Content:
- Step 1: Calculating the BMR
- Step 2: Total Calorie Count
- Step 3: Calorie to Weight Relationship
- Observation
- How to adapt to a 500 calorie deficit program?
Showing posts with label NUTRITION. Show all posts
Showing posts with label NUTRITION. Show all posts
Ever heard the 80% Nutrition 20% Exercise rule? In other words, keeping a schedule of monitoring your food in 4 to 6 planned meals a day with a couple of hours exercising, which applies to both weight-gaining and losing strategies.
It becomes a little easy while gaining because regular exercise can boost body metabolism and hunger, resulting in eating more, to sum up, calories. However, most of us want to primarily lose some of that stubborn fat deposits at the stomach or elsewhere. And this is where the concept of calorie management is very important to understand.
Because, unless you take good command of your diet, it's nearly impossible to achieve the weight losing hustle just by exercising.
What is a Calorie?
Calorie means Energy. Just like Oxygen(which provides energy in the form of ATP), every living creature needs a certain amount of calories(energy in the form of heat) to sustain life. And those calories come from the nutrients present in our food.
In other words, a calorie(or kilocalorie) is a unit of heat energy(Cal or kcal) needed to raise the temperature of 1 unit .kg water by 1 degree Celsius. You might have heard about 'joule', another unit of energy that is used in physics. They keep a relation in between which is -
1 calorie = 4.18 Joule
A normal adult's body (male or female) requires a certain amount of calories from his/her food for proper body functionality and it also impacts our growth with unplanned gaining or losing weight. That's right. Too many calories in your diet increase the risk of gaining weight and won't let your belly fat go away until you control over it.
Further ahead, we are going to discuss how many calories you should consume in a day by understanding the concept of BMR(Basal Metabolic Rate).
Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR)
It is the amount of energy or calories needed in a day when the body is at complete rest with the digestive system fully inactive, which means if you don't eat anything all day, your body still needs these many calories for all the primary organs to function and keep you alive.
An adult male has a BMR of 1500 to 1800 calories per day whereas a female adult requires about 1400 to 1600 calories. According to the Harris-Benedict formula published in 1919 by the Carnegie Institute of Washington -
Put your values herein required units as mentioned :
Age (in years) :
Height (in cm) :
Weight (in kg) :
For example, I am a 26 years old male, with 5'11" height and 72 kgs of weight. So putting my details on the above formula, I get a total of 1783 Kcal which is my body's minimum energy requirement for a day when I don't move a muscle for the whole long day.
However, apart from anybody laying alone on a hospital bed, we people perform various jobs in a day including the basics like walking, talking, eating and much more. All these activities need some extra amount of energy in the form of calories to burn, from the food we consume.
How BMR helps you determine your Daily Calorie Needs?
After getting an idea of our BMR, we can averagely or dedicatedly control the required amount of calories we need for weight gaining or losing goals just by consuming more or fewer calories in a day than we burn in total. In the next part of the study, we shall observe and understand more about calculating calories in our food.
Afterward, we know the BMR value, the next step is to determine how many calories we burn in a day. That will help in evaluating the total energy expenditure by multiplying the BMR with a PAL factor (Physical Activity Level), suggested by Harris-Benedict duo -
Sedentary Active - Minimal or light exercise, multiply your BMR by 1.25
Moderately active - Moderate exercise schedule, 3 to 5 days a week, multiply your BMR by 1.5.
Very active - Tough exercise six to seven days a week, multiply your BMR by 1.75
Unstoppable - Extremely hard exercise, 7 days a week, multiply your BMR by 1.9.
Or you can simply use this equation -->
[Total Calorie Expenditure = BMR + Calories you burn in a day - total calories in your food/day ]
If the value comes positive, you are on a calorie deficit diet(you're consuming lesser calories than you burn in a day), which is going to help losing weight
If the value comes negative, that means you are bulking up, consuming extra calories that may increase your weight.
