QUESTION #1:
H o w M a n y C a l o r i e s D o I N e e d A D a y ?
Listen, figuring out how many calories a day you need to lose weight, maintain your weight or gain weight really isn't too hard. And with the formula I'm about to give you can easily track where you are and what you need to do daily to reach your goals.
There are several formulas you could use that take into account age, sex, height, weight, lean body mass, and activity level. Any formula accounts for your lean body mass (LBM) will be more accurate but for this guide, let's keep things simple. The estimate you are about to get will be reasonably close for most people.
The Simple Method:
Take your current body weight in pounds (lbs) and use one of the multipliers below.
This is a very easy way to calculate your calories. There are some drawbacks to a method like this because it doesn't take into account for body composition or activity levels. Extremely active people may require more calories than this formula indicates. People with a high amount of lean body mass will require more calories as their total daily energy expenditure (TDDE) will be higher. It's possible to overestimate the calorie needs in somebody who has a very high level of body fat. For example, a 50 year old man who weights 225 lbs at 38% body fat will probably not burn fat on 2925 calories per day (225 x 13 for fat loss).