Calories for bodybuilding

Geschatte leestijd: 9 minutenWhat is the right number of calories for bodybuilding? The amount needed to gain muscle mass can be estimated based on various variables. Not only do we show these variables, we also provide you with a tool to easily input them all.

Every formula for energy requirement is just an indication!

First of all, it is important to realize that everyone is different and there is no golden rule regarding energy requirements that applies to everyone. Every formula devised to calculate these is just the best possible indication based on known averages. Moreover, the different formulas compared with each other also have stronger and weaker points, often depending on who is using them.

BMR, Basal Metabolic Rate

By energy requirement we mean firstly the energy your body already needs at rest. This so-called Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) is the energy your body needs for basic processes such as cell metabolism maintenance, respiration, body temperature regulation, and alertness. This BMR accounts for an average of 60% of the body’s energy requirement [1]. Additionally, on average, 30% of your energy is spent on the activity you undertake daily while the remaining 10% is needed to digest your food. These are averages, and BMR can therefore show large differences between different people. If you eat more than you need (a positive energy balance), this increases your BMR [4-24]. This may seem contradictory because if you burn more, why do you still gain weight when you eat more? Simply put: the increase in BMR in these cases does not offset the excess energy the body receives. After all, BMR is only 60% of your consumption. If your activity level is very low, you will still gain weight. This fact also explains why you shouldn’t eat too little. This slows down your BMR, causing you to burn less and therefore need to eat less for the same effect.

Additionally, 80% of the differences in BMR are explained by differences in lean mass [2,3]. The more muscular you are, the more you burn.

Calculating BMR

To calculate your BMR, you can use different formulas.

For the readers of Fitsociety.nl, generally reasonably active athletes, my preference is the Katch-McArdle formula for calculating your BMR [25]. This formula distinguishes between lean mass and body fat where others (such as the well-known Benedict-Harris formula) look at total weight. Take, for example, a bodybuilder weighing 120 kilos with a body fat percentage of 10%. That person has 108 kilos of lean mass to provide with energy and therefore needs more than someone overweight who weighs 120 kilos with a body fat percentage of 30% (and therefore has only 80 kilos of lean mass).

Activity Level

As mentioned, activity also plays an important role. Often, the formulas for BMR are supplemented with factors that take into account your activity level. If you are not active and mainly have sedentary (or no) work, your BMR will be multiplied by a factor of 1.2. Even if you are not very active, you will still burn more when awake than when in complete rest. However, if you are very active, such as a professional athlete, this factor is 1.9, meaning you eat almost twice as much to have enough energy for all that exercise. This factor could be even higher for extreme endurance athletes.

Below you will find the Katch-McArdle calculator. If you want to enter numbers after the decimal point, use a period (.) instead of a comma, otherwise the calculator will not work.

With regard to activity level, you can use the following breakdown:

1. Little or no training, office work — x 1.2
2. Light training/sports 1-3 days a week — x 1.375
3. Moderate training/sports 3-5 days a week — x 1.55
4. Heavy training/sports 6-7 days a week — x 1.725
5. Heavy daily training/sports plus physical work or training twice a day, marathon, football camp, competition, etc. — x 1.9

Goal

Furthermore, it is also important to take into account your goal. After all, if you want to lose weight, you will need less energy than if you want to gain weight. However, how much less you need to eat also depends on various circumstances such as:

• How fast (and how much) do you want to lose weight
• How important is retaining lean mass to you?
• What is your body type? (see further)

A rule of thumb often used is that you need a cumulative deficit of 3500 kcal to lose 1 pound of body weight. However, no distinction is made between lean mass and fat. For people without overweight, a smaller deficit is sufficient [26,27]. Let’s take someone who happens to need 3500 kcal per day based on BMR and activity as an example. A deficit of 10%, 350 kcal less per day, would then mean a loss of just under half a kilo of body weight after ten days. For someone with a lot of overweight, this is not very effective, and you would want to start with a deficit of, for example, 20%. Because they have relatively much fat, relatively more fat will be burned than muscle mass will be broken down. For someone who is already fairly slim and wants to get leaner for a muscular body and even tighter six-pack, for example, 10% is useful. After all, you also want to retain as much muscle mass as possible, and the speed of weight loss may be less important.

Because most of our readers are reasonably active, sporty people, I have kept the factor for weight loss moderate in the calculator. If you want to lose weight, the nutrition calculator will only deduct 10% from your requirement. This is less than many calculations will show that assume a more aggressive approach. However, I find that the retention of lean mass is often neglected here. In the calculator, you also have the option to adjust this factor yourself if you want to go for a more aggressive approach.

Body Type

A variable that I find missing in every calculation is body type. Do you gain weight very quickly, slowly, or average? The Katch-McArdle formula takes into account the current state of your body, but does not know what you have had to do to achieve that state. For example, I gained 20 kilos in muscle mass through training, but also by consistently eating more than is needed for an average person based on BMR and the above factors. To become even heavier, account must be taken of the fact that my body therefore has a higher metabolism than average.

Therefore, you can select your body type in the calculator. If you naturally gain weight very quickly, this variable will ensure that you need to eat less than someone who naturally has a high metabolism. These factors can also be adjusted if desired.

Macronutrients

The amount of calories determines how much energy you get. The sources from which you get this energy have a major influence on what effect this energy has on your body. Determining the correct ratio of the so-called macronutrients carbohydrates, protein, and fats is very complex. As far as this does not also differ from person to person, science finds it very difficult to come to a unanimous opinion on what ratios you would need for a certain goal.

It is beyond the scope of this article to go into all these studies (besides, the subject of this is the calorie requirement and not the distribution over macros). The calculator assumes a ratio of 50-30-20 for carbohydrates, protein, and fats. This means that 50% of the calculated calorie requirement must be supplied from carbohydrates, 30% from protein, and 20% from fats. Of course, the calculator takes into account how many calories the different macros yield per gram. Furthermore, these ratios can also be adjusted in the calculator.

What the calculator does not do is automatically change the ratios per goal. Within bodybuilding, for example, reducing carbohydrates and increasing protein is a commonly used method to get leaner. In some cases, this is done one-on-one, keeping the total number of calories the same. This is an attempt to retain as much muscle mass as possible. In other cases, the number of calories is also reduced. Outside of bodybuilding, you see that people (incorrectly in my opinion) do not attach so much value to muscle retention and are mainly focused on weight loss regardless of whether it is lost muscle mass or fat.

Just a starting point. Consistent execution and evaluation are most important!

As not only apparent from the story about the different approaches to macros but also from the different formulas for energy requirements, there is no golden rule of how much and what you should eat. All these variables are just an attempt to make the best possible estimate of how much you need on a daily basis based on all available information. Everyone is different and every day can look different, for example, when it comes to your activity. So you can never make a perfect calculation in advance.

Think of it as a sharpshooter who first has to estimate all the circumstances such as wind speed, wind direction, curvature of the earth, distance, air pressure, etc. His first shot is actually the best possible guess. After this first shot, however, he knows exactly what adjustments to make and the chances of success of the second shot are much higher.

Therefore, measure your progress weekly, or every two weeks, and adjust your diet if necessary! This is the greatest value of following a diet, whatever diet it may be. Instead of guessing every day about the amount and type of food you consume, you measure and know this. You now have precise insight into what food does to you. This enables you to make the right adjustments. Your diet should therefore also be a dynamic nutrition plan that you adjust based on insight, and you only get this insight by starting somewhere. The formulas and calculator are only aimed at starting as well as possible.

The calculator also includes a sheet where you can track your progress in terms of weight and body fat percentage and the number of calories you have achieved this with.

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