This document provides guidance on calculating daily caloric, protein, carbohydrate, and fat intake to achieve fitness goals while allowing freedom in food choices. It explains how to use the Harris Benedict equation to calculate basal metabolic rate (BMR) and daily calorie needs based on activity level. The key areas covered are:
- Calculating a daily calorie intake range and adjusting it based on goals and results
- Choosing a calorie surplus of 250-500 calories per day to build muscle or deficit of the same to lose fat
- Consuming 1g of protein per pound of body weight to build lean muscle
- Setting daily fat intake to 20-30% of calories based on appetite and preferences
This document provides guidance on calculating daily caloric, protein, carbohydrate, and fat intake to achieve fitness goals while allowing freedom in food choices. It explains how to use the Harris Benedict equation to calculate basal metabolic rate (BMR) and daily calorie needs based on activity level. The key areas covered are:
- Calculating a daily calorie intake range and adjusting it based on goals and results
- Choosing a calorie surplus of 250-500 calories per day to build muscle or deficit of the same to lose fat
- Consuming 1g of protein per pound of body weight to build lean muscle
- Setting daily fat intake to 20-30% of calories based on appetite and preferences
This document provides guidance on calculating daily caloric, protein, carbohydrate, and fat intake to achieve fitness goals while allowing freedom in food choices. It explains how to use the Harris Benedict equation to calculate basal metabolic rate (BMR) and daily calorie needs based on activity level. The key areas covered are:
- Calculating a daily calorie intake range and adjusting it based on goals and results
- Choosing a calorie surplus of 250-500 calories per day to build muscle or deficit of the same to lose fat
- Consuming 1g of protein per pound of body weight to build lean muscle
- Setting daily fat intake to 20-30% of calories based on appetite and preferences
Now that we’ve covered all of our training procedures,
it’s time to get into one of the most important areas, in regards to your physical success. This is an area where a majority of your results are going to stem from. Following the Physique Sculpting nutrition structure does allow you the freedom to eat what you’d like; but there are important areas you need to be aware of, and follow in order to make this “free-diet” work for you. There are 4 things to always be conscious of, when it comes to achieving physical success while also allowing you the freedom to eat freely. Those 4 areas are your daily caloric, protein, carbohydrate and fat intake. Caloric Intake: This is the number that’s going to outline the range of your eating freedom. Once this caloric intake number is found, it’s extremely important that you stick close to it. Consume too many calories over this amount, and fat gain is inevitable. Eat too few calories below it and you run the risk of losing muscle. For these reasons, it’s detrimental to accurately assess and stick within the amount of calories you’ll need on a daily basis. The method I use to calculate my caloric intake is the Harris Benedict Equation: Men Metric: BMR = 66.5 + (13.75 × weight in kg) + (5.003 × height in cm) – (6.755 × age in years) Women Metric: BMR = 655.1 + (9.563 × weight in kg) + (1.850 × height in cm) – (4.676 × age in years) Men Imperial: BMR = 66 + (6.2 × weight in pounds) + (12.7 × height in inches) – (6.76 × age in years) Women Imperial: BMR = 655.1 + (4.35 × weight in pounds) + (4.7 × height in inches) - (4.7 × age in years)
Now that we have our BMR calculated, we can now take
the next step in accurately calculating our required daily caloric intake. This will be done by taking into account our activity level. Below you’ll see 5 choices of activity level to choose from.
