In a rut with your nutrition?
With any muscle building or weight loss goals, you need to know how many calories your body burns per day in order to adjust this accordingly depending on what you want to achieve.
How do I calculate my calories?
There are lots of websites that will do this for you, click on this link to see your BMR (basil metabolic rate)
https://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/bmr_calculator.htm
You can adjust your BMR according to your goals, increasing if you want to gain weight and decreasing if you would like to lose weight.
If you are looking to build muscle you must have excess calories per day and the correct amount of proteins for protein synthesis to occur and in turn, an increase in muscle.
If you are trying to decrease body fat, you need to be in a deficit of calories each day. I find that the best way to do this is by using mobile apps such as “My Fitness Pal” to track your calories and macro nutrients.
Dan’s Hints and tips
Make sure you are getting enough protein and calories to build muscle.
For the average person (and depending on the intensity of training), I would recommend 1.4g and 2.0g per kilogram of body weight.
My MBR is 3400 calories (due to training 6 times per week and having an active job) per day. Therefore, I aim to have between 3900-4100kcal per day in order to increase my muscle mass.
This is on average an increase of 600 calories per day, to gain a substantial amount of muscle.
Breakfast – The hardest meal to get correct.
A high protein breakfast, and protein in every meal is the best advice I can give to decrease body fat.
It increases muscle health, which in turn increases muscle mass. As a result, the more muscle mass you gain, the bigger the increase in energy expenditure you use each day.
It also regulates hormones and glucose levels, decreasing the desire to snack on bad foods later in the day.
I have found a higher protein and fat (monounsaturated and polyunsaturated) breakfast is key for my clients, to achieve their goal. For example, eggs, avocado and smoked salmon.
What do I need to snack on?
I recommend an intake of unsalted nuts (on average 25g) and berries. Nuts are a good source of protein and berries are great antioxidants for immune support.
Aim to have lower glycemic index carbohydrates
The Glycemic Index is a ranking of carbohydrates in foods according to how they affect blood glucose levels. You need carbohydrates to power the body, however, some are better than others. The GI index is a great way to see which carbohydrates are better to utilise energy.
Food Preparation
Batch cooking is always good to do at the weekend, as it gives you less of a reason to buy food in the working week that contains processed meats, saturated fats and any other ingredients that will stop you building muscle or decreasing body fat.
