lukiss96
Member
Disclaimer:
This is mainly for beginners or guys who struggle when it comes down to the most important thing - nutrition.
HOW TO FIGURE OUT YOUR MAINTENANCE CALORIES:
1ST step
14-16 calories per pound depending on how already fit or not you are and your activity level. For most people it's somewhere in the middle. If you are the lucky one and always stay slim whatever you eat, make it 17.
Now this obviously is not very accurate, but it's good enough to set the ballpark.
For example 175 pound average beginner guy would eat ~2500 to maintain his weight. Assuming he is not sedentary, but not overly active besides the gym.
A fit, athletic and quite muscular guy weighting 200lbs would eat about 3000 calories.
2ND step
Track your calories and weight precisely for two weeks or a bit longer. Note it. Be honest with yourself, if you gonna cheat that's on you only.
If your weight staying +- the same and only fluctuates few pounds here ant there it seems that you're pretty close to your actual maintenance calories.
Example:
175
177
176.1
178
175.5
175.3
176.1
And so on...
The average is still about the starting weight of ~175lbs.
It's normal for weight to fluctuate like this due to body fluids and other factors.
Important thing to realize your maintenance calories are not set in stone.
Say you were more active that day and perhaps lost more water weight, but didn't drink enough water, your weight may go down more than usual.
Next day or even few you were not hitting a gym and was not active outside of your job and home, your calorie requirements went down.
In the end it's all about averaging it out.
3RD step
Take body measurements. Even if your weight increases, it might be that you are gaining muscle. So by taking measurements of your body will tell you what's going on.
Measure your waist in the morning before eating or drinking. Make sure you go to the toilet and do your thing there first.
Ideally your waist should stay about the same and if you're gaining some weight but also chest measurements are increasing then you're on the right track.
If your waist is getting bigger then you need to cut down on your calories, or increase your activity level. Ideally both. Don't do drastic changes, moderate changes to make it easier to track the progress.
HOW TO SET UP YOUR NUTRITION PROPERLY:
Okay so use the above information for this.
It's quite important to not only count your calories, but also eat enough protein, then carbs and fats.
NOTE:
You can skip the calculation and just use an app to calculate ratios for you. Play around and make sure it's close to the ratios I wrote below.
1ST step
You eat 1 gram of protein per pound, if you're healthy 15% body fat or less this is even more important.
2ND step
You set your fats to about 30% of your total calories. Later on you can play, but this works for most people, so we use this as a starting point.
3RD step
The remaining calories is going to be carbs. I'm not a fan of low carb and some fancy diets, this is for people who live life and go to the gym, so we need that energy and also to not look flat.
4TH step
Let's calculate it all, since it might be confusing for some people at first, which is normal.
175 (your weight in pounds) × 15 (calories per pound) = 2625 (your total daily calories, round it to 2600)
175 is your weight therefore = 175g of protein. 175×4(calories per gram of protein) = 700 calories.
2600 (your total daily calories) × 0.3 (30% of fats) = 780 (calories coming from fat) ÷ 9 (since 1 gram of fat equals 9 calories) = 86 grams of fat.
Now since the rest calories are carbs, we add 700 (protein calories) + 780 (fat calories) = 1480 calories.
2600 (our total calories) - 1480 (combined cals of protein and fats) = 1120 calories (left for carbs).
1120÷4(calories per gram of carb) = 280 grams.
So now we have:
2600 calories
175 grams of protein
86 grams of fats
280 grams of carbs
5TH step
Put this all in Myfitnesspal app (it's simple to use and has large database of foods), I use it myself for years now.
This is going to be your tracking app of your diet. Unless you are old school and want to do it paper and pen style. It's your choice.
I won't write a guide on how to use it, it will take me forever and I'll end up writing a whole book.
So learn to use it by yourself or watch youtube or something.
CONCLUSION
This simple guide is hopefully gonna help people not knowing where to start, as it's very important have a baseline (maintenance calories) and macros to work with in order to set up the goals.
I also wrote a guide on how to lose weight and fat some time ago.
In the future I will write how to properly gain quality weight (lean muscle mass) without getting to unecessary high body fat.
Thank you for reading, I'm not a native English speaker as you can tell. Hopefully it is understandable. Have a nice day.
