[quote]Adi Foyle wrote:
Well, to the point. I’ve used Berardi’s Massive Eating article and got about 4500kcals per day.
I’ve used the calculator at Dietitian.com - Healthy Body Calculator® - Ask the Dietitian® - and got about 4000 kcals per day.
I’ve used the calculator at Exrx - and got about 3500 kcals per day.
So, all of us want to have low bf% without losing a pound of muscle, right? (Sorry if this question is old)
So, how do we know what’s too much, what’s too little? Any calculator I can trust, after I get such different numbers on those websites???
Oh yes, and I got two completely different numbers from two nutritionists I went to see.[/quote]
If your goal is to lose fat, Massive Eating is not the answer; great for bulking, bad for cutting. Try T-Dawg 2.0 or the Velocity Diet.
As for gaining, and your question about actual caloric intake, it all boils down to one thing - you. You can plug in the numbers to a dozen formulas and come out with a dozen answers. You just have to pick the number that makes the most sense for your goals and start there. Eat at a certain level for a few weeks, then weigh yourself/test your body fat. If you’ve gained too much, cut back by 250 or so. Likewise, if you’re not gaining bump those calories up a bit.
Same goes for when you’re cutting, you have to find a moderate number and start there.
Caloric intake is a real personal thing. You’ve got to be patient and experiment; we’ve all got a couple weeks to spare to find a starting point.
If you nail down your specific goal, and provide your stats, we’d be more able to provide you with a solid number to start with.
Hope that helps!