In the next part, we will be discussing how many calories are subjected to how much bodyweight gain or loss. In addition, we will go through a full diet plan with calorie deficit and bulking goals and their effects on time, and the amount of dedication we decide to put in the process.
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| Photo by Travis Yewell on Unsplash |
Taking care of our diet prior to the workout we do, is the most essential step to body-building or any other fitness activity we do. Having a better knowledge and understanding of what we need in our food is sometimes a tricky process. Anything in our natural diet chart comes with a variety of nutritional as well as anti-nutrition factors which are to be studied on priority by a consumer in order to take care of their transformation goals.
Most of the time, newcomers in the bodybuilding sport keep their focus revolving around a 'more protein and less fat intake' diet to build muscles and lose fat for a hyper-physique, however, they ignore the other nutritional component in their food like carbs, glycogen, saturated fats, etc which if taken in an unbalanced amount, can directly affect your progress.
Similarly, there are misconceptions about several nutrition sources among the newcomers, which again is going to affect the diet, which has a much greater role in any of the sport you are involved in.
Do check the 5 misconceptions about food listed below and if you find any contradictory statement, please propose an argument in the comment box.
1. Peanut butter is a better protein-supplement than peanuts.
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If you google about the protein value in both peanuts and peanut butter, it will be 26 grams of protein per 100 grams of peanut which is 1g more than peanut butter(25g in 100g of quantity) which is an extracted data of USDA.
Apart from protein, peanut has low saturated fats i.e. 7 grams that peanut butter(10 grams) in a 100g quantity comparison which makes 'raw peanut' a little better choice because saturated fats are not good for your health. It is also not a better lean source of protein than peanuts because it has a greater carbohydrate value.
More nutrients like dietary fiber, potassium, iron, etc are having a slightly larger value in raw peanuts which makes it a better choice. Also, peanut comes way cheaper than peanut butter.
Advantage of Peanut butter: You can use it as an alternative to milk butter in order to cut a large number of unhealthy fats present in the milk butter.
2. Carbohydrates increase fat.
Take this very straight concept into the mind: Carbohydrates are the main source of energy in your body which further breaks into glycogen, starch, and dietary fiber in the body. The amount of carbs intake actually depends on how much energy is being utilized by the consumer in any activity performed for the whole day.
Talks like rice promote fat in the body is a myth because rice doesn't even contain 1 percent of any fat in it. If you're putting a good amount of work into exercising or possibly into your 9 to 5 job or anything, a good amount of carbs are essential in your diet.
Essential to Understand: Carbohydrates will only have their reverse effects when you aren't utilizing the energy you consumed. Sitting all day long without much physical activity will lead to your carbs intake getting stored as fat.
3. Eat after 8 pm and you'll gain unwanted fat.
Talking about myself, I have a very bad habit of late-night eating and sleeping, but I never felt getting a bulked-up belly or anything that has been said about this. Moreover, it depends on an individual based on body metabolism.
If you follow the rule of your last meal before 8 pm, that is good for you, however, the advice is misleading at a point. In actuality, what we eat has a more dominant principle than when we eat.
A 2008 research examined that people with the habit of taking late-night meals actually tend to consume more calories than their body needs. And that is where the problems start to arise. Also, it surely depends on what you eat based on healthy and unhealthy choices.
4. Skip a meal, as a weight-losing activity.
Keeping yourself hungry and eating a lot afterward, won't help you unless you are balancing your calorie intake with the amount of burning.
Sometimes skipping a meal results in slowing down of metabolism i.e. the ability of food breakdown in the body. This may cause a person to gain weight instead of losing. It may lead to tiredness, anxiety, and other complications triggered by hunger. Instead of this, you can balance your food to a low-calorie diet in order to balance other nutrients and keep your energy level good.
5. Eating Low-fat food helps you lose weight.
Read the 2nd & 4th point again and you can reconsider your thoughts about this one. Eating extra calories or carbs without much physical activity is not going to leave any better impression on the results. Also, Fats are an essential component of your diet whether you are an athlete or a beginner.