This is mainly for beginners or guys who struggle when it comes down to the most important thing - nutrition.
HOW TO FIGURE OUT YOUR MAINTENANCE CALORIES:
1ST step
14-16 calories per pound depending on how already fit or not you are and your activity level. For most people it's somewhere in the middle. If you are the lucky one and always stay slim whatever you eat, make it 17.
Now this obviously is not very accurate, but it's good enough to set the ballpark.
For example 175 pound average beginner guy would eat ~2500 to maintain his weight. Assuming he is not sedentary, but not overly active besides the gym.
A fit, athletic and quite muscular guy weighting 200lbs would eat about 3000 calories.
2ND step
Track your calories and weight precisely for two weeks or a bit longer. Note it. Be honest with yourself, if you gonna cheat that's on you only.
If your weight staying +- the same and only fluctuates few pounds here ant there it seems that you're pretty close to your actual maintenance calories.
Example:
175
177
176.1
178
175.5
175.3
176.1
And so on...
The average is still about the starting weight of ~175lbs.
It's normal for weight to fluctuate like this due to body fluids and other factors.
Important thing to realize your maintenance calories are not set in stone.
Say you were more active that day and perhaps lost more water weight, but didn't drink enough water, your weight may go down more than usual.
Next day or even few you were not hitting a gym and was not active outside of your job and home, your calorie requirements went down.
In the end it's all about averaging it out.
3RD step
Take body measurements. Even if your weight increases, it might be that you are gaining muscle. So by taking measurements of your body will tell you what's going on.
Measure your waist in the morning before eating or drinking. Make sure you go to the toilet and do your thing there first.
Ideally your waist should stay about the same and if you're gaining some weight but also chest measurements are increasing then you're on the right track.
If your waist is getting bigger then you need to cut down on your calories, or increase your activity level. Ideally both. Don't do drastic changes, moderate changes to make it easier to track the progress.
HOW TO SET UP YOUR NUTRITION PROPERLY:
Okay so use the above information for this.
It's quite important to not only count your calories, but also eat enough protein, then carbs and fats.
NOTE:
You can skip the calculation and just use an app to calculate ratios for you. Play around and make sure it's close to the ratios I wrote below.
1ST step
You eat 1 gram of protein per pound, if you're healthy 15% body fat or less this is even more important.
2ND step
You set your fats to about 30% of your total calories. Later on you can play, but this works for most people, so we use this as a starting point.
3RD step
The remaining calories is going to be carbs. I'm not a fan of low carb and some fancy diets, this is for people who live life and go to the gym, so we need that energy and also to not look flat.
4TH step
Let's calculate it all, since it might be confusing for some people at first, which is normal.
175 (your weight in pounds) × 15 (calories per pound) = 2625 (your total daily calories, round it to 2600)
175 is your weight therefore = 175g of protein. 175×4(calories per gram of protein) = 700 calories.
2600 (your total daily calories) × 0.3 (30% of fats) = 780 (calories coming from fat) ÷ 9 (since 1 gram of fat equals 9 calories) = 86 grams of fat.
Now since the rest calories are carbs, we add 700 (protein calories) + 780 (fat calories) = 1480 calories.
2600 (our total calories) - 1480 (combined cals of protein and fats) = 1120 calories (left for carbs).
1120÷4(calories per gram of carb) = 280 grams.
So now we have:
2600 calories
175 grams of protein
86 grams of fats
280 grams of carbs
5TH step
Put this all in Myfitnesspal app (it's simple to use and has large database of foods), I use it myself for years now.
This is going to be your tracking app of your diet. Unless you are old school and want to do it paper and pen style. It's your choice.
I won't write a guide on how to use it, it will take me forever and I'll end up writing a whole book.
So learn to use it by yourself or watch youtube or something.
CONCLUSION
This simple guide is hopefully gonna help people not knowing where to start, as it's very important have a baseline (maintenance calories) and macros to work with in order to set up the goals.
I also wrote a guide on how to lose weight and fat some time ago.
In the future I will write how to properly gain quality weight (lean muscle mass) without getting to unecessary high body fat.
Thank you for reading, I'm not a native English speaker as you can tell. Hopefully it is understandable. Have a nice day.
