In order to focus on weight-loss, fitness or both, you first need to know your base nutrition requirements. There are numerous calculators available online that can help you identify an average value. However, these values are fairly generic and there are always exceptions. My suggestion is to use one of these calculators to find a starting point. Then you can plan your meals, gather data and make adjustments as needed.
The chart below helps to visualize this process:
1. Use a calculator like THIS ONE to determine an estimated starting point.
2. Enter your data into the appropriate fields and click on the Calculate button.Note: The Lifestyle field represents your current daily activity level. Use the chart in the lower section to help determine what your level.
3. The two key items to note on the next screen are your BMI (Body Mass Index) and Calories Burned. The BMI listed above shows 31.8 and using the chart below we see that I am considered Obese.
|
BMI |
Weight Status |
| Below 18.5 | Underweight |
| 18.5 – 24.9 | Normal |
| 25.0 – 29.9 | Overweight |
| 30.0 and Above | Obese |
The Calories Burned shows 3088. This is the estimated amount of calories, based on your current weight, age, height and activity that you can eat daily and still maintain your weight. We now have our starting point and can revisit the Weight Control flowchart above.
But, we can’t move on to the next step just yet. We still need to do some work on estimating the amount of calories we can burn daily to achieve our results.
BMR: Basal Metabolic Rate is simply the number of calories that your body would burn if you spent all day in bed and did nothing else. In other words, it is the BARE MINIMUM amount of calories you should eat daily.
Here is a link to a BMR Calculator.
In my example then, I have the following values:
BMR: 2082
BMI: 31.8
Calories Burned: 3088
Now, in order to lose weight we need to do some minor calculations:
One pound is equal to 3500 calories.
So in order to lose 1 pound per week, we need to subtract 500 ((3500*1)/7=500) calories from our daily budget.
If we wanted to lose 2 pounds per week we would subtract ((3500*2)/7=1000) calories from our daily budget.
1 pound per week: subtract 500 calories – 2588 calories remaining per day
2 pounds per week: subtract 1000 calories – 2088 calories remaining per day
Simply eating 2588 calories per day and maintaining current activity levels would allow for a weight loss of 1 pound per week.
You never want to reduce your daily calorie intake to an amount lower than your BMR. Also, there is a common saying in weight loss that you should not lose more that 1% of your body weight per week.
This gives us the following rules for our example above:
- Don’t eat less that 2082 calories per day (BMR)
- Don’t lose more than 2.27 pounds per week (Weight * 1%)
- Any changes that decrease our activity levels will require a new estimate to be created
-
Any changes that increase our activity levels MIGHT require you to eat back those calories
- If your daily calories (minus) the new activity calories is less than your BMR, you should eat back those calories, otherwise you may not have the energy to perform and properly recover
- If your daily calories (minus) the new activity calories is more than you BMR, you can simply keep to your current eating plan and enjoy the benefits of more exercise
With these rules and our current activity level staying the same, we can safely lose about 2 pounds per week by eating 1006 calories less per day for a total of 2082.
Now we have a proper starting point of 2082 calories for our flowchart.
But wait a minute! That amount is our actual BMR as well. Why not just figure that out and be done with it? Well, in my case, I have a quite a bit of weight to lose and it just works out that my BMR matches my estimated calories at this point in time. There will be times when subtracting 1000 calories (in order to lose 2 pounds per week) will drop your daily estimate below your BMR. This is when it really matters, as you should never eat less than your BMR daily. This simply means that in order to lose weight safely, you will have to lose weight at a slower pace.
4. The next step is to plan our daily meals based on this total estimate of 2082 calories.
The following is a sample plan for spreading out calories though out the day:
Breakfast: 8:00 am 450 Calories
Morning Snack: 10:30 am 250 Calories
Lunch: 12:30 pm 400 Calories
Late Snack: 2:30 pm 250 Calories
Evening Snack: 5:30 pm 200 Calories
Dinner: 7:30 pm 532 Calories
This is mostly just a guide to help me plan out my meals/snacks for the day. Sometimes I eat more for breakfast so I make up the difference with my snacks.
It’s also important to make sure you keep a log of everything you eat during the day. This helps to keep you honest and following the plan.
5. Weigh yourself daily and keep a record of your data. There are several options here. The Hackers diet has an online tracker. The app LoseIt! has both a mobile device app (iPhone/Droid) as well as a website.
The important thing is to be sure to weigh-in at the same time every day. I weigh myself first thing in the morning right after I wake up, naked, just before my shower.
6. Remember, that your daily weight fluctuates +/- 5 pounds every day based on the amount of water, waste, sodium, undigested food, etc that you have in your system. So the next step is to use a trending method, like the Hackers Diet, in order to clean up these excess fluctuations from your weight loss records by creating trend data. This trend data will help to make sure that your estimates are accurate and keep you on track.
7. Finally, if your trending data shows that your estimates are too high or too low, you need to make minor adjustments to you estimated calorie intake in order to make sure you are meeting your goals.
Example 1: If your trend data shows that you are losing more weight than you planned for, then you need to evaluate a couple of things:
- Are you sure the calories eaten are properly logged and accurate?
This entire process requires accurate estimates of your food in order to be successful. If you don’t know the calorie amount within a certain food or meal, you should use google to look up a similar item. Always err on the high side if you have to guess.
- Did you increase your activity levels?
It’s also possible your initial estimate of activity was too low.
Remember to follow the rules in Step 3.
- Have you been sick?
It’s not uncommon to lose weight while being sick. Just stick to your plan and when fully recovered reevaluate your estimates again.
Example 2: If your trend data shows that you are actually gaining weight, then you need to evaluate the following:
- Are you sure the calories eaten are properly logged and accurate?
This entire process requires accurate estimates of your food in order to be successful. If you don’t know the calorie amount within a certain food or meal, you should use google to look up a similar item. Always err on the high side if you have to guess.
- Did you decrease your activity levels?
Decreasing your activity levels without also decreasing your food intake will cause this to happen. It’s also possible your initial estimate of activity was too high.
Remember to follow the rules in Step 3.
- Have you been sick?
It’s not uncommon to gain weight while being sick. Just stick to your plan and when fully recovered reevaluate your estimates again.
And so, the flowchart is used over and over again for the entire process of losing weight. It’s important to re-evaluate on a regular basis as the number generated from the different tools outlined above will change as you lose more and more weight.
Enjoy!
-PFM
Edited: Not surprisingly for such a long post, there were numerous typo’s that I have corrected.
