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Overview

Introduction

Diet

Exercise

Supplements

Further Reading

Healthy diet tips and guidelines
for fat loss

Determining an Ideal Number of Calories for Fat Loss

The first step in creating a diet is to determine what your ideal calorie level is. First calculate your approximate basal metabolic rate using the calculator below. This is the number of calories you would burn if you were asleep 24 hours a day.

Next, multiply the number you get by an activity factor to approximate how many calories you would need to maintain your current weight (approximate maintenance calories).

Activity Factor

• If you are sedentary (little or no exercise, desk job) multiply BMR by 1.2
  
• If you are lightly active (light exercise/sports 1-3 days per week) multiply your BMR by 1.375
  
• If you are moderately active (moderate exercise/sports 3-5 days per week) multiply your BMR by 1.55
  
• If you are very active (hard exercise/sports 6-7 days per week) multiply your BMR by 1.725

To decide how many calories you should intake for fat loss, multiply your maintenance calories by one of the following factors. IF the number you get is below your BMR, use that number for your calories instead.

Personal Deficit

If you are

• less than 10 lbs overweight, multiply by 0.85.
• between 10 and 20 lbs overweight, multiply by 0.8
• between 20 and 50 lbs overweight, multiply by 0.75
• more than 50 lbs overweight, multiply by 0.7

Note 1: I recommend recalculating for every 5 lbs you lose. Remember, at lower bodyweight, you will require fewer calories for fat loss and also a lower deficit. A less aggressive deficit is used as your bodyfat percentage goes down since it is harder to keep your lean mass as you get leaner. Remember, we want to avoid lean mass loss as much as possible.

Note 2: Once a week allow yourself a treat, or have a day which is higher in carbohydrates. I recommend eating at your maintenance calories on this day. This will help keep your metabolic rate up, and help stave off cravings.

Gauging Progress

To gauge your progress be wary of the scale. Remember

• Muscle is more dense than fat. That is, 1 lb of muscle takes up about half as much room as 1 lb of fat. You can be leaner without losing a significant amount of weight if you gain muscle while you lose fat.
• How your clothes feel, and how you look in the mirror is more important than how much weight you've lost. If your jeans get loose, you've lost FAT.
• Water and sodium intake will change water retention levels.
• You are lighter each morning due to water loss (you don't lose 1-5 lbs of FAT overnight).

Use a measuring tape once every week or two to gauge your progress. Measure when you wake up after using the washroom. If you are female, I suggest not measuring when you have PMS as you will be retaining water. For fat loss, some or all of the following measurements should change:

• Chest - Measure just above the nipple. If female, you can wear a thin (nonpadded) bra.
• Waist - Measure the narrowest part of the torso.
• Abdomen - Measure around the abdomen at the widest part (for me, about 1 inch below my belly button). You can take this measurement both relaxed (regular exhale) and flexed (belly held in)
• Butt - Measure the widest circumference around the butt.
• Thighs - Measure around the top of the thigh (will also be the widest part).

Customizing

The numbers you estimated above for your maintenance calories will just be an approximation. You may have to adjust how many calories you eat based on results. IF you see no results in how your clothes fit, or with the measuring tape, for 2 weeks in a row, then lower your daily calories by 300. Wait 2 weeks and re-evaluate.

However, do NOT consume less than the number you calculated for BMR. IF you are seeing no progress and have lowered your calories to the estimated BMR, I recommend you read this article on repairing a damaged metabolism:

Venuto - How to repair a damaged metabolism

Designing a Diet

Some quick dietary fixes

• Get rid of all junk foods from your home if possible - ie. chips, ice cream, pizza. These foods bring in lots of calories, and do not satiate the same as other foods. They also sacrifice your health. Save junk foods for a once per week "treat" of maximum 500 extra calories.
• Limit liquid calories to milk. Juice calories add up, and it is not filling.
• Add artificial sweeteners to your coffee/tea instead of sugar, and milk instead of cream.

Good Dietary Practices

• Eat at least every 3-4 hours, or 5-6 times per day. I prefer to have 3 larger meals (eg. 400 calories) and 3 healthy snacks (eg. 150 calories).
  
