How do i calculate how many calories i need to take

[greatone3210]

Hi i want to get more cut and i do not know where to start how do i know how much calories i need to take in and im 6 even i weigh i 180. where do istart in balaancing my diet.

 

[w8lifter]

Well...tracking what you normally eat over a 3-5 day period would be the most accurate...then you could take the average and drop a couple hundred from that.

However, that would be in an ideal world. Most people are eating the wrong things and/or not enough food and therefore would benefit from simply cleaning up their diet some....before even considering a calorie reduction.

 

[Yanick]

Also depending on how much you're eating now, you might actually need to increase your cals to a normal level and let your metabolism recover.

A general guideline to follow:

12 and lower cals per LB of BW to lose
15cals per LB of BW to maintain
18 and higher cals per LB of BW to gain

This is just a general guideline and you will need to make calorie adjustments based on weight, mirror, BF, clothes etc observations.

 

[w8lifter]

That's why I said in an ideal world