Burn 500 a day for 40 days

chrisdavey

This may be of assistance to you. It is some nutritional advice from Stoutman on here (who knows his stuff) given to a 130lbs (59kg female) I copied it at the time as I think the rules he uses are great.

What are the fundamentals? Well to name a few....

1. Set calories according to your goal. A deficit for weight loss, equal for maintenance, and a surplus for weight gain

2. Set protein at approximately 1 gram per pound of goal body weight. There are 4 calories in each gram of protein.

3. Set fat at approximately 30% of total calories. There are 9 calories for each gram of fat.

4. Eat 4-6 servings of fibrous veggies per day. Calorie content of veggies varies depending on the type... but a ballpark might be 20-40 per serving.

5. Eat 2-4 servings of fruit per day. Like veggies, calorie content varies here. A ballpark might be 60 or so.

I don't use MFP for anything but the community and helping people. I'm not sure how all their calculators work. I can tell you this though... I'm not a fan of estimating calorie expenditure. It's something I've never done with my clients or myself. I take a much simpler route.

I pick a reasonable estimate of calorie maintenance assuming sane amounts of exercise. What's a sane amount of exercise? About an hour per day of moderate to above moderate activity. Weight lifting, cardio, etc. Maintenance works out to be roughly 14-16 calories per pound.

If you're very lean or very overweight... or if you feel you have a bit of a sluggish metabolism... you might need to adjust this starting point. In your case though, I'd go with 15 given your level of activity. Remember, this isn't a contract you're signing here so there's no need to make a big deal about it.

130 x 15 = 1950

From there, it's a matter of creating your deficit. I generally like a deficit of 30% or so. This would put you at about 1400 calories or so. If you were my client, that'd be your initial daily calorie target.

Then it'd be a matter of filling in those calories with the "right mixture" of nutrients.

On the protein front, 1 gram per pound of goal body weight would put you at 120 grams. 120 grams of protein equates to 480 calories, leaving you with 920 left to "fill."

Good sources of protein include chicken and turkey breast, fish, lean ground beef, lean cuts of steak, pork tenderloin, nuts, eggs, milk, yogurt, cottage cheese, protein powders, etc.

On the fat front, 30% of total calories comes to 420. Since there are 9 calories in each gram of fat, this would equate to 47 or so grams of fat. You'd be left with 500 calories left to fill.

Good sources of fat include fish oils, flax, fish, olive oil, avocados, nuts, natural peanut butter, etc

If we go with our ballparked numbers for veggies and fruits, we'd have 130ish calories coming from veggies and 180ish coming from fruit. We'd be left with 190 calories left to fill.

This final allotment is your freebie. Fill it with whatever you'd like.

Just remember this is a process. You don't get to sign a contract and expect things to work indefinitely. The process should look *something* like this:

1. Estimate total energy expenditure. (this is where I start with the 14-16 cals per pound)

2. Set your caloric intake at a level above or below the above estimation depending on whether you want to gain or lose weight, respectively.

3. Track your measurements, weight, body fat, pictures, etc every 2-4 weeks.

4. Based on the trend you’re seeing with your tracking, adjust your intake accordingly.

5. Rinse and repeat steps 2-4 until you a) reach your goal or b) your goals change.