Diet Plans and dieting tips have really become the talk of the town with everybody becoming more and more health conscious. Put a query on Google and you will come up with a plenty of options offering free diet plans. Amidst, so many available choices, choosing the best diet plan that would actually work for you, becomes a real task.
Hence, we decided to come up with this article to simplify your diet plan choosing process.
It comes as a real surprise that even most workout enthusiasts have little knowledge about diet planning and complain about not getting the expected results despite doing the right exercises and taking supplements.
The key to effective diet planning lies in calculating one’s calorie intake. Right, the amount of calories one puts in their stomach on a daily basis. And why the calories ??? Yeah, Because all the incredible bodily transformations – toned arms, legs, glutes; pumped up triceps, biceps, 6 pack abs, ultimately are attributed to 70% diet and 30% exercise.
So, let’s understand the science behind Choosing a Diet Plan which is quite simple. When one decides to get on a diet, they either want to lose weight or gain weight.
- Losing weight means burning more calories than the total calorie intake in a day.
- Gaining weight means consuming more calories than what can be burnt in a day.
- Maintaining weight means the intake is same as the calories burnt.
A calorie is basically a unit of measurement of energy provided by the food. The food nutrients – Carbohydrates, Proteins and Fat provide energy. A gram of fat gives 9 calories of energy whereas a gram of protein and carbohydrates, provide 4 calories of energy each. Hence, it is very important that the diet plan you choose has these nutrients in the required proportions.
For maintaining a healthy weight, a man requires about 2200 – 2400 calories per day and a healthy woman requires 1800 – 2000 calories. So, if the calorie intake is more than these numbers, there’s a gain in weight and if it’s less, there’s a weight loss. A simple example : If you are a woman who wants to lose 1/2 pound weight in a week then reduce 400-500 calories per day and if you want to gain then increase 400-500 calories per day. That means, a diet plan of 1400 calories will help you lose weight and 2300 calories will help you to gain weight.
So, to choose a diet plan, you need to know about the calories that you require to maintain your current weight. In order to determine your daily calorie needs, use the following formula :
Daily Calorie Needs = BMR x Activity Factor
Where BMR : Basal Metabolic Rate – The amount of calories required by the body just to sustain basic body functioning like breathing and pumping of blood by the heart.
Activity Factor – Determines your Activity level in your day to day life. The standard values are :
The calorie needs for every individual are different since every individual is different as such Height, Weight, Gender and Age need to be taken into account.
So, once you get to know the calories you need on a daily basis to maintain your current weight, compare that value with the above mentioned calorie numbers for ideal weight maintenance to know, how many calories you need to burn for losing weight or how many calories you body needs to gain weight.
Isn’t that easy??
Hope this article gave you the required insight and would help you plan your diets better. Happy Dieting !!!
Reference:
– Wikipedia : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harris–Benedict_equation – Images from Pexels.com
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