Hey ya'll! Glad to see you back for a little quality time with yours truly! I wanted to chat about food diaries and how important it is to track what you put in your mouth! I am asked SO often what EXACTLY I eat on a daily basis, so today, I am going to get into the nitty gritty of my macro intake.
First, you need to know that everyone's daily intake needs are very different from one another. They vary based on age, height, weight, activity level, etc. So the best way to determine your intake needs is by figuring out your BMR (basal metabolic rate-how many calories you need to sustain life with what your body expends doing its normal internal metabolic thing each day). You can cheat & download a free BMR calculator on your phone :O) There are several. but the correct formula is as follows: (for the women, I will do mine for reference) *Keep in mind that you must adjust & redo your BMR for every 5 lbs lost.
WOMEN: 655 + (4.3 x weight in pounds) + (4.7 x height in inches) - (4.7 x age in years) My BMR is 1531.5
MEN: 66 + (6.3 x weight in pounds) + (12.9 x height in inches) - (6.8 x age in years)
Calculate Activity:
• If you are sedentary : BMR x 20%
• If you are lightly active: BMR x 30% • If you are moderately active (You exercise most days a week.): BMR x 40%
• If you are very active (You exercise intensely on a daily basis or for prolonged periods.): BMR x 50% This is me because I workout 7 days per week with a lot of heavy weights, intense intervals as well as incorporate everything else, plus my jobs are physically demanding. Most people fall into 'lightly active'. So my BMR x 50%= 2,297.25
• If you are extra active (You do hard labor or are in athletic training.): BMR x 60%
Add this number to your BMR. That is how many calories you need to maintain what you are working with now. In order to lose weight, you need to eat less than that number. (when you lose weight, you need to recalculate your BMR). Does that mean I am only going to eat 1500 cals per day and be a skinny bitch in a month??? NO! I actually did that to myself years ago-knowing that I was doing the wrong thing but because I had hashimotos without knowing, it was the only way that I could stay 'thin'. I did a LOT of damage to my body. I was constantly sick & injured and never saw any improvements in my training. (I write about metabolic damage in another blog post).
So now that I have my shit together and KNOW that you MUST eat in order to lose. I stay with about 2000 calories per day. I change my macros around a little every so often to keep my body guessing. Currently I am doing a sugar cleanse with my group of fit friends at TWL (Lyzabeth Lopez) which requires very low sugar, very low carbs, high fat and high protein. There are a lot of factors that go into deciding why I eat what I eat and we're all different, so this may work for you but different things might work for you as well.
My Macros are currently at approximately: 40% Protein (180g) 38% (100g) fat 22% (90)carbs.
I am eating no gluten/dairy/low sugar. I am also cutting around 1-200 cals off of my normal avg daily intake for a period of time to see how it effects me. In the past, when I do calorie cuts, I GAIN lbs...and I do NOT want to do that, so I am experimenting. If I gain, I will go back to 2k cals/day.
I have eaten healthy and worked out for YEARS, before they had health trackers on your phone, I kept a paper food diary. Lol, back in my body for life days. I am decades later still keeping track of my food intake EVERY day. This requires measuring everything out instead of eye-balling it. Even though by now, I know what 4oz of chicken looks like. You can easily slip up when your eyes are hungry ;) Measuring is super important, and so is tracking. I use MYFITPAL which is on iPhone & android. Its super user friendly and it allows you to enter in your daily goals; calories, macro %'s. It even has a scanner on it to enable you to enter in the correct food item.
So, let's get to it shall we? Normal food intake for me:
Important to note that food rotation is very necessary! Don't eat the same thing every day for months.
Pre-breakfast
Lemon water (I generally have this on my nightstand so I can drink it asap since I am always in a rush in the am)
*I practice intermittent fasting & workout fasted, only because I have seen better results on myself this way, however, if you are new to working out or are not working out immediately upon getting up, please eat. I have seen grown men puking at the gym due to lack of eating before heading out. I actually puked once when I started working out & starving myself.
Gym supps: I will take my Ashwaganda powder, camu camu powder, glutamine (I take multiple times per day), and you cannot forget your chlorella or a super greens formula, Amino acids (Natural without artificial sweeteners) that I sip during the workout
After gym breakfast
Protein Crepe with 1 Tbsp organic Almond butter ((I usually have 1 Tbsp raw local honey but not during my sugar cleanse)) (the crepe has 2 organic eggs, 1 scoop Vegan protein powder) + supps (Bs, Cs, fish oil, primrose oil, digestive enzymes, CLA, D, and currently BeauT.
A couple hours from then, and only if I am running around, I will have a pre-made shake, a Garden of Life bar or a chia pudding perhaps.
Lunchtime:
5oz organic chicken breast, 1 cup organic zucchini + (Cs, selenium, E, digestive enzymes & whatever current protocol I am on)
Snack:
Protein Shake with 1 scoop vegan protein, 1 c organic nut milk, 1 tbsp organic cashew butter, 1 handful organic baby spinach, 1 tbsp organic hemp seeds, ice, 1 tsp cinnamon
Dinner
Turkey Stuffed Bell Peppers (see the recipe in separate post!) with garlic olive oil broccolini +supps (Cs, glucosamine, Calcium + Mag, CLA, digestive enzymes)
Snack
Protein Shake, almond milk, nut butter and ice
Bedtime Supps (5-HTP, Melatonin, fish oil, C, Evening Primrose, glutamine, Lysine) & No eating 3 hours before bed.
Today's total was 1857 cals at 40%P/40%F/20%C
Every day will be slightly different with different meals prepped ahead of time and then in 2 weeks, I will add a higher carb day. Just not whole grains (because I am gluten free with hashimotos) but fruits/veggies & maybe a couple of organic corn shelled chicken tacos lol. I also will not stay with these macros long term but they are working for me right now.
This isn't perfect for everyone, but I wanted to answer the inquires of many ladies asking exact #s :O) Hope this helps!
Thank you for joining me & reading today's post!
Brianna, Holistic Healing Fit Club
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