How to calculate how many calories you need depending on your goals

Hey guys and dolls

As promised here is a written advice on how to figure out how many calories you need to reach your desired goals as well as figuring out your required macronutrients. You could easily type your stats and goals in myfitnesspal however I think it's important you understand how this is reached.

I will start with steps to figure out your daily caloric intake (I know some people don't believe in counting calories, and to be honest I sort of eyeball it now, however it's important so you don't over/under eat and you wonder why your not reaching your goals)

Step 1: Know your goal- do you want to lose weight, maintain current weight, or gain weight?

- to lose weight you need to eat at a caloric deficit (eat less calories in a day than you burn)

- to maintain your weight you need to eat equal amount of calories that you burn in a day.

- to gain weight you need to eat at a caloric surplus (eat more calories in a day than you burn)

Step 2: Calculate your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR): energy is expanded even when you're not doing anything, this is the number of calories you would burn if you stayed in bed all day.

To calculate this go to www.bmi-calculator.net/bmr-calculator/ 

You will need your height, weight, age and sex to calculate this.

Step 3: Activity Factor you need to be able to determine your activity level

- sedentary (no activity): BMR x 1.2

- lightly activity (workout 1-3 times a week): BMR x 1.375

- moderate (workout every other day 3-5 times a week) BMR x 1.55

- active (workout 6-7 times a week) BMR x 1.725

- vey active (heavy workout 7 times a week and a physically demanding job) BMR x 1.9

Example: a female who is 123llbs and 5 foot 4 age 29 has a BMR of 1354.55 (with no activity she will burn 1355.55 calories)

If her activity factor is 'active': 1354.55 x 1.725= 2336.59 calories just to survive/maintain current weight.

Step 4: Add/Subtract: If she wants to lose weight then she would have to have roughly a 500 calorie deficit to lose abut 1llb a week so she would have to eat 2336.59 - 500= 1836 calories a day

To gain weight add about 300 calories so: 2336.59 + 300= 2636 calories a day.

So there is your calculations, but you need to determine how much calories from macronutrients you need to eat. So here goes!

What are Macronutrients (macros)?

The main macros are of which eat have a number of calories per gram:

1, carbohydrates - 4 calories per gram

2, protein - 4 calories per gram

3, fat - 9 calories per gram

So if a food item has the following macros:

3g fat (3 x 9= 27 calories)

15g protein (15 x 4= 60 calories)

30g carbs (30 x 4= 120 calories)

So this food in total has 120+ 60+ 27=207 calories 

So what should your macros look like?

Protein - ideally you should have 1g per pound of body weight

Fat - ideally 0.4g per pound of body weight

Carbohydrates- there is no set number for this as its not an essential macro however you need it to fuel your workout so don't cut it out of your diet! Once you know how many calories you want to have a day based on your goal you will be able to calculate this.

So our above female example who weighs 123llbs and based on her goal to lose weight she needs to eat a total of 1836 calories a day: here is how to calculate number of calories per macro:

Protein: 123 x 1 (1g per pound of body weight) = 123g x 4= 492 (calories from protein)

Fat: 123 x 0.4 (0.4 per pound of body weight) = 49.2g x 9 = 442.8 (calories from fat)

You then add the above together and subtract from daily caloric needs to get the amount of calories needed from carbs so: 

492+442.8=934.8

1836-934.8 = 901.2 calories from carbohydrates 

To determine grams of carbohydrates you simple do this: 901.2 /4= 225.3 g from carbohydrates 

The reason why I feel it is important to be aware of the above calculations is because it is all well and good to know you need to eat 'x' amount of calories however if your eating way too much calories from either category of macros you will sabotage your goals. I know it is a pain to count calories and all these calculations seem tedious but this is probably where you may be making mistakes. And to be fair once you are aware and your used to it you should be able to eyeball it instead of having to weigh everything. Also sometimes people tend to underestimate the amount of calories they are eating which is why it is important to track your calories and macros to achieve the goals you desire.

