Is Your Diet Suited To Weight Loss Or Muscle Building?

By Russ Howe


If you are trying to maximize your muscle building gains or learn how to lose weight safely, you will need to be aware of a few important factors if you are to see any real results. The biggest factor, of course, is learning how to optimize your eating habits to suit your goals.

In today's post, you will learn how to do this for yourself.

You would be shocked to see how many individuals seem happy to toil away for hours each week in the gym only to sacrifice their results by eating a terrible diet packed with alcohol and junk food. You don't need to stop eating your favorite foods by any means, but you do need to learn a few facts. The first fact is that in order to lose weight you need to lower your daily calorie total.

However, it would be quite foolish to set yourself a good calorie target and then neglect to go a little bit further. By learning how to optimize your intake of protein, carbohydrates and fats you will only enhance your results even further. []

There is more than enough conflicting information out there to over complicate the process of dieting. That's why so many people at your local gym are completely lost. However, it's not very difficult to set yourself some proven, effective goals.

* Total daily calories = target body weight in pounds x 15.

So for someone who wanted to be 180 lbs, they would multiply 180 x 15. This will give that individual a daily calorie target of 2700.

* Protein = Take 30% of your total calorie intake and divide it by 4.

The individual here, who wants to weigh 180 lbs, would need to eat 202g protein each day. That's because 30% of his calories is 810, we then divide this by 4 which is the number of calories in one single gram of protein. That's how we get our answer.

* Total daily carbohydrate intake = 55% of overall calories divided by 4.

Carbohydrates are our best friend when trying to add size to our frame. Many people mistakenly believe protein is the key, but it is not. 55% of your calories should arrive from carbohydrates. In the case of our 180 lb male, this would be 1485 calories. Share this by 4 and we get a target of 371 grams.

* Fats = 15% of our calorie target, divided by 9.

To establish the fat intake for our 180 lb male, we would take 15% of our calorie target and divide the figure by 9. So, 15% of 2700 calories is 405. This figure divided by 9 is a total of 45 grams per day in healthy fat sources.

The difference between bulking up safely and cleanly, as opposed to simply eating everything in sight, is the fine line which separates those who add good size from those who simply add a ton of fat. You don't want to gain size on your arms at the expense of your gut, of course. Learning the science behind how to lose weight and build lean muscle can be a confusing affair, so playing around with the principles is a key factor in striking a balance which suits your individual body.




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