Caloric Intake

Great question!  This is one area that I have been doing a lot of reading on, as it was my main focus while I started to focus on my health/fitness.

There is a book worth reading, called "Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle" by Tom Venuto. In the book he discusses caloric intake, and how to determine your needs.

I hope your alright with math... and forgive me if I over explain the topic, I would rather it be a little too simple than the opposite. This is what I use:

First, I had to find out what my body burns in a "at rest" state, called your BMI Basal Metabolic Rate).

For men the formula is as follows:
BMR = 66 + (13.7 * wt. in KG) + (5 * ht. in CM) - (6.8 * Age)

For women the formula is:
BMR = 655 + (9.6 X wt in kg) + (1.8 X ht in cm) - (4.7 X age in years)

Again, this is just what your burn in daily functions. To find out a good estimate of what you burn based on activity, I had to find my TDEE orTotal Daily Energy Expenditure. This is your daily intake to maintain where you are at.

TDEE = activity level X BMI = calories/day

To find your activity level, choose from the list below:

Sedentary = BMR X 1.2 (little or no exercise, desk job)
Lightly active = BMR X 1.375 (light exercise/sports 1-3 days/wk)
Mod. active = BMR X 1.55 (moderate exercise/sports 3-5 days/wk)
Very active = BMR X 1.725 (hard exercise/sports 6-7 days/wk)
Extr. Active = BMR X 1.9 (hard daily exercise/sports & physical job or
2 X day training, marathon, football camp,contest, etc.)

So if your BMI is 2000, and your very active, your equation would look like this:

TDEE = 1.725*2000 = 3450 calories/day.

I would suggest spreading that out equally over 5-6 meals a day. You could also taper it with the largest intake in the morning, and weaning off throughout the day.

Keep in mind, I am not a doctor, or professional. This is information I have found through research, and may not apply to everyone. This method isn't going to be perfect, but I have found it to give me a pretty good assumption. And yes, this is my disclaimer. lol.

I hope this helps!