Weight gain and loss are mathematical events. If you consume more calories than you burn off, you will gain fat. If you burn off more calories than you consume, you will lose fat. When trying to increase definition and lose fat, you have to do everything you can to tip this equation in your favor. You want to create a metabolic deficit, and you do that by eating less and/or exercising more. It’s as simple as that.
One word of caution: don’t cut calories back too far too fast since that can lead to a loss of muscle mass. No one wants that. I think weight loss should be gradual. Start by dropping your carbohydrate intake by 30 to 50 grams a day, lowering your saturated fat intake, and moderating your cheating. If you do those three things while bumping up your cardiovascular activity, you’ll be amazed at how fast the fat falls away.
There’s another rough guideline I like to follow regarding total calories, The plan goes like this: when trying to lose weight or cut up, I consume a daily total calorie intake of my body weight times 10.For example, I weigh between 195 and 200 pounds, so when I’m cutting up or trying to add more definition, I eat around 2,000 calories a day. I find this helps me lose that extra water and fat weight without sacrificing hard-earned muscle tissue. So, to lose fat I follow this formula:
‘’ Total calories per day = your weight × 10 ‘’
To maintain my current physique and, I hope, continue to gain muscle and lose fat steadily, my total calorie intake would be my body weight times 12. In this case, on a maintenance plan, a 200 pound person would eat around 2,400 calories a day. So, to maintain my body I follow this formula:
‘’ Total calories per day = your weight × 12 ‘’
If I’m trying to gain weight mostly muscle and I’m not concerned with a little fat coming with it I’d consume my body weight times 15 in calories. In this case, the same 200 pound person would eat around 3,000 calories per day. Thus, to gain weight (mostly lean muscle) I follow this formula:
‘’ Total calories per day = your weight × 15 ‘’
Once again, these are rough estimates or guidelines. Depending on your metabolism and what supplements you’re taking, you may have to make adjustments. You could start by raising or lowering your intake by 100 or 200 calories each day and see where that gets you. I make judgments based on the mirror and how my clothes fit, not by the scale. Whatever you do, though, don’t make drastic changes that will result in muscle mass loss or unwanted fat gain.
One other word of caution : don’t totally eliminate fat from your diet. As I mentioned earlier, fat is essential for healthy skin and hair, and it’s involved in the production of hormones that control a variety of biochemical processes in the body.
We also need fat to process body fat metabolism. If we make our fat intake too low, our bodies have a self-defense mechanism that causes them to cling on to the last bit of fat for safety. That’s why many dieters reach a point where they just can’t lose those last few pounds even when they drop calories lower and lower.
One trick to avoid this is to keep or add some good fats like flaxseed oil, natural peanut butter, or avocados in your plan and keep fat calories around 20 percent of your total daily calorie intake.
WHY IT’S GOOD TO CHEAT
When I’m eating low-calorie and trying to lose fat, I usually have a cheat day or, as I call it, eat day every week. On this day I eat whatever I want for a meal or two. This trick helps keep my metabolism high. A low-calorie regimen can drive your metabolism lower and lower over time to compensate for your reduced intake. eat day here and there helps metabolism stay high by giving your body a bigger inf lux of nutrients to burn periodically.
We all have unscheduled cheat days when we succumb to cravings. I know I do. When I first started my nutrition plan, I had a lot of them, and I felt terribly guilty. That was wrong. I still have cheat days and I love them. The difference now is that I know I control the cheat days and not the other way around. Before I thought that if I ate a candy bar, I had failed. My nutrition plan was ruined. Now I know that one slip doesn’t end my whole program.
There will be days when I eat well, and there will be days when I don’t. The key is to make the cheat days the exception and good eating the rule. I just remember a great bit of advice I once read: “Control is only a moment away. Stop the destructive thing you’re doing and you’re instantly in control.”
I don’t believe in deprivation.
Life is just too short. If I want a brownie, I’ll have it. After a few weeks on my nutrition program, however, you won’t have the same cravings for cheat foods. Your tastes really do change. It’s not that you’ll never want cheat foods again, but you won’t need them in the same uncontrollable way.
