A Quick and (fairly) Basic Guide to Constructing a Cutting Diet

LeeB

ive been meaning to sticky this for a while now, many people understand the various what to eats and what not to eats etc.

one of the most common questions is how to correctly structure a diet. now, theres no right and wrong answer to this, its just finding out how your body responds.. but most people need a starting point.. to make sense of what amounts of food to use.. when to eat etc.. and also a little explanation as to how overall calories relate to proteins/carbs/fats...

so if youd like to learn how to get yourself lean.. try startimg with this approach!!

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start off by working out how many calories your eating a day at present...

to do this.. write down everything you eat for 3 days and how many calories are in it (yes its tedious). once you have the total number of calories for each day.. add them all together and didvide this by 3.... this will give your maintenence calories total. i.e. how many calories your body is using per day to stay at the same bodyweight.

for instance... if my 3 daily calorie intakes were:

Day1 = 3000
Day2 = 2000
Day3 = 2500

then my maintenence calories would be:

3000 + 2000 + 2500 = 7500

7500 / 3 = 2500 * this is daily maintenence calories

hope this is making sense so far.

now you need to work out how many grams of protein you should be eating... to do this... you need to work out your LEAN bodyweight.. i.e. what your bodyweight would be without any fat on it. everyone has a different percentage of bodyfat but i find 15% is a good start point... so to work it out you basically take 15% off your bodyweight... (or times it by 0.85 which is the same thing) so if for instance i weighed 175lb i would do the following:

175 * 0.85 = 149 (rounded up) giving a lean body weight of 149lb.

so at 149lb as a start its best to look to eat 1.5g of protein per lb of bodyweight.. so i would be taking in 149*1.5 = 224g (rounded up) of protein per day.

....so just to recap... weve worked out calories per day (2500) and protein per day (224g)... each gram of protein contains 4 calories... so 224g of protein is equal to 896 calories..

next on to carbohydrate.. to keep things simple.. youll notice that the 896 protein calories is roughly 40% of our total calorie requirement... (ok you may not have noticed.. but it is)... so basically lets set our carbohydrates to be 40% too.... again each gram of carbohydrate also has 4 calories... so we should be eating the same amount of carbs (224g) a day too...

so to recap again... we know so far that the diet should be:

Protein = 224g (896 calories)
Carbohydrate = 224g (896 calories)
Fats = ???? (??? calories)

Total Calories needed = 2500

so how do we work out fats?? well we add the calories needed from protein and carbs together:

896 + 896 = 1792

and take the result away from the total calories:

2500 - 1792 = 708

this leaves the total number of calories needed from fats each day as 708... now each gram of fat has 9 calories... so to get how many grams of fat we need we simply divide the number of fat calories by 9:

708/9 = 79g (rounded up)

so now our daily diet totals are:

Protein = 224g (896 calories)
Carbohydrate = 224g (896 calories)
Fats = 79g (708 calories)

Total Calories needed = 2500

next we decide ho many meals we would like to eat a day... its best to eat every 2-3 hours.... as a starting point lets pick 6 meals a day... we then divide our daily amounts by 6.. so each meal is the same...... meaning each meal should end up as:

Protein = 37g
Carbohydrate = 37g
Fats = 13g

what protein carb and fats sources you choose are up to you... but thats the basics of working out a diet! its not simple.... but it WORKS! if you do this and your not losing weight... lower calories by 10%..

hope this all makes sense.. after re-reading it im guessing it may not... and might actually be more useful to some of teh more advanced guys on here...... but try take as much of it in as possible...

wend

cheers,it does makes sense, just, take your time to do it!! thanks for taking the time,, X

J-man

Hi lee, just want to say great info mate. Your info has really set me on the right track with my contest diet cheers mate.

