How much do you eat?

In a recent article published on Competitor.com, Professional triathlete Jesse Thomas, CEO of Picky Bars, shares a summary of his food journal he kept over 7 days.  Here are some of the numbers he showcased:

Total Training Hours for the week: 26 hours
Average Daily Caloric Intake: 5 900 cal
Smallest Intake: 5 400 cal
Biggest intake: 6 500 cal

What shocked me the most initially was the amount of energy he was consuming on average. I figured that he must be gaining weight because those numbers are considerably high.  I did some math to see if he would be theoretically in a positive energy balance and this is what I came up with.  (Remember these are just estimates and not direct calculations) :

Resting Metabolic Rate: ~ 2000 cals*
- The equation used for calculating the Resting Metabolic Rate is defined here.

Energy intake required for week: ~14 000 cals
 - energy required to maintain basic metabolic functions and weight if he all sat around the house all day

Total weekly energy intake: 41 400 cals

Excess energy: 27 400 cals

Energy consumed in training: 25 400 - 31 700 cals
- This calculation is based on his average oxygen consumption during training is 60-75% of his estimated VO2max (67ml/kg/min).  Unfortunately, without knowing his true maximal oxygen consumption, nor his training intensities throughout the week, this value is an average of professional triathletes.  However, it is not unlikely to see an athlete of his size expend 1000-1200 calories per hour at moderate intensities.

Energy balance at end of week:  -2000 cals to 4300 cals
- Red denotes negative energy balance while green denotes positive energy balance.  

As one can see through the math done, his energy intake should account for his energy consumption.  This is crucial for endurance athletes as any tip of the scale in either direction can be costly.  Unplanned weight gain can slow you down while weight loss may cause you to loose muscle mass.

The most shocking part of these findings is that if he was not consuming the excess energy through physical activity, he would have gained almost 8 lbs of weight during that week alone!

This would be an interesting project for myself to undertake for one week during base training of the winter.  I would love to crunch the numbers and see if my intake is matching my consumption...