I'm not a nutritionist I'm just sharing with you what I have learnt over the past year! If you have any questions please do not hesitate to ask! 

Later! 

Healthy Nigerian inspired dish - Okra a d Periwinkle Stew

Hey guys and dolls,

A quick one, posting recipe on the Nigerian inspired stew I posted on twitter yesterday

Ingredients

2 cups of Okra (100 naira worth)

2 dried catfish shredded

1 cup periwinkle

1 tinned tomato

Chopped onion

Tablespoon canola oil

2 cloves of garlic

2/3 scotch bonnet pepper

Seasoning of your choice

Directions

1. Put the oil in a pan and allow to warm, then put chopped onion, garlic, and pepper in pan

2. Once sautéed put in tin tomato and add any other seasoning of your choice and let it cook half way

3. Add shredded dried fish, and okra (and any other ingredient you wish I.e chicken - I'm Pescetarian hence only fish) 

4. After about 5 minutes add the periwinkle and allow to cook through  

I put maggi in there although I don't like cooking with it. But it needed to have some flavour lol

I will have a bowl this afternoon without any solid food. Which I have not had in over a year lol. If you want to have something with it you can always do 'wheat' to go along with it.

Enjoy xxx

Update: Week 3 insanity, fit test & weigh in

Hey Guys and Dolls 

This is going to be a short post! 

I am now into week 3 round 3 of Insanity and I'm feeling much better then when I first started especially since I hadn't worked out for a month prior!

So I did my fit test on Monday and below are my results: 

Switch kicks: week 1 (60) week 3 (71)

Power jacks: week 1 (50) week 3 (49)

Power knees: week 1 (121) week 3 (123)

Power jumps: week1 (65) week 3 (76) - *shuffle* I hate this! But I dug deep! 

Globe jumps: week 1 (12) week 3 (12)

Suicide jumps: week 1 (19) week 3 (20)

Push-up jacks: week 1 (22) week 3 (25)

Low plank oblique: week 2 (44) week 3 (56)

As you can see there is mainly a big improvement and I hope to kick butt even more as the weeks go by!

I have decided I will get my hands on Insanity the Asylum once I finish this 3rd round! The Asylum takes you to the next level! If you have not done Insanity DON'T start with Asylum because it is for those who are already in shape but want to push to 'Athlete' status. I believe this should help me towards my need for defined abs lol. It also incorporates some resistance so I'm super excited about that.

Lastly I did my weigh in in Sunday and I weighed in at 56kg. That's 1.7kgs dropped since my last weigh in 9 days ago. I am able to see the difference and happy with results so far. Once I reach my 'idle' weight as the experts say (55kg) I will review and see if its got me to where I want to be. However in the past few days I had been thinking a lot and strongly believe I possibly need to add weights to my weekly activity again! That's why I'm looking forward to the Asylum workout! 

Any questions about my nutrition or workout please leave comments below!

Watch this space y'all xoxo

January 2012 (before I started my journey) to 16 June 2013

Typical meal once I break my 17/18 hour fast (currently eating about 1500 calories during my window- will up that once I reach 55kg)

Can you see them striations? *Hodge Twins Voice* Lol  my waists is now 25 inches when I started it was 34.5 

  

What it means to eat clean, Accountability and my new challenge

Hey Guys and Dolls!

Today I will discuss what it means to eat clean, why its important to be accountable for your progress and will tell you my new challenge which I have set for myself! Exciting!

Eating Clean

The mistake a lot of people are making when setting themselves fitness goals is they spend hours in the gym to burn calories but then choose to invade their body with junk food thereby defeating all the hard work achieved at the gym. 

Food is the answer to your health goals, essentially you are what you eat! Eat junk and you body will show it and you will feel lethargic coupled with bad skin. However if you eat whole and healthy fresh food, your body and skin will glow with health and your energy levels will increase.

Eating clean is where you avoid eating PROCESSED and REFINED foods based on a diet of whole foods.

