Why Counting Calories?

Are your working your butt off since the last 6 months trying to lose weight and you still haven’t dropped the amount you were expecting? Then you are doing the same thing I did, and I got frustrated day after day. I always heard that being fit starts on the kitchen, so I started eating low carb, low sugar, a lot of salads without any dressing, a lot of tasteless food, trying stupid diets and where did I get? Nowhere!!

If you are aiming to lose fat the formula is very easy:#Calories out> #Calories In

The aim is to produce a caloric deficit.

How do you know how many calories do you take? Hum… got the idea??

Wilson Govindji - 2015

What are Macros?

Macros are the short form to macronutrients , their main purpose are to supply energy via caloriesLet’s make this simple and focus just on these 3:

• Carbs – 1 gr = 4 calories

• Fat – 1gr = 9 calories

• Protein – 1gr = 4 calories

You will find the nutritional information on almost every item you can get from your supermarket.

Non mandatory, but there are great books* that will explain how each macronutrient is used by our body, I recommend you to learn a bit more.

*See Extras at the end

Wilson Govindji - 2015

Structuring a diet

I can’t tell you how many calories you need to consume daily, you should seek professional help* that will structure your diet according to you objectives, your current weight, lifestyle, dieting preference etc.But I can tell you that protein has an important role in weight loss.Let’s take an example that someone who needs to consume daily 1700Kcals, the minimum protein daily intake is 150gr and 30% should be fat. So let’s make some simple accounting.

• Fat – 30% of 1700 = 510Kcals

• Protein – 150gr * 4 calories = 600Kcals

• Carbs – 1700 – (600 + 510) = 590Kcals

So now we have some ground to start dieting and structure our meals according to these numbers.

THIS IS JUST AN EXAMPLE TO SHOW YOU HOW TO DIVIDE THE CALORIES THROUGH THE MACROS, DOESN’T MEAN IT WILL FIT YOU!!

*See Extras at the end

Wilson Govindji - 2015

Myfitnesspal – the app

Myfitnesspal is an application that allows you to log your daily calories intake, in my opinion the top features are:

• Simple interface;• Available via web browser and mobile app (Android/iPhone);• Its learns as you log (remembers your preferences);• Can search food through an online databases;• Code bar scan – allows you to log directly from scanning a code bar scan – this is really cool!! • Logs not only calories but you can log weight and other measures;• Weight measurements progress shown on graph and list;• As more as you use, easier and fun it will be to use it;

• Grab it from your mobile app store or just start using directly from www.myfitnesspal.com;

Wilson Govindji - 2015

Myfitnesspal – Initial setup

The screens I present here are taken from an iPhone app, but its quite similar to Android or via web app.

1. Select “More”.

2. Select “Goals”.

3. Select “Current Weight” to record your weight.

4. Select “Calories” to record your max daily calories intake.

Wilson Govindji - 2015

Myfitnesspal – Initial setup

5. Now we need to setup the amount of calories for each macronutrient, click on any macro e.g: Protein.

6. Setup the % of each (information in grams is available as well).

7. The total should be 100% (Don’t worry if you end up having +- 1grams on a particular macro).

Myfitnesspal – Diary Record

This will be the most used screen as everyday you will be keeping your food intake into the diary.

1. Click on “Diary”.

2. Will be shown 4 main meals “Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner and Snacks” – I usually do 5 or 6 meals but I just add them into one. What is important at the end of the Day is total intake and not how you spread the calories across your meals*.

3. Click on add food.

*True for the majority of the people and depends on personal preferences, I like to consume more calories after my training.

Wilson Govindji - 2015

Myfitnesspal – Diary Record & Nutrition Information

MFP allows you to monitor you calories intake and breakdown the quantity of calories for each macronutrient and by food.

1. Click on add food.

2. The food can be searched on the online database, scanned via barcode, the app stores the food you take, this means, next time it will be available from local database.

3. Adjust the serving size and the number of servings.

4. You can see the “Nutrition Facts” of the food and this will be added to your diary.

Barcode Scanner

Wilson Govindji - 2015

Myfitnesspal – Total Intake

This will be one of the most used screen as everyday you will be interested to keep an eye on your food intake into the diary.

This is useful when you are giving your first steps and still getting used to the reality of counting calories.DON’T TRY TO GET IT RIGHT FROM DAY #1!! – You will learn to adjust day by day.

1. Click More>Nutrition.2. Calories (Day/Week view) section – Shows the total

#calories for each meal.3. Nutrients section – #grams per nutrient.

Wilson Govindji - 2015

Extras

1. Professional Help and Online Personal Training – Body By Mimo Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/bodybymimo

2. To understand more about fat loss and how are macronutrients used by our body “The Rapid Fat Loss Handbook” – Lyle McDonald

Wilson Govindji - 2015