle (Daily activities + Exercise)

RMR x Lifestyle Multiplyer = TOTAL METABOLISM (Your personal calorie cap)

1. RMR: What is Resting Metabolic Rate (RMR)? It’s the amount of calories your body burns naturally, even if you laid in bed all day. There are two things to know about your RMR:

A. Find out what it is (we’ll get to that part in a bit)
B. Never eat below it! If you eat below your RMR, your body will go into starvation mode and use your muscle for fuel. This will lower your RMR. That’s BAD! The more calories your body burns naturally (which is what your RMR is) the more you get to eat! And vice versa, so don’t eat below it!

Let’s figure it out: The Harris-Benedict Equation is a formula we’ll use to assess your RMR. Please take into account that it is just a formula, and can overestimate your RMR by about 10%. Even though it might not be 100% accurate, it’s better than not having any guidelines at all.

Here’s where we do some math. Now — having said that — I hate math. And, I hate counting calories. So don’t worry, it’ll take a little bit of plugging in at the beginning, and then we’ll be set, so hang in there!

For females the formula is:

655 + (4.3 x weight in pounds) + (4.7 x height in inches) – (4.7 x age in years)

Ex. Sally weighs 150 lbs, stands 5’6”, and is 21 years old.

RMR = 655 + (4.3 x 150) + (4.7 x 66) – (4.7 x 21)
RMR = 655 + 653 + 286 – 99 = 1,511 kcals per day (Estimated)

2. Lifestyle: Remember how I said your RMR is how many calories you burn if you laid in bed all day. Unless you’re on bed rest, you’re moving and walking around. So now we need to add in your LIFESTYLE.

Identify your Lifestyle (I’ve used a few descriptions as a measuring tool):

Sedentary = 1.28
Very light = 1.38 (Home or work requires little physical effort. Perform housecleaning chores, but nothing very demanding, don’t walk much, no exercise or sports)
Light = 1.48
Moderate = 1.72 (Work involves heavy lifting, physically demanding much of the time, play vigorous sports 3x a week)
Moderate Heavy = 1.86
Heavy = 2.26
Very Heavy = 2.67

Now Plug it in:

RMR x Lifestyle Multiplyer = TOTAL METABOLISM

Ex: Sally(see above): RMR 1511 x 1.48 (Light daily activity level) = 2,236 Cals

So Sally can eat 2,236 calories everyday if she is trying to maintain her weight. If she wants to lose 1 lb of fat per week, she’d subtract 500 calories from that number and she should lose 1 lb of fat per week. (This is because 1 lb fat = 3500 cals. 3500 cals/7 days = 500.) Sally’s Caloric Cap is : 1736.

Putting it into practice:

I said earlier I hate counting calories. SO I DON’T! I go to FITDAY.COM or CALORIE KING and sign in. I type in what I ate, how much, and it tells me how many calories is in that food. I only do it for about a week to get an idea of how much I should eat. Then I'll do it every once in a while to keep myself in check. Check it out!

I wanted that to be the first thing I shared with you because it’s so important to know how much we should be eating. So with whatever nutrition tips I give in the future, you will know how to directly apply them to you! Good luck!