Building your diet

As said before your body doesn’t like harsh changes so everything must be done one step at a time. If you want to loose weight don’t just starting cutting calories like crazy, do it slowly but surely. The same holds true here. Don’t go replacing all your bad meals with healthy ones right away. It will be hard to switch the huge amounts of sugar found in sweets or fried foods, with healthy fats or and complex carbohydrates. Even if you are highly motivated to make this change your body needs time to get used to them so you might find yourself giving up because you’re feeling miserable.

How much to eat?

After knowing what to eat you should know how much to eat. The table bellow is here to help. Multiply your weight with the indicated value in order to get your caloric goal.

Goal	Calories / Kg	Calories / lbs
Weight loss	25 kcal x kg	11 kcal x lbs
Weight Maintenance	30 kcal x kg	14 kcal x lbs
Slight Weight Gain	35 kcal x kg	16 kcal x lbs
Moderate Weight Gain	40 kcal x kg	18 kcal x lbs
Great Weight Gain	45 kcal x kg	20 kcal x lbs

Again exact numbers can never be exact. So the table above should only be used to get you started. Depending on your metabolism and the level of daily activity you may need more or less than the value resulted from your calculations. So how do you know if you’re eating the right amount? Simply keep a food diary for a month and see how your weight changes. According to that you can make adjustments if necessary. I know some of you may be frustrated about not knowing if you eat the correct number of calories (I know I was when I started). However you must always keep your patience. If you want quick results even after you have all the facts clear, then I’m sorry to say, but sooner or later you’ll find yourself quitting.

What to eat?

Check out good sources of protein, fat, and carbohydrate.

When to eat?

Because of the lack of time people generally eat 2-3 big meals and have a few snacks when they have a break. In the recent years people started promoting fasting more and more. However I didn’t find any evidence that this is the best way to go, so I strongly suggest sticking to the most obvious solution: eating 5-7 roughly equal meals throughout the day (eat every 3 hours).

As you can guess your body can’t properly store all the macro/micronutrients for later use so it’s always best to feed it as frequently as possible (without going over your calorie goal of course). Another aspect is that your body is great at adapting to any situation. So if you only have 3 meals / day then they will be pretty far apart. When your body sees that you haven’t eaten for a long time, he tries to save you from an eventual starvation. As a result, the next meal you’ll have will be turned to fat, to make sure you’ll survive longer without eating.

            Often people think that they do not have the necessary time to eat this often because they have busy jobs but I think that’s just a silly excuse. I’ll write an article soon about food on the go.

What about macro-nutrients and meal sizes?

Things are pretty straight forward. Divide the total number of calories and grams of protein to the number of meals you’re having and make sure you’re eating close to that every time. But what about carbohydrates and fats? At each meal have one and only one of those next to protein, and make sure it is a “good” fat or a carbohydrate with a low glycemic index.

In short always have your proteins and never have them by themselves.

Other important things to know?

-          Foods with high glicemic index should only be eaten in the morning or after a workout

-          Never jump over your breakfast.

-          Avoid carbs in the last meal of your day. Go for some healthy fats.

-          Even with well thought and balanced meals it’s pretty hard to give your body all the necessary vitamins and mineral. In other words a complex of vitamins and minerals would help you greatly.

Posted in: Fat Loss / Muscle Gain