Diet: Losing, Gaining, Maintaining Weight

Now one thing that shouldn't surprise me is people’s knowledge on the concept of diet. Now when I say diet, I don't mean stupid shit like "Only eat 1 peanut, and 2 rice cakes a day". Diets such as that are only going to work for a small amount of time and ultimately are awful for your body. The diet I'm talking about is a balanced/healthy diet; a diet where you are getting the proper amount of macronutrients and micronutrients in relation to your energy requirements and weight goals. 

From what I have seen/heard recently though in discussions with friends, family, and random people, there still is quite a lack of proper education about these things. Many people still believe in a lot of the myths out there like: " I want to lose weight in just this area so I will do exercises to lose it", "this person I know has a high metabolism so they can eat anything", "doing 100's of crunches will give me abs" and many more. 

The thing that gets me pissed off beyond belief is when I try to explain these things to people, and they either 1) Outright tell me I'm wrong and I don't know what I'm talking about, or 2) Tell me "that doesn't make sense because so and so eats whatever they want and doesn't exercise and they have abs...BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH". Now I would have no problem listening to this if they had some scientific reasoning behind these things, but 100% of the time, they really don't. These people usually have fuck all for certification/education in either nutrition or exercise physiology, so it really doesn't help their case when 1) I AM certified, and 2) I AM working in the field of Kinesiology getting my degree. Even the people out there such as bodybuilders who say " I have experience with this" ,  at least have scientific reasoning as to why they do the things they do. 

The people I don't mind are the people who question me with curiosity. These people don't understand but truly want to know why and are willing to listen to what I have to say. This my friends is half of the reason I am writing this article. The other half is for you stubborn assholes who don't listen to me when I'm trying to educate you. This way you can visually see it, and have all the terms explained to you. See I have my friend Mr. Scientific Data. He is what proves if things are right or wrong. He does this thing called research which proves or disproves theories, thus expanding knowledge in the said subject. Unlike you, he does not work on the basis of bro-science or speculative data. So if I haven't pissed you off already, or you are one of the lovely people who are willing to learn, then I shall now give you the rundown of important dietary terms and how to lose, gain, or maintain weight. 

1)Daily Energy Requirements (DER)- This is a combination of your BMR and the amount of calories you burn in relation to daily activities. 

2) Daily Value (DV) - This is basically the maximum amount of maconutirents and micronutrioents that one should consume in a day, in relation to their Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR). So for example, someone one a 2000 kilocalorie diet would have these for their DV: 

Total Fat 65g

Saturated Fatty Acids20 g

Cholesterol 300 mg

Sodium 2300 mg

Potassium 4700 mg

Total Carbohydrate 300 g

Fiber 25 g

Protein 50 g

This is the amount of nutrients this person would need to eat in a day in order to maintain their weight. If they wanted to lose weight they would eat less, and if they wanted to gain weight they would eat more. I shall explain those concepts in more detail in a bit. 

3) Daily Energy Requirements (DER)- This is a combination of your BMR and the amount of calories you burn in relation to daily activities. 

4) Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) - The amount of energy expended at rest. This is the amount energy you burn if you were to do nothing at all. It is the minimum amount of energy required to keep your body functioning. The more muscle mass you have, the higher your BMR will be ! A rough estimation of your BMR can be through an equation using sex, height, age, and weight. 

5) Macro nutrients - These are the BIG nutrients such as carbohydrates, proteins, and fats. These provide the bulk of energy in ones diet. 

6) Micro nutrients- These are vitamins, minerals, and electrolytes such as, but not limited to: Vitamin B, Iron, and Sodium. You can think of these as support nutrients. They are things that the body cannot produce and requires for important bodily functions/processes. 

Ok so there's a nice overview of some important terms required to understand how weight management and healthy diet work. Now it's time for the fun and technical stuff. DIET ! If I'm correct, most of you reading this are interested in how to lose weight. Well thank your lucky stars I am here to explain how to do it correctly. I will go over it as weight management however, because if you understand how to lose it, then you will know how to maintain it, as well as gain it. 

Weight Management

I'm gonna use myself for an example so that you can get a good grasp of how this works. I will be using an online DER calculator to explain this, so it is a rough estimation of my actual DER, but will provide a sufficient example for our purposes. The calculator can be found on http://www.exrx.net/Calculators/CalRequire.html

So here's my stats: I am 23 yrs old, I am a male ..of course..., I'm 5'6", and currently 165lbs. I do 3hrs of moderate exercise (Judo) a week, and 4hrs of heavy exercise ( high intensity weight training) a week. This calculator calculates what you do in a 24hr period, so you need to be able to figure out what you do on an average day. I estimated that I do about 16hrs of resting activity, 1hr of very light, 1 hr of light, 3hrs of moderate, and 3hrs of heavy. So I plugged all that info into the calculator and I got a BMR of 1763kc and 2351kc from activties, which means my DER is 4114kc. This means just to maintain my bodyweight I need to be consuming roughly 4000kc a day. If you multiply that by 7 days, that's 28,000kc.

