Target Protein & Calories
In our recommended nutritional progression, we start with focusing on the quality of your food i.e. consuming primarily whole, unprocessed foods, balancing your plate with selections of protein, carbs, fat and veggies. From there the Palm Method can be utilized as a tool to determine your portion sizes without the need for a food scale. Now we are going to look to bring some more accuracy into your nutrition by focusing on portion control in stages of increasing precision.
The goal is to provide you with different options and then you can pick the one that works best for you. If any of these next steps seem overwhelming, you can continue to focus on the Palm Method and/or Balanced Plate Method. Sometimes doing less with more focus and consistency is best!
In this blog post we will dive into the following progressions:
Targeting an overall level of daily amount of protein, along with fruits and vegetables.
Daily calorie target, in addition to #1
Let’s get into more details of each of these steps.
STEP #1: OVERALL PROTEIN TARGET + FRUITS AND VEGETABLES
For the most part, diets are usually high in fats and carbs (especially processed) so we are first focusing on the items that are usually missing in someone's diet. By increasing your protein, fruits and vegetables consumption this will likely reduce your overall calorie and processed foods consumption. Why? Because these foods will leave you more full and satiated for longer after you eat.
HOW TO FIGURE OUT YOUR PROTEIN TARGET
It is important to know that there is no wrong way to do this. It is all about starting with a number, consistently tracking it and seeing how your body responds. Try to not overthink things too much while trying to find the “perfect” number.
The recommended range of protein is 0.7 - 1.0 grams of protein per pound of body weight.
Smaller, less active or female* can start around 0.7
Larger, more active, or male can start around 1.0
*Use your best judgement on YOUR body composition. If you are a female with more muscle, or higher activity, aim for a larger protein target.
Since protein is an item most likely to be under-consumed for the majority of people, we recommend staying on the low end and then you can always increase. It is better to start with a lower volume so you aren’t overwhelmed. Remember you just need to START with a number and don’t overthink it!
Example of How to Calculate Your Protein
Suppose someone was 150 pounds; their protein intake could be one of the following:
0.7 – 105 grams of protein/day
0.8 – 120 grams of protein/day
0.9 – 135 grams of protein/day
1.0 – 150 grams of protein/day
*If you use kilograms (kg) 1kg is equal to 2.2 lb.
What If You Want To Lose or Gain Weight?
We recommend starting with targeting based on your current weight to determine your protein requirements. If you feel you have a large amount of weight to lose (more than 30 pounds), you can aim for protein on the low end of the 0.7 to 1.0 intake range.
Tips for Tracking Protein
You don’t have to use an app to track your protein. We recommend just using a piece of paper.
Try to aim for foods where the majority of calories are from protein. For example, a slice of bread has 2 grams of protein in it. But you'd have to eat the whole dang loaf to get remotely close to the amount of protein needed in a single day.
HOW MANY FRUITS AND VEGETABLES?
We recommend getting a balance of both fruits and vegetables within your daily meals. The goal would be to get a total of 6 servings of fruits and vegetables per day. Now, we know for some people that is a big jump, so we have laid out a progression for you.
1 serving = 1 closed fist or cup.
Beginner: If you are just starting out with regularly eating fruits and vegetables, aim to consume 1-2 total servings of fruits and vegetables every day. Feel free to mix and match fruits and veggies. Keep that focus on 1-2 total servings every day.
Intermediate: Once the beginner recommendation is manageable, aim to consume 3-4 servings of fruits and vegetables every day. Feel free to mix and match fruits and veggies in such a way that helps you get 3-4 daily servings.
Advanced: When the intermediate recommendation is manageable, aim to consume 5-6+ servings of fruits and vegetables every day. Feel free to mix and match fruits and veggies in such a way to get 5+ daily servings.
A simple way to get 6 servings of fruits and veggies in each day is the 1-2-3 approach:
1 serving with breakfast
2 servings with lunch
3 servings with dinner and snacks
Once you are comfortable with Step One, you can move onto Step Two. Remember there is no point in trying to do more if you are currently overwhelmed. Make Step One habits a part of your everyday routine and then build from there.
Step #2: Daily Calorie Target
As you move into your calorie target the goal is to still continue to focus on your daily protein target, plus your fruits and vegetable servings. Feel free to build your meals using our recommended Food Chart and add in any other foods you enjoy eating!