Essentials to Eating Clean

The essential principles to eating clean is as follows:

1. Eat whole foods- these are foods that have not been tampered with, the come straight from the farm, such as whole fruits and vegetables, whole grains, grass fed and free range meat, low fat dairy products unsalted nuts and seeds. (We have lots of markets here in Lagos where these whole foods are delivered straight from the farm - so no excused for my Nigerian readers!)

   - Cut out refined grains - such as white flour, white rice

2. Avoid processed foods - these are those foods that have labels. Obviously things like whole grain pasta does not have to be avoided. But when you go to the supermarket read the labels and if you can not pronounce an ingredient then don't put it in your shopping basket! 

3. Eliminate refined sugar - calorie heaven! There is no room for this in a eating clean plan. Look for alternatives such as natural honey, and sweeteners

4. Cook your own meals- it is quick and simple, and you not only save some money but most importantly you know what is going into your plate. This will really aid in your journey to clean living! 

5. Cut down on salt - this will lower our risk of heart disease by 9% according to New England Journal of Medicine. Again avoid eating out too often and avoid processed foods which can be very high in sodium.

6. Cut down Saturated fats - such as while milk, cheese, butter and meat. You can do this by swapping animal fats for plant foods like nuts (unsalted almonds YUM!) avocado and olive oil. 

7. Drink water- this is the best drink to consume, a lot of people say they hate the taste of water *shrug* it has no taste lol, why not squeeze some lemon or lime in it to to give it the kick you need! Much better than chugging down a 330ml can of coke which is 141.9calories! It also has about 39g of sugar thats like 10 teaspoons! How many in water? 0! I know what I'd rather choose! 

Also why not swap your coffee for green tea? It aids in boosting immunity and fights cavities. 

Those are the main guidelines to having a clean diet! It may seem like a lot but down the road it will be well worth it. Good health and looking good! If you are new to this slowly weed out all the bad stuff especially refined sugars and incorporate your whole foods! Fruits are such a great way to cure that sweet tooth so stock up!

One key thing you will need to do is PLAN if you fail to plan you plan to fail! So ensure you have a food plan for the week, I don't have one written physically but I am always making a mental note and planning ahead. You can also do meal prep for the week by cooking all the food you will eat for the week over the weekend like on a Sunday, whatever suits your routine. 

Once you have all that in place all that work at the gym will pay off and you won't feel discouraged during your weekly weigh ins when the scale has not budged or you have gained a few pounds! 

My motto: abdominal exercise will build muscle; the kitchen is where your abs work is revealed! This really goes for all parts if the body that you are targeting! 

Moving on! I will keep the next part short and sweet!

Accountability 

When you start your journey it is important to stay accountable to yourself about your progress. I would advice you first to set yourself a REALISTIC goal. Once your goal is set you are good to go! 

Take pictures along the way, weekly weigh ins, but even more important than the scales is measuring yourself! Inches sometimes is a far better indication than what the scales tell you, so don't obsess over the scales. Once you stay accountable to yourself it is easier to review or understand why things may be going wrong with your plan, or more importantly continue to encourage you to keep up the good work! 

You may also want to download the app called 'myfitness pal' it really helps to track your progress and provides rough idea of how many calories you need to eat a day to lose/gain up to 2llbs a week (which is the healthy number to lose a week) 

You can also start a blog and write about your progress or appoint a willing buddy to start their own journey with you, that way you can both account to each other about your progress.

Most importantly do not cheat when accounting to yourself! You are only deceiving yourself! So if you had a bad week ACKNOWLEDGE it and plan how you will make today every other day different. If you gain 1kg or so it is not the end of the world, you can always get back on the wagon so don't beat yourself up about little/minimal weight gain.

Finally

New challenge

I know I have said I do not plan to lose anymore weight, however I am giving myself a Summer abs challenge with which I want to lean out a little more and have defined abs. I know some people find it hard to think why a woman wants defined abs however this is 21st century, so lets keep moving with time! I don't want to look like the women that compete in weight competitions, just aiming for a nice firm bikini body look if you know what I mean. 

