Food Plan

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Whether your goal is to lose weight or gain lean muscle mass, the basic principles on which a well-structured, complete and effective diet is built are the same.

There is a specific order and methodology for the preparation of the diet, non-compliance with which leads to unsatisfactory results, loss of time and money.

Unfortunately, I still often meet people who have no idea what a complete diet is, do not know why the one who follows, does not work or think that they can achieve their goal with a half-hearted approach and many compromises…

And the piles of useless diets and diets on the Internet, made "in a mold" further complicate things.

The truth is that it does not matter when, what and how much we eat… This article exists to introduce you in detail to the basics of a good, balanced and effective diet - no matter your purpose. You will learn how to set clear and achievable goals, how to calculate your calorie needs, how to determine an appropriate deficit or excess, how to allocate calories and macronutrients for the day and much more…

There is a lot of information, so arm yourself with patience and I promise you that in 15-20 minutes you will know everything you need to start now!

But first, let me answer an important question ...

Do you have to follow diets and diets forever?

No! I am far from thinking that a person should constantly and continuously in his life count calories, distribute macronutrients and gain weight. That would drive us crazy fast.

The diet is followed in order to achieve a certain result. To achieve this result, you need to take a series of concrete actions to ensure that the time and money you invest will ultimately be worth the effort - not in a few weeks or months, but in the long run.

And after reading what I have to tell you, you will see that in fact a complete diet is quite pleasant to follow - varied, without hunger, without crowding with food, without extreme restrictions and even with time to rest from time to time. .

But as long as there are so many general stories, let's get down to business. First I will explain the steps in preparing a diet for weight loss, and then I will move on to gaining muscle mass ...

How to prepare a diet for weight loss?

When you work to lose weight - be it losing a lot of weight or just clearing a little excess fat and tightening the body, one of the most important conditions for your diet is to be in a negative calorie balance - the so-called calorie deficit. Simply put, you need to eat fewer calories through food than you burn.

Deficiency is defined as a percentage of the caloric optimum - daily calories to maintain weight. The more you want to lose weight, the more serious this deficit should be, but at the same time, it should not be too big.

You can easily calculate the calories you need to eat daily to burn fat using a calorie calculator. This is how:

1. Enter your gender, age, weight and height.

2. Measure the circumference of your waist, hips and neck and enter them (under the calculator there is information on how to measure correctly).

3. Choose your level of physical activity (there is information about this under the calculator).

4. Select the desired deficit rate.

My advice is to start with a 15-20% deficit. But if you have a lot of weight to lose (20 kg and more), you can start with a more aggressive deficit of 25%. At the same time - if you want to clean very little and rather tighten your body - you can bet on a minimum deficit of about 10%.

I will give you a quick example with my imaginary assistant - Peter, to understand the logic of the calculations.

Let's say that Peter has calculated that his daily caloric optimum is 2500 kcal - these are the calories at which he neither loses nor gains weight. He has also decided that he wants to maintain a 20% deficit. Then the bill would look like this:

• 20% deficit: 2500 x 0.20 = 500 kcal
• Calories at a 20% deficit: 2500 - 500 = 2000 kcal

That is, to maintain a deficit of 20%, Peter must take 2000 kcal per day.

How to set a clear and achievable goal for weight loss?

Of course, to choose the right calorie deficit, you need to know exactly how much you want and you can lose weight. To help you navigate, I will give you a starting point.

In theory, there is a certain daily maximum of fat release from fat depots. As it varies according to physique. In other words,  the more excess fat you have, the faster you can burn it and lose weight .

If you are significantly below this limit, then you can lose weight faster, if you exceed it - there is a high probability that along with fat you will burn pure muscle mass, and this is not good.

Calorie and macronutrient distribution in weight loss

This is the next step in preparing your diet.

As I said, it's not enough to just count calories and try to eat them every day. This, in itself, will not provide you with the desired result. It is important that these calories are distributed at appropriate intervals and amounts during the day, as well as what food source they come from - carbohydrate, protein or fat (so-called macronutrients).

1. Distribution of calories between meals

Once you've calculated your calorie intake with the deficit included, it's time to estimate how many meals you'll have for the day and distribute all those calories between them. Here are some tips for this:

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  You must have 3 main meals for the day - breakfast, lunch, dinner. They are usually separated by intervals between 3-4 hours, as these intervals are indicative and actually in practice vary a lot - depending on daily life, length of the day, the amount of calories to be consumed and whether there are included snacks in the regime.

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  Speaking of snacks - they are not mandatory, but they are a good practice, especially when the calories you need to eat are too many or your day is too long. In general, 1 or 2 snacks between the main ones are sufficient. Intermediate meals ensure a more even distribution of calories for the day and easier intake of food.

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  Most of your calories will be distributed between the main meals, and the intermediate ones will supplement them. In a moment I will give you a concrete example of this distribution.

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  As for the meal time - if possible, breakfast should be 14 to 45 minutes after getting up, and the rest of the meals for the day can be distributed to her at intervals of 3-4 hours. Another important correct thing is that dinner should not be too late, or if your day requires a late dinner - between it and bedtime there should be at least 90-120 minutes.

