Caloric intake...how much? - Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community

The Magic · 11-04-2004, 05:59 PM

Hey guys, I'm going to begin a diet and start running and I was curious about caloric intake.

I'm about 5'9", give or take an inch, and ~130-135 lbs. I wouldn't consider myself fat really, but I'm pretty out of shape. Luckily I'm one of those blessed with a metabolism where you can pretty much eat all you want and not gain weight -- I'm a senior in high school and haven't gained a pound since 8th grade. However, that blessing doesn't really pertain to keeping me in shape, so I still tire out pretty easily and have some extra fat I'd like to get rid of.

I'm going to run for about 30 minutes monday through friday, with some push ups and sit ups on the side. What would be ideal for this plan? I've read that my caloric intake should be something like my weight x 12-15, but I've also read that will only cover my metabolism. That value came out to about 1400 calories per day and I also read that a caloric intake in that range is considerably small and nearly starving myself.

I plan to do something like the 40/40/20 plan and eat ~5 meals a day, but I am just very confused on how many calories I should be eating. My goal is to cut extra fat I have right now and just tone my muscles (I don't expect to see much growth just doing running/pushups/situps). It doesn't bother me if the caloric intake is low and I will have to eat less, but I am just worried about screwing up and doing something unhealthy when my goal is to be more healthy. Thanks ahead of time.

gospastic · 11-04-2004, 10:00 PM

if you are going to start exercising, you definitely should eat more than you're eating now, especially if you don't gain weight eating how much ever you've been eating.

a 40/40/20 plan is good in my opinion. that's what i do. to give you an idea, on my workout day's i eat at least 3000 calories on a 40/40/20 split. i'm 5'7", 160. so that's about 19 calories per lb, and that's just to maintain.

i don't know how many calories you eat right now. the only way to find out is to track it for a few days. i use fitday.com. if you're unsure of certain things, you could get a food scale, it's helped me immensely in counting calories.

after you find out how many calrories/day you are currently eating, just make sure to eat more than that to cover anything you burn during your workouts, because it sounds like you're not too worried about weight gain, and you're pretty skinny as it is. the mere act of doing exercise will probably help you lose some fat, or at least gain some muscle if you do some weight training.

11-04-2004, 05:59 PM	#1 (permalink)
The Magic Crazy Location: Reality	Caloric intake...how much? Hey guys, I'm going to begin a diet and start running and I was curious about caloric intake. I'm about 5'9", give or take an inch, and ~130-135 lbs. I wouldn't consider myself fat really, but I'm pretty out of shape. Luckily I'm one of those blessed with a metabolism where you can pretty much eat all you want and not gain weight -- I'm a senior in high school and haven't gained a pound since 8th grade. However, that blessing doesn't really pertain to keeping me in shape, so I still tire out pretty easily and have some extra fat I'd like to get rid of. I'm going to run for about 30 minutes monday through friday, with some push ups and sit ups on the side. What would be ideal for this plan? I've read that my caloric intake should be something like my weight x 12-15, but I've also read that will only cover my metabolism. That value came out to about 1400 calories per day and I also read that a caloric intake in that range is considerably small and nearly starving myself. I plan to do something like the 40/40/20 plan and eat ~5 meals a day, but I am just very confused on how many calories I should be eating. My goal is to cut extra fat I have right now and just tone my muscles (I don't expect to see much growth just doing running/pushups/situps). It doesn't bother me if the caloric intake is low and I will have to eat less, but I am just worried about screwing up and doing something unhealthy when my goal is to be more healthy. Thanks ahead of time.

11-04-2004, 10:00 PM	#2 (permalink)
gospastic Upright	if you are going to start exercising, you definitely should eat more than you're eating now, especially if you don't gain weight eating how much ever you've been eating. a 40/40/20 plan is good in my opinion. that's what i do. to give you an idea, on my workout day's i eat at least 3000 calories on a 40/40/20 split. i'm 5'7", 160. so that's about 19 calories per lb, and that's just to maintain. i don't know how many calories you eat right now. the only way to find out is to track it for a few days. i use fitday.com. if you're unsure of certain things, you could get a food scale, it's helped me immensely in counting calories. after you find out how many calrories/day you are currently eating, just make sure to eat more than that to cover anything you burn during your workouts, because it sounds like you're not too worried about weight gain, and you're pretty skinny as it is. the mere act of doing exercise will probably help you lose some fat, or at least gain some muscle if you do some weight training.