Yes, not all fats are bad for your health. Unsaturated fats are healthy for you in moderation whereas saturated and trans fat have a poor reputation in the diet.
Read the article about the same here: Not all Kinds of Fat are Bad For Your Health
Bananas are known as one of the most versatile pre-workout food components with 1 banana enriched with almost 23 grams of carbohydrates containing 10 percent of Dietary fiber and 50+ percent of Sugar (Glucose) and excellent sources of Potassium, Vitamin B6, & Vitamin C.
If you're into gyming and feel like giving up before accomplishing your workout target just because of lack of energy and so your body finds it difficult coping up with your mind, what you need is a Pre-Workout meal. Now, banana is one cheap and nutritional fruit that is available all season, is one of the best solutions to keep up with the energy requirement, whether it's an intense cardio workout or heavy weightlifting or just quarantine workout.
Why bananas are one of the most popular pre-workout snacks?
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| Food photo created by rawpixel.com - www.freepik.com |
Antioxidants are the compounds that we take through our food that inhibits the process of oxidation in our body. That means it disallows the production of the unstable molecules known as free radicals, which prevent internal chain reactions that may damage the cells of your body.
Antioxidant food contains Vitamin C & E for the prevention and treatment of viral respiratory organ infections such as COVID-19 which prevents cells and organ damage that is caused by free radicals, Health experts around the world recommend a balanced diet that will lead to a better immune system and lower risk of chronic illnesses. So anyway a person is going to be benefitted if chooses fresh and unprocessed food containing antioxidants along with the vitamins, minerals, dietary fiber, protein, etc the body needs.
What is a Free Radical?
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| Food photo created by freepik - www.freepik.com |
What is the Pre-Workout Diet?
It is the routine food intake that we need to take before we get ready for our exercise or any other potential sports activity. In order to perform your best at your 'on-schedule workout' for an hour or more, your body needs a sufficient amount of energy that will help you train longer with high intensity.
You might have experienced a feeling of getting exhausted too soon during a workout followed by tardiness the next time you try to cope up again. This is one possible outcome, if you fail to provide an adequate amount of Pre-Workout Nutrition to your body, it may also cause delays in muscle recovery and possible injury which is never a part of your plan.
There are great advantages to get when you add & follow up on this healthy snacky meal, that includes -
- Improved physical performance
- Improved Metabolism
- Reduced premature fatigue
- Minimized muscle breakdown
The Right Time to Pre-Workout Diet?
To be honest, it differs from person to person depending upon the daily habits and body tendency to digest the food that we consume at a time. A good metabolic rate is required to breakdown the food in a shorter time period which depends on the frequency of our daily activity. Research studies recommend it to be 2-3 hours of gap when you choose the food that is heavier to digest.
However, as mentioned in the title, it can be more, but should never be less than 30 minutes when you must choose the food that is easier to digest. It usually doesn't have to be a 'half an hour gap schedule' for every day but when you are running a little out of time with your busy lifestyle, that moment when you've still got covered with alternatives to follow.
What to eat in a Pre-Workout Diet?
To understand more in-depth about the food we need to choose before our exercise, let us see the possible nutrition supplements that our body requires for a particular time.
