Calorie calculator

Put on quite a bit of timber over the last couple of years, mainly down a to a change of job - was travelling quite a lot meaning eating well and exercising became a bit of a challenge

Things have settled down now and have settled into a nice habit of working out 4/5 times a week - mixture of kettlebells, cycling and running.

My body is undoubtedly changing and can see progress when it comes to muscle growth - stomach is a bit flatter, arms and shoulders definitely look more toned and lower legs are ripped.

However, I’m not losing much fat at all and weight has actually gone up (expected that tbh). But I’m definitely getting ‘slimmer’ as I can fit into my old clothes again.

However I’m still carrying a bit too much fat and it’s definitely down to diet.

The main problem I have is I can’t quite work out how many calories I need to eat to build muscle while losing weight. Another thing I struggle with is tracking how many calories I’ve burned through exercise and whether I can eat more as a result.

Is there a handy calculator that I can use as a rough guide for working out how many I should be eating?

Can use MFP for tracking and macros but just need ti work out the base point
 
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Put on quite a bit of timber over the last couple of years, mainly down a to a change of job - was travelling quite a lot meaning eating well and exercising became a bit of a challenge

Things have settled down now and have settled into a nice habit of working out 4/5 times a week - mixture of kettlebells, cycling and running.

My body is undoubtedly changing and can see progress when it comes to muscle growth - stomach is a bit flatter, arms and shoulders definitely look more toned and lower legs are ripped.

However, I’m not losing much fat at all and weight has actually gone up (expected that tbh). But I’m definitely getting ‘slimmer’ as I can fit into my old clothes again.

However I’m still carrying a bit too much fat and it’s definitely down to diet.

The main problem I have is I can’t quite work out how many calories I need to eat to build muscle while losing weight. Another thing I struggle with is tracking how many calories I’ve burned through exercise and whether I can eat more as a result.

Is there a handy calculator that I can use as a rough guide for working out how many I should be eating?

Can use MFP for tracking and macros but just need ti work out the base point
I’m a shit example, cos I put 2st on in lockdown & haven’t shifted it yet, but, when I did drop weight 4/5 years ago, it was a mixture of MFP & Fitbit.

Basically if you burn 3,500 calories more than you eat, you’ll loose 1lb of fat. 500 calorie deficit a day. My average calorie burn is 3,300 per day, so 2,800. 2,300 if I want to do 2lb per week.

Sounds easy, but I’m a typical Monday-Friday is fine, get pissed on a weekend & drink loads of useless calories & eat worse cos of it.

I probably need to knock the drink on the head for a few months to make it work, but there’s too many reasons, holidays, festivals, nights out etc to mean I won’t.
 
I’m a shit example, cos I put 2st on in lockdown & haven’t shifted it yet, but, when I did drop weight 4/5 years ago, it was a mixture of MFP & Fitbit.

Basically if you burn 3,500 calories more than you eat, you’ll loose 1lb of fat. 500 calorie deficit a day. My average calorie burn is 3,300 per day, so 2,800. 2,300 if I want to do 2lb per week.

Sounds easy, but I’m a typical Monday-Friday is fine, get pissed on a weekend & drink loads of useless calories & eat worse cos of it.

I probably need to knock the drink on the head for a few months to make it work, but there’s too many reasons, holidays, festivals, nights out etc to mean I won’t.
I don’t think I eat anywhere near that amount of calories

Have 2 coffee for breakfast and often only have something small for lunch - toast or crackers.

Usually cook something from scratch for dinner around 1000 calories.

Wonder if I can find out how many calories I burn on average each day with my Apple Watch somehow. I track calories burned through exercise but not sure if it shows how many you burn in total in a day.

That’s the bit I’m struggling with
 
I'm trying to lose a bit body fat while maintaining/slightly building muscle mate.
It's hard to do but im aiming for a defecit of around 300-500 cals, but making sure my Protein is sufficient to maintain or build lean muscle.
So I think it's about 1g protein per lb of body weight. Or I've also seen 2.2g protein per kg of body weight.
So I'm 12st (give or take), which is apparently about 167lb.

