Have you ever started counting your daily calorie intake with little to no progress or end goal in mind? Here's a formula to keep you in track for real!
Photo bySiora PhotographyonUnsplash
To be honest, there's nothing much to fat loss other than this:
Calories Out > Calories In = Fat Loss
Essentially, a caloric deficit lifestyle through a healthy diet, exercise and good hormone levels would set you on path to lose fat and give you that lean physique.
Finding the perfect amount of calories to take in or burn can be challenging. Furthermore, the amount of calories to be consumed will defer between individuals based on their body weight. Fret not, we have a simple formula for you.
Caloric maintenance = body weight (pounds) x 15
Your caloric maintenance would be the amount of calories you would have to consume to maintain your current physique.
If you weigh 200 pounds, this means that your caloric maintenance is 200 x 15 = 3000 calories.
Next, fat loss calories.
To lose stubborn body fat, one has to maintain a 20-30% caloric deficit. For a start, it would be good to hit a 20% caloric deficit, and cap it at 30% if you ever hit a plateau. For athletes, a caloric deficit of 25% would be optimum to ensure a balanced hormone level.
At 20% caloric deficiency:
Amount of calories to take in = caloric maintenance x 0.8
For a 200 pounds individual, they would therefore have to take in 3000 x 0.8 = 2400 calories to achieve a caloric deficiency of 20%.
Diet Phase Macros
Now that you know how much calories you should consume at your desired level of caloric deficit, here's a breakdown of macros to help you achieve a balanced diet.
35% protein
35% carbs
30% fat
Amount of protein to consume = Total no. of calories to consume x 0.35
The same formula applies to the remaining macros.
Drawing back to the example of 2400 to be consumed, this would mean that protein should take up 2400 x 0.35 = 840 calories per day.
4 calories = 1 gram
840 calories = 210 grams
Therefore, 210 grams of protein a day.
One important tip when following this formula is to stick to the total number of calories and protein intake. It is fine to adjust your intake on carbs and fats should you prefer a higher or lower amount of either macro.
While this formula is definitely not perfect, we do hope you will be able to start off on a strong foundation in your journey to fat loss. Good luck!
Comments