There are two types of people; those that count calories and those that don’t.
if you want to correctly learn to count calories then please read on.
Counting calories is often made difficult because people want really quick, overnight results. When people initially set up their fitness apps they over shoot their activity levels and under estimate how much food they actually need.
You need to eat and you need to eat enough.
Also your probably not as active as you think you are… end of
Setting your activity.
* Not Very Active (Most people sit here)
* Lightly Active (or here at a Push)
* Active
* Very Active
Unless you are on your feet all day, walking all day or working in the manual trade then its very unlikely you need to higher than active. Going to the gym 4 days a week unfortunately doesn’t make you active if you have an office job…
Put it this way there are a 168 hours in a week and if you spend a 40 of them at work, 8 of them sat in a car commuting, however many of them sat watching TV and 49 of them sleeping. and 3 of them in the gym. You really are not active at all. You are only active in those hours you are moving and performing activities.
Select the right one and be honest.
Selecting and setting your Goal
Weekly Goals
These are the goals that myfitnesspal offers.
Lose 0.2
Lose 0.5
Lose 0.8
Lose 1kg
Maintain ( Choose this for sustainable weight lose)
Gain 0.2
Gain 0.5
The reason I tell you select maintain is because you run the risk of being in a very aggressive deficit.
Once you have finished dieting and go back to what you considered normal, All this hard work will be for nothing when you Yo-Yo back with the weight, so select maintain and if in 2/3/4 weeks your weight/composition or photos haven’t changed maybe select the lose 0.2/lose.5 a week.
If you go really aggressive on this let me know how you get on a couple weeks/months down the line. – it’s very hard to maintain!
I also tell you to select this because of the new activity you will be doing in those 2/3/4 hours in the gym and hopefully in those hours you will be doing a combination of weight training and cardio to really work up a sweat and create that calorie deficit we always shout about.
Selecting your Macros (Proteins/Fats and Carbs)
Protein – Pick the intake which is closest to 2grams per kilo of body weight or as close to that. so if you weight 70kg it would 140g, if you were 90kg it would 180grams. No protein won’t make you bulky.
Carbohydrates and Fats – Sounds silly but whatever tickles your pickle. You are regardless going to eat both and you need to eat both, cause they are kind of important.
You will have noticed by now that you have a sliding scale for all three macros and all need to equal a 100%.
I encourage you to play around here, find what suits you best, its not a 1 size fits all approach. if you prefer fattier foods go higher fat. if you prefer more savoury foods, go higher carbs.
However I would recommend no less that 50grams of Fat, cause thats kind of really important.
Follow this link to a nice little video of how i set up mine (for me personally, only copy it if your lifestyle matches) .
Big Love.
Ted.