Navigating Nutrition Vol#5

What about Calories???

Why did we wait until now to bring up Calories?

Lot’s of reasons. But mainly, because of despite what you might have heard…all calories are not created equal.

“A calorie is a calorie”, a common refrain amongst fitness influencers and new to the industry personal trainers, just doesn’t hold up at a macro level (no pun intended).

“But what about that study where the college professor ate a diet consisting of 100% Twinkies for 30 days and lost weight???”

Yes, that’s a thing that happened. The goal was to prove that calories in vs calories out is what leads to weight loss or gain.

And although, that is true when measuring ONE variable “scale weight”, it did not measure fat loss vs muscle loss, bone density, blood and other markers of health and disease, energy levels, vitality, or anything else that leads to you becoming the fittest version of yourself.

We place WHAT you’re eating at a far higher level of importance over how much you’re eating.

With that said, how much you eat is still important.

“Then how many calories should I be eating each day?”

Like the answer to most of life’s great questions, “It depends.”

There are two main factors, and one important but hard to measure factor that go into determining caloric intake recommendations.

Important:

1. Current Body Weight - How much you weigh right now, not your desired weight.
2. Activity Level - What you are doing outside of the normal daily functions of survival. Is your job sedentary? Or are you standing and walking around all day? This, in addition to workouts and other physical activities you might partake in.

Important, but don’t worry about:

1. Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) - This is the tricky one that’s hard to measure accurately, but defaulting to using a multiplier of your current body weight has proven to be a suitable replacement to get started.

“Great, but you didn’t answer my question yet!”
“How many calories should I be eating in a day?”

Ok, here goes…

1. Take your current bodyweight in lbs.
2. Look at the chart below and find where your goals intersect your current activity level. There should be a numeric range listed.
3. Multiply your current bodyweight by a number in the numeric range you found in step 2.

Ex) I weigh 204lbs.
    I am looking for Fat Loss, my job is sedentary, and I exercise 3-4x/week.
        Range = 12-14 (I am choosing 12 to start)

        204 x 12 = 2,448 calories

So, there you have it. Use this as a starting point, and you can always adjust and tweak as necessary.

If you want additional help, or accountability on your journey…click here.