What's up with calories?

Here's a basic nutritional/caloric guideline.


To calculate your caloric needs, you can use this simple formula. It uses your target weight, how active you are, and your age.

Take your target weight and multiply it by 10 for light activity, by 15 for moderate activity, by 20 if you are exercising vigorously.


Then take that number and subtract 100 for ages to 44, 200 for ages 45 to 54, 300 for ages 55 to 64, and 400 for ages 65 and above.

This will give you a caloric base.


For example, let's say you are 30 years old, and your target weight is 130 - we would take 130 and multiply it by 13. With your workout plan, you would fall between light and moderate activity. The total is 1690. We would then subtract 100 for your age - leaving us with a total of 1590 . Your daily target calories would be 1590.

For the nutritional breakdown I would suggest 30 percent of total calories from protein,50 percent of total calories from carbs, and 20 percent of total calories to come from fat.

How a 1590 calorie day breaks down:

Protein - 30%: 30% x 1590 = 477 divided by 4 (1 gram of protein is equal to 4 calories) = 119 grams of protein per day.

Carbs - 50%: 50% x 1590 = 795 divided by 4 ( 1 gram of carbs is equal to 4 calories) = 199 grams of carbs per day.

Fat - 20%: 20% x 1590 = 318 divided by 9 ( 1 gram of fat is equal to 9 calories) = 35 grams of fat per day.

You would then take these individual numbers and divide them into the number of meals you would eat in a day. So, if you have 6 meals a day, each meal would have approx. 19 grams of protein, 33 grams of carbs, and 4 grams of fat.