DNAguy's Diet Guide

As soon as I posted a picture of my weight loss progress on Imgur, people started asking me for detailed information on my diet. So, as promsied, here's my response! After giving it some thought, I've decided that rather than simply telling you guys what meals I eat everyday, it would be more beneficial to explain the principles I used when creating my diet. This way, you're not just blindly following a meal plan that may or may not even contain the foods you like -- you'll have the tools you need to create your own diet that will work for you and give you the results you want! (DISCLAIMER: I am not a nutritionist. I am just a guy who did some research and lost weight by counting calories and lifting weights. The information in this post is what worked for me, but the choice of whether to follow these guidelines is completely up to you.)

This is going to be a very long post, but I hope you'll find it helpful/interesting. Before we begin, here's something important to remember about "dieting":

This is why many so-called "diets" fail. People are willing to adopt some crazy and restrictive eating habits (like giving up bread entirely or eating only grapefruit) because they see these diets as hardships that they only have to endure for a few days, weeks, or months before they get down to their ideal weight and can give them up. In reality, a "diet" is simply a way of eating, and it should be a normal part of your everyday life, like showering or brushing your teeth. An enjoyable/sustainable diet is one that allows you to eat tasty foods in sensible portions that give your body what it needs without giving it TOO much.

Your diet should be designed for YOUR specific needs. Everyone's body has its own unique energy requirements, so you shouldn't expect to pick a generic meal plan "off the rack" and get optimal results (or any results at all, in some cases). Weight loss is all about "calories in" vs. "calories out." Your body burns a certain number of calories in a given day. Losing weight is as simple as providing your body with fewer calories than it burns, for a sustained period of time. So, let's get started!

The first step in creating a solid diet is figuring out how many calories your body burns. To do this, you need to calculate your BMR (basal metabolic rate). This is the number of calories your body burns just to keep you alive and carry out its normal functions (your body even burns calories to digest your food). There are a number of formulas and calculators online that can give you an estimate of your BMR -- all you have to do is plug in your stats. If you don't know your body fat percentage, use the Mifflin-St. Jeor formula (http://www.calculator.net/bmr-calculator.html). It is fairly accurate, but it's based on total weight, so it might overestimate your BMR if you have a lot of body fat. The most accurate formula, in my opinion, is the Katch-McArdle formula (http://www.calculatorpro.com/calculator/katch-mcardle-bmr-calculator/), which uses your lean body mass to determine your BMR. In order to use this formula, you will need a relatively accurate estimate of your body fat percentage (most people get a simple skinfold test with calipers, though there are other more accurate methods of testing, such as the Bod Pod or DEXA scans).

Once you know your BMR, you're halfway there. The next step is determining your TDEE (total daily energy expenditure). This is the total number of calories your body burns each day, and it includes the calories burned during normal activities like walking around, as well as exercise. Basically, all you're doing is multiplying your BMR by a factor that is based on your activity level. However, it is important to avoid overestimating your activity level, and the descriptions for the multipliers can be misleading... Here are the standard multipliers:

- Sedentary (little or no exercise): BMR x 1.2
- Lightly active (light exercise/sports 1-3 days/week): BMR x 1.375
- Moderatetely active (moderate exercise/sports 3-5 days/week): BMR x 1.55
- Very active (hard exercise/sports 6-7 days a week): BMR x 1.725
- Extra active (very hard exercise/sports & physical job or 2x training): BMR x 1.9

It is important to remember that these multipliers account for your total daily activity level. With this in mind, individuals with desk jobs who lift heavy for an hour each weekday are much better off selecting the 1.2X "sedentary" multiplier than the 1.55X multipler for "moderately active" individuals, even though they're technically working out 5 times per week. This is because, aside from the 1 hour of exercise they get per day, they're relatively inactive for the remaining 23 hours. It should also be noted that TDEE calculations are just estimates -- they provide a nice starting point for planning your diet, but some minor "tweaking" (which we'll cover later) may be required before you get your true daily caloric needs figured out.

Now that you have an estimate of how many calories your body burns per day, you just need to eat fewer calories than that each day to lose weight. Set a caloric deficit for yourself so that you'll know how many calories you can eat each day (500 calories less than your TDEE is a great starting point). This is the foundation for weight loss -- if you stick to a true calorie deficit, you WILL lose weight.

