Calorie needs?

[crunchymomof3]

I'm trying to figure out how many calories my body needs... So I found some forumlas (Harris-Benedict & Katch-McArdle) and with an activity factor of "very active" (defined as hard exercise/sports 6-7 days/wk), I average a TDEE of 2300 (only a difference of around 30 calories between the 2 forumlas). I workout 6 days/week, I'm currently on week 2 of FitnessFreak's Circuit Mix rotation. I like to use Spark People to track my intake, exercise, etc, and they have my TDEE only around 2000 calories. 300 calories is a pretty big difference. I read a bit on their site about how they calculate the TDEE, and it says they use the Harris-Benedict formula, but sub an activity factor of sedentary and add the # of caloris you burn a week exercising (per my HRM, I burn around 2500/wk). I'm having a hard time figuring it all out. 300 caloris is a big difference. My main goals are some fat loss (not necessarily weight loss), muscle building and overall fitness. Which do you think is more accurate? Any words of wisdom from the better informed? Help please!

Carol

 

[Imafitnessfreak]

I think "very active" is more for athletes who are training a few hours a day at high intensity.

I've always used the Harris-Benedict formula.

As for which you should use, try one for a week and if your body fat does not decrease, make the neccessary changes.