Accurate Caloric Needs Calculator?

[The Natural]

Most of the ones online seem to break down at the extremes--extreme bodyweights, levels of activity, etc.

Anyone know of a good one for 'extreme' cases?

Thanks

-Rex

[jad]

Most of the ones online seem to break down at the extremes--extreme bodyweights, levels of activity, etc.

Anyone know of a good one for 'extreme' cases?

Thanks

-Rex

The formulas are just a guideline/starting point. Figure out how many cals you're taking in a day(normal day) and divide it by your weight in kg or pounds. This will give you an idea of how many cals/kg you need for weight maintenance; assuming your weight has been stable. If you want to gain a pound a week add 500 to that number, if you want to lose a pound a week, subtract 500 from that number. Most people need 20-30 cals/kg to maintain weight. Most of the pts I see fall in the 35-45 range with the HIV and Cancer.

The best way to measure caloric needs is indirect calorimetry. That's what they use in most ICU's when they need to be darn close to needs for TPN or Tubefeeding with critically ill pts. Here's a link to an affordable version vs. a metabolic cart. The high-end gym in St. Louis has one of these and it's a great revenue generator for them. You could easily get it to pay for itself. Maybe you could talk metroflex into investing in one.

http://www.korr.com/

[jad]

If you want to gain a pound a week add 500 to that number, if you want to lose a pound a week, subtract 500 from that number.

Just wanted to clarify: that number, refers to your daily caloric intake, not your cals/kg. The cals/kg is another way to estimate. For example, if you're needing 35 cals/kg now you can pick your goal weight and figure the cals/kg and see if that's realistic for you (are you willing to eat that much/little, etc..)

[The Natural]

Thanks for that Josh. Very helpful.

-Rex