Starting a diet can be a task that sounds easy at first but can quickly become overwhelming.

How much protein should I eat?

Should I go low carb, isn`t that good for weight loss?

Do I need carbs for training?

If you overthink it, then you are more likely to either not start it or follow some random program that looks appealing but isn`t suited for you, and either make the diet more difficult than it should be or give up before you even start. Let`s keep it simple and focus on calorie needs first.

Step 1

Calculate your BMR.

This is the amount of calories your body burns at rest. The amount of calories that you would burn in a day if you did absolutely fuck-all. There are many complicated formulas to do this but a very easy method, and one that comes up with similar results is the Mac Met method. Simply take your bodyweight in kilograms and multiply it by 24 (22 for women). Remember that we want simplicity. all we need is a general starting point.

Step 2

Add in your physical activity level (PAL).

This takes into account how active you are throughout the day on average. To do this you multiply your BMR by 1.2-1.6.
Think of your daily activity as the type of job you have and how active you are in an average day. So if you have a mainly sedentary job like sitting at a computer and you do very little exercise you would choose 1.2.
If you work in a job where you`re moving around often or carrying things you would choose 1.4.
If you have a very demanding job and where you are always on the move or doing some kind of demanding physical work you would choose a 1.6.

Step 3

Add in your Exercise Energy Expenditure (EEE)

If you were consulting a nutritionist they might calculate this based on the type of exercise and duration to get a more accurate number, but unless you are a professional athlete adding a correction to your PAL number will be fine.

If you don`t exercise or train for a sport skip this step.
If you do 1-3 training sessions a week add .1 to your PAL.
If you do 4-6 training sessions a week add .2
If you do 7 or more training sessions a week add .3

What we have so far:

BMR (bodyweight in kg x 22 (women) or 24 (men) ) x activity mutiplier (PAL + EEE)

Example: Jeff is a 78 kg male.  78kg x 24 = 1,872 Calories (BMR)

He works at a supermarket stocking shelves so we estimate his PAL at 1.4.

 He works out 3 times a week so we add .1 to this. So his activity mutiplier is 1.5

1,872 x 1.5 = 2,808 Calories per day roughly needed to maintain his current bodyweight.

This is merely a starting point. Since everyone is slightly different it will need to be adjusted slightly based on actual weight loss or gain. A good coach can help you with this so you can relax knowing that you aren`t over-adjusting calories and stopping progress from happening.

 

Step 4

Calculate your deficit or surplus

In this article we will focus on losing weight. There are other things to consider when trying to gain weight. We will keep this simple for now.

To use these calculations you need to know your BF percent first. There are many online calculators or apps that will calculate your BF percent. All you need to do is plug in your height, weight, and your neck, waist measurements. For females you also need to include a hip measurement.

Once you have your BF percent take it and divide by 15. That is the percent of your bodyweight you want to lose per week week. Take your bodyweight and times it by this number and then divide by 100. You will have the number of pounds (or Kilograms) you can lose in a week. The number is for those who want to lose weight fast and aren`t worried about retaining as much muscle as possible. For those who want to lose it slower simply lower the number a bit. If you want to minimize muscle loss then this number shouldn`t exceed 1, which would mean losing 1 percent of bodyweight in a week at the most.

Example: Jeff uses an online calculator to find out he is about 23 percent BF.

23/15= 1.53 He can lose 1.53 percent of his bodyweight per week.

78 x 1.53 = 119.34 Divide this by 100 to get 1.19 kgs per week is how much he should aim to lose.

There are 7,700 calories roughly in a kg of fat. So we take 7,700 x 1.19 to get 9,163 calories he needs to burn to lose 1.19 kgs in a week. Take this and divide by 7 to get 1,309 calories per day.

His daily intake to maintain his weight is 2,808 so we take away 1,309 from this total to get 1,499 calories that he needs to eat per day to lose 1.19 kgs a week.

This number can then be recalculated every 2 weeks (or weekly) to adjust the rate of weight loss, for as we get leaner we have to lose weight at a lower rate to prevent muscle loss and general diet fatigue.

Notes:

In general we don`t want to go below 50 percent of maintenance calories. In Jeff`s case we came close. If the number is below 50% of maintenance calories then just set it at 50 percent.
For those who are very small, we don`t want to go below 800 calories so if you come up with a number below 800, simply set calories at 800.
For those who are obese, and those who are very lean (single digit BF) and are looking to lose weight there are other considerations and this general approach would have to be modified.

Step 5

Set protein targets

The recommended range is between 1.6-2.4 grams of protein per kilogram of bodyweight a day. This range takes into account personal taste. If you don`t like meat and find it hard to get in your protein in a day 1.6 is better. Whereas, if you like meat and find eating more helps prevent hunger in your case then go closer to the 2.4 side of the range.

In Jeff`s case he likes high protein meals so he sets his to 2g per kilogram to make it easy to calculate. 78kg of bodyweight * 2 = 156 grams of protein per day.
1 gram of protein is 4 calories so that is 624 calories of protein a day.

Step 6

Set the amount of fat.

This is based partly on taste and partly on performance. A higher amount of fat in the diet will help hormone levels when dieting, but if you are trying to lose weight and also maintain a certain level of performance for a sport then you will need to calculate carbs first and then fats. This may lead to a lower level of fat in the diet.
Fat should be around 20-40% of calories.

Jeff wants to keep fat on the higher side so he chooses to go with 40 percent fat.
1,499 x .40 = 600 calories or about 66 grams of fat.

Step 7

Set the remaining calories as carbs

If you are looking for performance then you will need to make sure you have 3-6 grams of carbs per kilogram of bodyweight.

For Jeff he takes his 1,499 daily calories and takes away the fat and protein calories.
1,499 – (600 + 624) = 275 calories. Since 1 gram of carbs has 4 calories, 275/4 = 69 grams of carbs. This is not even 1 gram per kg of bodyweight so if Jeff noticed energy levels going down then he would want to lower protein and fat calories to make room for some extra carbs.

Now Jeff has:
1,499 daily calories
275 calories from carbs
624 calories from protein
600 calories from fat

Step 8

Adjust

As you lose weight you will have to adjust calories. As you gets leaner you will have to lose weight at a lower rate, so calories will have to slightly increase.

You may burn a lot more calories in a day than you realized so your calories are too low. If you notice that your weight is going down too quickly you can increase calories.

You may have overestimated your activity level and aren`t losing weight at the rate you thought. You will then have to decrease calories slightly.

Notes: Since protein generally stays the same the calorie increases will come from added carb and fat calories.

Important: These numbers are simply a good way to start. You will have to monitor your progress and then make adjustments based on your individual outcome. Calorie balance also frequently changes due to changes in activity levels, stress, and other factors. Keeping good records will help you on your weight loss journey.

 

For those who need more help with setting up a diet and sticking to it, personal coaching options are available. Check out the coaching page or send an email to mitch@bodyoptimizedcoaching.com for any questions.