When starting the fitness journey, our success essentially boils down to the mastering of only two variables: diet and exercise. Weight management – regardless of whether you are trying to lose, maintain or gain – is a balancing act between “calories in” (diet) and “calories out” (exercise). The exercise part is a little bit easier to tackle – just do the work!! But, the diet component is a little trickier, and has a tendency to trip people up.
The reason “calories in” can be a problem for people (at least at first) is because we don’t intuitively know exactly how many calories we should take in. After all it’s not like we come with sensors like our car’s gas gauge that tell us when we are filled with the exact appropriate amount of fuel! So in order to find out how many calories we need without going over or under, takes a little bit of guesswork and a little bit of math to figure out:
- Sedentary/little exercise: 1.200
- Little exercise 1 to 3 days/wk: 1.375
- Moderate exercise 3 to 5 days/wk: 1.550
- Heavy exercise 6 to 7 days/wk: 1.725
- Extra hard exercise 6 to 7 days/wk & physical job: 1.900
- To lose fat weight, take your TDEE-500
- To gain muscle, take your TDEE+[5-10% x TDEE]
So for example, let’s say you want to lose a pound of fat, your BMR is 2000cal, and you exercise 3 days per week. Your goal daily intake should be:
- [2000 x 1.375] – 500 = 2250cal/day
Or, let’s say you want to gain muscle, your BMR is 2500cal, and you exercise 5 days per week. Your goal daily intake should be
- [2500 x 1.550] + 5-10% = 4068 – 4262cal/day
For more help on how to find your individually specific calories per day, contact us to set up your assessment today!
Don’t forget we have new Sentinel swag for you to sport, so make sure to pick yours up TODAY!
jihan@sentinelperformancellc.com frank@sentinelperformancellc.com joe@sentinelperformancellc.com!
