Diet 101 – How To Regulate your weight

One of the most important aspects of our lives is our physical health. Maintaining a healthy body weight is probably the single most important thing we can do along with some regular exercise. Evidence suggests that our health markers are highly correlated with our body fat percentage. So in this blog post, we will talk about how you can regulate your weight based on what I have learned over the last 5 years as a fitness enthusiast.

Understanding CICO

CICO stands for calories in calories out. By now, it is well established by science that our bodies follow this model. “Calories in” is our caloric intake and “calories out” is our caloric expenditure. There are 3 scenarios that can happen in a day:

• Calories in > Calories out. We eat more calories than we burn so we gain weight.
• Calories in = Calories out. We eat approximately the same calories we burn so we maintain our weight.
• Calories in < Calories out. We eat fewer calories than we burn so we lose weight.

“Calories in” is pretty straightforward. It’s the sum of the calories contained in the food we ate during the day. We will talk about how we count them later.

What is “calories out”

Caloric expenditure consists of 4 components. Your basic metabolism, Digestion, Physical Activity, and NEAT.

Resting Metabolic Rate (RMR): This is an estimate of how much energy your body would require if you stayed in bed all day long and didn’t move.   Your RMR can be accurately determined based upon the following factors: height, weight, age, and body composition (% lean mass).

Digestion: The thermic effect of meals refers to the increase in metabolic rate that occurs after ingestion of food. When you eat food, your body must expend some energy to digest, absorb, and store the nutrients in the food you’ve eaten.

Physical activity: The calories we expend during our exercise.

Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis (NEAT):   This is the energy that is NOT expended from sleeping, digesting, or intentional exercise.  It’s what your metabolism is doing during the 15 hours a day when you aren’t sleeping or exercising.  Ex. walking, fidgeting, etc.

Finding Your Caloric Expenditure

Here is a calculator where you can see approximately how many calories you need per day.
I use the Harris-Benedict estimation formula, but whichever you use will give you similar results.
https://www.calculator.net/calorie-calculator.html
The number you will take will be an estimation. There is a high chance that your actual caloric needs will be a little lower or a little higher. All you gotta do is start with those calories, track everything you eat for a week and measure your weight. There are 3 scenarios:

• Your weight stays the same. You have an accurate number. This will happend for the majority of people since the calculator is highly accurate.
• You gain weight. Then, your actual caloric needs will be a little lower. Lower them until your weight stays the same. That’s your caloric need.
• You lose weight. Then, your actual caloric needs will be a little higher. Increase them until your weight stays the same. That’s your caloric need.

Tracking Your Caloric Intake

You will need a tool to track your caloric intake.
I personally use myFitnessPal.
Here is a beginner tutorial on how to use it.

Your Goal and Your Plan

Based on your goal you will have a different plan. You can only have one of the following goals:

Lose Weight

If you want to lose weight you will have to be in a caloric deficit (eat fewer calories than you expend). The recommended rate of weight loss is from 0.5% to 1% of your body weight per week. A good starting point is a deficit of 400-500 calories and you adjust accordingly based on your weight loss.
Below are some tips:

• Try to eat at least 1gram of protein per kg of your bodyweight. If you are an athlete you may want to eat a little more than that.
• Try to keep your activity throughout the day high.
• Eat foods with low-calorie density. Calorie density is a measure of the calorie content of food relative to its weight or volume.
• Resistance training will help you maintain your muscle mass and lose mostly fat.

Gain Weight

If you want to gain weight you will have to be in a caloric surplus (eat more calories than you expend). The recommended rate of weight gain is about 1kg per month. A good starting point is a surplus of 300-500 calories and you adjust accordingly based on your weight gain.
Below are some tips:

• Try to eat at least 1gram of protein per kg of your bodyweight. If you are an athlete you may want to eat a little more than that.
• Eat foods with high-calorie density.
• Resistance training will help you turn some of this weight you will gain into muscle.

Possible Adjustments

It’s highly probable that if your weight changes your caloric need will change as well. That happens because you have a different weight than when you started and also there is metabolic adaptation. So in case you are dieting after some weeks, you may have to lower your calories more. In contrast, if your goal is to gain α´weight, you may have to increase your calories.

Final Words

Regulating your weight can seem overwhelming at the start, but it is essential for our health. It may get you some time at the start to get used to tracking your food but it’s a skill worth learning. After some time you won’t even have to track your food if you don’t want to. You will become aware of your caloric intake and the calories in different kinds of food and this will help you over the course of your life.

Additional Sources

Here are the people and pages I follow for nutrition and fitness-related information. You can check their youtube channels and social media profiles.

• Ben Carpenter
• Layne Norton
• Jeff Nipard
• Greg Doucette
• Derek More Plates More Dates