Carbohydrates
They are the primary source is the energy that we need to consume. It combines dietary fiber, starch, and sugar providing glucose to fuel our muscles in the form of glycogen. For an hour of intense body training, an adult person needs around 1 gm of carbohydrate per kg of body weight which for example, will be around 75 grams of carbs for a 75 kg person. Examples include:
- 2 to 3 Bananas
- 2 to 4 Sweet potatoes
- Beans
- Oats/cereal meals
- Milk products
Protein
Protein has got all the benefits in terms of muscle building and diet planning. Combining protein along with carbohydrates has been proved effective to increase protein synthesis increasing our muscle performance. Some lean sources of protein include:
- 'Egg whites'(Quantity: 2 to 4 )
- Fish (80 to 100 grams)
- Peanuts, Almond mixed with Bengal Grams (Chickpea)
- Chicken (around 100 grams)
- pulses
- Broccoli
Fat
Fat is the source of food for longer and moderate to low-intensity workouts because the body digests fats more slowly than carbohydrates. Healthy fats must be our priority when it comes to nutrition for our workout. For example:
- Peanuts or Peanut butter with brown bread
- Olive oil cooked breakfast
- Whole Eggs (2 to 4 Egg white + Egg yolk)
- Fatty fish
- Avocados
- Cheese
- Chia Seeds
Caffeine
The caffeine present in your cup of coffee or dark chocolate can be an effective pre-workout energy boost to set you up. According to a study published in 2012, consuming a pre-workout supplement containing caffeine improves muscular endurance and delay fatigue. It also enhances the fat burning process, if taken in a moderation for pre-workout diet. A few caffeine-containing diets may include :
- Coffee Beans
- Green tea & black tea
- Dark chocolate
- Energy drink
- Cocoa Beans
Taking a summary
To maximize the performance in your workout, you need to take the right food in the right proportion with all the required nutrition.
Carbohydrates, mostly use of glycogen, is required for high-intensity workouts, while followed by Protein consumption which increases muscle protein synthesis.
Fats fuel our body for moderate to low-intensity workouts for a longer duration. Learn more about healthy fats at Not all Kinds of Fat are Bad For Your Health
Caffeine is another energy-boosting supplement that enhances the durability of your workout.
The amount of intake can be increased by increasing the duration between your workout and the meal. Avoid drinking water after taking your pre-workout meal as you will need plenty of them during training to keep yourself hydrated.
Losing weight has always been considered a 'hectic' activity as it's a slow and gradual process that insists on being loyal to your food and workouts. The first thing our mind visualizes after hearing about losing fat is a picture of ourselves struggling through intense workouts surrounded by heavily loaded gym plates. Well, there are alternatives as we know it majorly depends on our food (80%), followed by the exercise (20%).
Here are 5 easy daily habits to implement to lose weight more effectively :
Drink water before main meals
In 2015, a research journal published an article on 'Efficacy of water preloading before main meals' tasking a group of people to drink 500 ml of water 30 minutes before their main meals for a 12-week follow-up and the result was exceptional, concluding "water preloading before our meals may lead to a fair weight loss at follow up."
Apart from researches, there are personal experiences being shared on the internet where the writer has claimed to lose 3 pounds of weight in 12 weeks, following the water pre-load idea.
Green Tea
Green tea is known to be one of the most popular health drinks when it comes to burning fat. Because of the presence of caffeine in it, which releases a compound called catechins(antioxidant) that acts as a stimulant and has been proven fruitful in fat burning and improves exercise performance in various studies. The metabolic rate of a body can also be elevated with green tea and the presence of amino acid(theanine) in it helps in reducing the stress that keeps our mind relaxed and avoid sedation.
Non-exercise physical activities
Unless you involve yourself in the least of any physical activity, it is difficult to lose any weight because your body needs to burn calories in order to prevent unnecessary weight gain.
Let's see a few options to keep your body moving when you're planning to save your workout for the future. That will include:
- Making your bed right after you wake up.
- Adding a morning walk to your schedule.
- Preferring to take stairs over lifts.
- Preferring outdoor sports over indoor games when possible.
- Involving yourself in household activities like cleaning and cooking food etc
Monitor your diet
Make a habit of preparing your own food which will make you more self-dependent and help you monitor the number of calories you consume with proper nutritional supplements. Also, it is important to eat slowly and chewing your food properly in order for the essential food particles to breakdown completely which leads to good digestion.
