So I’ve been working on a cutting diet which I’m documenting on Transformible.com. I worked through several calculators to estimate Calories which all put me in the 2200 to 2500 range. I’m not a very active individual currently. I work most of the day in front of a computer. I exercise 4-5 times per week at the gym lifting weights for 30 minutes. I go hiking on the weekends. I’m 70 inches tall and weight 180 pounds. If I had to guess I would put myself around 13% bodyfat, though this is an incredibly inaccurate measure. So how many Calories do you think I would need on a daily basis? Turns out I need over 3700 Calories to maintain my current condition.
I was afraid that 2700 sounded too low so I upped that to 3000 Calories before I started. I felt a bit weak and was losing weight too fast during the first week so I bumped that up to 3200 Calories. This seems to be okay as I’ve lost slightly over a pound in 5 days. I was shooting for a pound a week so this still may be a little low, but I can work with it. Since I’m losing weight I’m in a Calorie deficit. Since it’s about a pound I have at least a 3500 Calorie per week deficit. So I’m normally sitting at over 3700 Calories to maintain my physique. I’ve always found my metabolism to be fast, but it was pretty interesting seeing where it actually falls. When I was in college and actually active it would have been interesting to do this experiment.