The following information is a unique yet easy step-by-step program to determine a nutrition and weight-loss plan specifically designed to meet your individual goals. From this plan, you will be able to determine exactly how many calories you need and how these calories will be broken down into specific grams of carbohydrates, proteins and fats.

To fully understand the principles of weight gain or weight loss (in terms of body fat), you must first have a basic understanding of exercise physiology and energy expenditure in the body. Weight gain or weight loss is simply a balance or exchange of caloric intake versus energy expenditure. If you take in for example 2500 calories a day, you must burn or expend 2500 calories a day to maintain weight. If you take in more, you will gain weight, and if you take in less, you will loose weight.

If you could therefore understand the primary components of energy expenditure (basal metabolic rate, specific dynamic action, and activity), and know how to figure out these components specific to your individual physiology, you would know approximately how many calories you burn in a day. With this information, you then could figure out how many calories you would need to take in to maintain weight, or how many calories to cut to lose weight.

As one pound of fat is equal to 3,500 calories, you can then make simple adjustments in your caloric intake and activity to loose the desired pounds of body fat per week.

Please refer to the scale below to better visualize this principle of exchange:

caloric intake		energy expenditure BMR SDA ACT
1 lb. fat = 3,500 calories

Energy needs are highly individual, varying according to age, sex, body size and composition, and physical activity. By determining your basal metabolic rate, specific dynamic action, and activity, you can estimate your total energy expenditure in terms of calories per 24 hours. You then can determine what your caloric intake must be to maintain, gain or loose weight. Once you determine this, you can design an exercise and nutrition program to achieve desires results.

It is important to first have your % body fat taken. Have this done by a fitness professional (most gyms or personal trainers will do this for you). This is important so that you have beginning numbers for your weight, % body fat, fat weight and fat-free weight. Once you know your % body fat, take it and multiply it by your weight to determine your fat weight. Then take your fat weight and minus it from your total weight to get your fat-free weight.

Now that you have determined these beginning values, you can then establish a weight reduction goal and determine an ideal body weight. To do this, first determine a realistic goal for your percent body fat. For example, say that I am presently 185 lbs., 15% body fat, 27.8 lbs. fat weight, 157.2 lbs. fat-free weight. Say that my goal is to get down to a 10%. I need to take “1” minus the ideal percent body fat (In my case for example, 1 - .10 = .9). Then take your fat-free weight and divide it by this value (.9) to determine your ideal weight (Again, in my case for example, 157.2 divided by .9 = 174.6). This value of, 174.6 lbs. is then my ideal weight goal. So I know that I have 10.5 pounds of fat to loose.

With this beginning information, lets start with a basic worksheet to design your nutrition program. As exercise physiology can get a little convoluted and difficult to understand, I have simplified formulas and definitions for our purpose. Let me nevertheless familiarize you with a few basic definitions:

• Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) is the minimum amount of energy needed by the body at rest (theoretically in a fasting state). It indicates the amount of energy needed to sustain the life process: respiration, cellular metabolism, circulation, glandular activity and the maintenance of body temperature.

• Specific Dynamic Action (SDA) is the increase in metabolic rate resulting from absorption of food, or the amount of energy needed for digestion.

• Activity (ACT) is the amount of activity you engage in a 24 period (we are going to focus on exercise rather then basic bodily movements).

To lose approximately ______ lbs. of fat/week, totaling ______ lbs. over the next ______ weeks, the following exercise prescription is recommended:

• Increase cardiovascular activity to ______ cals. / workout for ______ minutes, ______ days/week.
  
• Reduce caloric intake to ______ cals. / 24 hr., as follows:
  

  ( ) %	carbohydrates	______	cals. /	______	grams
  ( ) %	protein	______	cals. /	______	grams
  ( ) %	fat	______	cals. /	______	grams
  	total	______	cals.

1. Lets begin filling out the “Program Design” worksheet by first filling in the “Body Composition” information described above (weight, % body fat, fat weight, fat-free weight, ideal % and ideal weight).

