How Many Calories Should I Eat?
Now that we know what calories and macros are, and the role they play in healthy eating, the next question becomes “how many should I be eating?” There is a lot of misinformation on this topic, but we can come up with some sensible guidelines. The important thing to remember is that the answer doesn’t really matter. You make an educated guess, try it, and adjust. Because you are tracking and measuring, the right answer reveals itself to you.
To get your starting number, use the Mayo Clinic calorie calculator. There are many similar websites out there, I like this one because sites like the Mayo Clinic use evidence-based research in their published articles. Other sites can and will skew these numbers to align with the marketing of the product they are trying to sell you. (Pro-tip: in the health and fitness industry, always ask yourself what the person providing the information is trying to sell you.)
Lean Muscle Mass and BMI
Next, you need to determine your nutrition goal: build muscle? maintain? lose fat? You can only pick one. If you try to juggle more than one, you will sabotage your efforts. You may have some initial thoughts on which one, but I recommend letting your body tell you. To do that, you need to know your Body Fat Percentage.
If you know your BMI, you can approximate your body fat percentage with the following formula:
(1.39 x BMI) + (0.16 x age) - (10.34 x gender) - 9 gender: 0 for female, 1 for male
If you don’t know your BMI, you can approximate your body fat percentage by entering your measurements here.
So now you’ve got a number. What to do with it? If your number is greater than 30 (for women) or 24 (for men), I strongly recommend your priority is fat loss. Subtract 10% from the calorie intake you calculated above to create a calorie deficit, and stick with that until you are down to 20% (women) or 13% (men). Now let’s figure out what those calories should be made of…
Macro Profiles
Yesterday, you learned not all calories are created equal. Let’s talk about macro profiles, why they are essential, and how they provide a better way of managing your goals. This is true regardless of your goals. It works for weight loss. It works for muscle gain. It works for maintenance.
Let’s start by defining what a macro profile is.
It’s the ratio of carbs:protein: fats that make up your diet. For example, a macro profile might say that 30% of your calories come from carbs. Another 40% comes from protein, and the remaining 30% comes from fats. Notice that I didn’t mention how many calories you need! This is a ratio, so it’s going to work the same whether you need 1,500 calories per day or 2,500.
Here’s where the magic happens (along with a little math):
Assume that you’re daily calorie intake is 2,000 calories(fn) and you are using the 30/40/30 carbs/protein/fat macro profile.
Using a little math, we can multiply 2000 x 30% to learn that we need 600 calories per day from carbs, 800 calories per day from protein (because 2000 x 40% = 800) and 600 calories from fat (because 2000 x 30% = 600).
We can validate our math: 600 calories from carbs + 800 calories from protein + 600 calories from fat = 2000 calories
Now we need one more piece of information to make this work:
Carbs contain four calories per gram.
Six hundred calories divided by four calories per gram equals 150 grams of carbs daily.
Protein contains four calories per gram.
Eight hundred calories divided by four calories per gram equals 200 grams of protein daily.
Fat contains nine calories per gram.
Six hundred calories divided by nine calories per gram equals 67 grams of fat daily.
So all of the information above can be distilled to:
150 g carbs
200 g protein
67 g fats
With those three numbers, you never have to count another calorie again. Eating 150g of carbs, 200g of protein, and 67g of fats can never add up to anything besides 2,000 calories.
What makes this so incredibly important is you are now controlling the source of your calories, not just the number. This means you won’t binge on 2,000 calories of carbs and alcohol and sabotage your goals!
The 30/40/30 ratio mentioned above is one example of a macronutrient ratio. There are other popular ones as well. The right macro ratio for you depends. No one can tell you what it is.
I’m going to take a side note for a minute here. Consider this our heart-to-heart conversation. I’m going to be brutally honest. It may not be the most pleasing news, but you need to hear it from someone, and since you’re reading this, that someone gets to be me.
You are going to have to choose your macro ratio. No one else can choose it for you: you have to own this. If you let someone else choose it for you, it’s still your choice to accept their answer and you own the consequences.
If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice. Rush, Freewill
You may choose the wrong answer the first time. That’s ok. When you decide it’s not right for you based on measured results, you are not going to throw your hands in the air and give up. You will make a new choice and measure the results. If the results aren’t what you want, you’ll choose again and measure the results. And you will keep repeating this process until you get it right. Many people are going to try and convince you they have the answer. Their fail-proof diet/plan/formula/technique or whatever is the hope and salvation you’ve been looking for. When these people appear, they are trying to sell you something.
You must own this because you are the only “you” you’ve got!
Ok. That’s over. I feel better.
Back to macro profiles: a lot of it concerns your body type, which your ancestry may significantly impact. This website does a really great job of breaking it down. It’s essential when looking at the chart to look at who you really are not who you wish you were.
The three common ratios shown there are:
55/25/20 (carbs/protein/fat): Ectomorph- people with long, skinny limbs who are naturally thinner.
40/30/30 (carbs/protein/fat): Mesomorph- typically identified as naturally muscular and athletic individuals.
25/35/40 (carbs/protein/fat): Endomorph- naturally broad and thick individuals
Some other common ratios include:
50/30/20 (carbs/protein/fat): This one is called “moderate,” but seriously, that’s a lot of carbs.
40/30/30 (carbs/protein/fat): Also seen above, this can sometimes be called the Zone Diet.
25/45/30 (carbs/protein/fat): This ratio is known as low carb. It’s interesting to point out that many low-carb fads and diets fail to hit this ratio.
10/15/75 (carbs/protein/fat): This is the Keto (or Ketogenic) ratio. You may have heard the term “keto" before. As you can see, it uses an extremely high-fat content to force the body into generating its ketones for energy. This is extremely interesting and has shown some pretty impressive results for cancer patients, but this is not to be taken lightly. This is tough to follow, and the penalties are harsh for “cheat days.” Unless you have successfully followed a macro-profile-based meal plan before, I do not recommend this without the supervision and guidance of a professional, licensed nutritionist.
We covered a lot, so I want to highlight the takeaways.
- Counting macros frees you from counting calories while providing your body with the “stuff” you need to mold it how you want it.
- Hitting your macros guarantees you won’t exceed your calorie goals, so there is no point in counting calories.
- The correct macro ratio may require some trial and error on your part but even guessing wrong is going to put you closer to your goal than you are now. Tomorrow we’ll look at different meal plans and learn some ways to evaluate which meal plan is right for you, but for now:
Today’s Tasks
Don’t forget to complete today’s tasks for the challenge.
- Drink 1 gallon of water
- Workout for 45 minutes
- Read ten pages from your book Once completed, be sure to head over to the tracking site and mark them as completed to track your progress for the challenge.