Astronaut calorie need

[spayss]

Does a member of the ISS need more calories or the same as 'average on Earth' to maintain their body weight? On the main page today of Space.com..<br /><br />"On the average, ISS astronauts consume about 3,000 calories during any given day in space. Under the current plan, Chiao and Sharipov will scale down to about 2,700 calories at most."<br /><br /> I'm an average sized guy and my calorie intake a day is 2600 to maintain my size. My initial thought would be an astronaut needs less calories as they aren't doing any strenuous physical activity and many of their body muscles at other times are not activated.<br /><br /> Why 3000 calories a day? Do astronauts have a higher metabolism in space or more overall stress? Less sleep? <br /><br />

 

[Maddad]

I'm just guessing here, but since astronauts are the most physically fit people there are, I would imagine that their metabolisms are higher than the average Joe.