How Do You Determine How Much to Eat?
Aug 29th, 2009 | By Coach Nancy | Category: Nutrition & Weight LossThis is a confusing subject for many people. And no doubt with conflicting information provided from many ‘experts’. So if you are struggling with you diet, let’s try to make this at once easier to understand, simpler to implement and get better results whether that’s muscle growth or fast loss.
I always start by figuring out your protein requirements which I recently wrote about.
Once you have that, you just adjust based on your fitness and activity levels. As far as how best to set all your macro nutrient ratios, I’m following the advice of Steve Edwards, a Beachbody fitness and nutrition expert, who explains it clearly in his article “Nutrition 911, Part II: What to Eat: Here’s the straight 411, so you can avoid a dietary 911″. The following is an excerpt from that article:
The one key piece of advice to take from this class is this: You should eat for what you do each day. Let me use a simple analogy. How much fuel do you put in your car when you don’t drive it? How much when you do?
This doesn’t exactly equate. You are not a machine, plus you’re always on. But the fuel example is relevant. When you are active, you burn more glycogen and, hence, need to eat more carbs. Carbs should be the most variable item in your diet. If you’ve been hiking through the Grand Canyon, you may eat double, or even triple, the amount of carbs you’d eat than during a day at the office. Your other nutrients don’t change as much. You need more protein if you are causing more muscle breakdown, but only so much. Carbs are literally burned off.
How much is quite variable. A muscular athlete will burn more fuel at rest than someone who is out of shape. With my clients, I tend to start them at 40 percent carbs, 30 percent protein, and 30 percent fat, and then adjust as necessary. This varies by the individual, but this ratio seems like the best average place to start.
Keep in mind that your diet is always a moving target. As you change, so does your nutrient requirement. People often ask me, “Can’t you just tell me exactly what I should eat every day?” My answer is, “No.”
A person trying to change his or her body composition (lose or gain weight) will eat differently than someone trying to maintain it. And everyone, no matter what his or her goal is, should eat differently on days when he or she does different things. It’s not as simple as “calories in, calories out,” but that cliché is not a bad ballpark figure to think about while deciding what, when, and why to eat.
Here are simple guidelines. Of course, results vary because all of our bodies are different to a degree. But we’re also similar, so using these guidelines as a starting point will work for most people. In the end, no one will be better able to tell you what you need than you will. You have to learn to listen to your body’s signals and adjust.
- Overweight and out of shape. This is the only time I recommend a “low-carb” diet. A diet of 40 percent to 50 percent protein, 30 percent fat, and 20 percent to 30 percent carbs can be effective in the early stages of a transition.
- Overweight and in decent shape, or not too overweight and in bad shape. A now-fairly-standard ratio of 40 percent carbs, 30 percent protein, and 30 percent fat.
Ideal weight and fit. 50 percent carbs, 25 percent protein, and 25 percent fat. This is probably what I personally average, but consider that my diet varies wildly. On days like today, when I sit in front of this computer for hours on end, carbs might be only 30 percent to 40 percent of my diet. On a day I’m riding my bike for 6 hours, they might make up 70 percent. My protein and fat intake won’t change too much. My calories might go from 2,000 to 6,000, with most of this difference being carbs. I’m more active than most people, but my radical example will, hopefully, make this idea easier to understand.
So let’s walk through an example. I started out at 153lbs. I was overweight and not all that active although, I knew I was going to be active doing P90X. So I was going to start in between Steve’s ‘Overweight and Out of Shape Low Carb’ formula and his ‘Overweight and in decent shape’ guidelines. That would place my protein as about 35% of my total calories.
First I calculate my protein requirement. .8 x 155 = 124 grams of protein a day. For most folks, this is way more protein than what they are now consuming and is best achieved by adding 1 or 2 whey protein drinks a day to your diet.
124 grams of protein x 4 calories per gram = about 500 calories from protein. Now I can calculate my full daily calorie allotment by dividing the 500 calories by 35% which gives me about 1428 calories a day (500 / .35% = 1428). Of that, 30% of my calories will be from fat and 35% from carb. At a gram level, my daily intake would look like:
Protein 124 500
Carbs 124 500
Protein 47.5 425
I can almost assure you that the carb and fats allowed in this diet are far less than what you have been eating. To ensure you have sufficient volume of food so you don’t feel like you are starving, be sure to add a lot of steamed veggies which are low carb, a little fiber and no fat. Some fruits like berries and apples also tend to be low in sugars (lower in carbs) and have high water content plus some fiber so you feel full without ingesting a lot of carbs. You will have to dramatically reduce the amount of grain based foods (breads, cereals, crackers, pasta, rice) and starchy potatoes. Get rid of the butter and cut way back even on olive oil which is a healthy fat but can quickly add up to too many calories.
