Diet Planning and Fitness

Author – Sindhu Prakash

Contents
1) Calorie in Versus Calorie Out
2) Maintenance Calories
3) How to Create Deficit or Surplus
4) Role of Stress, Sleep and Water on Weight loss
5) Dieting Strategies
6) How to Track and Count Your Calories and Macros
7) Resistance Training
CALORIE IN VERSUS CALORIE OUT

a) Energy Balance is the state in which your body weight will remain constant,
that happens when the calories you consume is equal to the calories your
body spends.
b) Positive Energy Balance is the state in which you start gaining weight, that
happens when the calories you consume is more than the calories your
body spends.
c) Negative Energy Balance is the state in which you start losing weight, that
happens when the calories you consume is less than the calories your body
spends.
MAINTENANCE CALORIES/TOTAL DAILY EXPENDITURE (TDEE)

TDEE = BMR +TEF + PHYSICAL ACTIVITY (NEAT + EXERCISE)

Maintenance Calories is the total amount of calories you consume to maintain

your weight. It includes three components
1) BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate):
The rate at which the body uses energy while at rest to keep vital body
functions going on such as breathing, digestion, excretion etc.
2) TEF (Thermic Effect of Food):
It is the amount of energy required to digest and process food you eat. TEF
depends on quality of food, quantity of food.
3) Physical activity:
Physical Activity includes
NEAT (Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis) which is the energy spent to
perform your everyday life activities like walking, standing, typing, cooking
etc.
EXERCISE is a form of physical activity you perform to enhance or maintain
your physical fitness.
 HOW TO CREATE DEFICIT OR SURPLUS AS PER YOUR
GOAL

1) Find your TDEE or Maintenance Calories. How? This is done by trial and
error method, track your calorie intake for a week or two, if on an average
your weight remains same, then consider it as your Maintenance Calories.
2) Eat 15 to 25% below your TDEE to create deficit.
3) Eat at slight surplus to gain weight.
Example: If your TDEE is 1800 Calories. If you consume 2000 calories per
day, then you will notice weight gain.
If your TDEE is 1800 Calories. If you consume calories below 1800 say 1400
calories, then you are creating deficit of 400 calories and you lose weight.
4) Include some kind of Physical Activity, it can be resistance training,
plyometrics, calisthenics, cardio (HIIT or LISS) or combination of few
mentioned as per your goal.
5) Always try to remain active throughout the day, increase your NEAT (Non-
Exercise Activity)
6) Incorporating Exercise along with Quantified Nutrition is very important to
achieve your goal in a right & healthy way.

ROLE OF STRESS, SLEEP AND WATER ON WEIGHTLOSS

✓ Stress
Stress causes many people to stress eat. It increases Cortisol hormone which is
tied to sleep disorders, hormonal imbalances, fertility issues and weight gain.
One cannot have a life without any stress but inculcating the habit of
meditation or practicing deep breathing techniques will reduce stress in your
life.
✓ Sleep
Lack of sleep or insufficient sleep affects the levels of ghrelin (increases) and
leptin(decreases), hunger hormones that dictate the appetite and feeling of
fullness after eating. Try to get good quality of 7 -8 hrs sleep every day.
 ✓ Water
Water is calorie free drink which helps in suppressing your appetite. To lose a
significant amount of weight you should aim to drink at least 5 liters of water
every day. It is also very important to keep you hydrated throughout the day
especially during and after workouts. Sometimes people mistake thirst for
hunger, so it is always advisable to drink enough water frequently and not
allow your body to reach the stage of thirst.

