BMR/eating for a goal weight.

[jamesi]

I've really cleaned up my diet in order to race lighter. So far I've had some good results. I've dropped 11 pounds since November, this leaves me with about 8 to go. When all is said and done I'd like to race at 190lbs. I really have to watch what I eat. It's always been easy for me to add size and strength in the gym, however, it's been equally easy to gain body fat. That being said, all the reading I've done has helped, but I'm left with some questions:

The training site I use puts my basal metabolic rate at 1900 calories daily.

The book I use (Training Plans for Multisport Athletes-Gale Bernhardt) recommends the formula 30 calories per KG. Using my goal weight of 190, that puts me at 2,600 calories daily.

Should I consume enough calories to cover BMR of 1,900+Workout-300 calories

or

Should I consume 30 cal/KG: 2,600+Workout-300?

I dropped the initial 11 pounds by refining my food choices and eating only high quality calories. My body seems to have adjusted and I've maintained around 198lbs and 16% body fat for about a month now.

Are there any naturally larger triathletes here who have found their ideal race weight? How did you get there?

Thanks,
James

[MarkD]

James -

Here are a couple good web sites on the subject...

www.shapefit.com/basal-metabolic-rate.html

the calculator:

www.bmi-calculator.net/bmr-calculator/

[jamesi]

Thanks for the links. The first one really helped. Looks like I may have been about 500 calories short per day. No wonder the weight stopped coming off. I really slowed my metabolism more that I thought. The great news is that I get to eat more!

[lessthanmike]

I'm not sure what your using to track your calories, but I started using fitday.com. It's a little time consuming at first to log everything in, and to measure everything out.

It helped me out because I was just estimating my calories and found out I was close to 600 over per day.
www.fitday.com/

[jamesi]

Mike, I use Training Peaks and it works well. I was confused about how to interpret BMR and my daily burn from workouts. Thanks though. You spinning this Saturday?

[lessthanmike]

Yeah, I should be there the weather looks good so I won't have to work.

[Jack Carney]

Great links I was looking for a good BMI and calorie calculator. I agree on the calorie tracking. If you track everything you eat it will amaze you how the 2200 calories you think you are eating becomes 3200 without being noticed, eg handful of nuts 200, pat of butter 100, ounce of cheese 100 etc....

The other thing to do is measure. It is amazing how that "cup" of cereal or pasta you think you are eating is actually 2 or 3 cups.

Lastly, natural, natural natural give your body something it can use. There is not only no nutrition in the processed breads and pasta on the store shelves and foods loaded with refined sugar they actually will cost you nutrition as it takes nutrients to digest food so if you eat food devoid of them the body has to find them elsewhere in your system to use for digestion.

[MattCollister]

Jack, have you read "Primal Blueprint"?

[Jack Carney]

I have not read it Matt but it looks very interesting. I will pick up a copy. Do you follow it? I like what I see so far. Kind of a paleo diet and workout program similar to what a lot of Crossfitters promote.

I signed up for the newsletter too.

Thanks Matt. How's your little caveman doing?

[MattCollister]

Basically. It's paleo with some tweaks, and the same philosophy (do what your body evolved to do) applied to activity. If you read his ten "rules" of primal, you get the idea. The guy who wrote it came in 4th at the Hawaii Ironman in the early 80s.

I'd like to say I follow that, but as I am about to polish off a half a Georgios pizza, It would be a bit disingenuous.

Will's terrific. If the weather's good we'll bring him to the picnic.

[Jack Carney]

LOL Matt I don't always practice what I preach either. I am known to occasionally stuff down a Snickers bar with my apple but try to avoid it as much as possible. I believe a little cheating is OK and can actually help keep you on track.

Glad Will is doing well. I am still in FL so won't make the picnic but have been keeping up with you and Jen's posts via Facebook. It's a life changer. But a great one. Enjoy it.