Now let’s jump forward and assume I lose 20 lbs doing the P90X program. By now I’m active and in shape so my calorie intake and macro nutrient composition changes to 20% – 25% protein, 50% – 55% carb and 30% fats. Assuming I go with an average, I’d get 22.5% protein, 52.5% carb and 25% fats. My total calorie intake moves up to 1,920 which is almost 500 calories a day more than where I started.
Protein 108 432 (22.5%)
Carbs 228 1,008 (52.5%)
Fat 53 480 (25.0%%)
At this level, I can begin to add in more fruits and complex carbs. More breads, maybe some cereal and/or rice (preferably brown rice).
There you have it. What I have presented above is a different way to approach what the P90X nutrition plan is guiding you through. The only difference is that my approach keeps protein slightly higher than what you see in Phase 3 of the P90X nutrition plan.
Hi Nancy,
I am 49 years old,female, and have been doing P90x for 5 weeks. I can feel myself getting alot stronger but I do not seem to be burning any fat at all. I don’t know what my calorie intake should be to lose weight but gain muscle. I am 5’9 with a medium frame and weigh 163 pounds. I am starting to get very frustrated. If I want to lose weight do I not allow for the 600 calories I am burning on the workout? I am a little confused, can you help me out? I appreciate your site. Thanks, Terry
Hi Terry,
I’m glad you find this website helpful!
First, do be sure you are both taking measurements weekly and photos every 30 days. If you’ve not been doing this, you may be amazed to see how much is really changing even if the scale isn’t moving much. I ended up ripping a ton of fat off of my body over the 90 day period but I only lost 13 lbs.
Secondly, as much as I LOVE P90X workouts and what they have done for me, the eating plan they have with that just doesn’t work for most women unless you are very physically active in your job. You end up calculating far to many calories. Moreover the phase 2 and phase 3 eating plan adjustments are just not going to help women burn fat and drop weight. The P90X eating plan will work for most men but that doesn’t help us.
Especially when you are pushing 50 (congratulations BTW on doing this program and not letting age be a factor), you need to eat wisely because it’s highly probable that you are pre-menopausal or menopausal which makes weight loss even harder. This was a real issue for me until I got the eating right as I started P90X.
In a nutshell, you are going to find that you are probably eating too many calories. I used your statistics to walk through the P90X suggested plan and I came up with nearly 2600 calories a day for you. That’s too much! What does tend to work for most women is to take your weight x 10 but always eat at least 1500 calories and no more than 2400 calories a day even if the weight x 10 calculation comes up lower or higher than those limits. So my quick calculation for you is 163 x 10 = 1630 calories a day.
The ‘long hand’ version of the calculation is to take .8 x your weight and use that to set your daily protein requirement in grams. So for you that would be 163 x .8 = 130 (I rounded). There are 4 calories per gram of protein so that adds up to 520 calories a day from protein. Protein calories should be no less than 30% of your daily caloric intake. So take the protein calories and divide that by .3 and you’ll get a daily total calorie allowance of 1,733. We can round that up to 1750 for convenience.
Of the 1750, only 700 calories should be carbohydrate (carbs). And the carbs you do eat should be fiber rich. So it’s mostly veggies and any grain based food source where they have increased the fiber. I eat the Sara Lee brand of bread called 45 calories & delightful multi grain bread. Each slice of bread only has 45 calories and there is about 2.5 grams of fiber in every slice. I’ve got some more real ‘finds’ in high fiber low calorie bread type products if you’d like them.
The remaining calories (1750 – 520 – 700 = 530) can come from fat. This really isn’t much as each gram of fat has 9 calories. That means you can only have about 59 grams of fat a day. You have to cook and eat low fat to stay in this limit.
