The Adler Blog

When setting up a diet, a lot of people seem to be confused how to go about it: low carb, low fat, ice water for lunch?

In the following segment, I’ll try to clear up some of that confusion.

Rule number 1: calories matter! Regardless what kind of a diet you choose you need to eat less than you burn. If you don’t have a deficit, nothing will happen.

Which brings me to rule number 2: know your metabolic rate!

When structuring a diet, any diet, you have figure out your basic metabolic rate first (BMR).
The Benedict-Harris formula works well for most people. If you dont want to go through the trouble, women can use 14 calories per lbs of bodyweight, men 16 calories (if you use kilos 30 resp 35). From there on, you decide how much of a deficit you want, small (10 %), medium (10-20%) or larger (20%). I prefer a medium-sized deficit, which allows you to have a life and still get the diet done in a reasonable time frame, but that is just my preference.

Rule number 3: Protein, fat, carbs…Protein,fat,carbs…

This is what you need to know about your macronutrients: protein (4 calories per gram), carbs (4 calories per gram) and fats (9 calories per gram).

The first one to look at is protein. Why? Without it, you die. That aside, protein helps you to protect your muscles, which in return keeps the metabolism high. Furthermore it acts as a hunger suppressant, so it makes the diet a bit easier. You should eat at least one gram of protein per pound of bodyweight (or 2 grams per kilogram).

Next, you have the two energetic nutrients: carbs and fats. Fats are essential for survival, so you can’t go without them. At a very minimal level, you will need 20 grams of essential fatty acids.

We are left with carbs: carbs aren’t needed for survival (the brain can make glucose from ketones) but they taste good and make people feel better. Use you remaining calories of the day for carbs – you want to eat them.

Now, let’s put all this into a practice run: assuming we have a female at 140 lbs, with a basic metabolic rate of roughly 2,000 calories a day if we assume three one-hour workouts per week. She then chooses a medium deficit of 20 % which comes to 400 calories a day. This leaves her with 1,600 calories per day.

Let’s calculate the macronutrients. As discussed before, she needs 1 gram of protein per pound of bodyweight, meaning 140 grams. Translated into calories, 140grams x 4 (calories per gram) = 560. 1,040 calories are left for protein and carbs.

I would not recommend the fats intake to be lower than 40 grams a day, so 40 x 9 (calories per gram) = 360 calories from fats. Bear with me, we are almost home.

Lastly, she is left with 680 calories to spare for carbs, 680 divided by 4 equals 170 grams for the day.

In the end, our fictional character gets to eat 140 grams of protein, 170 carbs and 40 grams of fat a day. This splits up into 35 grams protein/42 grams carb/10 grams fat for a meal, 4 times a day. If you want to split it into smaller meals, that is fine. I personally don’t consider meals fewer than 300 calories worth sitting down for, but do as you like.

I hope to have cleared some confusion on setting up a diet.
Just remember the roadmap: 1.BMR. 2. Deficit. 3. Protein-fat-carbs.

Train hard
Maik