Calculating daily calorific requirements - help

rich.d.berry

I'm trying to calculate how many calories I should be consuming each day while on a fairly heavy exercise regime.

Over the past two weeks I have been exercising fairly heavily, training to cycle Mizen to Malen. I want to drop some weight as well, but not too suddenly as I'm scared that it will reduce my stamina. I have ten weeks left. Two weeks in I'm feeling quite physically drained and I'm wondering whether I'm eating enough.

For the past five years I've been cycling quite regularly and have averaged about 150km per week. My aim is to increase my distance by 10% each week culminating in a distance of 600km in my final training week followed by a week of rest before the event. However, the way I'm feeling now leaves me doubting that I can accomplish my goal.

I'm working on the premise that as a 50 year old male I should be consuming about 2500 calories per day plus what I burn through exercise. My Garmin cycling computer calculates that I burn about 1000 calories per hour of cycling. I therefore calculate as follows:

2400 calories per day / 24 hours is 100 calories per hour

1 hour of exercise is 1000 calories - 100 = 900 calories extra required

Am I correct to reduce it by 100 calories for the portion of my daily allowance that the hour would have required anyway?

My exercise regime consists of:

Monday 25 km - high work rate with intervals - 1 hour
Tuesday 30 km - low work rate on flat route - 1.5 hours
Wednesday 25 km - high work rate with hill repeats - 1 hour
Thursday 30 km - low work rate on flat route 1.5 hours
Friday 20 km - low work rate on flat route - 1 hour
Saturday 100 km - medium work rate on mixed terrain - 4 to 4.5 hours
Sunday - rest day

I have lost a little weight, about 2 kg, but I can afford to lose another 10kg quite easily ( and I hope I do). I eat a lot of.complex carbohydrates, mostly chicken and fish for protein but occasionally some red meat.

What can I do to boost my energy and combat the feeling of having heavy legs without jeopardizing my training schedule too much and without overeating ?

COH

Where did you get the figure of 2500kcals baseline? How does your garmin estimate calorie expenditure (does it use heart rate etc?)

How tall are you?

What do you weigh?

How do you measure your kcal intake?

bilbot79

I got a thing in the US called a basis band. It's brilliant. I can see exactly how many calories I burn each day. I recommend you get your hands on one.
Otherwise plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables is what you need and I don't just mean spuds and cabbage. I mean variety

ford2600

OP have a read of last thread I started, it was in cycling forum.

Too late in your schedule to switch but something to think about.

1000 calories an hour is a massive over estimation. 500/600 is probably closer to truth; the bike is an efficient device.

Why is food only answer? I recently did 1200km event in four days with no training plan, other than rest when tired/fatigued and exercise hard when fresh.

Are you sleeping well? Do you stretch after bike? How is your core? Is bike fit good? Have you good comfort on bike?

Forget about trying to lose weight and get strong on bike at same time. Eat well, eat real wholesome calorie rich food; eggs, meat, varied and plenty veg, dairy (if it suits you), fruit, plenty fish, nuts, seeds etc.. olive oil.

Get your carbs from real food not gels sugar drinks etc. After exercise try fruit salad with cream or yoghurt and seeds.

Train your body to burn fat. You have an enormous fuel supply, ideal for endurance.

Enjoy real food and enjoy the bike. Enjoy the preparation, this is probably a once in a lifetime thing.



Look at losing weight after.

rich.d.berry

COH wrote: »

Where did you get the figure of 2500kcals baseline? How does your garmin estimate calorie expenditure (does it use heart rate etc?)

From GDA charts

It has a heart rate monitor and my age, height, weight (and that of the bicycle) are used to calculate it.

How tall are you?

181 cm (5 foot 11)

What do you weigh?

92 kg (14 stone 7 ounces)

How do you measure your kcal intake?