BTW, it’s hard to eat enough protein if you are not supplementing with protein powder. I really like the Body Fortress brand Super Advanced Whey Protein powder that I buy at Walmart. It’s cheap, it mixes well and it tastes pretty good. I also like the Zone Perfect brand nutrition bars for snacks or a quick meal replacement and I like the Snickers brand nutrition bars as well.
Try making some of these changes and see how you do.
Nancy
?Hi I am doing the p90x program too, I am on week 6 and havn’t lost anything. I too am getting stronger and I feel the nutriton plan is not working for me. I am 27 5’4″ and weight 158lbs. Could you help me determine my protein/carb/fat intake. It is confusing for some reason to me and when I try to do the calculations I don’t trust my answers! Thanks so much.!
Hi Crystal,
You are my height so this is pretty easy. Now if you’ve been following the P90X nutrition plan, you’ll end up with way too many calories! The results I get for you when I use the P90x guide is 2,496 calories a day. That’s not going to produce weight loss for any woman. It’s even a bit generous for a man.
Start with a daily caloric intake of 1,600 calories (roughly 10x your weight). Then eat those calories in a 40/40/20 ratio of carb/protein/fat. So from a calorie perspective, this is 640 calories from carb, 640 calories from protein and 320 calories from fat. When you convert it to grams of each, you can have 160 grams of carb, 160 grams of protein and only 36 grams of fat (fat has more than double the calories per gram so you get a lot less).
This will likely be far less fat and a lot more protein than what you have been doing. In fact, it’s nearly impossible to make these targets without using a high protein drink (or two) a day. My full list of the proteins I use and like are found in our forums at http://www.pressplayfitness.com/members/forum/#topic/Protein-Powders.htm. Also, to hit the low carb target, realize you cannot have more than one serving of grains or potatoes per day and if you want to eat any bread product, shop from among the low calorie, low carb, high fiber selections I list at http://www.pressplayfitness.com/members/forum/#topic/Bread.htm.
I love the P90X exercise routine but I am no fan of the nutrition plan for women. Again, for guys it’s fine but we women are built differently and calculations based on weight don’t work well for us.
Nancy
?I appreciate the above advice, but just want to reiterate something – so you are saying that a woman who wants to lose weight will still be eating the number of calories whether burning a few hundred on P90X every day or not, correct? More clearly, if my daughter is to be eating approx. 1660 calories (what I have figured through your way of calculating), she should not add on any extra calories/day now that she is doing P90X. Is this the advice I should give her? Thank you so much for your help. She is 18 and has been unable to lose weight at ANY TIME during her life, except in 7th-8th grade when she literally stopped eating.
Hi Darlene,
Perhaps a better article for you is the one I have at http://www.pressplayfitness.com/?p=2105. It specifically addresses how to eat on P90X (or other intense workout program). I cannot comment on the calorie total you have because I don’t see you sharing your daughter’s weight.
Also, if your daughter wants to really shed fat, she should do the Classic routine, not Lean. Classic will reshape her body and burn more fat than the Lean program All the best transformations, men or women, doing P90X have been on the Classic routine.
Nancy
?Nancy,
I am nursing full time infant of 3months, should my Protein/Carbs/Fats change so that i still produce enough for the infant?
I am 137 lbs? 5′,1
Currently doing the Classic version of PX90
Hi Sarah,
How many extra calories will vary based on how often the baby nurses and how much he/she takes in at each feeding. Assume it will require an additional 300 – 600 calories a day. Mother’s milk is much higher in fat and carb than cows milk so for every 100 calories, take in 10% in extra protein; 40% in fat and 50% in carb.
Since you don’t know how many calories to take in, start with 400 and see how you feel. If you are feeling really low energy, add another 100 calories and wait for a few days and see how you feel again. Repeat until you feel normal energy and are not putting on any weight.
Nancy
?Hi Nancy!
I’m a mother of two, 27 years old, 5’4″, and 136lbs. My little one is 8 weeks old and I’m ready to get in shape. My job is sedentary so I am a bit concerned about the calorie intake from the nutrition plan. Can you help me get a better idea of what would be best for me?
Thanks!
Paralee
Hi Paralee,
The P90X nutrition plan calculates too many calories for women. One key indicator that it’s off is that there is no differentiation between men and women at the same height and weight. I have a write up that I believe will answer your questions at http://www.pressplayfitness.com/?p=2105.
Nancy
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