Members

My Fitness Pal says I should eat 1200 kcal…

My Fitness Pal says I should eat 1200 kcal…

…..Said a client to me lately.

Cue sigh and eye roll.

Because unless you are 6 years old… You should be eating more than that.

One of the bugbears in this job is that you constantly have to combat the misinformation, the propaganda and the marketing bullshit. Generally being led by companies that have maaahhhooosive budgets for their own agendas.

Anyhow. Back to the point.

There is a common myth in the industry that to lose more fat, you need to eat less. Now this is sometimes true. But not always. I have no idea why MFP restricts calories so dramatically but it does.

So, ignore whatever it says. Instead here are some rules of the thumb.

How you should eat if you wanna lose fat…

  • Eat 3 or 4 meals a day.
  • Include protein in every single meal. Repeat. In every single meal. If this has to be a protein shake, so be it…
  • Include greens in every single meal. Repeat. In every single meal. This includes breakfast. O esle double up in another meal.
  • If you need to snack, make sure they are good snacks: apples, a handful of nuts, cottage cheese, crudités. And so on. You know the drill. Not crisps. Not waffles. Not biscuits!

But how many kcal should I be having?

Well, that depends on lots of things and there isn’t a one size fits all.

But I can give you some general guidelines.

Step 1. To get a guideline of Kcals simply use your weight in lbs and multiply by 10. This will give you your basic number.

Step 2. Next comes your activity levels.

  • If you’re not active – do nothing
  • if you work out 1-2 times a week, add 150 kcals
  • if you work out 3-5 times a week, add 300 kcals
  • if you do more or have an active job, add 500 kcals

Step 3. Are you looking to lose fat, put on muscle or maintain weight?

Lose fat => deduct 20% kcals
Add muscle => add 10% kcals
Maintain weight => keep the same…

There you go.

In my experience most people looking to lose fat should fall in the 1500 – 2000kcals bracket.

Why cutting kcals too low is a problem…

Because basically, you will start to slow down. You probably won’t notice it, but when you’re hungry or malnourished you cut down the activities you would normally do. Like hoovering, gardening, walking, tidying or even simply fidgeting. This cuts down your NEAT… (Non-exercise activity thermogenesis) which is bad. These are the calories that we should burn in our regular waking hours. And many scientists think that declining NEAT is one of the primary drivers for the obesity crisis.

And worse, if you’re not getting enough nutrition, this is a signal to your body that we’re in a middle of a famine. And consequently the body will start protecting its supply of fat. Your fat loss will stop. You might still lose weight, but this is almost certainly muscle mass. Because the other thing that your body will do is switching off processes that it thinks are secondary…

Like muscle building and muscle repair…

So, there you have it.

Don’t cut kcal too low or you could be in trouble.

And don’t listen to mfp!

Recent posts