Keep in mind the following: 1. Calories are unit measurements of stored energy. 2. Maintenance calories are calculated by adding the following: Resting metabolic rate (RMR) + thermogenic effect of exercise (TEE)+ thermogenic effect of feeding (TEF). Your RMR is how many calories you use while sleeping. Around 65% of your total caloric expenditure is due to the basics of just having your body in neutral. Add TEE, which is your activity over and beyond just breathing in and out. The add TEF, the energy expended for you to digest the food you eat. The net result is your maintenance calorie level, or the amount of calories you need to eat in order to maintain your current bodyweight. This has nothing to do with body composition, it simply refers to the status quo. A change in body comp for the better (i.e. more muscle and less fat around those ribs of yours) will improve (raise) your RMR somewhat.
The whole concept of maintenance calorie levels is not a simple one. There are many variables, more than we’d like to know about perhaps. In the ongoing quest to simplify matters, we take a number as a starting point. That number is usually 15 calories per pound of bodyweight (cal/lb). But it is important to remember that this number is in fact a starting point, which means it will require adjustment. If not, the diet will not work well. It may not work at all.
Adjustments can be many, but there a few which count for a lot. Probably the most significant adjustment is TEE, the effect of exercise, or the activity factor. There is just so much room for error on this variable that I wonder why we even bother trying. The reality is that exercise intensity as measured by heart rate during exercise will vary dramatically from person to person. Heck, it will even vary widely from me to me, on different days. Some days I’m cranking it out like a rocket ship on overdrive, while on other days I am unable or unwilling to exercise at that level of intensity. Or perhaps I might take longer rest periods between sets in order to allow more recovery, typically with low rep work. That allows me to push heavier weights around, but it also results in a lower heart rate and a lower TEE.
Bummer.
Age is another factor. Age affects so many functions in the body, especially endocrine functions. Typically the older you get the less thyroid hormone you make, the less testosterone you make, and that means your RMR is slower.
Another bummer.
But these are important adjustments that must be taken into account.
A simpler way to do this and avoid dealing with these adjustments is to find, through trial and error, what your own maintenance level is. You do this by maintaining a similar exercise routine for a little while, weighing in every morning and adjusting your calorie intake until your bodyweight becomes unchanged. Start with 15 cal/lb and tweak from there.
Since my last competition on August 5th, I have done something close to that. My bodyweight has oscillated around 175 lbs. while I’ve eaten at various levels, resulting in a my concluding that my maintenance level is currently 2450 calories, or 14 cal/lb.
That’s pretty good for a 52 year old mesomorph. But keep in mind my activity level is high. These days I’m in the gym weight training 5 days a week, plus I’m doing an additional 4-5 days a week of cardio for 40-60 minutes. Maintenance would probably be much closer to 13 cal/lb under less active conditions.
Kind of makes me wonder – would I rather eat less and exercise less, or eat more and exercise more? It’s always that kind of a trade-off, but it’s more of a factor as you get older because of the lower RMR. Even the actual exercise you do will not cause your heart rate to rise as much as it did when you were younger. Your maximum heart rate – and hence your target heart rate range – will decline with age. So both RMR and TEE – the biggest single factors in determining maintenance calorie levels - decline with age.
Peachy.
Therefore dear friends, if you are moving towards or through that poorly charted edge of the universe known affectionately as “middle-age”, it most probably looks like this:
You notice you’re getting fatter. So you eat less desert. But you continue to get fatter. So you eat less of everything. But you still get fatter. So you exercise more. But you don’t get leaner. So you eat much less. And you exercise much more.