I weigh portions and use my wife's old Weight Watchers charts.

rich.d.berry

bilbot79 wrote: »

I got a thing in the US called a basis band. It's brilliant. I can see exactly how many calories I burn each day. I recommend you get your hands on one.
Otherwise plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables is what you need and I don't just mean spuds and cabbage. I mean variety

Mine is not an exact science, and I don't want to bog myself down too much in the calculation, but I will look into it. It may save me time over the Garmin or it may just help to confirm the Garmin measurements.

I do have a large variety of vegetables which I enjoy. Butternut squash is a firm favourite, whether in a soup; roasted with carrots, parsnips, potatoes, onions and garlic; or just boiled and mashed. Okra is another of the exotic vegetables I enjoy.

Fruit: No problem there. I eat about 3 bananas a day (I always take at least one to re-fuel when out on the bicycle. I am a huge fan of avocados, at least 4 a week. I tend to buy lots of whatever is affordable. At the moment cherries are top of my list (Tesco have been selling them at €1 for a small punnet). When I crave something sweet (which seems to be a regular thing now) then I go for fruit as a snack.

As far as the grains and cereals go, I eat oats for breakfast most mornings. I also eat a huge variety such quinoa, chick peas, lentils, polenta, split peas etc. I'm not a fan of brown rice, so when I do eat rice it tends to be white. I do enjoy whole wheat and whole grain breads though. Last night we had corn on the cob, done on the barbecue, which is one of my all time favourites.

Potatoes: New potatoes cooked in their skin with a bit of butter are something I enjoy immensely, but I wouldn't eat them too frequently, perhaps two or three times a month. A five kilo bag of roosters would last our family (including an 18 year old son) about two weeks. They're used mostly in curries, soups, stews or cottage pies. I rarely have chips or roast potatoes, by which I refer to the Sunday dinner variety, not the mixed veg roast sprinkled with a bit of olive oil which we'd have about once a week. I do love a good traditional roast dinner though, but we tend to limit them to winter warmers about once a month. I cannot abide stodgy boiled potatoes, if they're boiled without their skin then they get mashed.

thirteen.

rich.d.berry wrote: »

From GDA charts

Work this out correctly, all the info you need is here

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=50956807&postcount=4

rich.d.berry

ford2600 wrote: »

OP have a read of last thread I started, it was in cycling forum.

Too late in your schedule to switch but something to think about.

1000 calories an hour is a massive over estimation. 500/600 is probably closer to truth; the bike is an efficient device.

Why is food only answer? I recently did 1200km event in four days with no training plan, other than rest when tired/fatigued and exercise hard when fresh.

Are you sleeping well? Do you stretch after bike? How is your core? Is bike fit good? Have you good comfort on bike?

Forget about trying to lose weight and get strong on bike at same time. Eat well, eat real wholesome calorie rich food; eggs, meat, varied and plenty veg, dairy (if it suits you), fruit, plenty fish, nuts, seeds etc.. olive oil.

Get your carbs from real food not gels sugar drinks etc. After exercise try fruit salad with cream or yoghurt and seeds.

Train your body to burn fat. You have an enormous fuel supply, ideal for endurance.

Enjoy real food and enjoy the bike. Enjoy the preparation, this is probably a once in a lifetime thing.



Look at losing weight after.

I'll look up your post once I've replied. I do follow the cycling forum and I searched the cycling forum posts for information, but I'm afraid I never came across yours.

My research would agree with you that the act of cycling does burn in the region of 500 - 600 calories per hour, but I'm also attempting to account for the increased metabolic rate that follows exercise, which is what the Garmin attempts to account for. My weight loss would also attest to the fact that adding 900 calories per hour of exercise is not causing me to over eat.

As far as losing weight goes, I'm an abysmal climber; I find 4% climbs tough. If I can shed a stone then not only will it make the hills less of a chore but it would also bring some relief to my aching peritoneum. My fear isn't that I'm eating too much, but that I'm not eating enough.