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  If, in addition to the diet, you also follow a training program, it is good for one of your meals to be 2 hours before training, and the most abundant meal of the day - with the most calories, to be about 40-60 minutes after its end. - and you will find post-workout nutrition in this article.

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  The most hearty meals of the day are usually breakfast and lunch unless you exercise late in the afternoon or evening. Then dinner, as a post-workout meal, would be most plentiful.

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  In the main meals of the day, you should include a combination of protein and carbohydrate foods, as well as some fat. Snacks usually consist of little fast carbs, healthy fats, protein, or a combination of the three.

2. Distribution of macronutrients for the day

Before we move on, keep in mind the following:

• 1 g of protein contains 4  kcal
• 1 g of fat contains 9  kcal
• 1 g of carbohydrate contains 4 kcal

As for the ratio of carbohydrates, protein and fat in your diet, there are two main approaches to the distribution of macronutrients for the day. One is easier and more inaccurate, the other is a little more complicated but more precise.

First approach: Percentage distribution based on caloric intake

You divide all your calories for the day into 3 parts as follows: 40% protein, 30% fat and 30% carbohydrates.

Example : Once we know that Peter will eat 2,000 calories a day, we divide those 2,000 kcal as follows:

• 40% protein: 2000 x 0.4 = 800 kcal of protein
• 30% fat: 2000 x 0.3 = 600 kcal of fat
• 30% carbohydrates: 2000 x 0.3 = 600 kcal of carbohydrates

As you can see, the account is quite easy, but also rough. This approach is suitable for people who are severely overweight (over 30-40% body fat) and sensitive to insulin - because of the need to limit carbohydrates.

The disadvantages of this simple approach are that it only takes into account the number of calories calculated on the basis of physique, but does not care what percentage of your weight is fat and what is lean muscle mass.

As a result, in people with a better physique, aiming to lose a few pounds or just clean and shape, this approach gives deviations in the final weights for macronutrients and this makes it ineffective in these cases.

Therefore, a slightly more complex but more accurate approach to macro distribution is more often recommended. It takes into account only the active weight (excluding body fat as a factor) and this makes it more accurate. Here is what he is:

Second approach: Distribution according to the active weight

Macronutrients here are calculated at a certain number of grams per kilogram of active weight. The calculator you use above will give you value for it as well. Active weight is the lean body mass in your body, excluding body fat.

Protein : 2.3 to 3.1 g per kg of active weight.

I turn again to my imaginary helper, Peter. If Peter's active weight is 70 kg, then his daily protein intake will be calculated as follows:

70 x 2.9 = 203 g of protein per day.

How many grams per kilogram of weight you take depends on how lean your body weight is - the higher the percentage of your total weight, the more protein you will need for the day. Therefore, the prescriptions for it vary between 2.3 and 3.1 g per kg of body weight.

Fat : 0.9 to 1.3 g per kg of active weight.

The fat bill is similar to the protein bill. Following the example above, if the calculator had given a value for an active weight of 70 kg, the weight of fat for the day would be calculated as follows:

70 x 0.9 = 63 g of fat per day

Which end of the fat spectrum you choose to calculate depends on your specific goal and the calories for the day you have. Fat contains 9 kcal per gram and is the most caloric macronutrient. And because when we lose weight we work with a limited set of calories, most people prefer to keep fat at lower levels, because this is an easy way to limit energy intake.

However, I note that  it is not a good idea to limit fat too much, especially for women.

Carbohydrates:  They account for the remaining calories after calculating those for protein and fat. The account is easy:

203 g protein = 812 kcal (4 x 203)

63 g fat = 567 kcal (9 x 63)

Ie so far we have a total of 812 + 567 = 1379 kcal of protein and fat. Once we subtract them from the total calories, the following remain:

2000 - 1379 = 621 kcal, or 621/4 = 155 g of carbohydrates per day

Exemplary distribution of meals, calories and macronutrients for weight loss

Taking everything learned so far, let's distribute Peter's food. We already know that he will observe a 20% calorie deficit, will take 2000 kcal per day, distributed between 203 g of protein, 63 g of fat and 155 g of carbohydrates. He wants to take 4 meals - 3 main and 1 intermediate. He will also train before noon.

Why is it good to include charging days in a calorie-deficient mode?

When you maintain a calorie deficit and burn fat, the  levels of the hormone leptin in the body decrease . This hormone regulates the body's energy expenditure. And when its levels drop too much, the metabolism slows down, the appetite increases, the weight does not move and the motivation weakens. The result is stagnation…

In short, the body takes the calorie deficit as an alarm signal and begins to protect itself from it by slowing down the metabolism to conserve energy. This for us is expressed in the symptoms I just described.

But there is a way to "calm" your body that everything is fine so that it can continue to burn fat without fighting this process. And the way to deal with the stress of calorie deficit is actually quite pleasant - charging days.

What is a "charging day"?

Charging days are a planned increase in calories once every few days or weeks.

But before you fall into frantic joy, I hasten to clarify that you can not eat whatever and how much you want - it's not that simple. The key word is "self-control". If you follow this rule, charging days will give you a number of physiological and psychological benefits:

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  They reduce the risk of overeating and regulate appetite.

