How many calories should a 26 yr old male take in a day?!

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A male not working out should have at least 2500 calories a day. Low calories will cause a loss of lean tissues.

Unfortunately, anyone who accumulates over 30# of excess fat is more than likely insulin resistant. Long term ingestion of highly refined carbs "burn out" the insulin receptors on muscle cells, so calories go directly to fat cells, leaving muscle cells screaming for nutrition. Exercise forces muscles to accept glucose out of the bloodstream without the need for insulin.

Most people get obese because their bodies just can't process carbs any more. They become insulin resistant & carbs go straight to fat cells. As healthy as fruit may be, it just doesn't promote fat loss. The body won't release fat stores until the blood stream is free of insulin. In someone insulin resistant, the insulin response is too sensitive & produces too much insulin.

Simple carbs are addictive & can be disastrous to health. The best way to break the addiction is NO carbs for 3 days. Make a batch of deviled eggs, eat one every time you want "something" - have huge omelets with bacon, sausage, peppers, mushrooms & cheese. Meats smothered with peppers, mushrooms & cheese - pork rinds & dip or tuna/chicken/egg salad - sugar free cheese cake. Eat so much you won't feel deprived of anything. By the 4th day, the addiction will be gone & the low carb way of eating will create a natural appetite suppression that makes it much easier to make healthy choices.

You can lose more body fat eating protein & fat (don't eat protein alone) than not eating AT ALL. To lose weight fast, eat all you want, but nothing but meat, eggs, healthy oils, mayo, butter & half an avocado a day (for added potassium). Keep the calories high & the fat percentage high, at least 65% of calories. Green vegetables & some cheese will continue weight loss but at a slower pace.

The first 2 weeks eat several cups a day of (mostly) lettuce & celery, cucumbers, radishes, mushrooms, peppers & more variety of vegetables thereafter - add 5 grams per day additional every week (20 grams day first 2 weeks, 25grams 3rd week, 30grams 4th week etc) til you gain weight, then subtract 10grams. That will be your personal carb level (everyone is different & depends on how active you are.)

Start with meat, fats & salads for 2 weeks and then slowly add in more green veg, wk4 fresh cheeses, wk5 nuts & seeds, wk6 berries, wk7 legumes, wk8 other fruits, wk9 starchy veg, wk10 whole grains. You will learn how your body reacts to different foods.

The first week is just water weight but fat is lost thereafter if you keep your calories high enough. Otherwise the body will strip it's own lean tissue for nutrition. Although that may look great on a scale it will make it MUCH easier to accumulate fat in the future (since all that pesky lean tissue burning up calories will be gone). The body won't release fat stores if you lower calories below what it needs. It will slow metabolism to compensate & store every spare ounce as fat. If you continue lowering calories, it will continue lowering the set point, til it can survive off nothing & store fat on anything. The body will only release it's fat stores if it knows there is plenty of nutritious food.

Eating carbs while trying to lose body fat is terribly inefficient. When in glycolysis (burning glucose as fuel) you have to lower your calories (which slows your metabolism) & exercise heavily to deplete your glycogen stores before burning body fat.

The core of Atkins program is converting the body from glycolysis (burning glucose as fuel) to ketosis (burning fat as fuel). Dietary fat levels need to be at >65% of total calories, if not, the body will still remain in glycolysis by converting 58% of excess protein into glucose (via gluconeogenesis).

It takes minimum of 3 days to convert a body to ketosis, (but only one bite to convert back to glycolysis). People feel sluggish the first week but most feel better than ever thereafter.

Carbohydrates trigger insulin, the fat storage hormone. Protein triggers the fat burning hormone, glucagon.

High insulin levels unbalance other hormones. Controlling insulin levels will balance out other hormones & allow human growth hormone (HGH) to be produced naturally so lean muscle will be gained even without exercise.

