How Many Calories Should You Eat?

Summary

Dr. Mike from Renaissance Periodization explains a simple method to determine your maintenance calorie intake by multiplying your body weight in pounds by 15. He details a three-week adjustment period to fine-tune this estimate, ensuring it fits your activity level and individual needs. Maintenance calories should be periodically re-evaluated to account for changes in activity levels and seasons. This dynamic process involves adjusting calorie intake every two weeks based on body weight trends to maintain a stable weight. Dr. Mike also highlights the use of the RP Diet Coach app for more precise calculations.

Takeaways

• 😀 To estimate maintenance calories, multiply your body weight in pounds by 15.
• 😃 For a 200-pound person, this equates to 3000 calories a day.
• 😁 To refine this estimate, monitor your weight over three weeks.
• 😄 Check your weight every three days for the first week and a half.
• 😆 If your weight is increasing, reduce your calories by 250-500 per day.
• 😅 If your weight is decreasing, increase your calories by 250-500 per day.
• 😂 If your weight is stable (within ±0.2 pounds), maintain the current calorie intake.
• 🤣 After the initial week and a half, stabilize your intake based on the average weight trend.
• 😊 Reassess every two weeks to adjust for any changes in physical activity or metabolism.
• 😇 Maintenance calories can change with seasons and activity levels, requiring periodic adjustments.

Q & A

What is the simple formula to estimate maintenance calories?

Multiply your body weight in pounds by 15 to estimate maintenance calories.

How can you adjust your calorie intake if your weight is trending up?

If your weight is trending up, cut your calories by 250 to 500 per day.

What should you do if your weight is trending down while on a maintenance calorie intake?

Increase your calorie intake by 250 to 500 per day if your weight is trending down.

How often should you check and adjust your maintenance calorie intake?

You should check and adjust your maintenance calorie intake every three days for the first week and a half, and then every two weeks thereafter.

Why is it important to monitor your maintenance calorie intake over different seasons?

Physical activity levels can change with the seasons, affecting your calorie needs. For example, you might be more active in the summer, requiring more calories.

What is the significance of the last week and a half of the three-week maintenance period?

The last week and a half of the three-week maintenance period helps confirm if the calorie estimate is accurate and should reflect a steady body weight if it is correct.

What should you do if your weight remains stable during the initial maintenance period?

If your weight remains stable, continue with the same calorie intake as it indicates you have likely found your maintenance level.

What adjustments should be made for individuals weighing significantly less than average?

For individuals weighing between 100 to 150 pounds, adjustments to calorie intake should be smaller, around 150 to 200 calories per day.

How does physical activity influence maintenance calories?

Increased physical activity can raise your calorie needs, so if you become more active, you might need to increase your maintenance calories.

What is a dynamic process in the context of maintenance calories?

Maintenance calories need continuous monitoring and adjustment based on changes in weight and activity levels to ensure they remain accurate over time.

Outlines

00:00

📚 Understanding Daily Caloric Intake for Maintenance

Dr. Mike introduces a basic formula to determine daily caloric intake for maintenance, suggesting a multiplication of body weight in pounds by 15. This formula is a simple starting point for individuals unsure of their daily caloric needs. He acknowledges that this is a rough estimate and may not account for individual differences in activity levels, sleep patterns, or other lifestyle factors. To refine this estimate, Dr. Mike recommends a three-week trial period to adjust caloric intake based on weight trends. If weight is gained, calories should be reduced; if weight is lost, they should be increased, with adjustments made every three to four days. For smaller individuals, adjustments of 150-200 calories are suggested. The goal is to reach a steady state where the average caloric intake over the last week and a half of the trial period is a good estimate of maintenance calories.

05:02

🔄 Adjusting Maintenance Caloric Intake Over Time

The second paragraph emphasizes the dynamic nature of maintaining an optimal caloric intake. Dr. Mike explains that even after establishing a maintenance level, it's crucial to reassess and adjust caloric intake periodically, especially when there are changes in physical activity. He uses the example of seasonal changes affecting activity levels and how they might impact caloric needs. If an individual is consistently gaining or losing weight over a two-week period, it's a sign that maintenance calories need to be adjusted accordingly. The process involves continuous monitoring and small adjustments to ensure that the maintenance calories remain appropriate for the individual's lifestyle and activity levels.

Keywords

💡Maintenance Calories

Maintenance calories refer to the number of calories you need to consume daily to maintain your current weight. In the video, Dr. Mike explains that to find this number, you multiply your body weight in pounds by 15. This concept is central to the video's theme of understanding how to manage caloric intake for stable weight.

💡Body Weight

Body weight is the weight of a person measured in pounds. It is a critical factor in calculating maintenance calories, as demonstrated in the formula Dr. Mike provides (body weight in pounds multiplied by 15). Body weight fluctuations are used to adjust caloric intake over a three-week period to determine accurate maintenance needs.

