Daily Calorie, Protein, Fat, Carb Intake & Sources. Whether you want to lose weight, build muscle or improve any aspect of your body or health, setting up your entire diet plan correctly is an absolute requirement for reaching any of these types of goals. The problem is, between your daily calorie, protein, fat and carb intake and the food sources you’re getting these nutrients from, diet and nutrition tends to be the area people screw up the most. If you follow a Paleo diet, get ready to throw it out the window. The simple reality of running a good marathon is that you need to consume an incredible amount of. EXAMPLES OF FOODS LOW IN REFINED CARBS/ADDED SUGAR. Fresh/frozen meat, poultry, and seafood; Eggs; Fresh or frozen unsweetened fruits; All vegetables. In fact, our diet plan is often the area we barely even care about in the first place. I hear it all the time. People tell me all about their workout routines and what exercises and muscle groups they train on what days and how much weight they lift for how many sets and reps and blah blah blah, but when I ask them about their diet plan, the answer is usually “it’s okay” or “I think it’s pretty good.”In reality however it’s often terrible, and it’s the #1 reason you’re not losing fat or building muscle or getting the results you want. The truth is, if your diet plan isn’t set up the way it needs to be for your goal to be reached, then your goal WILL NOT be reached. Simple as that. So, how should you eat to support your goal? How do you figure out what your daily calorie, protein, fat and carb intake needs to be and what food sources those nutrients should and should not come from? How do you set up your ideal diet plan? Here now is a free guide that contains all of those answers. As you will see, protein, fat and carbs definitely matter as well, but nothing influences your ability to lose weight, gain weight, build muscle or do anything similar as much as calories do. This is because everything we eat and drink (besides obvious calorie- free items like water) contains calories, and everything we do (exercise, getting dressed, breathing, digesting food, etc.) burns calories. The difference between how many calories we consume and how many calories we burn is the most important factor in every diet plan. There is a certain number of calories that your body requires every day in order for it to maintain your current weight. We call this your “daily calorie maintenance level.” It’s the amount of calories your body requires each day in order to do EVERYTHING it needs to do. Now, if your diet plan is made up of more, less or the same amount of calories as your maintenance level, 1 of 3 things will always happen. This is a requirement for building muscle. If you eat LESS calories than your maintenance level, you will lose weight. Popcorn contains carbohydrates and. A FREE diet plan guide. Find your ideal daily calorie, protein, fat and carb intake for your goal along with a list of the best food sources for each. Can you get lean eating cheeseburgers? The IIFYM (If It Fits Your Macros) diet says order up. This is a requirement for losing fat. If you eat the SAME amount of calories as your maintenance level, your weight will stay the same. This is a requirement for maintaining your current weight. And these are really the most important things you need to know about your daily calorie intake and just creating a proper diet plan in general. These 3 simple facts are what most of the population fail to learn, understand, or just pay attention to, and it’s the #1 reason why their body isn’t doing what they want it to do. How do you estimate your maintenance level? The first step in figuring out what your daily calorie intake needs to be is estimating what your maintenance level is. There are quite a few ways to do this, but the easiest is to multiply your current body weight in pounds by 1. Somewhere between those 2 amounts will usually be your maintenance level. Women, people who are less active, or people who think they have a slower metabolism should use the lower end of their range. Men, people who are more active, or people who think they have a faster metabolism should use the higher end of their range. People who are unsure should just pick a number in the middle. Another way to estimate your daily calorie maintenance level is with the calculator below. Not all Carbohydrate foods are equal : The Glycemic Index (GI) is a relative ranking of carbohydrate in foods according to how they affect blood glucose levels.Just fill it in and click “Calculate!”Calorie Maintenance Calculator. How do you adjust your daily calorie intake for your goal? Now that you have a good estimate of what your maintenance level is, it’s time to adjust it for your specific goal. Just eat your maintenance level amount each day. To ensure your daily calorie intake is indeed what it should be, all you need to do is weigh yourself about once per week first thing in the morning before eating or drinking anything, and monitor if your weight is moving in the right direction at the ideal rate. For losing weight, 1- 2lbs lost per week is usually perfect. For gaining weight or building muscle, 0. So, if that’s happening, you’re perfect. Continue eating this daily calorie intake from that point on. But if it’s not, then you just need to adjust up or down in small 2. Yup, just that simple. Now that your daily calorie intake is set up, it’s time to set up the protein, fat and carbs that will supply these calories. Daily Protein Intake. The next most important