Marc David
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Do You Know How to Find YOUR Nutrient Ratios?
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Thursday, May 04, 2006 8:30 AM
( #1 )
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Beginning-Bodybuilding e-Newsletter
What Every Beginner Should Know But Probably Doesn't
May 4, 2006
Brought to you by Marc David of
http://www.beginning-bodybuilding.com
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Beginning Bodybuilding Q & A
with Marc David
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MARC'S RECOMMENDATION
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For this week's question and answer I would highly suggest
you print this out and follow the examples substituting the
numbers with your own.
It's much easier to do any equasions when you can just
follow along and input your numbers.
In the 2 minutes it will take you to read this issue,
you'll be amazed when you know your own personal nutrient
ratios and how many grams of protein, fat and carbs you'll
need to reach your goals.
When I first did this, it was if a somebody switched on a
light in a very dark room.
PRINT THIS ISSUE OUT RIGHT NOW
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Question:
Hey Marc this is Drew,
I was just wondering how to calculate the proper fat,
protein and carbohydrate intakes.
Drew F.
Answer:
What you are about to discover is a sure-fire, effortless
way to easily determine an appropriate nutrient ratio for
your own personal goals.
But before I get too far ahead of myself, make sure you
understand how to estimate your caloric and protein needs.
If you don't, you can get a copy of the Top 12 Report [link
at the end of this article] which will show you the simple
to use formulas for calculating your calories. I'm going
to 3,000 as the overall calorie requirements for any
examples.
While there are several methods to determine your nutrient
ratios, this will explain two popular methods referred to
as the ISSA 1-2-3 Nutritional Rule-of-Thumb (International
Sports Sciences Association). Once you know how many
calories a day you need, you can determine the correct
ratio.
Let's examine the ISSA intake guideline of approximately 1
part fat, 2 parts protein and 3 parts carbohydrates. This
is generally accepted as a safe way to burn fat for those
who are weight training and exercising.
If you were to follow this rule, you would guarantee you
you'd be following a diet that was low in fat, moderate in
protein and high in carbohydrates.
This probably comes as no surprise but this rule-of-thumb
makes it amazingly easy to prioritize your thinking when it
comes to purchasing food, preparing meals or even eating
out! You won't be like a rat trapped in a maze anymore.
What I am about to share are two methods for determining
your nutrient ratios based on the 1-2-3 rule.
Method 1
If you were any good at math, you can see that the 1-2-3
rule adds up to 6 parts. 1 part fat, 2 parts protein and 3
parts carbohydrates add up to 6 total parts. That is about
the number of times per day you should be eating. Small
but frequent meals that you might have read about elsewhere.
First, dividing up the number 3,000 in our example by 6
will give you 500 calories per part.
Second, knowing that one part equals 500 calories we can
figure out the number of calories for each part based on
the 1-2-3 rule-of-thumb.
Fat: 1 part x 500 = 500 calories allotted to fat
Protein: 2 parts x 500 = 1000 calories allotted to protein
Carbs: 3 parts x 500 = 1500 calories allotted to carbs
Note: If you don't know how many calories are in fat,
protein and carbs, let me show you really quick so we can
continue on with figuring the proper ratios. You'll use
this later to keep it handy.
Fat = 9 calories per gram
Protein = 4 calories per gram
Carbohydrates = 4 calories per gram
Finally you should begin to notice that if you take the
calories allotted to each part and divide that number by
the numbers above you get:
Fat Calories: 500/9 = 55g of fat
Protein Calories: 1000/4 = 250 grams of protein
Carbohydrate Calories: 1500/4 = 375 grams of carbs
Figuring out the ratios at this point is just as easy as
dividing the nutrient totals by the overall calorie totals.
For example, 500 fat calories / 3000 overall calories = 16%
fat. Carrying on you'll see this is broken down into:
Fat: 17% (rounded up)
Protein: 33%
Carbs: 50%
How's that for determining your own custom ratio? Now you
know how to figure out how many grams of what nutrient you
need per day using this simple rule.
Using a diet tracking program, that task should be as easy
as cutting a fresh apple pie! But we aren't finished yet...
Method 2
But what if you don't want to just follow the simple 1-2-3
rule to lose weight? What if you really want to build
muscle and you know you will need more protein?
That's where you simply modify the above rules to ensure
protein is the #1 factor in your calculations. If you're
thinking you have to reverse the formula, you are right but
it's easy if you know how.
Example: Male, 200 lbs, 15% body fat, competitive athlete;
using 1.14 grams of protein per lb of body weight for this
example.
Protein:
1.14 x 200 lbs = 228 grams of protein a day. If you
recall, we know that protein has 4 calories per gram right?
228 grams x 4 calories per gram = 912 calories from protein
Based on the daily calorie needs we used above, 912 protein
calories / 3000 overall calories = 30%
30% of the overall calories we need a day are from protein.
Fat:
While the RDA might recommend 30% or less of your calories
from fat, keep in mind the 1-2-3 rule which states that 1
part is fat.
1 part in this guideline is roughly 16.6% (but we'll just
round that up for now).
All this means is you want to get 17% of your total daily
calories from fat.
17% x 3000 total daily calories = 510 calories from fat...
Are you with me still?
Let's figure out how many grams that is simply by recalling
that a gram of fat is 9 calories.
So 510 fat calories / 9 calories per gram = 56 fat grams
per day!
Note: This may be a reduction for some people
considering that it's quite possible you were getting 50%
of your total calories from fats. If this is the case, you
might just have to adjust the ratios at this point so it's
not too drastic of a change. Slow and steady changes win
the race.
Let's keep going.
Carbohydrates:
3000 daily calories - 510 fat calories - 912 protein
calories = 1578 carb calories.
Again, if you recall there's 4 calories in a gram of
carbohydrates.
1578 carb calories / 4 calories per gram = 395 grams of
carbs per day.
If you ever wanted to know the specific ratios, it's just
as simply as taking the nutrient calories divided by the
number of overall calories.
In this example, 1578 carb calories / 3000 daily calories =
52%. So 52% of your overall daily calories come from
carbs. You can do the same formula for the rest to see the
exact nutrient percentages as shown in Method 1 above.
Hopefully you are still reading and if you are then just
remember no matter if you use Method 1 or Method 2 of the 1-
2-3 rule-of-thumb that is 1 part fat, 2 parts protein and 3
parts carbohydrates, it's valid for most people who are
trying to melt fat while exercising. The rule can be
changed to allow for muscle gain or fat loss.
Make determining an appropriate nutrient ratio effortless
and make your nutritional thinking easy when purchasing
food, preparing meals or eating out with the breakthru
methods in the Beginner's Guide to Fitness & Bodybuilding.
http://www.beginning-bodybuilding.com
Have fun and get out your calculator,
Marc David
P.S. If this email was forwarded to you and you would
like to get your own subscription, go to:
http://www.beginning-bodybuilding.com
or send an email to bgfb@aweber.com
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HAVE A QUESTION?
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If you have a health, fitness or bodybuilding
question for Marc, send your email to:
mrcd@beginning-bodybuilding.com
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Need Some Answers N O W ?
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If you don't have a copy of "The Beginner's Guide" yet,
grab one today at: http://www.beginning-bodybuilding.com
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Recommend the Beginner's Guide to Fitness & Bodybuilding
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