clarke

Cheers Lee mate, very well explained and easily understood. nice one!
Ive got a question though if you (or anyone else?) can help?
Im 28yo, 5'9 and 13st 6lb. Ive lost 2st 8lb since early July purely due to cutting back on the crap food and reducing calorie intake and doing absolutely no cardio (do a reasonably physical job and walk the dog but thats it).
However, Im looking to try and 'tone up' (i know everyone hates that term!) but you know what i mean? Not looking to be an ultra ripped olympic gymnast! but just want to have decent looking biceps, shoulders and chest (pecs), Ive never felt confident enough to wear no shirt when its hot and im looking to get in shape so i can get my confidence up (any specific exercises would be appreciated).
Anyway! if i work out (going by the plan above) i would need to be taking in 960g protein and 960g carbs plus fats per day, which is way more calories than i do now as i never go over the 1500 mark.
Am i working it out wrong? im sure im reading and working it right but surely if i up my calories by 500(ish) per day then surely im gonna gain weight whereas i want to trim up.
Any advice on protein shakes, supplements etc would be grateful. Ive been on Promax for 2 weeks and weight training mon, tue, thu, fri and am seeing small changes already, but maximuscle is pretty dear, anyone used reflex? how is it?
Cheers fellas!

Rianabol

Mate

Invest in some Extreme products, their protein is top notch, doesnt cost the earth and MC members get a substantial discount, contact Extreme for more details,

R

Tall

Clarke... Go back and check your numbers mate...

960g Protein = 3840kcals...

At 13st the numbers LeeB has on there will work fine for you:

Protein = 224g (896 calories)
Carbohydrate = 224g (896 calories)
Fats = 79g (708 calories)

You say you are eating 1500 kcals per day - thats pretty low, I'd post up a new thread with your full diet on mate, containing details of your meals and timing.

clarke

TH&S, youre right mate! I worked it out wrong!
my daily diet consists of;
breakfast; weetabix x3 OR oats (both with skimmed milk)
10am; protein shake
12:30pm; 1 can plain tuna, oatmeal bar, apple.
3pm; apple.
5-6pm; train.
post training; protein shake
dinner; either steak, chicken, chilli etc with either jacket or new potatos, rice and always salad. with yoghurt or cottage cheese afterwards.
totals to no more than 1700 cals per day.
I know my diet could be better but as im just getting into it i dont want to go too mad too soon and cut everything out straight away.
im looking to get leaner and gain some defintion on my upper body so any advice on diet, training and timing would be great.
Thanks mate!

LeeB

glad you liked the post clarke.

your diet looks ok to me in all honesty.. its functional and obviously works for what you have wanted so far! congrats on losing all the weight by the way, its not an easy thing to do!!

as has been said, have a look at the extreme products, check out their website (see my signature below), its got soem articles on training and nutrition and the importance of protein etc..

in terms of progression id say simply you need those extra calories (500-1000), look to get most of them from protein, and the rest from good quality carbohydrate sources... i can pretty much guarantee that if you up your calories that much for a 4 week period you will NOT get fat!! BUT if the worst does happen... you have lost the weight before so whats a few pounds again????

if you really want to alter your physique then you have to take that chance, but your muscles DO need it to progress! altho now is the time to forget about the scales for a few weeks and go by the progress you see and feel!

try some of the kre-volution from extreme, i can personally vouch for it 100% and know it will help you.

good luck with your goals mate!

clarke

Cheers Lee mate, at least I know now that im on the right track!
Ill try and get a load more protein into my system in that case and see how i go, Youre right about the scales and to be honest ive only kept track out of curiosity of how much ive lost. Like you say, if I put a few pounds on im pretty confident ill drop them off again pretty easily.
I definately want to go by what the mirror tells me rather than the scales and to be honest, even after the last 2 weeks of training and protein shakes im noticing a difference on my forearms and very slightly on my upper chest so im sure it will happen given time (im just an impatient bugger!)
I just need to shed the last layer of fat from my stomach and chest, so if i keep to my diet and train like I have been dyou reckon it will eventually go? or would any specific training/exercises be particularly good?
Thanks mate.

LeeB

its all diet mate getting rid of that last bit.

but from my own experience i know you would be much happier filling the muscle out first and then dieting the fat off after.

we all want muscles. thats why we are here! lol