Beginner's Weightlifting Nutrition - How Many Calories?

What Amount of Calories?

The amount of calories you need can be confusing to calculate. There are many different techniques and formulas used to compute this figure.

We will look at one of the simplest ways to work out your target calories for both putting on or loosing weight.

Start by weighing yourself to find your starting weight for the calculation. Skipping this step will leave youself with no way to record your progress and measure your achievements towards your goals. Weighing yourself before you start your weightlifting program will allow you to record, and see your progress on paper where sometimes it will not show in the mirror.

This is a very important motivational tool to keep you on track to meet your goals. So - just step on a scale. If you don't have one your gym will. Start by recording your weight and the date, then you simply eat more calories to gain weight. Obviously you consume less calories to loose weight. So simple.

How do we work out you calorie requirements?  We need to first calculateyour BMR (or Base metabolism rate).

For men, the formula is as follows:

·         BMR = 66 + (6.23 x weight in pounds) + (12.7 x height in inches) - (6.8 x age in year)

For example, let's compute the BMR for a 25 year old, 6 foot tall (72 inches), 185 pound man:

·         66 + (6.23 x 185 (pounds)) + (12.7 x 72 (inches) – (6.8 x 25 (years)) = 1897 BMR

Using the Harris Benedict formula, we can determine the caloric requirements based on the activity level of your lifestyle:

1.    Little or no exercise (NOT you) BMR x 1.2

2.    Light exercise 1-3 days per week BMR x 1.375

3.    Moderate exercise 3-5 days each week BMR x 1.55

4.    Hard exercise 6-7 days per week BMR x 1.725

5.    Very hard exercise 7 days per week BMR x 1.9

Using the previous example of the 25-year-old male, if he's lifting weights and doing cardio 3 days each week, his daily caloric requirement is approximately 2940 calories.

The figure above is considered a "maintenance" calorie level. He should neither gain nor lose weight if he maintains that calorie count and the moderate level of exercise.

Simply increase intake by 10% to gain weight. If your goal is to lose weight, it is recommended that you decrease your caloric intake by 20-25% of your maintenance level.

With the figures above a 25 year old man would consume about 3230 calories daily to gain weight and 2200 to loose weight.

Please note that the number of calories you should consume will fluctuate as your weight changes, or as your workouts become more frequent or strenuous.

You now know how much you should eat, we will look at what you should eat next.