SO WHAT NOW?
Remember at the start when we said calorie balance, macronutrient intake and appropriate quantity/variety of fruit and vegetable consumption is going to get you 90% of your results.
Well that is exactly where we are going to start.
We have three levels to measuring and tracking your calorie intake.
Level 1 - Hand Portion Sizing
Level 2 - Meal Planning and Meal Plans
Level 3 - Calorie Tracking
We would advise if you are completely unexperienced and uneducated with regard to calories and macronutrients (carbs, protein and fats) to opt for Level 1 or Level 2 to start with. Remember we want to build a sustainable healthy lifestyle, that doesn't mean you wont see results soon though.
Only opt for Level 3 if you have experience of calorie tracking. Our belief however is that calorie tracking should only be short term, between 2-4 weeks, long enough to educate yourself on portion sizing and macro balance.
LEVEL 1 - HAND PORTION SIZING
So all we simply do to create a meal is take the portion sizing guidelines and build a meal.
Here are a few examples:
Lean Grilled Steak (Protein), Baked Sweet Potato Fries (Carbohydrates), Roasted Carrots and Parsnips (Vegetables) and a Peppercorn Sauce (Fats).
Spaghetti (Carbohydrates) Bolognese (Protein + Vegetables) with Grated Cheese (Fats + Some Protein)
This approch works particularly well if you eat meat. If you are a vegetarian or vegan then this approach becomes more difficult as other than Tempeh, Tofu, Edamame and Seitan most vegan sources of protein also contain equal or similar amounts of carbohydrates and fats.
LEVEL 2 - MEAL PLANNING & MEAL PLANS
One of the biggest downfalls and where people go wrong when initially making changes to their nutrition is not planning ahead. So our level 2 option is still really simple.
1. Calculate your calories:
Minus 300-500 if your goal is to lose weight/fat.
2. Print weekly meal planner:
WEEKLY MEAL PLANNER
3. Build your week of meals using your own recipes or the meal plans provided, remember we want your total daily calories to add up to around your target calories.
Calorie tracking can be done in various ways but the most popular way is by recording what you have eaten throughout the day in a nutrition tracking app and it will give you data on calories per meal, total daily calories and macronutrients (carbs, protein, fats) consumed. There are various apps for doing this but we would advise using Nutracheck.
LEVEL 3 - CALORIE TRACKING
Features:
Food Search
Barcode Scanner
Meal builder function
UK App
The app has some great features as listed above to quickly add your food and meals. It does come at a cost of £5.99/Month. But as we mentioned previously our aim is to use it to get a knowledge of portion and meal sizing not track for life.
One of the features we find most useful is the meal builder, where you can build a meal of your own or input one of the meals contained your meal plan e-book you will get access to within the next week.
Here is a link to a video explaining the meal builder function within the app: