Weight Loss Meal Plan Tips

What is the first step to a proper weight loss meal plan? Is it choosing the right foods or forgetting about
your favourite junk foods. No, the first step is to calculate the calories. First calculate your calorie maintenance level that is how many calories you have to eat a day to maintain your current body weight. There is a lot of methods to do this, but the most popular and accurate is the Harris-Benedict equation and Katch-McArdle formula. So here you will learn how to calculate your calories using these two methods

Harris-Benedict Equation

Harris Benedict equation is used to estimate total calorie requirements using BMR or Basal Metabolic Rate which is the total number of calories your body required to perform its normal functions at rest.

Calculating BMR

BMR calculation for Men = 66 + (6.23 x weight in pounds) + (12.7 x height in inches) - (6.76 x age in years)

BMR calculation for women = 655 + (4.35 x weight in pounds) + (4.7 x height in inches) - (4.7 x age in years)

Take the number and multiply it by the Activity Multiplier.

Little or no exercise = BMR x 1.2

Light exercise (1-3 days per week) = BMR x 1.375

Moderate exercise (3-5 days per week) = BMR x 1.55

Heavy exercise (6-7 days per week) = BMR x 1.725

Very heavy exercise (very intense exercises twice per day) = BMR x 1.9

Then you will get the calories required a day to maintain your current body weight. So to lose weight you have to eat 500-1000 calories less than that.

Here I will show you an example:

If you are a male and weigh 150 pounds, 6'0" or 72 inches and 25 years old. Your BMR will be,

66 + (6.23 x 150) + (12.7 x 72) - (6.76 x 25)

= 1745.5

Now multiply it by the activity multiplier.

= 1745.5 x 1.3 (light exercise)

= 2270 kcal

So this individual have to take 2270 calories each day to maintain his current body weight. So to lose weight he have to eat 500 - 1000 less calories ie 1270 - 1770 kcal.

As a general rule inorder to maintain healthy metaboilsm women should never go below 1200 cals/day and men should never go below 1600 cals/day.

I hope now you understood how to calculate your calories, and this is the base for any weight loss meal plan.

Katch-McArdle Formula

Next I will show another popular method used which is little more easier than the harris - benedict equation and that is Katch - McArdle Formula. But the only drawback is that, you need to calculate your body fat percentage. Body fat percentage is calculated using a device called skin fold calipers or body fat calipers. After getting the body fat percentage you have to calculate the lean body mass in kg. (Lean body mass = Total Bodyweight - Body Fat)

BMR = 370 + (21.6 x lean mass in kg)

After getting the BMR multiply it with the Activity Multiplier (as shown in Harris - Benedict Equation) and consume 500-1000 calories less to lose weight.

Creating the weight loss meal plan

Now you know how much calories you need to eat every single day to lose weight. You are hearing the word calories every where and how much calories does the food I eat contains?

1 gram of carbohydrates = 4 calories
1 gram of proteins = 4 calories
1 gram of fats = 9 calories

If you are eating 1 cup of brown rice which contains about 45g of carbs and 5 grams of proteins. It provides you about 200 calories. So get a food table and know how much calories you are eating.

The next step is to divide these calories into Carbohydrates, Proteins and Fats. That is how much calories should come from Carbohydrates. proteins and fat. So as a general rule you can split this to 50-30-20 that means 50 percentage of calories from carbohydrates, 40% from proteins and 20% from fats. If you are carb sensitive or finds very difficulty to lose weight you can split it to 40-40-20 or 40% from carbs, 40% from proteins and 20% from fats.

So for example take the case of 150 pound man who needs 1770 cals to lose weight.

1770 x 50/100 = 885 calories from carbs

885/4 (caloreis) = 221g of carbohydrates a day.

1770 x 30/100 = 531 calories from proteins

531/4 (calories) = 132 g of proteins a day.

1770 x 20/100 = 354 calories from fats

354/9 (calories) = 40 g of fats a day.

So this person's weight loss meal plan consists of

221g of carbohydrates
132g of proteins and
40g of fats

The next step is to split these meals.You need to stop eating the traditional 3 big meals a day and start eating 5-6 smaller meals spaced 3 hours a day. Eating small meals throughout the day boosts your metabolism and satisfies your hunger which leads to faster weight loss.

So the sample weight loss meal plan for our above example will looks like:

Meal 1: 37g of carbohydrates and 22g of proteins
Meal 2: 37g of carbohydrates and 22g of proteins
Meal 3: 37g of carbohydrates and 22g of proteins
Meal 4: 37g of carbohydrates and 22g of proteins
Meal 5: 37g of carbohydrates and 22g of proteins
Meal 6: 37g of carbohydrates and 22g of proteins

You can make a little tweak to this plan by cutting all the carbs at the last meal and adding it to the first and post workout meals. Regarding the fats, its not necessary to count the fat because you will get enough fats from your diet. But you need to have some good fats like extra virgin olive oil or nuts to boost your weight loss. So include good or unsaturated fatty acids in your two meals, fifth or sixth meal.

I hope now you understood how to create a good weight loss meal plan. So don't forget to check the sample weight loss diets also.