Simple Way To Determine Your Maintenance Level

As I stated earlier, there’s really no way of determining exactly how many calories you should eat to maintain your current body weight. Here’s the challenge. Caloric requirements can change from person to person—even if they have similar qualifying factors. Caloric requirements can also change from time period to time period within the same person. You may need to make some adjustments depending on the amount of exercise you do, the type of exercise, and your own individual metabolic factors.
I have a method to make the process of determining the amount of calories you should eat much simpler—and probably just as effective.
1. Get a book with a complete listing of foods, their calories, and macro nutrient breakdown.
2. Using the information I’ve provided in the previous section of this article, decide on an appropriate breakdown of macro nutrients for your daily food intake. Don’t worry about being exact, you can make changes later if necessary.
3. Decide on the number of meals you are committed to eating each day (I have listed some strategies to help you determine the right amount for you in the next section of this article).
4. This may sound too simple, but just pick a total number of calories you’ll eat each day and divide that number by the number of meals you are committed to eating. This will give you the total number of calories you should plan to eat during each meal. After determining the amount of calories you should eat each meal, get your complete book of foods and plan your meals from there.
1.500, 2,000, 3,000—whichever number you choose, you’ll soon be able to figure out what adjustments you need to make. I firmly believe the excuse of not knowing exactly how many calories you should eat is simply a diversion to the real challenge—committing to go through the necessary sacrifice to eat the way you should to support your bodybuilding efforts. If this is not true—and you are acute to the way your body is processing the food you are eating—this simple method will get you started immediately.

How Many Calories Should You Eat?

“How many calories should I eat? I’m a 23 year-old man, 5’ 9” 180 pounds and I've 12.5 percent body fat……….” This is a question that I’ve been asked literally thousands of times by bodybuilders at different levels of experience from all over the world.
Many lifters get confused about how many calories they should eat— especially when they read in the muscle magazines how much food other bodybuilders eat. Some bodybuilders say they eat 10,000 calories a day, while others eat as little as 2,500. What is the right amount of food for you? 
 
Determining Your Maintenance Level
For clarification purposes, your maintenance level is the amount of calories you need to stay at your current body weight. If you want to gain weight or lose weight, you’ll obviously need to make adjustments. There’s really no way of determining exactly how many calories you should eat to maintain your current body weight, but here is a method that can get you close to your maintenance level. Again, your maintenance level is the amount of calories you would theoretically need to stay at your current weight. This method of calculation is called the Harris-Benedict Equation. This formula takes into account your sex, age, height, and weight. Other factors are considered as well. Your heart, breathing, and mental activity all require energy (or calories). Even when you are resting, your body is burning calories to maintain its basic functions. This additional energy requirement is also taken into account by the Harris-Benedict Equation.
For men, the equation works as follows: First, multiply your weight by 13.8. Secondly, multiply your height (in inches) by 5. Next, multiply your age by 6.8 then subtract that figure from 67. Add these three totals together.
Here is an example of a 180 pound, 5'9", 23 year-old man:
180 pounds x 13.8 = 2,484.0
69 inches (5'9") x 5 = 345.0
23 years-old x 6.8 = 156.40
67 - 156.4 = - 89.4
-------------------------------------------------------
Total Calories Needed 2,739.6

For women, the equation works as follows: First, multiply your weight by 9.6. Secondly, multiply your height (in inches) by 1.8. Next, multiply your age by 4.7 then subtract that figure from 655. Add these three totals together.
Here is an example of a 120 pound, 5'3", 26 year-old woman:
120 pounds x 9.6 = 1,152.0
63 inches (5'3") x 1.8 = 113.4
26 years-old x 4.7 = 122.2
655 - 122.2 = 532.8
-------------------------------------------------------
Total Calories Needed 1,798.2

Of course, this method can only estimate the amount of calories you need to maintain your current weight. You may need to make some adjustments depending on the amount of exercise you do, the type of exercise, and your own individual metabolic factors.