NIH Body weight planner

Nutrition Q&A [Moderated]
1

Hey Dr. Feigenbaum , I was hoping you could clear up some confusion with the NIH body weight planner. Since attending the Seattle BBM seminar in Sept.2018 I have maintained my weight at 180 lbs as per your recommendation, I too was in the “grey zone” whether or not to gain or lose weight. When I was tracking daily, my caloric intake was right around 2200. I don’t track anymore since I can eyeball my portions, and currently still the same weight. When I enter my information in the NIH planner It says maintenance calories are 3800!? I realize this is an estimate , and my tracking could’ve been inaccurate. But I don’t think I was 1600 calories off. This is confusing for me as every client I have programmed nutrition for have never been as high as the NIH planner suggest, and they’ve gotten the outcome they were after in a timely manner. What do you think the reasoning is behind this ? Is there some crucial detail I am missing?

Thanks for all the content !

2

I think either the information being entered into the NIH planner is wrong (usually overestimating activity level) or the calorie levels people report are inaccurate, though perhaps precise :slight_smile:

I have found the NIH tool to be pretty good for the most part.

3

For what it’s worth, I’m 45, weigh 210, and train 4 days a week. NIH Planner has my maintenance ~3200 calories. But, my true maintenance is ~2100. It sucks because I like to eat, but I will probably survive the zombie apocalypse.