 " Ok that's great so explain how this relates to weight loss! " . Certainly !

Ok so 1lb of fat is equal to 3500kc. That means in order to lose 1lb of fat, you need to expend 3500kc from your weekly caloric requirements. So the options are:

1) Burn 3500kc through activities 

2) cut 3500kc from my dietary intake per week

3) A combination of burning more calories through activities as well as cutting back on calories. 

If you want my honest opinion, the 3rd option is what I would recommend to most people if you are looking for optimal results. Option 1 isn't usually the easiest for most people because that means you need to exercise more frequently and/or more intensely. Many people don't have the time or willpower to do this, so it is not the best option. Option 2 you run the risk of lacking in certain nutrients because as you know by now, the more you exercise, the more nutrients your body wants. 

"Ok now I'm confused, I need to eat more when I train harder, but I need to eat less in order to lose more weight!?!?"

It all comes down to the type of foods you are eating ! You can eat less while still hitting your daily nutritional needs if you eat the right foods. I'm talking about foods that are packed with good nutrients and low in overall calories. This is usually a combination of high protein, moderate fiber, and low carbohydrates. Now I'm definitely not saying the Atkins diet or something stupid like that. I mean healthy proteins like chicken breast, fiber from veggies, and low carbohydrates like that found in sweet potatoes. 

If you stuff your body with crap then you will most likely look and feel like crap. If you give your body just what it needs with healthy food, then you will be healthy, and look healthy. There is no secret pill out there that will allow you to eat like shit and still lose weight, so stop searching for it. Below are some basic guidelines that helped me lose weight, and can also be used to maintain weight. 

1)      Eat 6 smaller meals a day if possible. This will help boost your metabolism and prevent your body from storing excess calories.

2)      Make sure to eat a source of protein at every meal. Protein builds muscle and keeps you feeling full. Plus since you will be aiming to eat less, the protein will help spare muscle mass… Very important !

3)      Try to stay away from red meats and bad fats. You are trying to lose weight, so obviously a fatty piece of meat, pizza, or anything in butter/cream is gonna pack those calories on quickly.

4)      Make 1 meal a day a vegan meal. I discovered this in the past year. For one thing, vegan meals usually are high in fiber and nutrients. They also contain much less calories than a standard “meat and potatoes” meal. My favourite combo is quinoa with any type of beans. I just buy the canned beans and drain them in a strainer.

5)      Invest in some protein powder. I already explained the importance of protein, and after a workout it is especially important to help repair those muscles you just destroyed. Try to get a power that has little additives or sugars.

6)      Have 1 day a week where you eat more than usual. Now I’m not saying to go out and eat a whole pizza, ice cream and a flat of beer. I’m saying that you should still be eating mainly all healthy food , but in larger portions. Having a bad food like a piece of pizza or a chocolate bar is totally fine, just don’t go overboard. I say you should do this because when you restrict your body so much it tends to want to go into starvation mode and start storing fat, so if you shock it with a high calorie day, then it keeps that metabolism up.

7)      Eat more of these foods. Oatmeal, brown rice, ancient grains like quinoa, sweet potatoes, yams, all veggies, fruit, chicken breasts, fish, eggs, low fat dairy products, beans, nuts and seeds, healthy oils like fish oil and olive oil.

8)      Eat/Drink less of these. Cheese, red meat, processed food, cereal, pop, juice, high fat dairy products, sugar, white potatoes, white pasta, white rice, high sodium foods. 

So now that you hopefully have a decent understanding of how to lose weight. With this knowledge I have now given you, you can also choose to maintain your weight , or gain it depending on your goals. If you want to maintain your bodyweight then just make sure you always hit that DER, and if you want to gain weight then obviously you aim above your DER. If you are really looking for very accurate calculations of your DER, nutritional requirements, and a nutritional program designed specifically for you, then go see a registered dietitian. These people are certified and know their shit ! Make sure you do some background research on them however to make sure they actually are a registered dietitian , and not someone who did a weekend course. I'm not certified in nutrition so that is why I am only giving you guidelines and explaining the science behind things. If you would like to go even more in depth on macro nutrients and micro nutrients, then I strongly suggest buying a book on nutrition. I really don't have the time or desire to go in depth on every nutrient haha. 

So I hope this has helped everyone who was genuinely intrigued in learning, and shut up you stubborn minded individuals as well. If this has helped you to figure out your body composition goals, and you need a workout routine to go along with it, then feel free to either e-mail me at brett-andrews@hotmail.com, or message me on FB, and I can design a specific program suited to your needs.

Cheers,

Demon