Calculate your Calorie Target

Go to https://www.omnicalculator.com/health/rmr to calculate your calorie minimum.

This number aligns with your current resting metabolic rate which is also how many calories your body needs to stay alive and function correctly, if you lay around and do nothing all day. This number is derived from testing millions of people in labs using equipment that measures how much energy their body uses to stay alive if they just lay around all day in a chamber with a bed. Your age, gender, height, weight, and energy used to digest food are the primary metrics needed to calculate this. These will represent how many calories the average person’s brain, heart, liver, digestive organs, and muscles use to function daily.

Variables that will increase your RMR higher than the calculator shows are how much muscle mass you have, how much you expose your body to cold air/water throughout the day, eating more than 3 meals per day, and pregnancy.

Variables that will decrease your RMR than the calculator shows are eating less than 3 meals per day and time restricted eating (intermittent fasting).

If you have the goal of fat loss you want to eat enough to function and feel fantastic every day, and then all of the additional movement you do throughout the day (fidgeting, standing, walking, chores, and structured exercise) to tap into your stored carbs and fats to lower your body fat %. 

If you have the goal of muscle gain you want to eat a calorie surplus (extra 250-500 calories) so that you have additional energy to allocate to adapting to your structured programs, creating additional muscle tissue, etc. 

Protein Targets

Protein minimum: It takes 2.5g of leucine (one of the amino acids in animal proteins) to turn on protein synthesis to build and repair new cells, nerves, and muscles. On average this is 6 oz of meat/fish, or 25g of protein from a supplement. If it is from a protein powder you’ll want to look at the nutrition facts charts or additional nutritional information to see how much leucine is in each serving.

To calculate your max protein absorption per meal (Take how many pounds of muscle you have and divide that by 2.2) x .4. Write this down so that you don’t exceed it at a given meal or snack.

Protein ingested beyond what the body can absorb and use for metabolic function and repair will result in gluconeogenesis. This is a fancy latin word for sugar-new-make and describes a process where the body removes the nitrogen from the protein and it becomes a carbohydrate. If there is no room in muscles or your liver for that carb for storage, you know what happens...body fat time. 

To calculate your daily protein target Take how many pounds of muscle you have and multiply it by .5 (maintain muscle mass or definition), .7-1 (gain muscle, definition, or fat loss). 

Write down this number of grams to get per day, then multiply it by 4 to get how many calories this is. Then subtract that number from your calorie target to see how many more calories you have left to distribute. 

Carbohydrate Target

If you have the goal of fat loss, the only way to lose the stored body fat you have is to reprogram your genes to be able to burn fat for fuel again. 50g-100g of carbs is the sweet spot that someone should eat per day to turn the dial up on their fat burning genes, and turn the dial down on their sugar burning genes. This takes healthy people at least 1 month to achieve if you hit your targets every day. If someone has elevated insulin levels, past metabolic damage, prediabtes, or type II diabetes it could take months to multiple years.

If you have the goal of muscle gain, 150g of carbs will be needed to fuel your muscles for the workouts that will signal your body to add more muscle, get stronger, etc. 

Choose a carb target in grams that will help you achieve your goal, write that down, and then multiply it by 4 to get how many calories that is. 

Then subtract that number from your calorie target to see how many more calories you have left to distribute. 

Fiber Target

The Mayo Clinic recommends the following for optimal guidelines

Men: (Age 50 and under) to consume 38g, and age 51+ consume 30g

Women: (Age 50 and under) to consume 25g, and age 51+ consume 21g

If you select a fiber target that’s more than what you currently consume, make sure you slowly build up to it over a few weeks to avoid unnecessary gas and stomach discomfort. 

Fat Target

(Take your remaining calories left to distribute and divide that by 9). Write this number down for what to aim to consume for fat each day. 

Since the first humans walked the earth, fat is the most nutrient dense substance that we can consume, it is the major component of every cell in the body, cell wall, nerves, and brain tissue. Regardless if your goal is fat loss or muscle gain, eating the right amount of healthy fat is necessary to create fat burning hormones, enzymes, new muscle cells, and tons of energy. 

References

Huberman, A., & Lustig, R. (n.d.). other. Retrieved December 18, 2023, from https://www.hubermanlab.com/episode/dr-robert-lustig-how-sugar-processed-foods-impact-your-health. 

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