My core strength isn't bad for my age. I can keep up with my 18 year old son in the gym when it comes to strength work, though in the last two weeks I've had no time for the gym. No, I don't do stretches after cycling, but I tend to not finish hot. I'd use the last 5 kilometres as a warm down and I'll finish whatever's left in my bidon to help reduce my core temperature.

As far as enjoying the training goes, 2 weeks in I'm hitting a bit of a wall and I think that maybe I need to do less on the bike, or maybe I just need to HTFU!

rich.d.berry

thirteen. wrote: »

Work this out correctly, all the info you need is here

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=50956807&postcount=4

Thanks, using that chart it worked out to 4492.4 per day

My calculations to date have put me about 500 calories less on average.

This is what I was starting to suspect, that my flagging energy and constant craving for sweet things is due to not eating enough.

rich.d.berry

ford2600 wrote: »

OP have a read of last thread I started, it was in cycling forum.

I had come across your thread but hadn't really considered it suitable for me because of my desire to lose weight. Now that I've established that I'm fuelling myself insufficiently I will definitely increase my calories by increasing the fat content of my diet.

ford2600

rich.d.berry wrote: »

I had come across your thread but hadn't really considered it suitable for me because of my desire to lose weight. Now that I've established that I'm fuelling myself insufficiently I will definitely increase my calories by increasing the fat content of my diet.

I didn't switch to higher fat to increase calories. I switched out of curiosity more than anything. My weight is identical(as it has been since I was a teenager). I have lost bodyfat, visibly noticable and with clothes etc although I can't put a metric on it.

My best advice FWIW is to listen to your body.
*If your hungry eat
* If your fatigued rest.

There is no real need for numbers, be it weight, body fat%, calories in/out etc.

I came across cronometer.com which gives info on your micro nutrient intake if you input your daily diet. I would do that to see if your missing anything in your diet. I find a frying pan full to brim with varied vegetables(especially greens) and egg/organ meat with some seeds as a great catch all if the micro nutrient department.

Cravings can come for a lot of reasons.

You body might just be adjusting to an increased work load.

The biggest battle with long distance is in your head. I've done two 400km plus rides and a further five 300km plus rides since April, and a lot of 200km plus rides since January. At steady intensity, comfort, mental fatigue are bigger issues than any aerobic demands.

As an aside, I lost all interest in sweet stuff once I upped my fat intake. At moment fat(40/40/20 mono/saturated/poly) makes up about 65% of my diet so it was quite an increase. Increase in micro nutrients from increased veg/nuts/seeds/fish etc or calorie increase(?) might also be reason for loss of interest in sugar

ford2600

Also how many days is 600km cycle over?

If 4 days or so, you'll do it at your ease. Believe!

rich.d.berry

ford2600 wrote: »

Also how many days is 600km cycle over?

If 4 days or so, you'll do it at your ease. Believe!

It's a non-stop, all in one go, thing! :eek: There are currently 5 involved (there were 8 to start) and we plan to stay together so drafting will make it slightly easier for the weaker cyclists. We also have a week to choose the optimum day for the attempt so as to make the most of prevailing winds. There will be at least one back up vehicle, so we can travel light on the bicycles. Still, it's one helluva challenge for me.

ford2600

rich.d.berry wrote: »

It's a non-stop, all in one go, thing! :eek: There are currently 5 involved (there were 8 to start) and we plan to stay together so drafting will make it slightly easier for the weaker cyclists. We also have a week to choose the optimum day for the attempt so as to make the most of prevailing winds. There will be at least one back up vehicle, so we can travel light on the bicycles. Still, it's one helluva challenge for me.

600km in one go is a resl challenge.

I did some of my longest cycles with a very experienced audax rider, multiple PBP, LEL etc
and he emailed all fellow Fleche riders with advice for long distance.

If you want I'll pm you details, plus anything I can add when back at pc. Most of it is not food related.

What week are ye doing it?