It is very important to choose what we eat because there is a variety of food available around us promoting both good and bad health. Not all food containing fatty acids is bad for your health and vice versa. Read more on: NOT ALL KINDS OF FAT ARE BAD FOR YOUR HEALTH
Fast food under Moderation
Now you don't really need to give up on all the yummy restaurant dishes and fast food. All of us surely have a couple of names in our favorite 'junk' food list from which it is difficult to bend over. No problem! Consider it in moderation and you don't need to choose between health and taste. Like once or twice a week. Even the legendary wrestler "Dwayne Johnson- The Rock" loves to break the rules on Sundays and it doesn't really affect his determination and output. Look at this picture of his Sunday-"the cheat meal day"-
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| Source: Instagram |
Last but not least, our health & body is our own responsibility and what it's going to take from you is 'little steps' day by day to implement. You can't become an athlete overnight however, surely can survive like one for the rest of your life.
Yes, you heard it right! Not all food that contains a considerable fat amount is bad for your health. Despite holding a bad reputation throughout the mass as it is majorly responsible for heart-related diseases, a few types of fat are better choices for your health. There is plenty of healthy fat-enriched food available around us which if implemented into a regular diet will help you achieve better health with a happy heart. A few minutes of reading this article will surely be worth your time which will help you determine the kind of fats to avoid and those to take in moderation.
These are the major parts of dietary fats :
Trans Fat ( Most necessary to avoid)
Also known as 'trans fatty' acids which are considered to be the worst kind of fat that we consume. It is important to understand the basic role of trans fat which says it can raise your low-density lipoprotein (LDL) which is basically the bad cholesterol suppressing the high-density lipoprotein (HDL) which is actually the good cholesterol. All kinds of processed snack food and fried meals like french fries, roadside fast foods, etc. come with it in abundance. 'Trans fat' in its major form is supplied in abundance through cheap quality vegetable oil by industries that add hydrogen to it which causes the oil to become semi-solid at normal temperature. 'Dalda' for example, is a brand of 'hydrogenated vegetable oil' popular in South Asia which is heavily used in hotels and restaurants promoting and selling fried foods. These food have generally a longer shelf life, linked to elevated risk for inflammation in the body with its harmful effects which may include:
- Heart disease.
- Diabetes
- Blood vessel disease
- Stroke
Saturated fat (Controlled infrequent use)
Though it isn't as harmful as trans fat, however, uncontrolled consumption of saturated fat can again lead to an increase in blood cholesterol and LDL levels followed by high risks of heart disease. Scientific research from 2017 states that people who have encountered more symptoms of heart disease are habitual consumers of higher amounts of saturated fats in their daily meals. Meat and Dairy items, mainly animal fats hold the majority of it and are to be avoided on daily basis.
Here are a few examples of foods with saturated fat:
- Red meat (beef, lamb, pork, etc)
- Hydrogenated (& partially) vegetable oil
- Cheese
- poultry meat & skin,
- high-fat dairy products
- Tropical oil (Eg. coconut oil)
Although saturated fat is semi-solid 'like butter' at room temperature, a few plant-based oils, such as palm oil, coconut oil, etc also contain primarily saturated fats however, they do not contain cholesterol. It is better now to shift to Unsaturated fats
Unsaturated fats (A healthy choice)
Most of the health organizations and dietary experts around the world recommend consuming food with saturated fats in moderation(source). Plant sources of oil such as olives, nuts, and seeds, contain unsaturated kind of fats that tend to be liquid at room temperature and that is why recommended to be replaced with saturated fat consumption. Also, the unsaturated fat comes in abundance in fish in the form of Omega 3 fatty acids which is beneficial for your heart health.
Here are the two major divisions of Unsaturated fats.
1. Monounsaturated fats
This type of plant-based fats if consumed in an appropriate manner, can lower the risks of coronary heart diseases and overall improvise your immunity.
Few examples of foods with higher enriched monounsaturated fat :
- Peanuts
- Avocados
- Groundnuts and most seeds
- Almonds
- Canola Oil
2. Polyunsaturated fats
Polyunsaturated fats(Omega 3 & Omega 6 fatty acids) are necessary intake in order to keep our body functionality running, proper muscle movement along with blood clotting process. Research held in 2015 to study the symptoms of saturated fat regarding human cardiovascular organs and what has been concluded that replacing saturated fat in your diet with polyunsaturated fats can reduce your heart disease risk.
