Caloric Intake

[attackrobot]

Just wanted to do a quick survey of what people are taking in for daily calories. Please answer only if you are involved in an intense fitness regime, as that is what I am most curious about. I'm 6'3"/195lbs, and I consider my workout regime to be fairly intense at this point. I take in about 2500-2800 calories daily, and I'm curious to know what others consider normal. Obviously, nutrition is also a large consideration, but I am speaking strictly about calories right now.

[newtonbcn]

Around 5000 per day is what I am at

[Jen_MV]

Here is a link to calculate caloric intake. It's based on your body and level of fitness.

http://www.freedieting.com/tools/calorie_calculator.htm

Hope this helps.

[scskowron]

According to that formula, I eat about 2875 calories per day. I crossfit 6 days a week and run about 40-50 miles a week. However I don't count calories. I just eat reasonably nutritiously until I'm full, and if I worked on strength that day (instead of metcon) I'll eat lots of extra food to gain some mass.

[rsctt83]

I am currently at 70+ miles per week with three very tough PT sessions per week. I do not count calories and my normal daily food intake is:

breakfast:
bagel, all fruit Jamba Juice smoothie and 1 ounce wheatgrass

lunch
turkey and cheese sandwich

snack
power bar

dinner
salad and whatever is set on the table

after dinner
granola, bannana or ice cream {usually not all three at one time}

there are days when I am just craving food and I will eat more than this. My daily base mileage is 11 miles so figure that's 1,100 calories and with PT I would guess that averages to another 500 per day. I figure I need around 3,250 calories per day.

[scskowron]

Rsctt, based on your experience with distance running, does there ever come a point where you expend less calories over the same distance as you get better conditioned? In other words, does a professional runner burn as many calories running 10 miles as an amateur assuming their height, weight, and genetics are the same?

[cravethedave]

I'm 6 foot, and most consistently around 160. I'm trying to but on a little muscle however, and I am eating around 3,000 calories a day. Not with much cardio in my routine at the moment however, because of shin splints.

[bigv123]

Jamba Juice FTW!!! I LOVE those things, I swear they will be the death of me ;)

V

[rsctt83]

scskowron:

This is a very interesting question. I usually assume thet I am burning about 100 calories per mile. This applies regardless of pace because if you go slow you are running longer {say 12:00 minutes} whereas if you are running faster you are running shorter {say {6:00 minutes}. The effort and time are inversley related as you go faster your time spent running the mile decreases. effort goes up/duration goes down.

The more detailed analysis of this involving say an olympic marathoner and a weekend recreational runner would probably focus upon heart rate. If both of these individuals were to run a 7:30 minute per mile the recreational runner would be exerting max effort and would be burning alot more calories {running at elevated heart rate} than olympic runner who owing to his/her training would be running at much lower effort {very low heart rate} over the same duration 7:30 minute per mile.

If you have a heart rate monitor {very, very good investment} than you can view calorie burn as a function of which training zone you are in.