Ground flax seed (4 Tbsp) 1/4 cup water, artificial sweetener, mix in a raw egg - let sit 10 min. to absorb liquid, put cream cheese in the middle & nuke 2 min. for daily fiber needs.

As long as you have <9grams carbs per hour, you will maintain insulin control & shouldn't gain weight, no matter the calories because insulin, the fat storage hormone is not activated. Many people gain weight on high carb, do low carb to lose weight & then are shocked when they return to high carb & gain weight.

Dr.Atkins was a cardiologist, low carb was a health plan easier sold as a "diet" Read any of his books for easily understandable science. Normalizing blood pressure, blood sugar, insulin, cholesterol, triglyercerides & hormone levels are all bonus features of doing a low carb way of eating. Lutz "Life without Bread" & Taubes "Good calories, Bad calories" are excellent books that dispel all the nutrition myths.
http://www.atkins.com/Program/Phase1/Wha…
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/07/07/magazi…

This fellow went from 419# to goal in 15 months - he lost over 200#
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kmRaD683O…

low carb recipe websites -
http://forum.lowcarber.org/forumdisplay.…
http://www.lowcarbfriends.com/bbs/low-ca…
http://www.genaw.com/lowcarb/recipes.htm…

Go to mypyramid.com. go to my pyramid plan tab. Fill in your wieght age height activity and stuff and it tells you what your calorie intake should be plus how many servings of each food group to eat. We had to go to this site and do a worksheet on it in my science class. I did the plan and ate how it told me to and within a week a felt really healthy and stuuf.

My pyramid.com

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A lot of people use the "Harris Benedict Equation" to calculate caloric needs.

for a male it is 66+ (6.23 x weight in pounds) + ( 12.7 x height in inches) - (6.8 x age in years)

now take that number and multiply it by exercise factor

1.2 | Sedentary | little or no exercise
1.375 | Light Activity | Light exercise (1-3 days/week
1.55 | Moderatle Active | Moderate exercise 3-5 days a week
1.7 | Very Active | Hard exercise 6-7 days a week
1.9 | extremely active | Hard daily exercise, or a physical job

For weight loss, subtract 500 for step 2
for weight maintenance, do nothing
for weight gain add 250-300 calories a day

Weight loss and muscle building are two different types of regiments that require two different types of exercise routines and diets. The two regiments need to done in phases, with each phase lasting about 8-12 weeks each.

In order to lose fat, you need a calorie deficit. You can not lose weight if there is no calorie deficit, period. When there is a calorie deficit, you are catabolizing muscle as well as fat (15-25% of weight lost is muscle).

In order to gain muscle, you need to have a calorie surplus. Muscle is metabolically active, and when you tear it apart with exercise, it will consume even more energy to repair. Without the calorie surplus, all intake will go to vital body functions first. So after all vital functions and exertion expenditure is meet, this leaves nothing for the muscles.

Additionally, the types of exercise are completely different as well. Aerobics burns a lot of calories, which helps create a calorie deficit for fat loss. Weight lifting does not burn nearly as many calories and is ideal for building mass.

Muscle building and fat loss should be done seperately. You should be able to burn 10 lbs in an aggressive cardio program in about 2-3 weeks. I would recommend continuing to lift as it does burn calories and also reduces the amount of muscle lost while in a fat loss state. The strength training should be much lighter as well during this phase.

Once you are at the composition you like, you can start to meld the two phases together in a sort of maintenance phase. Your caloric intake can be calculated at the site below. This will show you what your body burns to maintain its weight if not action is taken (calories burned at total rest in a 24 hour period).

NOTE
Carb cutting is detrimental to muscle growth. Muscle prefers to use glycogen as an energy source. When you reduce your carb intake, you begin using ketones as an energy source. While this is great for fat loss, it is not so great for muscle building. In fact, the body's use of ketones is the reason why you tend to lose some muscle mass during a fat loss phase.

http://www.bmi-calculator.net/bmr-calcul…