Little to no exercise Daily kilocalories needed = BMR x 1.2
Daily kilocalories needed = BMR x
Light exercise (1–3 days per week) 1.375
Moderate exercise (3–5 days per week) Daily kilocalories needed = BMR x 1.55
Daily kilocalories needed = BMR x
Heavy exercise (6–7 days per week) 1.725 Very heavy exercise (twice per day, extra heavy Daily kilocalories needed = BMR x 1.9 workouts)
If you work a typical office job, or find yourself sitting
most of the day/ not very active at work; it’s a safe assumption that your activity level is between the “Light Exercise” and “Moderate Exercise” criteria. *This is taking into account consistent use of the Physique Sculpting Program. It’s easy to narrow down the selection by taking into account your physical goals. If your goal is mostly focused on burning body fat, I would suggest you choose the “Light Exercise” activity level. If your goal is more aligned to building muscle as opposed to just losing fat, I would suggest the “Moderate Exercise” activity level. *This is taking into account consistent use of the Physique Sculpting Program. **For those of you who work a physically demanding construction-type job and are looking to burn fat, I would suggest the “Moderate Exercise” activity level. If you work a physically demanding construction-type job and are looking to build muscle, I’d advise you select the “Heavy exercise” activity level. *This is taking into account consistent use of the Physique Sculpting Program. With your activity level selected, you’ll then go forward with multiplying your BMR by your activity level, to give you your required daily number of calories to maintain your weight. From there, we’ll get into tweaking this number based on your goal of either burning body fat or building muscle. As an example; if you calculated your BMR to be 2400, and you selected “Light Exercise”, you would then go forward with a multiplication of 2400 x 1.375 (the “light activity” numerical value). This would then leave you with 3300 calories per day to maintain your body weight. Now that we have our daily caloric intake calculated, it’s important that we either give ourselves a calorie surplus or calorie deficit. Meaning, a specific amount of additional, or reduced calories to consume each day; which will be used to either build muscle or burn fat, depending on your physical goals. If you’re looking to build muscle, I’d recommend sticking within a caloric surplus of between 250-500 calories per day. This volume of extra calories will be manageable for the body to handle (without gaining too much fat), and should be sufficient for muscle growth. If you’re looking to burn body fat, I’d recommend sticking within a calorie deficit of 250-500 calories per day. This reduction of calories won’t cause a huge crash in energy or a feeling of intense hunger throughout the day. Both the calorie surplus, as well as the calorie deficit, are extremely manageable between 250-500 calories. If you create a larger margin of a calorie surplus or deficit, you run the risk of biting off more than you can chew (metaphor), and not being able to sustain your nutrition plan in the long run. Again, using our example of the BMR of 2400 calories (which when multiplied by the “Light Exercise” activity level of 1.375, we were given 3300 calories per day), I’ll exemplify what the daily caloric intake would be if your goal was to burn fat. 3300 calories – 500 calories= 2800 calories per day. Therefore, in order to begin burning fat, our example individual would need to consume 2800 calories per day. It’s important that this “daily caloric intake goal” is never just blindly followed either. There needs to be a constant awareness of your body composition and levels of fat/ muscle. If you’re noticing your physique really isn’t changing after 2-3 weeks, simply tweak your caloric intake by increasing or decreasing about 200-300 calories per day; respective to your physical goals. To burn more body fat, increase your calorie deficit by a further 200- 300 calories. To build more muscle mass, increase your calorie surplus by an additional 200-300 calories. Food Choices: With your caloric intake calculated, you’ll now have the ability to eat very freely; so long as you’re able to fit your chosen foods within this caloric intake “limit”. I suggest you try and eat as clean as possible in the earlier part of the day, and then give yourself more freedom to eat the foods you enjoy more, later in the day. This creates sort of a “reward-system” in your mind. We must make a few “healthy” and “clean” choices (fruits, vegetables, nuts & seeds, lean meats, whole grains) throughout the day, to provide the body with the nutrients it needs to function most efficiently. By “healthy” and “clean” eating, I mean eating fruits and vegetables that you like, or in a manner that you enjoy. For example, you won’t EVER catch me eating raw vegetables by themselves. Rather, I’ll combine them with a nice ranch dipping sauce to make them more tolerable, and evenly slightly enjoyable. I know the benefits of the food, so I find ways to incorporate them into my diet as enjoyably as possible. When it comes to fruit, I’ll stick to eating my favourites; pineapple chunks, cherries, strawberries etc. Protein Intake: If you’re looking to build a lean yet muscular physique, protein intake is something you’re definitely not going to want to neglect. For best results, ensure you’re consuming 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight. If you currently weigh 175 pounds, consuming 1 gram per pound of body weight would require you to consume a total of 175 grams of protein per day. This large quantity of protein consumed will provide your body with the resources it needs to build that lean, muscular physique. IMPORTANT: There are 4 calories per 1 gram of protein. 