What is a calorie?
A calorie is a unit of energy. When you read a nutrition label and it lists 120 calories, that is a way of describing how much energy your body could get from eating or drinking that particular item. Tracking the calories you consume can be helpful for you to get a better understanding of how much you eat daily and how many calories are in the foods you consume. This can create awareness around what you are eating and can be helpful for your performance and/or body composition goals.
The important thing to know is that there will be inaccuracies with logging platforms as well as nutrition labels. Do not get caught up in being perfect, shoot for being consistent with things! You don’t need to stress on your last 10 calories at the end of the day.
How to determine your calorie intake:
Before you dive into figuring out your caloric intake, it's important to keep perspective on things and not get too caught up in the small details. Oftentimes we think we need the “perfect” numbers of calories when in fact you just need to start somewhere, consistently track and then evaluate things based on how you are feeling (sleep, energy, mood, recovery) and if things are trending in the right direction with our goals.
If you want to use an online calculator - go for it! You can find one of our favorites HERE. Yes, we got permission to use this calculator.
However, we have a simple way for you to figure out your calorie target.
To determine your calorie needs, you need to know 2 things.
How much you weigh?
How active are you?
The bigger you are - especially the more muscle you have - the more food you need. The more active you are - the more food you need to support that movement.
The common misconception when it comes to fitness and nutrition is that getting lean is as simple as reducing your calories as low as possible, and getting your activity as high as possible. That might lead to “weight loss” initially, but unfortunately that kind of under-eating leads to a lot of muscle loss and eventually will completely ruin your metabolism (not to mention potential periodic overeating episodes).
To get to this point takes consistency and to a certain level some accuracy.
Therefore, to determine your calorie needs you’ll use this formula - Activity Level x Weight = Calorie Need
Use this table to determine your activity level number:
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Sedentary = Sitting most of the day (example: desk job)
Moderately Active = Continuous gentle to moderate activity (example: restaurant server)
Very Active = Strenuous activity throughout the day (example: construction work)
3 Workouts per week - you will use the low end of the multiplier
4-5 workouts per week - you will use the middle multiplier
6 workouts per week/ several days with two workouts in one day - you will use the high end of the multiplier.
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Let's say you are a 170 pound woman who is moderately active (i.e. you do Street Parking workouts 4-5 days a week but you have a desk job) and your goal is fat loss, you could target 13 x 170 = 2210 calories to consume daily. You can start with this for 3-4 weeks and monitor your progress not only on the scale, but also in measurements, how your clothes are fitting, etc. When you get to the point where your progress stalls for several weeks (sometimes your body stops progressing for a while then picks it up again), you can reduce your overall intake by 10% and continue the monitoring cycle again. The opposite example would be true if you’re someone who is looking to gain muscle.
Within this calorie goal, you would aim to continue to target the amount of protein, fruits and veggies from Step #1. After you have been consistent with your calorie target for several weeks, you would want to assess your progress relative to your goal (i.e. if you have consistently hit your calorie target for 90-95% of the days over 3-4 weeks, you may want to make a 10% reduction in calories.) You could also consider determining macronutrient targets for carbs and fat as an additional layer of precision - but we won’t be getting into that here!
HELPFUL TIPS FOR TRACKING YOUR FOOD
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This app will allow you to enter in your daily goals for protein carbs and fat and has information from almost any restaurant or brand of food you can think of for super easy tracking. Just keep in mind that a lot of items are user-added so the accuracy is not always the best. At the end of the day, being consistent with whatever you do is the best approach.
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I know this sounds crazy, but even if you only do it for meals at home, or when you meal prep you will start to learn what portions look like. Make sure these are levelled off cups/spoons! It is very easy to overdo portions when you have a mounding tablespoon of nut butter (anyone else feeling attacked here?)
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It can be overwhelming to try to keep up with your total calories for the day. Often, you will get to the end of the day and still have a large number of calories to consume. We recommend consuming 3-5 meals per day + a post-workout meal on the days you workout to help you stay ahead of your total daily calorie consumption. However, feel free to customize your meal frequency to work well for you and your lifestyle.
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Of course, the goal is to get as close to your overall calorie target as possible. However, you may have days where you’re slightly over or slightly over. Aim to have your weekly average as close to your target as possible