Building a Successful Diet Part 1

So my next few posts will be an entire series of posts. I will be talking about nutrition. For my post today I am going to do a quick overview of a healthy diet, and will try to give some advice so that all my readers can benefit. The next few posts will go into depth on how to utilize macronutrients such as carbohydrates, protein, and fat. If I can do enough research in time to do it, the final post will go into detail on utilizing certain foods to get the most out of their nutritional value in order to minimize the need for supplements. I am very interested in this topic, because I am currently not using any supplements and can not afford them.

Ok so let’s talk about a proper healthy diet. As far as the diet goes it should be pretty simple. Five to six meals a day is good for most people, but some of you just starting the habit of eating like this may want to stick to four to five meals instead, and that’s still ok. Believe me this is nothing, some people on hardcore weight gain diets may eat as much as 8 to 10 meals a day! As far as how much protein, carbohydrates, and fat you should eat per meal, I have found for myself at 5’7” and between 165 to 180lbs., the following has worked for me to add muscle: 30 to 40 grams of protein per meal, 40 to 60 grams of carbs per meal and 10 to 13 grams of fat per meal. There really is no exact science to figure out how much you need to eat per meal. I generally use two different ratios in figuring out how much protein, carbohydrates, and fat I need to eat per meal, depending on my goals. So the first of the two ratios I use is 2:2:1. Two parts of your daily calories come from carbohydrates, two parts come from protein, and one part from fat. This is a ratio I would use if I was going to try trim down and lose fat. The second ratio is 3:2:1, three parts from carbohydrates, two parts from protein, and one part from fat. This is the ratio I would use to gain muscle.

Alright so some of you who are new to calculating calories this could get a little complicated so pay attention closely! Let’s say for example you need to eat 3,000 calories per day for your diet. So using the 2:2:1 ratio above, 1,200 of your daily calories need to come from carbohydrates, 1,200 calories from protein, and 600 calories from fat. So how many grams of each macronutrient will you need? Well 1 gram of carbohydrates is equal to 4 calories, 1 gram of protein is equal to 4 calories, and 1 gram of fat is equal to 9 calories! So 1,200 calories from carbohydrates is equal to 300 grams, 1,200 calories from protein is equal to 300 grams, and 600 calories from fat is equal to almost 67 grams of fat. Now that you have an idea of how much of each macronutrient you need to consume, you need to figure out how many total calories you will need per day.

You can use all the scientific calorie calculators in the world and never really know exactly how many calories to eat. Calorie calculators can be used as a guide to get a close amount of calories you will need, but really it’s a trial and error process. I would use this calorie calculator from Bodybuilding.com: http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/macronutcal.htm as a basis and adjust the amount of calories you will need per day from there. It calculated 2,970 calories for me, but with my metabolism and workout intensity I know I need at least 3,400 calories to maintain my weight. So I would start off eating as many calories as the calculator suggests and monitor your weight and fat percentage and adjust your diet from there. Once you find out what your body needs to maintain your weight it should be easy from there. If you want to cut fat subtract about 500 calories from your daily needs and use the 2:2:1 ratio to calculate your macronutrient needs. If you want to gain muscle add 500 calories to your daily needs and use the 3:2:1 ratio to calculate your macronutrient needs.

At this point I’m sure you’re wondering, “Ok, but what the heck should I eat?” Every meal should have some sort of lean protein source, some sort of grain for carbs, and a fruit or vegetable for fiber, in order to get fats you usually won’t have to add any to your meal, but you should cook with some good fats, such as olive oil, canola oil, or peanut oil. I will be elaborating more on what to eat in my later posts on each of the three macronutrients.

Any questions or comments will be greatly appreciated! Remember to “Like” me on Facebook, and follow me on Twitter!

The Gym Maniac