How To Set Your Calories in 4 Steps

Your BMR defines your basal metabolism rate which makes up about 60-70% of the calories we use (“burn” or expend). This includes the energy your body uses to maintain the basic function of your living and breathing body, including: The beating of our heart. Cell production. YES - you require a minimum amount of food each day to just live

 

Women: (10 × weight in kg) + (6.25 × height in cm) - (5 × age in years) - 161

 

by multiplying your BMR by the one of the below multipliers:

 

Sedentary (little to no exercise + work a desk job) = 1.2

Lightly Active (light exercise 1-3 days / week) = 1.375

Moderately Active (moderate exercise 3-5 days / week) = 1.55

Very Active (heavy exercise 6-7 days / week) = 1.725

Extremely Active (strenuous training 2x a day) = 1.9

 

For most, this would equate to a calorie deficit of 500 calories/day. (This is a ROUGH guide, some may be less than 500 calories)

 

So example, say i am 80kg, 170cm in height, 35 years old and i currently exercise lightly 3 times a week

BMR = 800+1062.5-175-161

= 1525

TDEE = 1525 x 1.375

= 2100

 

To get myself in a calorie deficit that would drive a weight loss of 1-2lbs per week i subtract 500

 

Therefore my calorie deficit would be 1600

 

Now I must stress this is a basic calculation to set STARTING calories. A range of factors will impact the accuracy. For example history of dieting - have you been restrictive dieting for a long period? You may have metabolism damage due to this and will require either a higher calorie amount and more protein to try and balance out or lower calories if your metabolism is extremely slow. Hormones - do you have an imbalance? This will require a person to person calculation and won’t necessarily be the same calculation as above.

 

These are just a ROUGH STARTING point.

 

Your progress will determine how you should adapt and tweak these.

 

So, start by calculating your ROUGH start point then TRACK your food everyday for 7-10days staying consistent to those calories and then do a ‘check in’.

 

Full measurements (waist, thighs etc), weigh yourself and take photos (we do some more tracking with our clients around things like strength to track muscle development etc which can skew the scale weight for more accurate results but those 3 are a good starting place) - if you see around 1-2lbs of weight loss then those calories are good, stick with them.

 

If you are below 1lb then you MAY need to tweak calories - this is when it gets hard to give a “one size fits all” response because with your age, metabolism, diet history etc you may only be able to lose 0.5lb a week etc or you may be someone who has a longer fat loss window (the average time taken to burn fat and be excreted from your body is 7 days but for some that process takes longer, yes you dont burn fat and it vanishes from your body that same day: it's a process and takes time)

 

If you are more than 2lbs this would be a sign of too harsh of a calorie deficit. Yes it might sound good to lose 3,4 or 5lbs a week but it means you are inside your BMR calories, i.e. within the calories your body just needs to survive and long term health will be MASSIVELY put under strain. Again, this isn't a “one size fits all” answer, some people with a lot of weight to lose might see large results the first weeks but that should quickly stabilize to be within the 1-2lb range after a few weeks of being in a deficit.

The average person will plateau 3-5 times during a fat loss phase. So the calories you set here will NOT be the same calories you are at when you reach your goal. It's impossible to tell you exactly what to do here when you hit a plateau as it will depend on what your calories and exercise is like when you hit the plateau. There are a range of tools to utilize here - the answer is NOT always to keep reducing calories. If you reduce your calories too much unnecessarily in your fat loss phase you will make your reverse diet pretty hard and long back towards maintenance (yes, you don't spend your life in a calorie deficit, that is incredibly unhealthy, once you reach your weight goal you must start to SLOWLY reverse diet back towards your maintenance calories, if this isn't done correctly you will rebound your weight)

 

Few examples of things to do without reducing calories when you hit a plateau

You could add cardio

You could increase intensity of workouts

You could carb cycle

You could calorie cycle

You could introduce fasted workouts (probably least effective)

 

Any of my clients reading this, don’t worry - We take all this guess work away from you - that is why your check ins are so important. ALL this work is going on behind the scenes each week when we do those check-ins with you and why we are trying to get you through the fat loss phase as quickly but as healthily as possible to make the reverse diet phase easier!!

 

The calorie amount is what drives weight loss - simple!

 

Macros can be utilised for things like body composition, recovery, energy, hunger levels etc. The 3 macros are carbs, fats and protein. You can track all 3 if you desire but I have found this quickly gets very consuming and hard. We only get our clients to track their protein amount each day inside their calories as this will drive the most results. Carbs and fats help yes but the difference between people tracking just protein compared to all 3 is very minimal

 

The amount of protein will again depend of a range of factors but roughly speaking the foundation will follow the below

 

For sedentary/lightly active individuals: 1-1.2g/kg/day

For moderately active - extremely active: 1.4-2.2g/kg/day

 

Tracking calories is a SHORT TERM method to a long term solution. Tracking SHOULD NOT be done every day for the rest of your life. It should be seen as an educational tool. Use it to learn how to FUEL yourself correctly, what portion sizes of food you should eat etc - once you have learnt then stop tracking!!!

 

The more consistent you are to it in the beginning the quicker you will learn and quicker you will be able to stop