QUICK START DIET

“Ok I’m ready for the concrete advice.  How many calories should I eat and also what’s a calorie?”
I’m a certified personal trainer but I'm not going to cover the basic science of nutrition and exercise here, because there are already so many great resources (like this).  The science will be the same from any reputable source, so rather than repeat it, I’d rather impart some tips and tools that I haven’t seen shared as much, because it’s one thing to know the facts and another to have actually lived it.  I know that when I started researching fitness and nutrition, I found all this information intimidating, so if you just want to jump into the quick-start guide below, that’s ok.  But I strongly urge you to either now or at some point educate yourself about the basic science of nutrition and exercise.  It’ll spark a sense of agency and ownership that will ultimately make your journey more sustainable and fulfilling.

The Quick-Start Diet Guide
The following is a very basic guide I’ve used to help clients successfully lose weight and get fit.  These are the broad strokes.  However you end up customizing your plan, keep it simple and follow the basics.  In my rough estimation, fitness is 80% diet and 20% working out.  You can't outwork a bad diet.  You need to eat less if you want to lose weight and eat more if you want to gain weight.

"How much should I eat?"
Note- for brevity's sake the rest of this article will assume you want to lose weight.  If you want to gain weight or stay the same weight and reshape your body, the advice is the same, just replacing "less" with "more." etc.  If anything is unclear feel free to email me.

I’ll preface this with I'm not a trained nutritionist and you should always consult with your doctor.  That said, I've tried basically everything and spent the better part of the last ten years researching this so I can share what worked for me and what I've found from working with others.

The two main points are calories and protein.  At the end of the day we have to eat less than we use, so calories have to be tracked.  How we do it is up to you, some people like to eat within a certain range of calories (this is what I like to do), others take approaches like low-carb, which ends up working because, in the end, it restricts calories.  I'd recommend just tallying everything you eat for the next couple of weeks using Google or a calorie-counting app like My Fitness Pal.  It can be annoying but it'll only take 5-10 minutes a day and then eventually you'll be able to ballpark stuff, it's not like you (or I) need to carefully measure every ounce, but you'll find it becomes second nature soon.

Keeping protein high is a must.  It'll help maintain and build muscle, and most importantly, it'll keep you satiated and full.  I've tried gaming the system, only focusing on the amount of calories I needed to eat to lose weight, and not considering the type.  I was living off carb-y junk food, and yeah you WILL lose weight, but you'll lose muscle and feel constantly crappy and hungry and inevitably relapse into old ways of eating.  On the other hand, eating real food like meat, veggies, healthy fats and carbs, will you keep you satisfied.  You will still have cravings but you won’t be hungry, and learning to tell the difference is key.

As far as carbs and fats, whatever works for you.  Both healthy carbs (like vegetables and fruit) and healthy fats (like eggs, nuts, avocado) are important.   Again, whatever way you approach it is up to you.  Most diets end up being lower carb than the average Western diet, because, after lots of protein and the requisite amounts of healthy fat, carbs just become the easiest place to cut calories.  Everyone is different, so as long as your calories and protein are on point, and you are eating some veggies and healthy natural fat, you're good.

Drink a lot of water.  Aim for 96 ounces a day, or more.  We often mistake hunger for thirst.

"You keep mentioning protein, but I don't care about muscles, I just want to lose weight."
It's not just about muscle, it's about satiety.  Chicken and beans will you keep you full longer than rice and bread. 

"How much protein should I eat?"
A good starting point is about 0.6 to 1 grams of protein per pound of body weight.  So if you weigh 200 pounds, about 120 to 200 grams a day.  Stick to the smaller end of the range if you are not doing resistance training and the higher end if you are. There's no need to go higher even if you weigh a lot more than 200 lbs, unless you really are all muscle (and just because you played high school football doesn't mean you are, sorry).  For a point of reference, if 21 year old, sedentary 300 pound me was a client of mine I'd recommend about 150 grams a day.  Now, at 180, regularly lifting weights, I aim for 160-180 grams a day.

"How many calories should I eat to lose weight?"
I can’t give a concrete rule because it’s intensely personal and hinges on your current headspace.  Some people like to diet hard to power through; others need a more moderate approach.  I've tried crash dieting hundreds of times and it always fails, but I’ve found being TOO lenient fails too, because of the inevitable deviations from the plan.

Your calorie goal will be based on your Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE), found by taking your Basic Metabolic Rate (BMR) and adjusting for your activity level.  Subtracting 500 calories a day from your TDEE will lead to weight loss of about a pound a week (a pound of weight is 3500 calories and 500x7 = 3500).  This is weight loss over the long term, and it will rarely be linear, and often comes in stops and starts.  If you are a smaller person or only have a few pounds to lose, your weekly deficit may need to be smaller, and if you are significantly overweight you can safely cut more than a pound a week.  A good calculator for finding these numbers can be found here.  Keep in mind this is only a rough estimate, and you may need to eat more or less.  Try it out for a few weeks then readjust if necessary.  Also, keep in mind that your TDEE will fall as your weight does, so if you have a lot of weight to lose it's a good idea to readjust your calorie goals every 10 pounds or so.

“So I need a daily calorie deficit?”
Actually, while you hear “daily” calorie deficit in most weight loss literature, there’s no reason it can’t be a “weekly” deficit.  Your body doesn’t reset at midnight.  So if you are aiming to eat 2000 calories a day, there’s no reason it can’t be 1500 one day and 2500 the next, etc, as long as it equals 2000x7 calories at the end of the week.  I’ll often use a 3 day cycle of eating a smaller amount one day, then a medium amount, then a larger amount.  This was a huge insight for me, because undereating every day was a drain and being able to eat more some days was a huge psychological boost (there’s also evidence it can be a physiological boost too).  It was an example of stepping back from the minutiae and focusing on the big picture.  Remember, customization and sustainability.

And keep in mind that these formulas give very rough estimates, often too high or low.  There are just so many factors at play here, from metabolic and hormonal issues, to stress and sleep, to you overestimating or underestimating calories, to ancient curses placed upon your bloodline (or at least that's how it feels sometimes).

"Ok.  Now what about working out?"
Click here.