In order to make sure you're truly eating at a deficit, you have to know how many calories you're putting in your mouth throughout the day. The only way to know this with any accuracy is to count calories. Otherwise, we're just guessing at how much we're eating, and we probably won't get the results we want. We can never be 100% accurate when counting calories, but there are a number of things we can do to get as close as possible. First, learn how to read the nutritional labels on the foods you buy (http://www.fda.gov/Food/IngredientsPackagingLabeling/LabelingNutrition/ucm274593.htm). Certain foods, such as fresh fruits and vegetables, do not come with nutritional labels, but the information for these foods can be found online (https://ndb.nal.usda.gov/ndb/search/list). Next, invest in a food scale to weigh your food. Only liquids should be measured by volume. If you want to know how many calories are in a serving of solid food, measure its mass (preferably in grams) and use the nutritional label to determine its caloric content. Count the calories of anything you put in your mouth, including beverages, condiments, and seasonings. Finally, here's a really useful tip:

Accurate calorie counting is incredibly difficult when you're eating at a restaurant. Even if the restaurant provides nutritional information, it is likely inaccurate due to the wide variation in serving sizes, preparation methods, and the quality of the ingredients. You don't have to give up restaurant dining entirely, but be aware that the accuracy of your calorie tracking will likely be affected if you eat out frequently. Cooking your own meals has the added benefit of being much cheaper, as well!

Now it's just a matter of tracking your progress and adjusting your caloric intake to meet your needs. There's nothing wrong with weighing yourself everyday, but the human body can undergo some pretty extreme fluctuations in weight from one day to the next (due to water weight and a number of other factors), so it's best to simply monitor your weight from one week to the next. A nice goal to shoot for is 1-2 pounds of weight loss per week, though you might lose more or less than that. When first starting out, give your body a few weeks to "get in the groove," as some of the pounds you lose in these initial stages may be water weight. Also, as your body becomes leaner, it is natural for your weight loss to slow down a bit. Keep eating at a deficit and you'll continue to lose weight.

In the event that you're not seeing any weight loss from week to week, don't panic! The first thing you should do is make sure your TDEE calculations are correct and that you're counting your calories properly and truly eating at your deficit. If those things are correct, then you simply need to tweak your diet a bit. Reduce your daily caloric intake in small increments until you start to see the proper weekly weight loss. That's all there is to it! When you've finally reached your ideal weight/body fat percentage, it's just a matter of increasing your daily caloric intake to match your TDEE (i.e., your "maintenance" calorie level).

You COULD technically eat a diet consisting of nothing but Twinkies and lose weight, as long as you were eating at a caloric deficit. However, I think we can all agree that this would not be the healthiest course of action. Rather than eating calorie-dense processed junk food, try to create meals out of whole foods, which are often more filling (and better for you). The body requires protein, fats, and carbohydrates to function properly, and I am going to provide you with some recommended daily ranges for these macronutrients. This doesn't mean that you have to give up your "guilty pleasure" foods. A diet shouldn't be all about what you CAN'T eat, so if you want that slice of pizza, just ask yourself, "Does it fit my macros for today?" If the answer is "yes," then go for it! I prefer to plan my meals out in advance so that I don't have to calculate anything when I sit down at the dinner table -- I just eat and enjoy!

Protein is the building block of muscle. However, there are a lot of opinions on how much protein is enough in one's diet. The values listed above are thought to provide adequate nutrition in a diet with an adequate number of calories and sufficient carbohydrates. They are listed in grams per pound of body weight. One gram of protein provides 4 calories, so 20 grams of protein will count as 80 calories toward your daily needs. It is worth noting that most experts agree that protein intake becomes even more important when a person is on a low-calorie diet. If you are dieting and lifting weights, I would recommend the "bodybuilding" guidelines for protein intake given below, which should help you retain more muscle while you're eating at a caloric deficit.

EDIT: There is a typo in the "General Guidelines." The protein ranges for "strength training" and "endurance training" have been flipped. It should be 0.6 g/lb for endurance training and 0.8 g/lb for strength training. Sorry!

Fats are not the enemy! In fact, your body needs fats to survive. An adequate fat intake will help with your mood, as well as provide satiety from meals. Unlike protein and carbohydrates, a single gram of fat provides 9 calories. Keep that in mind when you figure them into your daily caloric intake!

A lot of people demonize carbohydrates, but there's really nothing wrong with them. They provide fuel for your brain and muscles, and they taste great! There aren't really any established guidelines for carbohydrate consumption, so the best course of action is to determine your daily protein and fat intake, and then make up the rest of your calories with carbs. One gram of carbohydrates provides 4 calories. So, the equation is:

(Carb grams) = [(Total daily calories) - (Protein grams x 4) - (Fat grams x 9)]/4

I thought I'd include a comment about water because it's important for your health and your body needs to be adequately hydrated to properly burn fat. The values listed above are the latest recommendations from the Institute of Medicine. Sometimes I get a little bored with the taste of plain water throughout the day (I drink over 1.5 gallons per day), so I'll throw a Crystal Light flavor packet into my water bottle and shake it up -- they taste great and only cost you 10 calories!

That's dieting in a nutshell, folks. While I've spent a lot of time explaining these guidelines, I think you'll agree that they're very simple concepts. There are tons of unsustainable "fad" diets out there, and plenty of tips that promise to make your diet "more effective" in terms of fat loss, but these simple rules have stood the test of time. Eat at a true caloric deficit for a sustained period of time, and you'll lose fat, guaranteed. It takes time and dedication, but the techniques are not hard to master, and they'll last you the rest of your life! As always, I wish you all the best with your fitness goals!