part of your diet plan is your daily protein intake. Because as I explain in my article about the high protein diet, protein is the building block of muscle, it plays a huge role in controlling your hunger and keeping you satisfied, and, if weight loss is your goal, it’s the dietary key to ensuring that the weight you lose is fat and not muscle. These benefits are the reason why protein supplements are so damn popular and you’ll never hear anyone recommend a low protein diet. The question is, what does your daily protein intake need to be to get all of these benefits? What is your ideal daily protein intake? My article about finding your ideal amount of protein per day answers this question in detail, but the quick and simple answer is that most people looking to improve their body should usually be eating between 0. Most people should use their current body weight when doing this calculation (so a 1. What are the best sources of protein? Some common high quality sources of protein include. There are primarily 4 different types of fat (trans, saturated, monounsaturated and polyunsaturated), and each has a significantly different effect on the human body. My article about Good Fats vs Bad Fats explains this in detail. The short version is that trans fat should be avoided completely, saturated fat should typically be limited to no more than 1/3 of your total daily fat intake, and monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats should comprise the majority of it. A definite extra emphasis should be placed on getting enough of a specific polyunsaturated fatty acid. My article about Omega- 3 Fish Oil Supplements explains why it’s so important. What is your ideal daily fat intake? In most cases, somewhere between 2. So, just figure out what 2. I’ll show you a full example of how to do this in a minute. What are the best sources of fat? Some common high quality sources of fat include. The reason we left carbs for last is because out of the 3 macronutrients that supply our daily calories (protein, fat and carbs), carbs are the least important. As my article about how many grams of carbs you should eat per day explains, carbs are extremely useful and a sufficient amount should definitely be eaten. However, protein and fat are the only macronutrients that are truly essential to the human body and MUST be present in our diet plan in order to live and function. Carbs aren’t, although we definitely live and function much better when we eat them. Here’s why this is important. That might sound confusing, but it’s not. Remember the daily calorie intake you calculated before? Subtract calories from protein and calories from fat from that amount. Whatever amount of calories are still left over, those calories will come from carbs. Here’s a step- by- step example. Since 1 gram of protein contains 4 calories, that means 6. To figure out how many grams of fat that would be, they’d just divide 5. So that. Since 1 gram of carbs contains 4 calories, this example person can see that they should eat 2. You’d just repeat this same process using your actual daily calorie, protein, fat and carb intake instead of the example amounts I just used. What are the best sources of carbs? Some common high quality sources of carbs include? Well, I can explain all of those answers in just 3 simple words: it doesn’t matter. Everything you’ve heard about a certain type of diet organization being beneficial for losing weight or building muscle is either a lie, a myth, or complete crap. My articles about why eating 5- 6 small meals per day is BS and why eating after 7 pm at night is fine explain why. So, the real answer to every question you have about how to best put your diet plan together is this. Whatever is most likely to cause you to consistently get the important stuff right. Well, after 1. 0 years of people asking me for it, I’ve finally created the solution. It. It contains the proven sample diet plans (and workouts) that I? Then go here to learn all about it: The Ultimate Fat Loss & Muscle Building Guide. Popcorn for Low- Carb Diets . Popcorn contains carbohydrates and could negatively affect your count for the day. If you're following a moderately low- carb diet that includes 1. Following an extremely low- carb plan that calls for 5. Most popcorn, whether it's microwaved, air- popped or cheese- flavored, offers about 5 grams of net carbohydrates per 1- cup serving. Net carbs are the carbohydrates that impact your blood sugar and are counted by most low- carb plans. You figure net carbs by subtracting an item's fiber grams from its total carb count. The problem with popcorn is that you rarely stop at a cup. A small popcorn at many movie theaters equals 8 cups, and a large has as much as 2. If you make popcorn at home, you'll have to precisely measure your serving to ensure you don't overeat this easy- to- overdo snack food. Even if you're on a moderately low- carb diet consisting of 1. Although popcorn does contain 1 gram of fiber per cup, it has very little other nutrients. It offers only minimal protein and almost no notable vitamins or minerals. If you do choose to eat popcorn, you'll have to minimize other sources of carbohydrates that day. This means you might skip 1/2 cup of brown rice with dinner, which offers 2. When you eliminate these foods, though, you also eliminate the valuable nutrients they contain. This makes popcorn fine as an occasional treat but not as a regular fixture in your meal plans. You're better off spending your carb grams on highly nutritious, fiber- rich