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  They increase dopamine and leptin levels, which makes following a regimen much easier.

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  Temporarily accelerate fat burning  within 3-5 days.

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  They restore glycogen (the reserve form of glucose) in the muscles, which will give you more energy for training.

What could be better than eating a little more and feeling better physically and mentally ...

How exactly to load?

The first step is to determine how often  you need to charge. Here are some guidelines to help you:

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  If you are just starting out, have a lot to lose and are still in the early stages of the diet, start with a charging day every 2-4 weeks and watch how it affects your body.

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  If it's been a few months since the beginning of your regimen, you don't have the energy and motivation and you lose weight more and more slowly and hard, start including one charging day each week.

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  If you have very little left to the end goal, but you find it difficult to lower the percentage of subcutaneous fat to the desired level, start recharging every 3-4 days to prevent the loss of too much muscle mass.

Of course, these deadlines should only serve as a guide, because everyone's body reacts differently. Observe what is happening and make adequate decisions according to the results.

Once you have determined how often  you will include charging days, you need to calculate the calories for each charge. That's right - you can't eat as much as you want, you have to set a limit.

In general, I recommend increasing the calories to maintenance or slightly above. That is, with a deficit of 20-25%, the calories on a charging day can increase by 30%. If we continue with the example from a while ago, we will get:

1. Calories for maintenance: 2500 kcal
2. Calories at 20% deficit:  2000 kcal
3. Calories on a charging day:  2000 x 0.30 = 600 kcal; 2000 + 600 = 2600 kcal

In this case, the calories on a loading day are 100 kcal higher than those for maintenance, which is within reason and should not lead to the accumulation of fat. Even if they are a little more than 100, it is still not fatal, just do not overdo it and do not turn your charging day into a competition of hope.

How to distribute your calories on charging days?

On loading days, you need to keep your protein and fat intake at the same level as on a normal day of the diet and significantly increase your carbohydrate intake to increase leptin and restore glycogen stores.

You may be wondering why so many carbs? Because carbohydrate intake is  the most effective way to increase leptin levels . In second place is a protein (which also speeds up metabolism ). Fat has little effect on leptin levels in the short term, and alcohol even lowers them - so avoid it altogether on charging days.

Charging days, however, also have a strict psychological advantage - they represent a kind of break from the regime and an opportunity for the body to get well and forget the deficit for a short time. After charging you feel rested and ready to move on.

Note: You may feel a little bloated and overweight after a day of charging, but don't worry. This is completely normal and expected because the intake of carbohydrates leads to water retention in the body. Take it as "one small step back, two big steps forward". As long as you stick to the rules, charging really works!

In some cases, with a longer diet, charging can be extended and last a few days or a week - for this type of "break from the regime" I explain in  another article, which you can find here .

There are also other options for calorie distribution - instead of following the same caloric intake on normal days and recharging once at a certain time interval, sometimes the calories themselves are distributed differently between training and non-training days, as in training calories. are more. I think the information I have given so far will be enough for you to get started.

 

How to prepare a diet to increase muscle mass?

The main principle that you must follow when eating if you want to gain weight is to be in excess calories. In short - to eat more calories with food than you burn.

Like calorie deficit, the excess is defined as a percentage of the caloric optimum - daily calories to maintain weight. You can  calculate your optimum using the site's calorie calculator. In this case, however, the percentage of excess is added to the caloric optimum, not subtracted from it.

I will give you a quick example to make it clearer. Let's say that you have calculated that your daily caloric optimum is 2500 kcal - these are the calories at which you neither lose nor gain. You also want to secure a 10% surplus to upload. Then the bill would look like this:

1. 10% of optimum: 2500 x 0.1 = 250 kcal
2. Calories for the day with 10% excess: 2500 + 250 = 2750 kcal

That is, with a caloric optimum of 2500 kcal, to maintain an excess of 10%, you need to take 2750 kcal per day.

Of course, the surplus does not have to be exactly 10% - it can be larger (15-20%) or smaller (5%), depending on how fast you want to achieve your goal.

But keep in mind that the greater the excess, the greater the chance that in addition to muscle mass, you will also gain fat. And you will feel bloated and heavy from a lot of food.

That's why I don't advise you to lift calories abruptly, to gain weight in a hurry. Pursue your goal with a smaller surplus for a longer period of time. This way you will accumulate more lean mass and significantly less fat.

For example, you can start with a 5-10% surplus in the first 2-3 weeks. Once you see what your results are, you can decide whether to continue like this or lift the calories more.

In fact, to be even clearer, I will give you a guide on how to choose the most appropriate excess calories for your goal:

How to set a clear and achievable goal for weight gain?

To determine the right calorie intake, you must first know how much you want to upload and how fast it can happen. Because before you start working for your goal, you need to be fully aware of what it is and be sure that it is achievable. If you set an unrealistic goal, you are very likely to be disappointed.

I have talked about this in other articles, but I will repeat it here:

It's about the potential for muscle growth , which depends on both the genes and the level in the gym. The more advanced you are, the lower your potential for muscle growth.