On the other hand, since a percentage based deficit relies on each person's
own calorie maintenance level to set the amount, the deficit created will be in direct proportion to the amount of weight that needs to be lost by each individual person, and the means the rate at which they lose weight will be in direct proportion as well.
Even if you are the same age, height and weight as someone and have the exact same activity level and goals as they do, you can both still have very
different calorie maintenance levels and daily calorie requirements in general.
For example, a 180 lb person would do 180 x 14 and 180 x 17 and get an estimated daily
calorie maintenance level of somewhere between 2520 - 3060 calories.
Now, with your
estimated calorie maintenance level in mind, the next obvious step in figuring out how many calories you need to eat per day to build muscle is figuring out what size the caloric surplus should be.
If you don't know your
current calorie maintenance level (the number of calories you require daily in order to maintain your current weight), you can estimate it by using one of the following options...
Now, with your estimated
calorie maintenance level in mind, the next obvious step in figuring out how many calories you should eat per day to lose weight is figuring out what size the caloric deficit should be.
As I mentioned before, your daily
calorie maintenance level is the number of calories that your body burns per day.
At this point you know that weight loss is just a matter of consistently being below
your calorie maintenance level.
Now that you have a good estimate of your daily
calorie maintenance level, it's time for the fun part.
For example, if
your calorie maintenance level was 2500 calories, and you consumed 2500 calories per day, your weight would not change.
If so, it either means your estimated
calorie maintenance level was too high or you may have just miscalculated how many calories you were consuming and ended up accidentally consuming more than the estimated maintenance level.
Once you have your estimated
calorie maintenance level (using either the basic multiplier or Harris Benedict formula), just add 200 - 300 calories to that figure to determine approximately how many calories you should aim for each day.
If you have correctly forecast
your calorie maintenance level, and then reduced your daily intake by 500 calories per day, you should lose approximately 1 pound of fat per week, as there are 4000 calories in 1 pound of fat.
There are a number of rough guides to calculating
your calorie maintenance level.
You learned that a «caloric surplus» means eating more calories than your body needs, which means you need to be above
your calorie maintenance level.
Then, you used that information to adjust your estimated
calorie maintenance level and figure out exactly how many calories you need to eat per day to build muscle (or just gain weight in general).
What this means is, whatever your daily
calorie maintenance level is, you should be about 20 % below it each day.
The answer given is the total of the two and should be, for most people, a pretty close estimate of your daily
calorie maintenance level.
You learned that a «caloric deficit» means eating fewer calories than your body needs, which means you need to be below
your calorie maintenance level.
So, take the estimated
calorie maintenance level you got in the previous step and create your ideal caloric surplus.
So, for example, a man with
a calorie maintenance level of 2000 calories would look to consume about 2250 calories per day (a woman would shoot for around 2125 calories per day).
The next thing you probably want to know is how to figure out
your calorie maintenance level so you can create this ideal calorie surplus and start building muscle.
This is known as
your calorie maintenance level.
In the following example, we will pretend our example person is a man who weighs 165 lbs and has a daily
calorie maintenance level of 2100 (which are just completely made up numbers, by the way).
Your daily
calorie maintenance level is way higher than that of the different body types.
If you don't know your current
calorie maintenance level, you can estimate it by using the same «Harris Benedict Formula» that I outlined in the previous post...
In the previous step, I showed you a couple of ways to calculate your daily
calorie maintenance level.
Because
your calorie maintenance level already is how many calories are needed for you to maintain your current weight.
The quick version is this: the most common recommendation for a «moderate» sized calorie deficit is being 20 % below
your calorie maintenance level each day.
So, take
the calorie maintenance level estimate you calculated in the previous step and use that as your calorie starting point.
Even though I just showed you some of the most popular methods of estimating your daily
calorie maintenance level, there is one tiny problem.
The human body actually has its own built in method of figuring out EXACTLY what your daily
calorie maintenance level is and guarantees 100 % accuracy every single time.
This is referred to as the Thermic Effect Of Food, and it's one of those factors I mentioned earlier that influence what your daily
calorie maintenance level is.