foods. Gourmet popcorn covered in chocolate, caramel or sweet fruity flavors contains added sugar and, as a result, offers more carbohydrates than plain, butter or cheese versions. For example, 1 cup of caramel- coated popcorn contains about 3. Kettle corn, which is popped with butter or oil and sugar, has more carbs, too - - about 7 grams of net carbs per cup. Consider low- carb alternatives to popcorn for your next snack. If you crave a crunchy, munchable snack, you could opt for pork rinds, which are naturally carb- free because they are fried pork skin. Pork rinds contribute a large amount of saturated fat and sodium to your diet without adding a lot of other nutrients, though, so don't make them a regular habit. Cut up vegetables, such as red bell pepper and jicama, and diced cheese are naturally very low in carbohydrates. Nuts also make low- carb snacks, with 1 ounce of walnuts containing 3 grams of carbs and 1 ounce of macadamia nuts having 4 grams. Cashews, almonds and pecans are other choices, but they have carb counts similar to a cup of air- popped popcorn. Nuts tend to be more filling than popcorn, but it's still possible to overeat them in one sitting, so monitor your intake. The Definitive Guide to the Primal Eating Plan. Do the Math. In my recent Context of Calories post, I explained how the different macronutrients we eat at each meal (fats, proteins, and carbohydrates) have different effects in the body. I suggested that, despite their raw calorie values, it’s far more important to get a lasting intuitive sense of how much of each macronutrient you need and when you need it (or not). But how do you do that? How do you figure out the proper number of calories – and breakdown of fats, protein and carbs – to accomplish your fitness and health goals? Run marathons? In fact, most popular daily diets look at overall calories as the main factor in weight loss and weight gain. The age- old conservation of energy Conventional Wisdom says that “a calorie is a calorie.” From there most diet gurus generally prescribe some formulaic one- size- fits- all breakdown of fats, protein and carbs. A classically trained Registered Dietician will tell you that protein should be around 1. This macronutrient breakdown stays the same regardless of how much weight you need to lose or what other goals you might have. Barry Sears has his 4. Zone” diet. The USDA bases everything on a choice of between 2,0. But, as I said earlier, it’s not that simple. Calories do have context. The human body uses these macronutrients for a variety of different functions, some of which are structural and some of which are simply to provide energy – immediately or well into the future. Moreover, with regards to energy conservation or expenditure, the body acts as both an efficient fuel storage depot (and as a toxic “waist” site) as well as a potent generator of energy, depending largely on the hormonal signals it gets. It will store glycogen and/or fat and it will build muscle – or it will just as easily tear them all down and use them for fuel – based on input from you: what you eat, how much you eat, when you eat, what you’re doing before or after you eat – even what you’re thinking when you eat. Yet because your body always seeks to achieve homeostasis over time, the notion of you trying to zero in on a precise day- to- day or meal- to- meal eating plan is generally fruitless (yes, Charlotte, some fruit is allowed). The good news in all this is that falling off the wagon once or twice this week won’t have the immediate disastrous effect that you might imagine – as long as you can keep your average intake under control and understand how the various macronutrients function over time. Which brings me to the crux of today’s discussion. Not only is it nearly impossible to accurately gauge your exact meal- to- meal calorie and macronutrient requirements, doing so will drive you crazy. In fact, to accurately figure your true structural and functional fuel needs (and hence to achieve your goals) it’s far more effective to look at a much larger span of time, like a few weeks, and aim for an “average” consumption. Then you can review that average daily intake over weeks or months and adjust accordingly. Below, I’ll give you a way to figure a “jumping off” point to start with, but remember, our genes are accustomed to the way our ancestors ate: intermittently, sporadically, sometimes in large quantities, and sometimes not at all for days. Their bodies figured out a way to maintain homeostasis and preserve lean tissue and good health through all this and so can we. Our genes want us to be lean and fit. It’s actually quite easy as long as we eat from the long list of Primal Blueprint healthy foods and try to avoid that other list of grain- laden, sugary, processed and otherwise unhealthy foods. Realistically, we also want to allow for the occasional party- splurge, a pre- planned (or accidental) intermittent fast, an over- the- top workout or even a week of laziness. Where most people get into trouble is in miscalculating their energy needs over extended periods of time – not day- to- day. They don’t see the average amount of carbs creeping upwards, or they figure they need x amount of calories, but don’t have a clue as to what kind of food those should be coming from. I start with these four basic principles to guide my Primal Blueprint eating style: 1)8. Yes, exercise is also important to health and to speed up fat- burning and muscle- building, but most of your results will come from how you eat. I’ll