Female Calorie Intake

[stumpdog]

My girlfriend has been going to the gym with me, which is awesome. We are trying to get our diets in shape, but are unaware of how many calories she should have in a day. Jock told me roughly how many I need. Is there a formula? She weighs 120-125lbs and is 5'8". Thanks.

Jeremy

[Merrida]

There are many formulas for estimating dietary requirements, but the most accurate would involve establishing her own personal metabolic rate, determining just how many calories per day HER body requires to sustain itself, -- and the most accurate way involves determining how much OF those 120-125 pounds is lean body mass, and how much is not. Caloric requirements are based on metabolically active tissue, and what the duties of that tissue are. Obviously the greater the fat free mass, the greater her metabolism. That said, you could have two 5'8" women who weigh 120 pounds, and NOT have the same metabolic needs. This is where diets fail and why confusion sets in.

While there are many theories and formulas, in one regard it's more complicated than most of the standard fitness mags would lead us to believe.

Scale weight is less pertinent than lean body mass.

Resting metabolic rate (which includes her basal metabolic rate, that is, bare bones minimum just to keep her alive) accounts for anywhere between 60%-75% of daily expenditure. (That's quite a gap).

Accurate BMR measurements are really complicated to get. Ideally to find her's out she'd need to get 8 full hours of sleep, and 12 hours of fasting, and eliminate (bowels and bladder). Not practical, so you find alternatives.

Most women have, at the strictest minimum, a base requirement of at LEAST 1,200 k/cal per day, but usually it's higher. (Those 1,000 k/cal diets are finally understood as not healthy).

The thermal effect of her food, an ADDITIONAL 10% for digestion (but again this can vary when considering things like ATP and molecule size).

Then there's the cost of her activity level which can run anywhere from (on average) 15% (relatively sedentary) up to 30% (more active), -- again, that's a very wide gap to toss out when estimating her requirements.

As you see, there are a lot of variables to try and guess her requirements knowing nothing about her body composition.

But, generally I'd suggest no lower than 1,400 k/cal per day, especially given she's exercising. I'd be willing to bet she probably needs more,....especially given she's exercising.

Plus,...what are her goals? What is she trying to accomplish? Dietary needs vary (for a man or woman) based not only on their body composition, and diet (yep, WHAT you eat affects it as well as how much and how often), and activity level (including intensity level), but also what their goals are like.

[Maxima]

Harris Benedict Equation

Females - 665 + (4.36 * body weight in pounds) + (4.32 * height in inches) - (4.7 *age) = daily calories

If she is obviously overweight - women, first five feet is 106 pounds, add 6lbs per inch after that. This is the claimed ideal body weight. Now take actual body weight - ideal body weight, take this number and multiply it by .25 and add ideal body weight. This is the number that you would input for "bodyweight in pounds" for someone who is obviously overweight.

Multiply your daily calories by this activity factor.

1.3 is just sitting and standing through out the day
1.5 is light activity or walking 3 miles an hour
1.7 is moderate like tennis or walking 4 mph
2.0 is heavy physical activity like full court basketball, heavy digging etc.
2.4 is competetive tri-athlete or Navy seal.


Next, now put your calories in the right portions.
This is an example of how to split up a 3,000 calorie diet (for times sake, I am about to do to bed,) do yours according to your lean mass, caloric equation, and protein needs, I would say a gram per lean pound.

Eat at least a gram to 1.5 grams of protein per lean pound of body weight. Take your bodyfat and find your lean body weight. Lets say you weigh 175 and have 12% body fat. That means that 21 pounds of you are fat, so your lean body weight is 154. That gives you 154 to 230 grams of protein that you need to consume each day. Split this up over six meals and that means you should eat 25 to 38 grams of protein. Keep your protein intake the same for each (6) meal, carbohydrate is next which you will vary.

One gram of protein is equal to 4 calories using (6 meals at 38 grams) 228 grams of protein = 912 calories.

3000 - 912 = 2088 calories still left.

If you are eating a low fat diet chances are you should still get about 15% of total calories just passively from fat, even those on a no fat diet still get about 7%. So take that out, you should be getting about 20% of total calories from fat.

3000 * 20% fat = 450

2088 - 450 = 1638 calories.

These are the carbohydrate calories which at 4 calories per gram = 409. 400 is easier to split up so round a little if you have to.

Breakfast should be your biggest carbohydrate meal, workout should be your second biggest carbohydrate meal based on the way our bodies use carbs.

Your split would look like this.
Meal 1 - 38 grams protein, 95 grams of carbs
Meal 2 - 38 grams protein, 70 grams of carbs
Meal 3 - 38 grams protein, 60 grams of carbs
Meal 4 - 38 grams protein, 50 grams of carbs
Train
Meal 5 - 38 grams protein, 85 grams of carbs
Meal 6 - 38 grams protein, 40 grams of carbs

My favorite sources of protein are - Eggs, Beef Eye of Round, Fish, Chicken, Turkey and Protein Supplements

Carbohydrates - Look for whole grains and oats that emphasize fiber.

Sorry this is so brief I will have time tommorow to help you if you still don't get it, just PM me or reply to this post, hope this helps.