I have decided this will entail me losing 3 more kilos and absolute clean eating for at least the next month and training dirty with the aid of Shaun T and friends! Then 20 minutes skipping in the evening.  I will also look into spin classes I heard there is one at Four Points in Victoria Island. I'm still intermittent fasting as always  :)

Inserted is a pic I took this weekend of my before and current abs situation! 

Current weight: 57.8kgs aiming for 55kgs 

Apparently I have 15.5% body fat, I don't know how accurate that is, I will try and get the proper tools to better determine this percentage and update you in a later post!

That's all folks! If you have any questions please leave them below, or tweet me @bunmilosingit 

Xx

Day 1 Insanity Fitness Test Results

Hey guys and dolls!

So I have decided to start insanity all over again. For the third time! On my first attempt I got up to day 40 went on holiday and when I got back I decided to join the gym and never really got back into it.

I then decided a few months back to give it a second try and completed it which felt GREAT! My only stumbling block was that I only ever did 2 fitness tests during the second try and I did miss some days but made up for it so instead of 60 days it was more like 67 lol. As you will note from week 5 the fit test was incorporated with Max Interval Circuit and I just didn't have time in the morning to do both, and by the time I got home from work I was too tired. I do believe there has been progress from my week 1 results from round 2 of insanity and the results i achieved this morning (round 3) which I will list below:

Switch kicks: round 2 (65) round 3 (60)

Power jacks: round 2 (44) round 3 (50)

Power knees: round 2 (100) round 3 (121)

Power jumps: round 2 (45) round 3 (65) - *shuffle* I hate this! But I dug deep! 

Globe jumps: round 2 (10) round 3 (12)

Suicide jumps: round 2 (15) round 3 (19)

Push-up jacks: round 2 (19) round 3 (22)

Low plank oblique: round 2 (30) round 3 (44)

Now some of them I didn't do as good as I did the second time around but I haven't done rigorous exercise for over a month so I still give myself a tap in the back!

I will put the above results in perspective for you and post results from round 2 week 2 below: 

Switch kicks: 77

Power jacks: 49 

Power knees: 120

Power jumps: 52

Globe jumps: 11

Suicide jumps: 15

Push-up jacks: 26

Low plank oblique: 45

So I improved on some of my round 2 week two results this morning and some I didn't! But this can only mean that I will record much better results in my next fit test in 2 weeks as long as I keep pressing PLAY! Overall I'm very pleased and can not wait to show you my insane results! Pictures coming up soon!

Take care xxx

Nearly one year on and I've kept the weight off! (Total loss of 24kgs)

Hey guys and dolls!

It has been a while since I have blogged but I got a little push from a fellow blogger Natural Nigerian! You can check her blog out at http://www.naturalnigerian.com/ great tips for all you naturals out there!

It seems like the perfect time for me to start blogging again, as 27th June 2013 will mark my 1 year weight loss journey! It has been a wonderful year so far thanks to God and thanks to my support network. If it wasn't for that I would probably still be unhappy and overweight.  Now I'm proud to say I am HEALTHY and my blood pressure is NORMAL!

A lot of people ask me HOW? There was no quick fix, I had to change my attitude towards food and exercise and I did this by carrying out a lot of research on google and YouTube! The Internet is a great tool, make it your best friend throughout your journey. By understanding the amount of calories my body needed to consume to function properly and lose weight at the same time I was able to discover the types of foods to eat and those to stay away from! I began to eat to fuel my body and not just because food was available. 

Where it all started 

DECIDE AND COMMIT  

I looked myself in the mirror and felt unattractive, I had really let myself go in a way that I never had before, and it wasn't helping my condition so that fateful day on 27th June 2012 I decided to look through YouTube for inspiration. I came across a lot of transformation videos of normal people who had followed Shaun T's "Insanity" 60 day workout DVD.  It seemed tough but I was convinced and purchased it straight away. It came with a diet plan which I followed for about 2 weeks. The weight wasn't falling off as I hoped so I decided to continue research about nutrition. You will note I did not give up, I had decided and committed to something and I was going to see it through!