write more on this later, so just trust me on this one for now. Suffice to say, people who weigh a ton and exercise a ton, but eat a ton, still tend to weigh a ton. I think I’ll have that made into a t- shirt. I’ve said it many times on this site: lean mass (muscle and all the rest of you that is not fat) is directly correlated with longevity and excellent health. Rather than strive to “lose weight”, most people would be better off striving to lose only fat and to build or maintain muscle. Since other organs tend to function at a level that correlates to muscle mass, the more muscle you maintain throughout life, the more “organ reserve” you’ll have (i. Refer back to rule #1 and eat to build or maintain muscle. Excess body fat is bad. Most human studies show that being significantly overweight increases your risk of nearly every disease (except osteoporosis – because ironically it responds to weight- bearing activities). Fat just doesn’t look that great either. See rule #1 and eat to keep body fat relatively low. Excess insulin is bad. We’ve written about it here a lot. Chronic excess insulin may be even worse than excess sugar (and we know how bad that is). All animals produce insulin, but within any species, those that produce less insulin live longer than those who produce a lot. Eat to keep insulin low. Here is how I use these principles to guide my individual macronutrient intake: Protein. Protein takes priority. If there is ample glycogen (stored glucose) and the body is getting the rest of its energy efficiently from fats, protein will always go first towards repair or building cells or enzymes. In that context, it hardly seems fair to assign it a “burn rate” of 4 calories per gram. It’s like saying the 2. They will, but I prefer to burn other fuel first. At a minimum you need . If you are moderately active you need . That’s at a minimum, but it’s on a daily average. So a 1. 55 lb moderately active woman who has 2. If she gets 6. 0 or 8. And even if she exceeds the 1. At 4 calories per gram, that’s between 3. It’s not that much. Carbs. If you’ve forgotten everything you ever learned in biology, just remember this and “own” it: Carbohydrate drives insulin drives fat (Cahill 1. Taubes 2. 00. 7). The idea in the PB is to limit your carbs to only those you need to provide glucose for the brain and for some reasonable amount (certainly less than an hour) of occasional anaerobic exercise. And the truth is, you don’t even need glucose to fuel the brain. Ketones from a very- low carb diet work extremely efficiently at that task. Either way, ideally, we would like most of our daily energy to come from dietary or stored fats. Typically, (if you are at an ideal body composition now) I use a rule of thumb that 1. NOT a bad thing) but away from storing the excess as fat if you are the least bit active. Don’t forget that your body can make up to 2. On the other hand, if you are looking to lose body fat, keeping carbs to under 8. On the other other hand, if you are insistent on training hard for long periods of time, you would add more carbs (say, 1. It becomes a matter of doing the math and experimenting with the results. Ironically, it’s tough to exceed 1. Even if you eat a ton of vegetables AND a fair amount of fruit, you’ll be hard pressed to exceed 1. Our remote ancestors couldn’t average 1. At 4 calories per gram that’s only between 4. Add that in to the protein above and our sample girl is barely at 1,0. So where does the rest of the fuel come from? Fats. Learn to love them. They are the fuel of choice and should become the balance of your Primal Blueprint diet. Fats have little or no impact on insulin and, as a result, promote the burning of both dietary and stored (adipose) fat as fuel. Think about this: if protein and carbs stay fairly constant (and carbs stay under 1. Feeling like you need more fuel (and you’ve already covered your bases with protein and carbs)? Reach for something with fat. Nuts, avocados, coconut, eggs, butter, olive oil, fish, chicken, lamb, beef, the list is a long one. Even if she averages somewhere between 1. If she decides to do some walking, a few brief intense weight sessions and a sprint day here and there, that process would accelerate greatly. If she gets to a point where she’s content with her body fat, she can even add in a little more fat to provide energy that she previously got from her stored fat. The main thing I’ve figured out from eating this way for years is that I don’t need nearly as many calories to maintain health, mass, and body fat as I once thought I did – or as the Conventional Wisdom says I do. I eat 6. 00- 1. 00. I ate a carbohydrate- based diet, yet I maintain slightly lower body fat and slightly higher muscle mass on even less training. Remember: 8. 0% of body composition is determined by diet. The best part is that I don’t ever feel hungry because I base my eating on exactly what my 1. For a look at my upcoming book, The Primal Blueprint, click here. I’ve included a sneak peek at the jacket artwork, a PDF of the table of contents and full chapter summaries. Further Reading: Definitive Guides to: The Primal Blueprint. Grains. Fats. Cholesterol. Insulin, Blood Sugar and Type 2 Diabetes. Stress, Cortisol and the Adrenals. Prefer listening to reading? Get an audio recording of this blog post, and subscribe to the Primal Blueprint Podcast on i. Tunes for instant access to all past, present and future episodes here. Subscribe to the Newsletter. If you'd like to add.
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