Do You Know How Many Calories You Need?

1200-1600 cals/day may not be enough to adequately fuel those who love working out, lifting, and being active.

I try to share these infographics regularly, because I think of younger me that fell into the thinking trap that because I’m on the shorter and tinier side, that I didn’t need to eat much food.

And boy, was I wrong. At 5’3 and 34 years old, my maintenance is around ~2200-3400 calories per day. I usually lift 4x per week and generally average about 8,000 steps per day. 

This is not super unusual or unheard of for someone my size. And if you think it is, it might be a good time to audit who you follow on social media and where you get your nutrition advice from (:

One of my absolute FAVORITE things about Paragon Training Methods  is that because we do so much regular education on nutrition, we regularly see our members around the globe start tracking macros and sharing their journey.  Let me tell you: it NEVER gets old seeing their surprise when they discover their maintenance calories are ~1800, ~2000, ~2300, ~2500, ~2700, or anything in-between! 

On FDA.gov, you can find a MUCH less pretty version of these exact tables and numbers from the 2015-2020 Dietary Guidelines for Americans. As always, we are all unique snowflakes and 98723 factors go into your needs. 

The charts may or may NOT be perfectly true for you – but they’re a great ESTIMATE and North Star in addition to things like Precision Nutrition Calculator and TDEE Calculator so you can track your food and then see what’s true for you.

If you’re super under these proposed numbers, I probably would NOT suggest going from eating 0 food to eating all the food. A better idea might be to slowly dial up calories over time, so you don’t accidentally gain a bunch of weight or body fat.

A great rule of thumb might be to bump up daily calorie goals by something like ~100 calories every 2-3 weeks until you see the scale start to consistently trend up.

Hope this helps, and happy eating! (:

Where To Go From Here

I’m always posting educational content regarding nutrition, fitness, and sharing what I’m up to on my Instagram. You can also follow us on the Paragon Training Methods Instagram for tons of free workouts and more tips to help you look and feel your best!