Wednesday 28 March 2012

Diet and Nutrition

As mentioned earlier I will be outlining my plan, nutrition wise. My aim is to lose body fat while maintaining as much muscle mass as possible. The reason for this is that I am already relatively fit, well for my size anyway, and have a good foundation of muscle underneath all that fat. This has been built up over many years of resistance work in the gym and is a bit of a requirement for my job. I need to be fit and strong

So what am I basing my diet on?

Well I've taken quite a precise approach to this, basing my figures on nutrition guidelines that I've read over the years for bodybuilding. I will be basing my macro nutrient (Protein, Carbohydrates and Fat) ratios loosely on the Paleo diet. I say loosely because although I feel that the Paleo way of eating is probably the easiest way to heat a good healthy diet, it's not great if you don't always have a lot of time, so for me, I eat Paleo, but then add in some protein supplements.

How much food?

To work out how many calories worth of food you need for each day, you need to work out what your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) is. Your BMR is a rough guide to how many calories you're body will burn throughout the day. The formula for calculating your BMR is below;

For Men:  BMR = 66 + (13.7 x bodyweight in kg) + (5 x height in cm) - (6.8 x age in years)

For Women: BMR = 655 + (9.6 x weight in kg) + (1.8 x height in cm) - (4.7 x age in years)

My weight at the start was 134.5kg. So 13.7 x 134.5 = 1,842.
My height is 190cm and when multiplied by 5 = 950.
My age is 30 years and when multiplied by 6.8 = 204.

So the figures we now have are, BMR = 66 + 1,842 (13.7 x 134.5) + 950 (5 x 190) - 204 (6.8 x 30)

That leaves me with a BMR of 2,654. You then need to work out your activity levels for the day and use the multipliers below to get your total calories needed for the day.

Activity Multiplier
Sedentary = BMR X 1.2 (little or no exercise, desk job)
Lightly active = BMR X 1.375 (light exercise/sports 1-3 days/wk)
Mod. active = BMR X 1.55 (moderate exercise/sports 3-5 days/wk)
Very active = BMR X 1.725 (hard exercise/sports 6-7 days/wk)
Extr. Active = BMR X 1.9 (hard daily exercise/sports & physical job or 2X day training, i.e marathon, contest etc.)

For me I have chosen Light Activity. The reason being is that my work is not very demanding physically, but I workout 5 - 6 times a week. So my total BMR is now at 3,649. Now a point to note is that for the severely muscular or overweight this can be very inaccurate. It will tend to over-estimate calorific needs for people with excess fat (me) and under-estimate people with high levels of muscle tissue (bodybuilders). The reason being that fat needs less calories than muscle, and visa versa, and this formula takes into account your total bodyweight, rather than your lean mass. There is a method for calculating your BMR using your lean mass which I will go into in great detail in a later post. What I advise you to do is use this as a guide. If you're aim is to lose weight, then drop your calories by 500 per day to start off with and see how your weight loss and energy levels go for a couple of weeks. If your weight loss is around 2lb per week then your good, if it's less, then drop your calories a little more, if it's more than increase your calories a little. For me, I know that I lose a good amount of weight each week while maintaining good energy levels at just over 2,000 calories a day, so this is what I stick to. 

What Foods?

Remember earlier on I mentioned protein, carbohydrates and fats? Well these are the basic blocks of all foods and they all do different things to the body. Protein is used for muscle tissue repair, carbohydrate is used for energy, and so is fat. You need protein to maintain and repair broken down muscle tissue from your workouts, and you need fuel to feed those muscles for their workouts. Protein and Carbohydrates both contain 4 calories per gram. Fat contains 9 calories per gram. It is recommended to eat between 0.8g and 1.5g of protein per pound of lean body mass (LBM) to start off with. I have previously had my body fat worked out as about 30% fat so I use that to work out my LBM. this works out as about 209lbs of LBM. I personally aim for 0.9g of protein per lb of LBM so aim for about 188g of protein per day. I then try to keep my carbohydrates as low as possible and make the rest of the calories up in fat (fat is not as bad as everyone thinks). I stay away, as much as is possible, from processed carbohydrates such as breads, pasta, rice.  Here is my diet so far and the macro nutrient profiles for the day;

Meal 1 : 1 scoop whey protein, 1 banana, 2 scoops peanut butter, 300ml milk, 2 handfuls of ice

Meal 2 : 3 boiled/poached eggs

Meal 3 : 1 baked sweet potato, 1 can of tuna, drizzled with olive oil

Meal 4 : Chicken Breast with veg, 6g fish oil

Snack : 50g Almonds, 1 piece of fruit

(if hungry at end of day, will add in a whey protein shake mixed with water)


The supplements I use are Iron Science Whey Concentrate, Iron Science Fish Capsules, Holland & Barrett Green Tea Extract Capsules and Centrum Performance Multi Vitamin. 

Calories = 2095
Protein = 189g
Carbohydrates = 118g
Fats = 83.6g

So there you go. Got there in the end. This is my plan food wise, but you'll notice over time that I won't stick to this religiously. As I've said before, I've lifted weights for years now and am nutritionally aware, so to speak. Because of this experience I have I am quite happy making substitutes if need be while out an about with work etc. All it takes is a little bit of dedication and the checking of food labels before you buy items and it's quite easy to get the same nutrients.  I will also, every now and then be having day's off from the dieting and will indulge in whatever foods take my fancy. The reason for this is that, as demonstrated last week, it's OK to have a little bit of "undesirable food" every now and then without it effecting your dieting goals. It also helps to keep you sane, and has even be suggested to boost your metabolism back up. 

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