Need advice for diet beginner

Question

I recently decided to do fitness and diet more seriously.I am a male 31 years old - 183 cm - 77 Kg I don't know my body fat but since the confinement, I gained 4 Kg and no exercise during this period ^^ I would like to calculate my daily calorie and macronutrient ratio

For daily calorie I try some simulator for loosing 0,5 Kg per week with a goal at 73 Kg, the result is 1650 cal/day.

For my macronutrient i would like to start with :

• Protein: 15% ( 108 gram daily )
• Fat: 44 %
• Carb: 41 %

But I have also 4 sessions Workout :

• Tuesday - 90 min - Weight workout - Chest/tricep/shoulder ( push )
• Wednesday - 90 min - Weight workout - Legs
• Friday - 90 min - Weight workout -Back / Arms ( pull )
• Sunday - 90 min - cardio and abs

I think 1650 is not enough... I'm considering starting from 2000 or 2200 but I don't how to integrate my workout on my calorie count. Any advice is welcome :)

Answer 1

Best advice I have for a diet beginner is to keep it separate (& simple).

Though nutrition and exercise go hand-in-hand, I advise my clients starting out on a new diet plan, to keep it separate from their workout goals. It’s been established that losing fat is math; you MUST be in a caloric deficit to lose fat.

Because of this, diet and exercise are paired together to more easily reach a deficit (or greaten the deficit making the fat loss faster), but if you’re just getting started, don’t over complicate the formula by trying to add in your TDEE(total daily energy expenditure) + NEAT (non exercise activity thermogenesis).

That equation you referenced above is likely working off of your BMR (basal metabolic rate) and then estimating activity burn based on lifestyle. It’s hard to say how accurate that burn rate is, and this is why I advise working strictly off caloric consumption control for new dieters.

It gets very complicated, very quick trying to guess activity level and burn if you aren’t wearing an accurate tracker 100% of the time, or consulting with an expert. When new dieters start to do this and try to add in their workout burns to adjust their daily consumption plan, it often leads to a miscalculation and the deficit gets lost.

Instead, try using a BMR CALCULATOR to establish a daily consumption baseline and be conservative when selecting your “activity level.”

Work off that strictly when it comes to your nutrition. The activity you do complete, is then an extra bonus! It’s something you end up enjoying more, rather than overthinking or counting every bit to change daily calorie intake.

As a diet beginner, don’t bite off more than you can chew (pun intended!) Keep it simple, remembering calories in (FOOD), must be less than calories out (MOVEMENT/ACTIVITY). Extra activity and workouts will help you reach fat loss goals quicker, but don’t overcomplicate burn calculations.

The TL;DR

It’s universal. 1lb of fat = 3,500kcals. So to lose that 1lb you NEED to be in a weekly caloric deficit of ~3,500. Use exercise as a way to contribute to the deficit, but don’t work an entire calculation off of it, since it’s easy to misjudge energy expenditure, especially as a beginner.

Instead, create a baseline solution that is conservatively based in your everyday burn. Aim for -500kcal deficit per day on that. Movement activity is a helpful increase to speed progress along.

As always, it’s best to consult directly with an RD or Certified Nutrition Specialist to get the specific numbers and a deficit program that safely works for you.

Answer 2

Depends on what you want. Various studies have shown that you can gain muscle while losing fat but a slower rate. Deficit calories build 20% less muscle mass than surpluss calories but there are other caviats. If you are already skinny, going into a deficit will turn you into a skinny shredded pole, think Bruce lee.

Being skinny might be considered unhealthy by some but there is evidence suggesting that being "too" skinny is incredibly hard and people live longer when underweight, the longest living populations in the world were poor people with poor diets with small BMI. So if you just want to lose fat and live longer and look like Bruce Lee, go for a slight deficit like 10% or 15% less than what your doctors says you need to eat.

But if you wanna go into a surplus then you will build muscle faster, noticeably faster. But will also build fat, so don't hope having visible abdominal muscle cuts.

After 1 year in surplus you might expect to look like that by putting on just 4 kilograms of muscle and 5 kilograms of fat. Which is the lowest average, the majority of people can put on more muscle than that in just a year.

But what happens if you eat at maintenance calories? You will still look like Bruce Lee, because you will lose weight but your frame will get smaller as you gain some muscle, it will just be kind of slower.

Also being in a calorie surplus gives you more energy to train more, in some sports being heavier is always a benefit while in others you can never be too skinny and small, it depends.

So it depends on a lot of factors:

• you train for strength : go in a surplus

• you train to look good : go in a surplus and then lose weight

• you train to be agile: go in a deficit/maintenance

But those are not rules set in stone, they are just guidances. If you train for any specific sport like tricking or powerlifting do not believe when people say you need to lose weight to be a good acrobat or to be fat to be a good powerlifter...you can be a skinny powerlifter and be strong pound per pound and you can be heavy and fly like a butterfly.

This guy, Olive Segapolu weights 151 kilograms, that's like 340 pounds, and look him fly into a backflip.