 I was convinced that I could achieve great results without having to prepare 6 small meals a day as it was actually making me feel more hungry than satisfied! Then I discovered Intermittent Fasting ( IF) WHAT fasting your asking? YES unfortunately I can't credit the first person whom I had discovered this lifestyle from as I can not remember his username on YouTube. However if you have heard of the Hodge Twins you will know that they used to preach 6 meals a day until they themselves discovered IF and they now swear by it. Check their channel out ( fasting twins). 

What is IF?

I will only give a quick definition as I've already got a blog post on this:

http://bunmilosingit.blogspot.com/2012/11/intermittent-fasting-if.html

It is a lifestyle NOT a diet, that is one thing you need to understand first, and basically I follow the lean gains form of intermittent fasting which is where I fast for a number of hours during the day and have a specific eating window with which I eat all my daily calories. I started with 20 hours fasted and a 4 hour eating window. Now I fast between 18/19 hours a day with a 5/6 hour eating window. During your fasted state you are only allowed to drink water. 

The idea behind this is that your body spends more time burning fat than constantly digesting food therefore aiding weight loss. A lot of you are saying what about breakfast?! If you are a new reader PLEASE read the link above so you can understand more! Brad Pilon who is the creator of Eat Stop EAT another form of intermittent fasting did a lot of research and concludes that breakfast is a 'gimmick' which the food industry has got us all to buy into over the past few years, after all they can't sell fasting to us can they? Breakfast means breaking a fast whether in the morning afternoon or evening. Do read that post as I explain about some of the studies that has been carried out on this subject matter. Personally IF has worked wonders for me i credit it for a lot of the results i have achieved. IF is not for everyone but it is worth a try!

What do I eat during my feeding window?

Over the past year I have experimented a lot, I even went 30 days eating as a Vegan! It was great, I lost weight and I had great bursts of energy. Of course I went back to eating meat lol.

I found a lot of ways to eat the foods I used to enjoy prior to my journey, like i made home made turkey burgers YUMMY using turkey mince, I even found some healthy cupcake recipes which I enjoyed during Christmas! 

I incorporated a lot of vegetables and fruits to my diet and stuck to white meat (breast/minced) nuts mainly Almonds, whole grains like whole wheat bread, whole wheat pasta etc, and LOTS of WATER!! 

I am now a Pescetarian which means I only eat mean from the sea! There is nothing wrong with poultry, I just don't like the tough chicken available in Nigeria and didn't feel like spending all my salary on chicken breast in shoprite! I'm enjoying being a Pescetarian I love seafood so you really can't go wrong with that, it's opened me up to a wider range of fruits and veg, beans, lentils and things like Quinoa which is great alternative to rice.  

I do have a treat day once a month to balance it all out, let's face it you can't eat clean 100% of the time! I would say this helped me stay on track! Just make sure your cheat day is not on your rest day!!

Exercise

I've done insanity twice now, well first time I stopped at day 40 as a went to Vegas and upon my return I joined the gym. I went to the gym twice a day doing some cardio and weights in the morning and spin class in the evening! Please if anyone knows where there is a spin class within Lekki PLEASE let me know! I moved to Lagos in December and I'm having withdrawal of spin right now lol.

Recently my workout pattern is not as rigorous, mainly because working and living in Lagos is workout on its own lol and I just haven't found a gym to join because of logistics I'd either have to wake up at a ridiculous time or go to gym in evening after work which is a NO NO for me.  

So I am now going to start insanity all over again! And I would love you all to follow me! YES I have reached a weight which I have been maintaining for 6 months now so before I get any PINGS / messages telling me to "gain weight a little" my reason for starting over isn't because I want to lose weight, it is to continue to maintain what I started. 

What a lot of people fail to understand whilst I have been on this journey is that once you reach your goal you don't just stop! YES you make adjustments so as to maybe not go overboard and lose too much weight but you don't just STOP which I have been told one too many times so I'm just setting the record straight now! When I first started losing weight I was eating 1200 calories per day, now that I'm maintaining I'm eating 2000 +calories per day, so if I stopped working out what do you think would happen? I'd gain right, and that's not the aim. I'm a healthy 57/58kgs and please understand aside from aesthetically I started this journey because I was on medication for high blood pressure, exercise is PROVEN to help reduce it (as i said above mine is normal now) so there is no way I will stop working out.

