Advanced nutrition (Counting calories) and tracking
You have learnt the basics of Macros; you have learnt to eat healthy using our portion control guide and our meal ideas. You have also picked the correct workout for yourself using our long list of workouts.
If the answer is yes to all of the above, we can safely assume that you are here to push yourself and that you don’t just want to eat healthy and lose a bit of fat, but you want to really push your boundaries. You are here because you know you are ready to put a bit more time and effort into your nutrition.
Don’t worry, we won’t let you down! We will give you all the information you need to achieve your goals.
The first thing you need to do is calculate your daily maintenance calorie level. This can be done using the simple equations below.
Calculating your daily maintenance calorie level
Men in kcal = [66 + (6.2 x weight in pounds) + (12.7 x height in inches) – (6.76 x age in years)] x 1.2
Women in kcal = [655 + (4.35 x weight in pounds) + (4.7 x height inches) – (4.7 x age in years)] x 1.2
Example:
Gender: Male
Weight: 152 lbs
Height: 68 inches
Age: 30 years old
Maintenance daily calorie level (Men) =
[66 + (6.2 x 152lbs) + (12.7 x 68inches) – (6.76 x 30 years)] x 1.2
= 2003kcal
Once you have calculated your daily maintenance calorie level, all you need to do is add 300 kcal if your goal is to gain muscle and subtract 300 kcal if your goal is to lose fat.
Example:
Muscle gain kcal (Calorie Surplus) = Daily maintenance + 300 kcal = 2003 + 300 = 2303 kcal
Fat loss kcal (Calorie Deficit) = Daily maintenance – 300 kcal = 2003 – 300 = 1703 kcal
Planning your meals
Once you have your initial calorie level based on your goal, you can start using our meal ideas for Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, Snacks and Desserts to start planning your daily meals. We have done the hard work for you and calculated the calories and Macro contents in all our meals. If you enjoy cooking, you can use the recipes attached to our meal ideas to make them yourself.
There is one important point to note. Out of your base calorie level, you need to be eating approximately 40% of it using carbohydrates, 30% using protein and 30% using fats. However, don’t stress yourself out too much, our meal ideas should help you plan this out. Over time you can find out if you are doing things right by learning to track your progress.
Tracking your progress
To track your progress, make sure you measure your bodyweight and your waistline (circumference of your body at the level of your naval) once per week. Each week it is important to measure these under the same conditions. For example, you may weigh yourself and measure your waistline first thing in the morning, before eating or drinking anything.
Based on your measurements, you may come to one of the following conclusions (Measurements can be affected by certain other factors as well, but this is quite a practical method of understanding your rough progress). However, please not that you should not be arriving at these conclusions by looking at one or two weekly measurements. It’s best that you compare measurements over a period of about 6-8 weeks.
Progress based on weight and waist measurement.
- Waist measurement is constant, weight has increased – This generally means that you have gained muscle. This is usually the result of a good nutrition plan at the muscle gain calorie level in combined with a Bodybuilding or strength-based workout.
- Waist measurement has reduced, weight has increased – This generally means that you are gaining muscle while losing fat. This is usually the result of a good nutrition plan at the muscle gain calorie level combined with a bodybuilding or strength-based workout program along with a significant amount of low intensity cardio. This is everyone’s dream goal. However, don’t be discouraged if your measurements are not always pointing at this conclusion as this level of progress is difficult to maintain over long periods. You tend to see this kind of progress at the start of a new workout program (along with cardio) and/or at the start of a new nutrition plan.
- Waist has reduced, weight constant – This generally means that you are losing fat while slowly gaining muscle. This is loosely referred to as body toning. This is one of the main reasons you should not just use the weighing scale to measure progress. If you just used the weighing scale in this instance, you would be completely discouraged as you maybe forced into thinking that you have made no progress after putting in all the hard work. This level of progress can generally be sustained in the long run and is a result of strength or bodybuilding workouts being coupled with a calorie surplus nutrition plan that has a slightly higher protein content than the usual 30% protein content (and slightly lower carbohydrate content than the usual 40%).
- Waist has increased, weight has increased – This generally means that you are gaining fat (it could be along with muscle gain if you are on a muscle gain calorie level nutrition plan and doing bodybuilding or strength-based workouts). If your goal is to gain muscle, you are partially on the correct track. If you think that you are correctly following a nutrition plan based on the calculations shown above (maintenance calorie level + 300 kcal), then you may need to reduce your carbohydrate content and increase your protein content within the same calorie level. If you are unsure about the calorie level, recheck your calculation above or drop us a message on the chat if you need help.
- Waist is constant, weight has reduced – If your measurements are pointing you to this conclusion it generally means you are losing muscle. This could be a result of not eating enough protein with your meals and/or over doing your workouts and not taking enough time in between your workouts to recover. You need to make sure you are getting enough sleep (6-8 hours).
- Waist has reduced, weight has reduced (slow gradual reduction) – This means you are losing fat while maintaining current level of muscle. This is usually a result of fat loss workouts combined with a calorie deficit nutrition plan. If weight reduction is rapid, it could mean you are losing a bit of muscle as well, but this can be stopped by slightly increasing the protein content in your meals and/or slightly increasing the calorie intake.
- Waist is constant, weight is constant – If you are happy with your body right now and your goal is to maintain your current level, this is the indicator you are looking for. Basic strength-based workouts/bodyweight workouts along with a maintenance calorie level nutrition plan will help you maintain your present body in the long run.
It is important to track your progress to ensure you are moving towards your goals. The calorie calculations shown above along with the macro ratio (40% carbs, 30% Protein, 30% fats) are base guidelines that you should use to plan your nutrition. Since each of us have different body types, tracking your progress is important to ensure that you are able tweak your nutrition plans to suit yourself.