175 grams of protein will reflect 700 calories coming from protein. *This will be important down below to help you calculate your total carb intake. Fat Intake: Fat plays a vital role in both providing the body with energy, as well as being responsible for the construction of every cell in our body. When calculating the amount of fat your body needs, we must first choose how much fat we would like in our diet. You should be getting about 20-30% of your daily calories from fat. Here’s how you can choose whether to go more towards the 20%, or more towards the 30% of your daily calories coming from fats. If you have a tough time consuming enough food throughout the day, a higher percentage of your daily calories should come from fat. Simply because 1 gram of fat contains a total of 9 calories, whereas 1 gram of carbohydrates only contain 4 calories (protein too). So you’ll be getting double the calories eating the exact same quantity; 1 gram. If you’re not having a tough time consuming enough food throughout the day, or if you’re having a tough time preventing yourself from overeating, I’d suggest your total daily percentage of calories coming from fat be closer to the 20% mark. In order to best satiate you. Once you’ve selected the most appropriate quantity of fat, simply multiply that amount with your total daily caloric intake, and you’ll be left with your total amount of calories you should be getting from fat. Simply divide that number by 9 (the total number of calories in a gram of fat), and you’ll be left with your total daily fat intake, represented in grams. Ex. If your total daily caloric intake to burn fat is 2800, and you’ve chosen to have 20% of your daily calories come from fats, the equation would look like this: 2800 x .2= 560 calories Then, we’ll divide our total number of calories by 9, to calculate the total number of grams of fat we should consume on a daily basis. 560/9= 62.2 grams With this calculated, we’ve now found that we would need 62.2 grams of fat every day in order to build our lean physique, with our total percentage of calories coming from fats reflecting 20%. Carb Intake: Carbs are an incredibly important aspect of your diet. They’re what provide your central nervous system and working muscles, the energy that’s required to not just make it throughout the day, but also throughout your workouts. It’s even been stated by Iowa University, “they also prevent protein from being used as an energy source and enable fat metabolism.” So an adequate consumption of these carbohydrates is not only good for providing the body with enough fuel for the day, but also for preventing the body from robbing the muscles of protein, to be used for energy, and also for promoting fat burning as well. In order to calculate our total carb intake, all we simply need to do is subtract our daily total calories from the total of our protein and fat calories. That would look something like this: Ex. Total Calories: 2800 Protein Calories: 700 Fat Calories: 560 Carb Calories: 2800-(700+560) =2800-(1260) =1540
In this example, your total number of calories coming
from carbs would be 1540. There are 4 calories per gram of carbohydrate, so converting that 1540 calories to grams would look like this: 1540/4= 385 grams For this example, you would then need 385 grams of carbs every single day in order to carve a sculpted physique.
The below quantity would reflect the exact amount of
calories and macros required to sculpt a lean physique for this example’s purposes: Calories: 2800 Protein: 175 grams Fats: 62.2 grams Carbs: 385 grams When to Eat/ Intermittent Fasting: When it comes to nutrient timing, or the best time of day to start and stop eating is; it’s up to you. What I’ve learned from personal experience, and from past clients of mine’s experience; the best eating schedule is the one that fits you. Meaning, whenever you’re hungry, eat. If you’re not hungry, don’t eat. The fasting for 14-16 hours a day could potentially be beneficial, but you’ll never catch me holding off my eating till 2-3pm. I would lose my mind. I’ve tried the nutrient timing, and fasting methods myself, and simply found that they don’t fit into my lifestyle. Some days I’m hungry the minute I wake up and so I’ll grab something to eat. Sometimes I’m not hungry until 3 hours after I’ve woken up, so I won’t eat until 3 hours after I’ve woken up. It’s called flexible and realistic eating, and should be a major staple in your nutrition. Stick within your daily caloric intake, hit your daily protein consumption, hit your daily carbohydrate consumption, eat when you feel like it, and most importantly, eat the foods you love. It’s as simple as that. There’s no need to make an easy thing difficult.