Here are some best sources of Polyunsaturated fats(Omega 3 fatty acids) :
- fatty fish, such as salmon, tuna, Sardines, etc
- Soybean and flaxseed oil
- Corn Oil
- Chia seeds
- walnuts
- sunflower seeds
Gaining weight without impacting your health is also a considerable challenge just like losing fat. All you need to do is to follow a healthy diet on a regular basis with consistent training. The End. However, most of our perceptions do not prefer to digest it as a significant deal and with all the lack of discipline on our diet we end up with an unfit body which also leads to an unfit mind, inviting serious health disorders including :
- Obesity
- High blood sugar levels
- Blood pressure
- Cholesterol & much more.
BUSTING FAULTY 'WEIGHT GAIN' MINDSETS
" I am just going to double up my meal quantity. "
It doesn't always work that way. Your prime focus should be sticking more on the nutrition charts. Make a habit of using your cellphone for another good cause. There is no pleasure in doing it until you start to experience more energetic after following it. It is more important to observe what nutritional values are being taken in when you want to be pretty fair with your body.
" I am eating everything I wasn't used to eating before "
And you will start to get everything you never kept on your expectations. Today it may be easy for you to make a decision because tomorrow it is going to be harder if that non-healthy food remains to be on your table.
" I love Junk/fast foods. I am on advantage to gain some weight "
Sounds like another good joke reminding me of a great political meme -
'Eating amnesia' necessarily means your conscious mind does not reflect the act of unnecessary overeating when you aren't really attentive to it. For example, it may happen during watching your favorite shows with favorite snacks.
" I am planning to go for a mass gaining powder (Whey Protein) "
Whey protein is a nutrition pumping supplement that is going to help you until you're using it with proper training and quality food. So there's no turning back from monitoring your regular food.
PRIORITIZE THE QUALITY OVER QUANTITY
This right approach is to set the right priority for your diet i.e. quality of the food you are consuming followed by the quantity. For example, Rice is good for 'carbohydrates' which is the main source of our energy but rice meal twice or more in a day isn't your body requirement. If you are want to push some healthy weight up you need protein which is primary for proper growth and development of your muscles along with bones, hairs, skin, blood, cartilage, and much more.
Start tracking your Calories for your full-day diet. Everything we eat has a calorie value and our body stores and burns calories as fuel. In order to gain weight, you need to take more calories than your body burns, keeping things in mind like you aren't consuming an excess of fat which is around 50 to 60 grams for a day when you are on a 2000 calorie diet. There are a variety of good protein enriched food like poultry meat, fish, avocados, cheese, beans, and much more which you can add to your daily meal and track your gains.
Here are some of the most easily available, easy to prepare, and cost convenience meals you can add to your life for remarkable results.
1. 'Milk+Banana' Shake: Low cost and easy to prepare without even a juicer machine. 300 ml of milk mixed with two mashed bananas give you around 330 calories along with You might want to avoid adding sugar as it will already have around 35 grams of sugar in its nutrition value.
2. Whole Eggs: Eggs are a great source of nutrition when it comes to weight gain. Two boiled eggs provide 150 calories along with 14 grams of protein.
3. Nuts: 50 grams of Peanuts mixed with 50 grams Kala chana (Bengal grams) provides overall 465 calories with 24 grams of protein. Soak them in water overnight prefer to enjoy the natural taste (no salt and taste ingredients).
4. Mung Bean, Pulses: Make a habit of consuming pulses every day in a good quantity as they are always part of a healthy diet. One of them is Mung bean, a very good source of carbohydrates as well as protein, iron, etc which can also be taken along with the nuts, soaked in water.
5. Milk + Cornflakes: The popular combination of a healthy breakfast or anytime you are feeling hungry. 300 ml of milk along with 50 grams of flakes provides 300 calories with 15 grams of protein.
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Founder & Sole author at Musclepost. Throughout the journey of life, I choose to stay fit and spread the word to my readers. Welcome to my blog.
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