  
• Don't be afraid to eat in the evening. It is your deficit that will lead to fat loss, not when you eat which foods (ie. don't cut carbohydrates past 6 pm if you don't want to).
  
  
• Design meals that are based around a protein, a carbohydrate (fruit, vegetable or grain), and a fat. That is, a complete meal.
  
  
• Always eat something before morning exercise and don't skip breakfast. Otherwise, you may end up burning muscle tissue.
  
  
• Drink more water. People who don't drink enough water often get hungry when they are thirsty. Try for around 1 gallon a day, more if you are very active. Increase water intake slowly though, such as over the period of a week with an extra 16 oz per day.
  
  
• Cook your meals in advance and store in tupperware containers. Some stuff can be frozen for later in the week. This prevents you from making the "there was nothing ready to eat" excuse.
  
  
• Buy a digital food scale (around $30 US) and measure out most of your servings. No need to measure broccoli, you can guesstimate it and similar vegetables (ie. things with 20 or fewer calories per serving).
• Get at least 1 gram of protein per pound of goal bodyweight (ie. if you would like to weigh 120 lbs, eat at least 120g of protein per day).
  

Advance Planning of Meals

Using Nutridiary you can plan meals based on your desired caloric and macronutrient content. Then you can either add the meals the day before, or you can use a word processor or spreadsheet program to write up week long meal plans in advance. Planning in advance will help with compliance to the meal plan as there are no "last minute" decisions to be made, and you can precook or tupperware meals in advance. Most meats last 3-4 days in the refrigerator, so advance cooking requires cooking twice per week or freezing of some meals.

Meal Examples/Ideas

1. 100 grams of cooked chicken breast, 2/3 cup cooked brown rice, 6 walnut halves, 1 cup strawberries.

2. 4 oz cooked measure sirloin steak, 1 cup broccoli, 200 grams sweet potato.

3. 0.5 cups 2% fat cottage cheese, 1 cup cubed cantaloupe

4. 3 oz shaved home cooked turkey breast, 2 slices 100% whole wheat bread, mustard or light mayo, 1 oz light cheddar sliced.

Calorie Counting and Tracking Macronutrients

Macronutrients

The three macronutrients are protein, carbohydrates and fats. Protein has 4 calories per gram, carbohydrates have 4 calories per gram, and fats have 9 calories per gram. Fiber contains between 0 and 2 calories per gram but we don't explicitly take this into account when doing ratios (just use total carbs, it will be close enough). Alcohol contains 7 calories per gram.

Macronutrient Ratios

A macronutrient ratio gives the percent of calories coming from carbohydrates, protein or fat.

There is no need to be strict with a particular ratio, and the one you favour will be dependent on you. There is also no need to switch ratios when switching from cutting to bulking (although, you may wish to make changes for increased satiety when cutting, or decreased fullness when bulking). A macronutrient ratio gives you the percent of calories from each nutrient in your diet. Here are a few suggestions (again, no need to be strict):

• 50% carbs, 30% protein, and 20% fat (higher carb)
• 45% carbs, 30% protein, and 25% fat (higher fat)
• 40% carbs, 40% protein, and 20% fat (higher protein)
• 35% carbs, 40% protein, and 25% fat (higher protein, higher fat)

Ensure that you are getting at least 1g of protein per pound of "goal" bodyweight. For fat loss, goal bodyweight is where you would like to end up. For muscle gain, use the bodyweight you expect to be in 6 months. So if you would like to weigh 120 lbs, then you would want at least 120 g of protein. As well, for dieting, 20% fat intake could put your fat intake very low, I suggest for most women to intake at least 40g of fat per day.

How to count calories

The simplest way to count calories and track macronutrients (protein, carbohydrates and fat) is through the use of free calorie tracking software such as Nutridiary. You simply add the foods in that you ate that day or, preferably, plan in advance by skipping ahead to the next day(s), and entering ahead of time.

I prefer Nutridiary for the ability to design meals that you can easily tweak to get desired nutritional amounts. Another website that is helpful is NutritionData. NutritionData is good for quick searching of nutrition info, and for calculating calories from recipes.