I will update weekly about insanity, tomorrow is my fit test lol I wonder what my results will be like! Will post that for you all if its not too embarrassing. 

If you have any questions please leave your comments below! You can also follow me on @bunmilosingit or just click the tab to your right.

Below are some pictures from January 2012 to date.

Take care Xxx

The picture to the left was January 2012 on the right was January 2013. I went from size 16 to a size 8!

The picture on the left was taken on the day I started my journey. The picture on the right was a couple of months ago

This was taken about 3 weeks ago

I don't know why this picture made my arms look a little smaller than they are! 

Update

Hey all! I know it has been a long time since I updated my blog, and that's not because after my cleanse I pigged out and gained all the weight back and more! Lol

In fact I had a lot of changes in my personal life and my weight loss journey some downs but mainly highs so I'm grateful to God for that.

Pescetarian lifestyle

So one of the changes I experienced in 2013 was my decision to become a Pescetarian. What a Pescetarian you ask? Quite simply it is someone who follows them same diet as a Vegetarian but includes fish in their diet. I hear some people further ask, but I thought Vegetarians eat fish? NO they do not! A true Vegetarian eats no meat at all and fish is a form of meat....it's an animal.

Definitions:

Pescetarianism is the practice of a diet that includes seafood but not the flesh of other animals. A pescetarian diet shares many of its components with a vegetarian diet and includes vegetables, fruit, nuts, grains,beans, eggs, and dairy, but unlike a vegetarian diet also includes fish and shellfish. The Merriam-Webster dictionary dates the origin of the term "pescetarian" to 1993 and defines it to mean: "one whose diet includes fish but no other meat"

Vegetarianism is the practice of abstaining from the consumption of meat – red meat,poultry, seafood and the flesh of any other animal; it may also include abstention from by-products of animal slaughter, such as animal-derived rennet and gelatin.




So now that you understand my diet more why did I choose to go Pescetarian? Simply because most of you that know me personally know I have permanently moved to Lagos and getting chicken breast in the main stream supermarkets cost an arm and a leg, and frankly I don't like the idea of all my salary going on food. So I thought about going vegetarian first but I felt that was too drastic for someone who has ate meat all their life, and only dabbled in no meat of any form for a mere 30 days knowing I was going to eat chicken again one day! During my research I found out about Pescetarians and decided I would try this new lifestyle as I love seafood!

How has it been so far? I love it! Nothing has changed except for the fact I haven't had chicken/turkey since December 2012. Seafood can be expensive especially prawns however that has not been an issue as there is plenty of variety in the markets here and when I'm feeling cheap I just buy a tin of tuna lol.  I have discovered some seafood restaurants here in Lagos (only tries Ocean Basket so far) but I will get round to the others so I don't have a problem eating out. Yet to find a GOOD Sushi place in Lagos though!

My current workout whilst in Lagos has been Shaun T's insanity workout program as I have not been able to join a gym yet, but I hope to soon.  I stopped at the beginning of month two however as I had to travel for work. I am back now and will continue next week!

So what do I weigh? If you recall after my cleanse I went down to 58 kegs. However then went up to 60 upon resuming normal eating. However after my move to Lagos mid January I discovered I had gone down to 58kgs again, I guess this is my constant. Although after some stress related eating in past week or two I'm back up to 60. I am comfortable between these weight as this is where someone of my height should be. My journey is no longer about getting smaller, in fact it never really was....this started when I went to see my doctor about my blood pressure....taking higher dosages of medication that my parents scared me and I knew something had to be done! I had to help myself and this is why this journey started and this continues to be why I will maintain a good balanced diet and remain active.

I have typed this blog in a bit of a rush but I knew you all deserved something which is why I have posted this for you all. If you have any questions please leave them below and I will get back to you.