A tool to help you (I've come a long way baby)

[kfisherx]

In just seven weeks I have transitioned from clueless to creating a tool that maybe you can use too. I have also acheived an excellent grasp on basic nutrition and what my body needs to operate at a better level. I have attached my xls worksheet that could be useful if you are good about tracking what you eat to any degree.

If you can over a good period of time tell the spreadsheet your average kcal per day consumption, your start weight and bf and end weight and bf for that time period the tool will tell you what you maintenance kcals are, what your muscle gain/loss and fat gain/loss is and average rate in lbs per week of change. There is also an option for you to put in "what if" I eat this much and the tool will use your current daily burn rate to determine what your loss/gain for that week would be. Oh yeah and since I finished reading NROLW I thought that it might be good to input the average per day need for protein given your current muscle rate.

This spreadsheet has all my current data in it for an example so just wipe that out and put in your info. I hope someone finds this useful as I do. Have fun and good luck on your venture of nutrition and fitness.

[kfisherx]

Actually this one is a bit cleaner than the first one. I can't seem to update the first post though for some reason...

[kfisherx]

Updated Jan 27, 2008

[rixatrix]

I just want to say, I've been using your template and find it incredibly helpful and informative. Thank you for taking the time to create it! I'm linking to it from a training log post, because I think more people might be interested in your brilliant formulas. I can never make my spreadsheets look so pretty. What's your secret?

[kfisherx]

Almost 20 years of SW engineering plays a little part in this...

[Deserve]

This looks very cool. Thanks.

[galya]

Thank you for your time and effort, I will use this next time I have results to put in it and let you know

[kfisherx]

One of the cool things about this tool for me is that I am able to watch my metabolism move. Recently my metabolism went from 2550 kcals a day to 2340 kcals a day. I felt this in that I could no longer get 3000 kcals in my body without feeling really awful. Now I know I can back off the calories and still be in a gain mode. I believe the metablism changed due to my body adjusting to weight training and a decrease in the total amount of cardio that I have been doing. In any case I was able to see it on the charts and that gave me the confidence to decrease my daily intake a bit. It's actually very cool to know these things at this level.

Oh yeah and it is also telling me that I am gaining lean muscle at about a .55 lbs a week. This is down from .7 lbs a week in the beginning. I think that is the "beginners luck" thing that is starting to fade. In any case it gives me a good guage for what is possible and realistic.

[Espi]

For the record I've got an organically grown Excel sheet .. probably horrific but it does exactly what you describe, viz. calculate maintenance. Really funky stuff happening when I resumed lifting after having been ill for a while .. mtn going sky-high towards 2700kcal. Alas, I got fat realllly quickly once it dropped when I got accustomed to lifting again.

The drop in metabolism happening when you get used to a program, is a good reason for changing up your program frequently if you're more interested in maintaining a high metabolism than in gaining strength. For the latter 'greasing the groove' overrides changing things up constantly.

BTW, from people using a device called BodyBugg the appalling realization was that household chores & gardening , snow shovelling etc. burns a lot more calories than lifting.. some people even decided to give up on HIIT as it made them too burnt out/lethargic for the remainder of the day and effectively decreasing metabolism.

Now.. off to check your sheets!