2. Fill in the Energy Expenditure information, per the following formulas:

   1. Basal Metabolic Rate = 66 + (13.7 x W) + (5 x H) – (6.8 x A)
      • W = actual weight in kilograms (total weight in lbs. divided by 2.2)
      • H = height in centimeters (2.54 cm = 1 inch)
      • A = age in years

      Then take this value and reduce it by an extra 15% for women and 10% for men (multiply it by .15 for women, by .10 for men, then subtract from total)

   2. Specific Dynamic Action – multiply 10% - 15% to the basal metabolic rate value, based on light or medium eating throughout the day.

   3. Activity - multiply an additional 25%, 35% or 50% to the basal metabolic rate value, based on light, medium or heavy activity throughout the day.

   Now that you have these values, fill in the worksheet accordingly, and total these three values on the “Total Energy Expenditure” line. This total is approximately the total amount of calories you burn in a 24 hour period. This therefore would be the amount of calories you would have to take in, in a 24 hour period, to maintain weight.

   Now that you have this total, and knowing that one pound of fat equals 3,500 calories, you can figure out the adjustments you need to make, in your activity and calories, to loose one pound of fat per week, or two pounds per week, etc.

3. Fill in the amount of fat you would like to burn each week, under the “Program Recommendation” section of the worksheet. Again, loosing one (1) pound of fat per week is an excellent goal, however if you have a lot to loose, you can bump it up to 1 ˝ or 2 pounds.

4. Next fill in the worksheet with your activity. Figure out how many days a week you can realistically increase your cardiovascular activity (activity which increases your heart rate to a desired target heart rate). Activities such as brisk walking, cycling, running, treadmill, stationary bike and stairmaster are excellent choices.

   I would suggest to get on a treadmill, plug in your weight and see how many calories you burn walking or running for a given period of time. You then can duplicate this pace outside, for the selected time. If you prefer a stationary bike, weight is not a variable, simply begin pedaling and note the calories burned. A good goal is to try and burn at least 300 calories three to four days per week.

   For example, if we take this number of 300 calories burned, four days per week, it would total 1,200 calories burned per week.

   Next, minus the activity calories burned from the total body fat calories desired to loose each week (for example, minus 1,200 activity calories from 1 lb. fat per week or 3,500 calories, and you get 2,300 calories remaining). Then take this value and divide by seven (7 days per week). This value is what you will need to reduce from your estimated caloric intake or “Total Energy Expenditure” you figured previously.

   For example:
   
   • 1 lb. fat = 3,500 cals., minus Activity of 1,200 cals. = 2,300 cals.
     
   • Take 2,300 calories and divide by 7 (days) to get 328 cals.
     
   • If “Total Energy Expenditure” (TEE) (amount of calories needed to maintain present weight) =

     	2,500 cals.
     -	328 cals.
     _____________
     =	2,172 cals.	(Your new adjusted caloric intake)

   
   

   So if you increase your activity by 1,200 calories per week and decreased your caloric intake by 328 calories per day, you will loose 1 pound of body fat per week.

5. Next, you need to breakdown your calories into carbohydrates, proteins and fats. To do this you must come up with a % breakdown. To keep things simple (like we have done so far, right?), a good basic breakdown for weight loss is: 40% carbohydrates, 40% protein, 20% fat. Multiply these percents by the total caloric intake to get the specific calories. Then divide the carbohydrates by 4, the protein by 4, and the fat by 9, to get the specific grams. Fill these values in on your worksheet.

6. Now refer to the “Nutrition Log” at the end of this article and fill in the values at the top of the sheet. Simply write down the foods you eat throughout the day and note the protein, carbohydrates and fat breakdowns in terms of grams (an excellent book to refer to calories and breakdowns is “The Complete Book of Food Counts” by Corinne Netzer). At the end of each day, your totals should be pretty close to your estimated values. If not, re-examine the foods you ate throughout the day. I have also enclosed an example food plan for your review.

Well that’s it! Pretty simple huh! As I mentioned before, this stuff does get a little convoluted, but I have tried to keep it as simple as possible. Should you have any questions, give us a call at Canyon Springs Wellness Center, (801)375-6500.

This stuff is not that hard. Eating healthy, planning your meals and loosing weight is not as confusing or difficult as you think. It’s simply understanding the aforementioned principles, taking the steps provided above and taking it a day at a time. Any successful progress is broken down into increments that work for you. It is a journey with momentary obstacles. It’s simply problem solving- finding out what works for you. Develop a good support system. Consider getting a good start with a qualified personal trainer. Enjoy the process and have fun creating the new you!