Ok, the reader is now thinking, “It can’t be that complicated to gure out how many calories I need to gain quality weight!” The reader would be correct. I just wanted to show some of the methods commonly used to get exact gures for calories. A much simpler, albeit potentially less ne-tuned method for calculating calorie needs, goes like so:
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Goal
Weight Loss
Weight Maintenance
Slight Weight Gain
Greater Weight Gain
Weight Gain (Active People)
Calories per kg
20 - 25 kcal x kg
25 - 30 kcal x kg
30 - 35 kcal x kg
35 - 40 kcal x kg
45 kcal x kg
Calories per lbs
9 - 11 kcal x lbs
11 - 14 kcal x lbs
14 - 16 kcal x lbs
16 - 18 kcal x lbs
20 kcal x lbs
So, let’s return to our person who weighs 200 lb. (about 91 kg). We’ll use
the goal of “Greater Weight Gain” and a gure of 40 kcal/kg for a person -
like me - who is active, but not really an athlete. If we crunch the numbers,
we nd that such a person will need 3,640 calories a day.
This is, needless to state, pretty close to the gure of 3,509 calories we
worked so hard to come up with in the previous section. Another victory
for the K.I.S.S. principle!
Now, those numbers are not written in stone. For example, the reader could
start out using the 35 kcals per kg gure and see if that is enough calories
to start gaining weight while lifting weights and doing other activities.
In my experience however, this might not be enough calories. Another
method may be to start at the 35 kcals per kg gure and add 300 kcals per
week until weight gain occurs.
You will have to make some judgement calls and decisions on your own
regarding calories. For example, if you are naturally lean and have had
trouble putting weight on in the past, you may want to start at the higher
calorie intake of 45 kcals per kg.
On the other hand, if you are a person who carries more body fat than you
want, or have always had an easy time gaining weight in the form of body
fat, you may want to start at the lower calorie intake of either 30 or 35 kcals
per kg.
I strongly suggest you keep good records of your food and supplements,
you can do this using the Diet Planner software in the Members’ Area. Us-
ing the Diet Planner will be covered in detail in the next chapter, but suf-
ce it to say, it’s a valuable tool that can help you track your diet and make
adjustments according to your results.
While it’s important to eat as “clean” as possible, past a certain point it’s
often di cult - especially for very active, younger people - to get enough
calories from the recommended foods. It’s virtually impossible to eat
4,000+ calories a day from boiled chicken and brown rice as many of the
bodybuilders in the magazines claim to do (hint: I have been with many a
pro bodybuilder who virtually lived at Taco Bell in the o -season!). Enlist-
ing the help of protein powders, MRP’s, and other calorie dense foods (e.g.,
think pizza and a few cheese burgers!) becomes necessary. A thin crust
pizza with some added tuna, for example, when your exercising hard is no
great sin. Additionally a burger on wholemeal bread, with a homemade
100% beef patty and salad, is equally in the cards when your trying to con-
sume over 4000 calories per day (and for some, as much as 7000 calories or
more per day). Anabolic nutrition requires anabolic foods, so nutrition is a
priority when creating your diet plan. Feel free to improvise, however, to
get the calories you need. Capische?
Now that we have the approximate calories gured out for making consis-
tent gains in weight, we need to gure out the macronutrient breakdown.
That is, we have to gure out how much protein, fat, and carbs a person
needs within the context of caloric intake, as gured above. The best way
to go about that goal is: a) gure out protein requirements; followed by b)
fat requirements; and nally c) carbohydrate requirements. Following this
“a, b, c” format will make the process easier to understand and follow
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There are several methods for calculating calories specie to the needs and
desires of the individual - in this case, men and women who want to pack
on quality weight (i.e. muscle) as a result of their hard work in the gym.
Some formulas are a tad on the complicated side while others are quite
simple. Although the following section will be overly complicated for
some, don’t despair. A far easier method for calculating calories follows,
and the entire e-book uses it for the calculations on diet and calories. Ulti-
mately, we will depend on the simple calorie calculations as our guide in
this section.
It should be noted, however, that the more complicated formulas tend to
be the more precise. An example of one of the more complicated formulas
for guring out calorie intakes based on the person’s gender, activity lev-
els, etc. is below. First, you need to calculate your RMR., then add TEM and
EPEE, to get TEE. Finally, you have to add additional calories if weight gain
is the goal.
Probably the most commonly used formula for calculating RMR., is known
as the Harris-Benedict formula. It di ers for male/female. However, an eas-
ier variant of Harris-Benedict Formula goes like so:
Formula to calculate RMR for men:
RMR = 66 + (13.7 x weight in kg) + (5 x height in cm)
- (6.8 x age in years)
Formula to calculate RMR for women:
RMR = 655 + (9.6 X weight in kg) + (1.8 X height in
cm) - (4.7 X age in years)
To calculate your total calorie needs, multiply your RMR by the appropriate
activity multiplier:
• If you are sedentary (little or no exercise, desk job): multiply your
RMR by 1.2
Chapter 2/The Harris-Benedict Formula
•
•
•
If you are lightly active (light exercise/sports 1-3 days/wk): multiply
your RMR by 1.375
If you are moderately active (moderate exercise/sports 3-5 days/wk):
multiply your RMR by 1.55
If you perform heavy exercise (hard exercise/sports 6-7 days/wk):
multiply your RMR by 1.725
Don’t forget: add 10% to account for TEM
Example Calculation:
Using the above formula and other needed information to gure out
how many calories are needed for quality gains, I plugged in my own
stats: 167.5cm tall, 41 years old, and the moderate Activity Multiplier
of 1.55. Because the e-book uses the body weight of 200 lb. through-
out as the example weight in the Simple Method and the rest of the
e-book, I used that weight (though I weigh approximately 175 lb. give
or take) in the formula. So:
Weight in kilograms: 200 lb. / 2.2 = 90.9 kg
Height = 167.5 cm
Age = 41
Activity Multiplier: 1.55
RMR = 66 + (13.7 x 90.9 kg) + (5 x 167.5 cm) - (6.8 x 41 years) = 66 +
1245.3 + 837.5 - 278.8 = 1870 kcal
1870 kcal x 1.55 = 2898.5 kcal - this can be rounded o to 2900 kcal
Now we add 10% (290 kcal) to account for TEM:
2900 + 290 = 3190 kcal
So - for the purposes of this example, my total calorie needs ( TDEE) are
3190 kcal per day.
The above still only accounts for RMR, TEM, and to some degree, EEPA, but
does not take into account the goal of actually gaining weight. We need
to add additional calories for that.
My recommendation would be to add an additional 10% to the number
you come up with if you choose to use the above formula. So, continuing
my example, 3190 kcals plus an additional 10% = 3509 kcals per day for the
above example to account for RMR, TEF, EEPA, plus an additional 10% to
that gure to gain weight.
Remember, those numbers can be quite di erent person-to-person as such
a formula has many potential variables to plug in. Thus, do not use my ex-
amples to decide on calorie intakes.
Also, one does not have to start out with an additional 10%. People who
add fat easily or already have a higher amount of body fat may need to
exercise more caution. One could start out with an additional 5% and see
if weight gain takes place, increasing calories by 5% until weight gain does
take place.
Hardgainers, on the other hand, could start with 20% above RMR, TEF, and
EEPA, to get weight gain moving.
What do I recommend? I recommend you make life much easier on your-
self and forget all about this formula and use the “Simple Method” outlined
in the next section! The point of this section was to highlight the di erent
factors that determine total daily energy needs. Some people like to make
things as hard as they can, but for the rest of us, the K.I.S.S. principle works
just as well.
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