Controlling Your Bodyweight The Perfect Diet Plan _________________________________________________________________
Although weight control practice options are as abundant as nutritional supplements, there is really only one way to control body weight, namely, the regulation of caloric intake and caloric expenditure. If the food you eat has a caloric value that exceeds the number of calories you burn up during the day, you are in a positive caloric balance and you will gain weight. Conversely, if your caloric intake is lower than your caloric balance, you are in a negative caloric balance and you will lose weight. Maintaining a proper balance between your caloric intake and caloric expenditure will cause your body weight to remain relatively constant. Briefly, calories do count. If you eat more calories than you use up, you will gain weight. If you eat fewer calories than you use up, you will lose weight. It’s that simple. Actually, most diets on the market have the basis for being successful. Generally, they limit the caloric intake sufficiently, but they often contain too much sugar, fat, cholesterol and salt. In large quantities, these foods are potentially dangerous. For example, salt can lead to hypertension or high blood pressure and fat and cholesterol cause arteriosclerosis that leads to cardiovascular disease. Too much sugar can cause dangerously low blood pressure and dehydration. In short, it’s a good idea to cut down on these foods as much as possible. A good diet is one that would contain approximately 60% to 70% complex carbohydrates, 20% to 30 % protein and 10% to 15% fat.
How It All Adds Up - The Math ____________________________________________________________________________________
The mathematics of losing weight is a relatively simple matter. As we have already mentioned, if more calories are consumed than are used in a normal day’s activities, the excess is stored as fat. If more calories are burned than taken in, weight is lost. For example, if a person needs 2,000 calories a day to sustain his present body weight and consumes 2,500 calories, the extra 500 calories will be stored as fat. If our friend continues to eat 500 calories more than needed each day for a period of seven days, he will gain one pound of fat. Translated into simple terms, one pound of fat is equal to 3,500 calories. In order to make use of the aforementioned information, you will first need to know your daily caloric requirement or DCR. Your DCR represents the number of calories you need to consume each day to maintain your present body weight. No sweat! According to indirect calorimetric studies, the DCR is approximately 21 calories per pound of body weight for a moderately active male and approximately 18 calories per pound of body weight for moderately active females. So, for a male and female who both weighed one hundred pounds, the male’s DCR would be 2,100 calories (21 x 100 = 2,100) and the female’s DCR would be 1,800 calories (18 x 100 = 1,800). If you are not a moderately active individual, the basic equation must be adjusted to your activity level. Specifically, if you are an active person, you should increase your DCR by one fourth (25%), but if you are an extremely inactive person, decrease your DCR by one fourth. Note that these are rough estimates and they are based on average energy expenditure occupations somewhere between sedentary and very active. Younger individuals usually require several hundred more calories per day, whereas older individuals usually require several hundred less calories. Once you determine your DCR, the rest is easy. If you want to lose one pound of fat in a week’s time, all you have to do is eat 500 calories less per day than your DCR for those seven days. At the end of the week, you will have eaten 3,500 calories less than your normal caloric requirement, which means that you will have lost one pound of fat. Similarly, if you want to lose two pounds in a week’s time, just subtract 1,000 calories per day from your DCR.
Getting Right - Putting it all Together __________________________________________________________________________________________________
Let’s say you are an average male who weighs 200 pounds and you want to lose one pound a week. Your first step is to ascertain your DCR. As mentioned, to determine your DCR you multiple your body weight times 21. Consequently, our subject would have a DCR of 4,200 calories (21 x 200 = 4,200). Next, subtract 500 calories from your DCR to determine your corrected daily caloric requirement (CDCR). Remember the logic here. One pound equals 3,500. Therefore, if you cut back 500 calories from your DCR for a period of 7 days, you will lose one pound. Once you establish your CDCR, divide it by 6. This will give you the number of calories you will consume during each meal. The math looks like this: 200 x 21 = 4200 -500 = 3700 6 = 617. It is a good idea to use your training manual to record your calories each day. You will eat every two and half to three hours, for a total of six meals. By eating six times a day, you will keep a constant glucose concentration level throughout the day, thereby satiating biological hunger. You will also be teaching your stomach that only small portions of food are necessary to satiate your hunger. In order to determine the number of grams of protein you will need to eat per meal, multiply your body weight by 1.25 and then divide by six. For example a 200pound male would need 42 grams of protein each meal (200 x 1.25 = 250 grams 6 = 42 grams). Consuming this much protein will require that you to drink a large quantity of water, which will keep you from building up rennin in the kidneys. To determine how much water you need, multiply your body weight by .66 ounces. This will give you the minimum amount of water you will need to drink daily. For instance, our 200-pound male would need 132 ounces of water each day, which is approximately one gallon. Once you’ve done the math, follow this diet plan for the next three weeks. At the beginning of the fourth week, decrease your CDCR by 200 calories. These calories should be decreased equally from each meal and should come only from your carbohydrates. Keep your fat and protein consumption the same. This will be your CDCR for the next three weeks. At the beginning of the seventh week, decrease your CDCR by another 200 calories. Again, the calories should come from carbohydrates, not protein or fat. Follow this diet plan for the next three weeks. At the beginning of your tenth week, reduce your carbohydrates by 200 calories. This will be your CDCR for the remaining three weeks. By this time you will be significantly leaner. That’s a promise.
Diet / Growth Plan… Gaining Muscle Mass _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
If you are satisfied with you body fat to muscle ratio, you might want to add more lean muscle mass to your frame. If that’s your goal, you can use the following procedure. Again, simply multiply your body weight by 21 and then, add 200 calories to that total to get you CDCR. Next, divide by 6 to get the number of calories you will eat during each meal. For instance, a 200-pound male would consume 733 calories each meal (200x21 = 4200 +200 = 4400 6 = 733). On the first two days of your diet, eat this number of calories during each meal. On the next two days, add another 300 calories (50 calories per meal). Then, every two days, change back and forth. By fluctuating the number of calories you consume every two days, you will keep your body from entering into an energy preservation mode. Of course, as you increase your lean muscle mass you will have to increase your caloric intake. To do this, simply increases your CDCR by 15 calories for every pound you put on.
Of course, there are many ways (ranging from surgery to hypnosis) to attempt to accomplish such a balance. We are not your therapist and only do surgery part time behind our shed, so you will have to just use the diet plan we gave you. To help you with that, we have a behavioral guide you can follow. Check it out!