Authored by: Anonymous on Thursday, July 12 2007 @ 02:52 pm UTC

I think calorie intake has more to do with age, gender and personal metabolism and activity level than actual weight. At 150lbs, 19 years old, male and cycling 25 miles/ day, I have to take in 3700 calories/ day to maintain, which is nearly 25 calories/ pound. My gym says considering my age, height, weight, gender and activity level, this is normal. Most of the rubbish about 17-18 calories/ pound for an active person (some sites allow a concessionary 20 for extreme activity is rubbish). At a lower activity level than now, I made myself quite unwell trying to follow a 3000 calorie MyPyramid plan, running myself down to 141. I have been up to 156, but have lost again due to training, and I can say that 150 is already a much warmer weight than 141. At 141, I was still glad of a warm top even on days where it was 22C.
I also take issue with BMI. BMI of 20-25 (some sites even dare to say 18.5) means a range of 132-164lbs for my height. At 150lbs, I am only 7% fat and my waist is less than 30. I have never been below 150lbs (BMI of 22.8) and felt healthy.

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