DIET STRATEGIES
✓ No diet is superior than the other, may it be Low Carb Diet, Keto Diet,
High Carb Diet, Intermittent Fasting, Paleo, Vegan Diet, Vegetarian Diet,
High Protein Diet, Sugar Free Diet, IIFYM (If It Fits in Your Macros),
Flexible Dieting etc.
✓ Always follow diet which you can adapt as your lifestyle, a good diet is
one which is sustainable for you.
✓ Keep in mind, it is all about energy balance (calorie in versus calorie out)
to lose or gain weight.
✓ First, find your calorie intake as per your goal.
✓ Fix your protein intake between 1.2 to 1.8 g per kg of bodyweight. If you
are eating too low protein, increase your protein intake gradually. At
least try to increase by half of what you have been eating initially.
✓ Next, adjust the remaining calories among carbs and fats as per your
diet preference and lifestyle.
✓ Do not go too low on Fats, 35 % to 40% of total calories should come
from fats.
✓ 1 gm Carbs = 4 calories, 1 gm protein = 4 calories and 1 gm fat = 9
calories
✓ Create a Diet Plan for yourself by keeping above points in mind and
follow it religiously to achieve your goal.
HOW TO TRACK YOUR CALORIES AND COUNT YOUR MACROS

➢ When buying food items, always read nutrition label on the back of
product. Look for protein, carbs, sugars, fats and trans-fat content.
➢ Also read the ingredient list, it is always good to know what goes into
making of food you consume.
➢ Consume majority of your calories from natural whole foods that are
nutrient dense.
➢ Carbohydrates, Protein and Fats are called macronutrients. Macronutrients
are the substances / food required relatively in large amounts by our body.
➢ Download any Fitness and Nutrition tracking app like Fittr, MyFitnessPal to
track your calories and macros every day.
➢ Start entering all the food you consume for the day and stay within your set
calories and macros to see the results.
➢ Always cross check your food calories and macros mentioned in calorie
tracking app by searching the same on internet. Do not randomly enter the
 food item in your app, sometimes calories and macros of food may not
match correctly.
➢ It is advisable to scan the barcode of your food item you purchase; the
macros and calories value will be correct.
➢ Once you create the database of your food items that you consume by
tracking on daily basis, things will get easier.
➢ After several weeks or months of tracking your calories and macros, you
will learn how to approximate your food correctly without measuring.
Remember, this is an expert skill which takes time and practice.

RESISTANCE TRAINING
Benefits:
1. It helps in maintaining or increasing muscle mass, which boost your
metabolism that translates to more calories burned at rest.
2. It helps in keeping your weight off for good.
3. It makes you leaner, stronger and fitter.
4. Increases bone density and reduce risk of osteoporosis.
5. Helps in chronic disease management like type 2 diabetes
6. Improves flexibility and mobility of your body and many more.

Fat loss gets easier when you have more muscle mass because helps
you to burn more calories and also gives you higher metabolism
(RMR). Muscles burn calories even while you are at rest doing
nothing. Also makes you look leaner. Muscle is denser and weighs
more than fat mass. Take a look at picture below to know how
different muscle mass and fat mass distribution looks on a person
with same weight.
Another example below, shows how a woman can look leaner than
before at slightly higher weight. This happens only when you focus
on fat loss with resistance training.

➢ If you are new to Resistance Training, I would suggest you to

take help of an expert to learn proper form and technique at
first.
➢ The total amount of work done in a workout session is
determined by Volume of your workout
Volume = Intensity x Sets x Reps
Intensity - The amount of weight you lift.
Sets - The number of times you will repeat the entire set of
activity.
Reps - The repetitions you will perform in single set of activity.
 ➢ Progressive Overload is the gradual increase of stress placed
on your body during your workout sessions. Always
incorporate Progressive Overload in your training. It can be
done by changing any one of the variables (sets, reps,
intensity, rest).
➢ Over a period of time, our body and muscles get adapted to
the amount of work we do in a workout session, to overcome
or to avoid adaptation you should progressively overload.

Lastly, remember that Fitness and Nutrition must be adapted as your lifestyle
change to keep your weight off for good. Always follow diet you can sustain for
life long. Do not just depend on the number you see on weighing scale. Along with
it, you must consider your inch loss, energy levels, health conditions, strength
improvements and appearance. Aim at better version of yourself in each phase of
your Transformation Journey, as your goals keep changing.

I Wish You All The Best!