In my previous article I explained how to determine the number of calories needed daily to lose weight. Remembering that this is not an exact science, you need to record your results to see if they are working for you. This article will give you a method of dividing food portions known as 40/30/30.
The 40/30/30 method
This means that 40 percent of your meal will come from carbohydrates, 30 percent will come from protein, and 30 percent will come from fat. Let’s say your meal plan calls for you to eat 1,500 calories per day. The breakdown would be 600 calories from carbs, 450 calories from protein, and 450 calories from fat. The question is how do we get those calories from each type of food? Easy, look at the grams on the label.
How many calories per gram?
There are 4 calories per gram of carbohydrates and protein. This means that if something has 30 grams of carbs or protein, 120 calories will come from those carbs or protein.
There are 9 calories per gram of fat. This means that if something has 10 grams of fat, 90 calories come from fat.
If we were to take a look at the label for whole milk, it would look similar to this:
Serving Size 8 FL OZ
Calories – 150
Total Fat – 8g
Total Carbs – 12g
Protein – 8g
Adding it all up looks like this: 8g protein = 32 calories, 12g carbs = 48 calories, 8g fat = 72 calories. 32 + 48 + 72 = 152. The label rounds the number of calories from fat to 70.
Easy right? OK, now back to the 40/30/30 method
Now that we understand how to calculate calories based on grams of each type of food, we need to figure out how many grams per day we should consume on a daily basis. Let’s take each percentage of the calories in our food (40/30/30) and divide it by the number of calories per gram of each good kind. Going back to 1500 calories here is how it breaks down.
Carbohydrates (40%) 600 Calories = 150 grams (600 / 4 calories per gram)
Protein (30%) 450 Calories = 113 grams (450 / 4 calories per gram)
Fat (30%) 450 = 50 grams (450 / 9 calories per gram)
In the 40/30/30 plan at 1500 calories per day we will eat 150 grams of carbohydrates, 113 grams of protein and 50 grams of fat.
What kind of food should I eat?
When it comes to carbs, I’ve had the most success with the following carbs: brown rice, grain/protein pasta, fruits, vegetables (you can eat all the vegetables you want), shredded wheat, oatmeal, and grain bread. These are known as complex carbohydrates and there are examples of these all over the web. This is the key to eating carbs… Eat most of your carbs in the morning, preferably after waking up and within 2 hours of exercising. Why? After fasting overnight or after exercising, your body will quickly absorb those carbohydrates (even high-sugar ones) much more easily than if you had been sitting all day. If you need 150 carbs per day, try to eat 50 of those carbs right after you wake up and 50 right after you exercise.
Carbohydrate recommendation – Eat mostly low-glycemic vegetables and fruits (grapefruit, bananas, apples, etc.) throughout the day and eat most high-glycemic foods (rice, pasta, etc.) after exercising or at night. morning. One of my favorite breakfasts is scrambled eggs with hot sauce and steel bits with a little honey. Hmm!
Protein Recommendations – This one’s pretty easy: chicken breasts (PLEASE USE POULTRY SPICES!), lean ground beef (PLEASE USE MEAT SPICES!), lean steak (AGAIN, SPICES!), eggs, substitutes egg, whey protein powder, cottage cheese, fish and pork loin. Any lean meat or vegetarian protein source will do.
fat recommendations – You should mix your fat sources between saturated and unsaturated fats – Butter (in moderation), cheese (in moderation), avocado, olive oil, nuts (peanuts have very little nutritional value, it is better to eat anything but peanuts), salmon (good protein too)
Following the 40/30/30 is pretty simple. Just calculate your daily caloric needs and stick with it. Remember to adjust the numbers as you lose weight. Every 5 pounds or so, you should recalculate your daily caloric needs.
One final piece of advice: The best advice I’ve ever received for buying groceries in a supermarket is this: avoid the middle islands of the supermarket. Stick to everything around the islands, like the produce section, meat section, seafood section, and dairy section, and you should be in good shape. However, that does not include the bakery or deli.