💡Caloric Adjustment

Caloric adjustment involves changing your calorie intake based on whether you are gaining or losing weight. In the video, Dr. Mike suggests adjusting calories by 250-500 if your weight trends up or down after starting with an initial estimate. This process is essential for fine-tuning maintenance calories.

💡Three-Week Period

The three-week period is the time frame suggested by Dr. Mike to determine maintenance calories. During this period, you monitor your weight and adjust your calorie intake every three days. This helps to establish a stable caloric intake that maintains body weight.

💡Activity Level

Activity level refers to the amount of physical activity a person engages in, which influences caloric needs. Dr. Mike mentions that more or less activity can affect how many calories you should consume, making it important to adjust caloric intake accordingly. For instance, increased activity in summer might require higher maintenance calories.

💡Weight Trend

Weight trend refers to the pattern of weight change over a period of time. Dr. Mike advises tracking whether your weight is trending up, down, or remaining stable while adjusting calories. This trend helps determine if your initial maintenance calorie estimate is accurate.

💡Renaissance Diet RP Diet Coach App

The Renaissance Diet RP Diet Coach App is an application mentioned by Dr. Mike that can help manage and fine-tune your dietary needs, including maintenance calories. The app takes into account various personal factors to provide a more tailored calorie recommendation.

💡Empirical Testing

Empirical testing involves observing and adjusting based on real-life data rather than theoretical estimates. Dr. Mike emphasizes the importance of empirically testing your maintenance calorie estimate by tracking your weight and adjusting intake over a three-week period.

💡Dynamic Process

A dynamic process is one that changes over time and requires ongoing adjustments. Dr. Mike explains that maintaining your caloric intake is a dynamic process because factors like seasonal activity changes can affect your caloric needs, necessitating regular reassessment and adjustment.

💡Hypocaloric

Hypocaloric refers to consuming fewer calories than your body needs for maintenance, leading to weight loss. Dr. Mike mentions that once you have established your maintenance calories, you can reduce your intake to become hypocaloric if your goal is to lose weight.

Highlights

Dr. Mike introduces a simple formula to determine the number of calories needed for maintenance.

The basic formula multiplies body weight in pounds by 15 to estimate maintenance calories.

The video humorously addresses common internet comments about fitness and calorie intake.

The Renaissance Diet app can help adjust calorie maintenance based on individual activity levels.

A three-week period is suggested to determine accurate maintenance calories.

Adjustments to the initial calorie estimate should be made every three to four days based on weight trends.

For individuals weighing 150 pounds or less, adjustments of 150-200 calories are recommended.

The importance of empirical testing of calorie maintenance over the three-week period is emphasized.

Maintenance calories should be re-evaluated if there's a significant change in physical activity.

Seasonal changes in activity can affect calorie maintenance needs, such as being more active in summer.

A maintenance diet is a dynamic process that requires periodic checks and adjustments.

The video dispels the myth that one can be at maintenance and still lose weight over weeks.

The importance of tracking body weight and adjusting diet accordingly is highlighted.

The video provides a practical method to find and maintain an individual's calorie maintenance level.

The video concludes with a reminder that physical changes may necessitate re-evaluating maintenance calories.

Dr. Mike uses humor and personal anecdotes to make the topic of calorie maintenance relatable and engaging.

Transcripts

hey folks dr mike here for renaissance

periodization quick question for you how

many calories should you be eating

who knows i sure don't end video

jk we actually have a super super simple

formula

it's barely a formula to tell you how

many calories you should be eating

because if you've ever scrolled through

the internet comments about fitness

stuff there's always about five trillion

people that are like bro how many

calories should i be eating

i i do a

kind of like a russian middle eastern

accent for those people i don't know why

that's who i grew up with and that's who

asked me real life questions about how

many calories to eat good news for

maintenance just for maintenance

just to train and look cool and just be

alive and be yourself but get the best

performance how many calories should you

have if you absolutely have no idea

here's how to figure it out so

you take your body weight in pounds

and then you multiply it by 15

and that's how many calories you should

be eating in maintenance crazy right so

if you have 200 pounds

you multiply that by 15

3 000 calories a day

that's it and video jk video is not over

that it could be over you could just log

off right now log off your internet

machine

because

that's really simple as it has to be at

first

as a pretty good guess but hold on you

certainly have problems with it but dr

mike you say right now you just said it

i heard you i'm advanced i have

way more activity than the average

person a day or way less i sleep xyz

hours and i want that to integrate

i take x y z amount of subs

or any other differences and i want to

know my maintenance well the cool thing

is that a bunch of those things are

actually handled by the renaissance diet

rp diet coach app

weird we have an app for that but if you

don't use our app how dare you not use

our app you should be embarrassed

no big deal if you don't use the app

if you want

to start at that guess of a maintenance

level how do you make sure you're

actually the maintenance that you need

and again the answer is super easy you

just have to adjust it in the following

way

three week time span is what you give

yourself at least at maintenance to

determine your maintenance calories but

you're gonna be a maintenance for a

while anyway so

three weeks should be a part of that you

take three weeks

and for the first three days

you average your first three days on

that 3000 calories whatever your

maintenance is body weight multiplied by

15

and you find out if it's trending up or

it's trending down or it's basically

like the same

if your body weight is trending up then

you're going to cut your calories by

somewhere between 0 250 to 500 because

it's a little too many calories you cut

them in goes back down

if you are

losing weight you need to increase

calories by something like 250 to 500.

