Let's get into nutrition, particularly focusing on calorie intake – understanding how many calories you should aim for to optimize your progress and how to effectively track and adjust them. While not mandatory, incorporating this into your routine can significantly benefit your progress.
I recommend using the MyFitnessPal app for its extensive database. However, disregard the calorie recommendation it provides, this email will explain what calories to set for your goals. You do not need the premium subscription or to link your activity. The app tends to overestimate calorie expenditure when activity is linked, which will skew your nutrition goals.
First, we need to figure out your maintenance calories. This is the amount of calories required to keep you alive while maintaining your current body composition. Calories are a unit of energy, so they will be used interchangeably. No matter what you use to find your maintenance calories, it is an estimate based on the information given of the amount of energy your body needs each day. Do not stress too much over finding this number.
There are many formulas out there to find out a person's maintenance calories, and I have found they all give a similar result. I recommend using https://tdeecalculator.net/ for a quick calculation of your maintenance calories. I am not going to pretend you can’t find this information on your own. I will just make sure you know how to use it.
For activity level, go off your work rather than your gym schedule. I find it gives a better baseline because no matter how consistent you are at showing up, it may not always be with the same consistent effort. However, my nutrition experience has been mostly with people looking to lose weight. I know there are people here who bike to work in minus 30 who aren’t looking to lose weight, so use your own judgment. You can always try it for a few days and see how you feel.
If you feel like you’re forcing yourself to eat, it’s probably too high. If you’re starving at the end of the day, it’s probably too low. If you have been eating very inconsistently up to this point, maintenance will feel off the first few days.
The maintenance calorie calculation does not take into consideration factors outside of your age and body composition. Menopause, pregnancy and other health conditions are not taken into account and can affect your maintenance calories. I am not a dietician but have done research on how to adjust for certain situations and may have some suggestions for you. I have some experience with menopause, lots of experience with PCOS and women's hormonal health, and a fair amount with insulin resistance and gastrointestinal health.
No matter what your goal is, I suggest starting at your maintenance. This will get you used to tracking your food and getting consistent with eating the same amount each day. There are some exceptions to this, we can chat about that if you feel this may be you. With the increase in energy expenditure from your workouts and if you’re adding in cardio, you are going to be creating a calorie deficit. You will also be able to increase muscle mass during this time at maintenance, depending on your experience level coming into this.
How to progress towards your goals:
Your body is going to adapt to the fuel you are putting into it and the energy requirements you are asking from it. Once you are comfortable tracking what you eat and eating at maintenance, you are going to want to change either how much you consume or how much you use. This can happen after a week, this can happen after months. You’ll know it is time to adjust when your progress slows for more than a week.
Think of it like a math equation. If you are consuming more energy than you are using, you will gain weight, if you are using more than you’re consuming you will lose weight.
Calories in - Calories out = Weight Loss/ Gain
(Food) (Daily Energy Requirement
+ Additional Activity)
It may be simple math, but we also want to make sure we do this in a way that is going to be safe and sustainable.
I always recommend increasing your activity before decreasing your calories, which I will elaborate more on in next week's email. But I do understand that you will hit limits on how much activity you can fit into a day. So lowering the calories in is also an option.
Your maintenance calories are also known as your Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE). This is composed of your daily activity, the calories you burn while digesting food and your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR). Your BMR accounts for around 70% of your TDEE. This is what your body needs to keep you alive and functioning even if all you did was lay in bed all day. When you work around your maintenance calories, your body will be able to adjust to the new amount of energy it is consuming and being required to use each day and that is when you will see progress that will last.
Your daily activity and the calories you use to digest food do vary day to day, but treat them as stable. We will talk more about how to use these components in the coming weeks.
If your goal is to gain muscle/bulk: Increasing your maintenance calories by 5-15% will allow you to build muscle without storing excess fat. You will gain fat, but by easing into these increases will allow your body to adjust to the additional energy consumption.
Eg. Someone who’s maintenance calories are 2000 would add 100, give it 1-2 months or until they stop seeing increases in size, then increase to 2200, and a few months later increase to 2300. At this point their maintenance should also have increased from the increased muscle mass, so they could keep going.
If your goal is to lose fat/cut: You do have a larger range to work with, but smaller increments are still better. You want to stay above your BMR which gives you up to a 30% deficit. Start with a 5% decrease, give it a few months and when you feel your progress slow, go down another 5%. Next week we will get into cardio and I will always stress choosing more calories out over less calories in. This is also why we don’t just start at your BMR, because it will shorten the amount of time you can spend in a deficit, limiting the amount of progress you’ll make. Think of how many calories you can burn in daily activities in 6 months compared to 6 weeks. You will also be able to build some muscle in that time, which will increase your BMR.
Next, we will get into macronutrients so you know how to best optimize the calories you are consuming. But for now, get used to tracking foods you normally eat. Increase your focus on consuming protein, fiber and unsaturated fats.
If you have any questions, please reach out.
Have a great week!
Paige
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