Wednesday, 7 December 2011

BMR Recalculation


I've been following Martin Berkhan's Leangains protocol for the past year and it's reduced my bodyfat considerably since Jan until now, a lot of that is also due to switching to Paleo. I counted calories to get and idea in the beginning, and now I guess at 2640 (BMR + 20%) on training days and 1760 (BMR - 20%) on rest days. That was using a BMR value of 2200 calories. My bodyfat ranges between 11% and 12% depending on how much beer I drink during the week. Last week I had a friend staying from Denmark and went out on the beers 3 times and BF rose to 12.6%. No drinking this so next time I check BF should be back down under 12.

Just saw this website today with a BMR calculation showing a much lower result. He recommends eating a lot more carbs that I usually eat and less calories overall. It's also interesting what he says about fat on training days. I know it's best to eat carbs post workout to restore muscle glycogen and to spike insulin to shuttle protein to the muscle cells, and less carbs on rest days, but I never gave that much concern to the amount of fat I was eating.


Calculating Leangains Macros based on http://rippedbody.jp/2011/10/23/how-to-calculate-leangains-macros/


Metric BMR Formula
Women: BMR = 655+ ( 9.6 x weight in kilos )+( 1.8 x height in cm ) – ( 4.7 x age in years )
Men: BMR = 66+ ( 13.7 x weight in kilos ) + ( 5 x height in cm ) – ( 6.8 x age in years )
Kie: 66 + (13.7 x 76) + (5 x 178) - (6.8 x 35) = 66 + 1041.2 + 890 - 238 = 1759.2 calories


Adjust for Activity
Guides to BMR usually recommend that you use an ‘activity multiplier’ (x1.2~x1.9) depending on your lifestyle/training.
( I won't bother adjusting because I work at a desk and only exercise 3 times a week )

Goal

Choose to ‘Cut’, ‘Slow-Bulk’ or gradual ‘Body-Recomposition’
The calories and thus macros you choose will depend on your goals.

Body-Recomposition: Martin himself refers to a +20%kCal and -20%kCal rule for T-Days and R-Days respectively.
Cut: Your numbers might look something like 2200kCal and 1300kCal. (+10%/-35%kCal)
Slow bulk: Your numbers might look something like 1800kCal and 2800kCal. (+40%/-10%kCal)

Based on the above recommendations, following the 'Cut' guide, I would be eating 1935 calories on training days and 1143 calories on rest days. That seems like hardly any calories at all man, I reckon if I followed that I might lose weight and strength.

I have an "Over-training and Cortisol" experiment that I'm doing first during December, then I'll think about trying this in January.

Main goal is to get stronger, after that start playing with leaning out techniques.





1 comment:

Anonymous said...

That's because you're not adjusting for activity, which exercising 3 times a week would constitute.