About 170g protein a day for me
 
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@supersesh has a class business, Team RH that will help you massively. It’s cheap as chips too.
Also, this video explains why NOT to let MFP set your values.

Thanks. Will have a look at that

MFP has been shite like. It’s telling me to eat 1850 calories a day which is why I’m always fuxking starving and can’t stick to it

Just had a look at what my watch says I’m using as resting energy + active and taken off 500, which is saying closer to 2200

That’s a pretty decent amount of eating to be missing out on
 
I don’t think I eat anywhere near that amount of calories

Have 2 coffee for breakfast and often only have something small for lunch - toast or crackers.

Usually cook something from scratch for dinner around 1000 calories.

Wonder if I can find out how many calories I burn on average each day with my Apple Watch somehow. I track calories burned through exercise but not sure if it shows how many you burn in total in a day.

That’s the bit I’m struggling with
It does on the app, though no idea how accurate it is.
 
Yeah I’ve just seen it.

I imagine it’s got a fair amount of variance from the reality so may bring the numbers down a bit
Although the number is probably way off, it will be useful for comparing against yourself if that makes sense. So Mon-Fri I was showing as 3.5-4k cals burned, and only 2.5k yesterday as I barely moved my fat hungover arse off the sofa
 
What kind of job do you have - are you on your feet a lot?

Cos my numbers are way way behind that even though I work out 3-5 times a week but sit behind a desk all day
Desk job but WFH mostly - I tend to walk at least an hour a day though split over a couple of walks at a decent pace, gym for 60-90 mins (I also take pre-workout which gets the heart rate up a bit thus the watch shows as more cals burned) and the occasional game of squash etc thrown in.
 
Desk job but WFH mostly - I tend to walk at least an hour a day though split over a couple of walks at a decent pace, gym for 60-90 mins (I also take pre-workout which gets the heart rate up a bit thus the watch shows as more cals burned) and the occasional game of squash etc thrown in.
That’s made my numbers seem even more mad :lol:

GQ were talking about a gadget that calculates your BMR at home. Might have to just buy that cos I’m now certain I’m f***ing this up somehow.
 

Main problem with the OP is that you're aiming for something that isn't realistic once you've been training for a couple of months (simultaneously gaining muscle and losing fat).

You need to cyclically rotate through periods of losing fat and then gaining muscle.
 

Main problem with the OP is that you're aiming for something that isn't realistic once you've been training for a couple of months (simultaneously gaining muscle and losing fat).

You need to cyclically rotate through periods of losing fat and then gaining muscle.
Thanks. That’s really helpful.

So are you saying if I want to lose weight I should go with that calorie deficit of 500 but adjust it when I’m happy with the result. Then rinse and repeat
 
Thanks. That’s really helpful.

So are you saying if I want to lose weight I should go with that calorie deficit of 500 but adjust it when I’m happy with the result. Then rinse and repeat

In terms of deficit, generally as a blanket recommendation I say 0.5-1% of body weight loss per week. Providing protein and training are as they should be, this should be a good rate to maintain as much muscle as possible, whilst losing a fair amount of fat without feeling overly lethargic.

As I say, it's a general recommendation and it's dependent on how much body fat you're carrying, how experienced you are etc. Get a rough estimate of calorie intake, knock off around 500kcal and you should be in that 0.5-1% per week range. Initially, the scales can be a bit tricky, which is why they should just be a tool that you average out the readings over each week just.

A 1lb fat tissue loss may not actually be reflected on the scales immediately, as their are other factors that will effect weight (stress is a massive trigger for water retention for example and even when you take out external stress from life, dieting in itself after a certain point can be stressful to the body and mind). Sometimes you may trend fine for a few weeks on the scales, have a few weeks where nowt really seems to happen but then you just drop 3lb out of nowhere. Things like that are mostly water. Week to week pics in the same pose/lighting will be your friend, alongside weight and how you feel.
 
Generally need to be in calorie surplus to build muscle and deficit to lose weight. Cycling muscle building and weight loss is key.
 

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