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| Daily calorie, protein, fat and carbohydrate intake - Diet Guide |
Whether you want to lose weight, build muscle, or improve any aspect of your body or health, the proper implementation of your diet is an absolute requirement for achieving any type of goal.
Between your daily intake of calories, protein, fat and carbohydrates and the food sources from which you get these nutrients, diet and nutrition tend to be the trouble area.
People focus on their workout routines and exercises for the muscle groups they train, on the days and amount of weight they lift, and for how many sets and reps, but nothing on the diet plan involved.
Realistically, this is the number one reason you don't lose fat or build muscle. If your diet is not set up the way it needs to be for your goal to be met, your goal will not be met.
How should you eat to support your goal? How do you determine what the intake should be for:
Your daily calorie.
Protein.
Fat.
Carb.
Also, what food sources should and shouldn't these nutrients come from? How do you set up your ideal diet?
Here at gymguider we will show you how:
Daily caloric intake:
Your daily caloric intake is the most important part. As you will see:
Protein.
Fat.
Carbohydrate.
Certainly important, but nothing influences your ability to lose weight, gain weight, build muscle or do anything similar as much as calories.
That's because almost everything we eat and drink contains calories, and everything we do that requires movement burns calories. The difference between the number of calories we consume and the number of calories we burn is the most important factor in every diet.
How do you use calories to manage your weight?
There is a certain number of calories your body needs each day to maintain your current weight. We call this your "daily calorie maintenance level". This is the amount of calories your body needs each day to do everything it needs to do.
Now, if your diet consists of more, less or the same amount of calories as your maintenance level, 1 of 3 things will always happen:
If you eat more calories than your maintenance level, you will gain weight. This is a requirement for muscle building.
If you eat fewer calories than your maintenance level, you will lose weight. This is a requirement for fat loss.
If you eat the same amount of calories as your maintenance level, your weight will stay the same. This is a requirement to maintain your current weight.
These 3 simple facts will help you achieve the goal you are aiming for.
Estimating your maintenance level:
The first step in determining what your daily caloric intake should be is to estimate your maintenance level. Multiply your current body weight in pounds by 14 and 17. Somewhere between these 2 amounts will generally be your maintenance level.
People who should use the lower end of the scale are:
Female.
Less active people.
A slower metabolism.
People who should use the higher end of the scale are:
Men.
More active people.
Faster metabolism.
People who are unsure should choose a number in the middle, then calculate based on the reaction test with the body.
Adjust your daily caloric intake:
Now that you have a good estimate of your maintenance level, it's time to adjust it to your specific goal. Here's how to do it:
If you want to lose weight, subtract about 500 calories from your estimated maintenance level and start eating that amount each day.
To build muscle or gain weight, add about 300 to 500 calories to your estimated maintenance level and start eating that amount each day.
When maintaining your current weight, do not make any adjustments.
To make sure your daily caloric intake is correct, you should take a calorie count once a week first thing in the morning before you eat or drink anything, and monitor whether your weight is moving in the right direction at the ideal rate:
To lose weight, 1-2lbs lost per week is usually fine.
To gain weight or build muscle, 0.5-1lbs gained per week is usually perfect.
So, if that happens, you are perfect. Continue to eat that daily caloric intake from that point on.
But if not, all you need to do is adjust up or down in small 250 calorie increments until you do.
Now that your daily caloric intake is set up, it's time to set up the proteins, fats and carbs that will provide those calories.
Daily protein intake:
The second most important part of your diet is your daily protein intake. It plays a huge role in controlling your hunger and keeping you satisfied, and, if weight loss is your goal, it's the dietary key to making sure that the weight you lose is fat and not muscle.
If you are looking to improve your body, you should generally eat between 0.8 and 1.2 grams of protein per pound of body weight, with even 1 gram of protein per pound being the most common recommendation.
Most people should use their current body weight when making this calculation: (so a 180 lb person would eat 180 grams of protein per day), but people who are truly obese should use their target body weight instead (so a 300 lb person trying to get down to 200 lb would eat about 200 grams of protein per day).
What are the best sources of protein?
Some common sources of high quality protein include...
Chicken
Turkey
Fish
Meat
Eggs/Egg whites
Milk
Protein supplements
Daily fat intake:
After your daily calorie and protein intake, your daily fat intake is the next part of your diet that needs to be implemented. There are mainly 4 different types of fats:
Trans fats should be avoided completely.
Saturated and saturated fats should generally be limited to 1/3 of your total daily fat intake.
Monounsaturated fats should make up the majority.
Polyunsaturated-polyunsaturated fats should make up the majority.
Each has a significantly different effect on the human body. Additional emphasis should be placed on getting enough of a specific polyunsaturated fatty acid, omega-3.
Ideal daily fat intake:
In most cases, between 20 and 30% of your total daily caloric intake should come from fat, with even 25% often being perfect for most people.
So, figure out what 25% of your total daily caloric intake is, then divide that amount by 9 (because 1g of fat has 9 calories) to determine how many grams you would need to eat per day.
What are the best sources of fat?
Some common sources of high quality fat include...
Fish.
Fish oil supplements (highly recommended).
Nuts.
Olive oil.
Avocados.
Daily carbohydrate intake:
The reason we left carbohydrates for last is because of the 3 macro-nutrients that provide our daily calories (protein, fat and carbohydrates), carbohydrates are the least important.
Carbohydrates are extremely useful and a sufficient amount should definitely be consumed. However, protein and fat are the only macro-nutrients that are truly essential to the human body and must be present in our diet to live and function.
Your ideal daily carbohydrate intake:
Do you remember the daily caloric intake you calculated before? Subtract the protein calories and fat calories from that amount. Whatever calories you have left will come from carbohydrates.
Here's an example:
You have calculated that you need to eat 2000 calories a day to lose weight or build muscle.
Then you figured out that you need to eat 150 grams of protein per day. Since 1 gram of protein contains 4 calories, this means that 600 of this person's daily calories will come from protein.
Since 25% of your calories should come from fat, this example can calculate that, 500 of their 2000 daily calories will come from fat (2000 x 0.25 = 500). To determine how many grams of fat that would be, they would simply divide 500 by 9 (since there are 9 calories per gram of fat) and get about 55 grams of fat per day.
So that's 600 calories from protein plus 500 calories from fat, giving that person 1100 calories counted so far (600 + 500 = 1100).
Now, just subtract 1100 from their 2000 total and get 900 calories left. Since 1 gram of carbohydrate contains 4 calories, this example person can see that they should be eating 225 grams of carbohydrate per day (900 divided by 4 = 225).
Simply repeat this same process using your actual daily intake of calories, protein, fat and carbohydrates instead of the example amounts used in the example above.
Best source of carbohydrates?
Some common sources of high-quality carbohydrates include:
Vegetables.
Fruit.
Oatmeal.
Whole grain rice.
Beans.
Potatoes.
Whole grains.
Your diet:
Now that you know how many calories and grams of protein, fat, and carbohydrates to eat per day and what foods they should generally come from, you're probably wondering how it should all be put together and organized.
What times should you eat, how many meals should you eat and how big should each meal be? Honestly, it doesn't matter.
So the real answer to all the questions you have about how best to implement your diet plan is this:
Eat the right total amount of calories, protein, fat and carbohydrates each day.
Get them from higher quality sources.
Eat a good meal after your workout.
Do everything else in your diet in the way that is most enjoyable and convenient for you.
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