Letting INSANITY Determine Your Daily Caloric Needs

Everybody is always going on about nutrition. If you don't eat right, you won't get any results, if you don't ensure that you're consuming the right amount of calories, you'll either be too tired to work out, or actually lose muscle mass as well as fat. People aren't sure how to gain muscle and lose fat at the same time, or whether you even should attempt to gain muscle. More food? Less food? How much food, exactly, should you be eating? Well, sit back, let out a sigh of relief, relax and put your feet up. Close your eyes and feel the morning sunshine on your face, because the INSANITY workout by Shaun T comes with a Nutrition Guide, and it sets the record straight.

Of note here is that the INSANITY Nutrition Guide states explicitly at the get-go: "When you're digging into this ultra-fitness regimen, you can't go low-calorie or low-carb. You need to fuel your system with balanced and nutritious meals and snacks. Your body is literally going to burn through the food you eat, whether they're carbs, fats, or protein. This is NOT the time to diet." The idea being that if you're working out that hard, you don't need to diet; you will lose the weight regardless as long as you're able to fuel your body so that it can continue to exercise at the required level.

So, that in mind, this is how you're supposed to figure out your daily caloric needs. First, they tell you to use the Harris Benedict Equation. It figures out your basal energy requirements, which is what you need to maintain you current weight without exercise. This equation was formulated by J. Arthur Harris and Francis G. Benedict in 1919 who figured out that approximate value could be derived from body surface area (hence why they ask for height and weight), age, and sex.

This is how it works: for women, start with 655, and then add your weight in lbs multiplied by 4.35. Then add your height in inches multiplied by 4.7, and subtract 4.7 times your age in years. SIMPLE.
For men! Start with 66 (not a typo) plus your weight in pounds multiplied by 6.23, then add 12.7 multiplied by your height in inches, and then subtract 6.8 multiplied by your age in years.

So, for example, me: 66 + (6.23 x 170) + (12.7 x 72) - (6.8 x 29) = 1842.3 calories to maintain my weight while doing nothing at all.

But we don't want to just figure out how to relax on the couch and keep our current weight: we want understand our total caloric needs for when we're exercising. Toward that end, we multiply our basal rate by the number associated with our desired activity level. If you're 'Lightly Active' (do exercise 1 to 3 days a week), then multiply by 1.375. If you're Very Active (hard exercise 6-7 days a week) then multiply it by 1.7. There are other categories, but you get the idea.

So back to me: say I'm doing the INSANITY workout, and am thus very active. I would take my 1842.3 basal energy requirement and multiply it by 1.7, bringing my total to a required 3131.91 calories per day. Seem excessive? Take into account that not only do I need 1800 calories to simply sit on the couch, but I'm working out 6-7 times a week.

Finally, you adjust this by your desire to gain, lose, or maintain your weight. If you wish to lose weight, subtract 500 from this number. To maintain, do nothing. And to gain weight? Add 250-300 calories per day. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the final number you will have in order to achieve your weight gains or losses while exercising.

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