Determine your Calorie needs and Macro nutrient split

The cornerstone of any good fitness plan is getting your diet right, and to do that, the first thing you need to do is to determine what your daily calorie needs are.

Multiply your body weight in Kg with 0.9 if you are female and 1.0 if you are male. Multiply the result with 24. Multiply the result with your Lean factor from the table below.

This will be your BMR or Basal Metabolic Rate, which means this much calorie your body burns even if you lay whole day dong nothing. Body Fat percentage can easily be known with machines in most of the gyms or even a trainer can guess looking at you. You can also calculate on various online calculators https://www.active.com/fitness/calculators/bodyfat . This is not very accurate but you need an approx number so this will work

Now once you know your BMR , multiply the same with your activity multiplier

Most of us make an error while calculating our activity level. Despite doing very intense workouts , my activity level is Very light. My job is typical office job.

To show the above as an example about my Calorie needs : I am 66 Kgs and Male so 66 X 1.0 X 24 X .95 ( My body fat percentage is 18) = 1504 Calories is my BMR. Now multiplying with my Activity Level of 1.3 it becomes 1955.20 This is my daily calorie need. If I eat less than this I will lose weight , if I eat more I will gain. For every 3500 calorie deficit you lose 1 pound of weight.

Now that you know your calorie needs , it will be good to know your macro nutrient breakup. This is a guideline. First determine what’s your body type

Ectomorph: Naturally thin. Skinny limbs. Struggles to build muscle / gain weight.

Mesomorph: Naturally muscular. Wide shoulders. Fits right between ectomorph and endomorph build.

Endomorph: Naturally broad. Wide hips. Shorter limbs. Gains weight easily.

Now convert these percentage into calories. I am Ectomorph. So in my case

Protein = 488 calories, Carbohydrate = 1075 calories and fat = 391 calories

Converting those calories to grams : Protein and Carbohydrates contain 4 calories / gram. Fat contains 9 calories / gram. So my protein requirement becomes 488/4 = 122 grams, Carb = 1075/4 =269 grams, Fat = 43.44 grams.

So my baseline macro nutrient requirement is as follows

Protein = 122 grams, Carbohydrate = 269 grams, Fat = 43 grams.

Now that I know this I can design a meal plan dividing them over 3-4 meals. While making your diet just keep two thumb rules in mind : Keep Protein and Vegetables in your every meal and keep refined Carbohydrate and Processed food to minimum.

This one goes without saying. The bulk of our diet should consist of whole foods that are nutrient dense and provide real nourishment for the body to perform optimally.

Sugary drinks, sweets, biscuits, ice cream etc should be kept to a minimum. They cause sharp spikes to the hormone insulin, which sends blood sugar levels all over the place. This is often why so many people feel sluggish throughout the day.