now if you're much smaller than the

average sort of

listener of the stuff viewer i guess

this is all video as well um

maybe a few uh a little bit less so if

you weigh like 150 pounds to 100 pounds

or less then maybe just increase or

decrease by like 150 to 200 calories per

day okay

you're going to do that every three days

for basically three or four days for the

first week and a half so the first week

and a half you take half a week check go

up or down next half week check go up or

down now you don't have to go up up down

you can just maintain because if for

three days you're basically like

your weight is almost exactly

maintaining like plus or minus 0.2

pounds or something just leave it alone

and then the last

of that half week the last half week you

have 1.5 weeks the last third you do

that again

once you have done that

hopefully the last week and a half of

that three week period should be steady

you take that last week and a half of

that three period the first week and a

half was to fiddle with stuff just did

that

got a pretty good estimate at close to

maintenance and now

assuming that your body weight is

roughly the same if it's still going up

or down in that week and a half

on net balance you can do this again but

most of the time that last week and a

half is going to be pretty steady it's

going to fluctuate that's okay but the

average is going to be more or less

where you want it to be where you

started at first

and once you get to that average that

average number of calories in that last

week and a half of this three-week

period

is going to be probably your maintenance

or at least a very very good guess at it

and not just a guess but kind of an

empirically backed guess because you

actually tested it so again just to keep

this super simple through the period

chop it in half first week and a half

chop that into thirds

after every three or four day period you

analyze to see if you're you're at the

calories that you predicted your analyze

to see if your weight is trending

clearly up or clearly down if it's not

clearly up or down don't do anything

just keep the same calories if it's

trending up cut calories a bit if it's

turning down add some calories repeat

that three times week first week and

half is over next week and a half begins

whatever you ended with the last week

and a half stay with that

if it's nice and uh

the average is really close then that

week and a half is going to be what your

maintenance calories are for the

foreseeable future assuming you stay the

same size it's that simple

now

once you get into maintenance

there is no distinct guarantee

that your weight even though it looked

or was relatively flat on average over

the last week and a half of testing

if you're doing like let's say three

months of maintenance or

the rest of your foreseeable life at

maintenance something like that you just

want to know how many calories to eat so

you can just have a baseline and build a

good diet or even if you do that for a

few months and then you know start

cutting calories to go hypocaloric and

lose some fat or

increase calories to gain some muscle

there's no guarantee that maintenance

stays your maintenance now there's a

very good chance it's going to stay very

close but sometimes your our physical

activity changes let me give you an

example you estimated your maintenance

in the winter time and like you weren't

super active because fuck that it's cold

outside you weren't super aware of it

who knows right you still work out the

same still go to work you'll go to

school your family still respects you

you go to church good

and you had a certain level of activity

and you say 3 000 calories is great for

you during the winter you change nothing

you're still on maintenance summer

months show up

now you're in the summer and you're more

active but you're not tracking into

writing it down because like who the

fuck does that right you're going to the

beach you're throwing the frisbee to the

you guys want i throw the frisbee like

this you take the frisbee like a flat

plate surface like this and you throw it

this way that's how you actually

supposed to throw a frisbee it's not

supposed to be an easy sport this shit

right here this whatever fancy shit

that's cheating in any case you're

throwing frisbees dogs possibly to

people

and

you are just burning more calories and

you sort of don't know so what you

thought was your maintenance is now

trending your weight like this

you go shit shit here's the wrong thing

to do and think

oh

something's wrong this is my maintenance

and i'm losing weight no joke people

legitimately

comment that shit on social media like

hey

uh anyone wants to answer this question

i'm eating at maintenance and i'm still

losing weight bullshit

that is not happening not over the

course of weeks some body water shit can

happen here and there but

if you're losing weight you're not at

maintenance and your maintenance needs

to go up so at all times during what you

plan as your maintenance if over oh

about two weeks on average you're losing

weight increase the calories by a bit

maybe by like same amount 250 or 500

calories maybe a little less

if you are gaining weight you need to

cut your calories

so maintenance really is a dynamic

process

that every two weeks

at least you should be checking in to

make sure you're on

and sort of graphing your body weight

if you're super meticulous about the

shit and then it'll require possibly one

of two things an update every two weeks

to your diet just by a little bit or no

update at all because everything's good

and that's right the rest takes care of

itself

now you have a way to easily find your

maintenance

easily sort of guess and check kind of

in an empirical fashion figure out much

closer what your maintenance really is

and continuously update your maintenance

calories so they stay your maintenance

calories even though you're

it's winter again but you're hanging out

with polar bears and with g-whiz they

they get physical in their play and if

you want to stay alive you need more

calories

fuck i ended the video like that anyway

see you guys later i got nothing

you