Recommended Caloric Intake For An Athlete

Any activity beyond basic physiological functions and day-to-day activities places greater energy demands on your body. To meet these increased demands, you need to increase your daily caloric intake. As an athlete, you have much higher caloric needs than what men and women who are only moderately active require.

Sources

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 45 to 65 percent of your calories should come from carbohydrates, 20 to 35 percent from fat and 10 to 35 percent from protein. If you are an athlete, you should try to maximize your carbohydrate intake because of your extreme energy needs and your body's preference for carbohydrates as a source of energy. In addition, you should minimize fats and maximize protein to build, repair and sustain muscles. As such, you should aim to get 65 percent of your calories from carbs, 20 percent from fats and 15 percent from protein.

Calculating Your Needs

In their 2008 book "Essentials of Strength Training and Conditioning," Thomas Baechle and Roger Earle of the National Strength and Conditioning Association suggest that athletes consume 4 to 4.5 g of carbohydrates for each pound of body weight. With four calories in each gram of carbs, this works out to 2,400 to 2,700 calories from carbs for a 150-lb. athlete. As this should be 65 percent of your total calories, the daily caloric intake for a 150-lb. athlete should be 3,700 to 4,150 calories.

Grams and Calories

Using the above values, a 150-lb. athlete should consume approximately 600 to 675 g of carbohydrates per day. With 15 percent of your calories coming from protein and four calories in each gram, you should aim to consume 550 to 620 calories, or approximately 140 to 155 g, of protein per day. As there are about nine calories in each gram of fat, the remaining 740 to 830 calories should come in the form of 82 to 92 g of fat.

Gaining and Losing Weight

There are approximately 3,500 calories in each pound of body fat, according to the National Institutes of Health's MedlinePlus. As such, cutting 3,500 calories from your weekly intake while adhering to the above percentages for carbs, fats and protein can be a healthy way to lose 1 lb. of body fat each week. You can do this by dropping 500 calories per day, thus lowering your daily intake to 3,200 to 3,650 calories. Similarly, adding 500 calories per day can help you to bulk up, adding approximately 1 lb. per week. While you may wish to gain or lose weight more quickly, you should avoid severely altering your daily caloric intake to prevent negatively affecting your performance.