So now that you know how many calories you need, now you need to log them.


Go to www.livestrong.com and log your calories in the myplate portion.

The cool thing is most foods are already accounted for so you just enter it what you ate and the portion size.

If it's not there, put it there.

Also, enter in your target amount of calories.

It will try to tell you how many calories you need but don't listen to it, go by the amount calculated from the link I put in the last blog.

Keep track of how you're doing. You'll see a pie chart on the bottom right. You'll want 50% carbs, 30% protein, 20% fat.


You gotta read those food labels as well.

So looking back at what we learned last week let's take it to the next level.

When it comes to protein, you have to make sure it's complete protein. The protein in your oatmeal and rice doesn't count.

Protein must come from animal, milk, cheese, nuts, protein powder or bar.


You can combine other protein sources to create complete proteins.

Beans + Rice
Legumes + Grains
Nuts/Seeds + Legumes/Grains
Meat/Animal Products + Vegetables

Beware when doing this that some of these can end up being high in fat or carbs.

Make sure your protein sources are lean enough so that you don't overshoot your target amount of fat.

When getting carbs, make sure you don't eat any simple carbs after 3.



No complex carbs after 6.

And you should get your biggest amount of carbs during breakfast and your workout.

"But Steve!  How am I supposed to not be hungry if I can't have carbs later in the day?"


You can still have fibrous carbs, meaning vegetables. In fact you can have as many vegetables as you want.

By the way, don't log in your vegetables. They don't factor on account of fiber.

For fat, we'll keep it simple for now. Get your target fat and try to keep it as unsaturated as possible.

Keep your sugar very, very, very low. Sorry Sweet tooth's.

Sodium keep that low too. A teaspoon of salt is your daily limit.

But if you exercise and drink lot's of water you have a lot more leeway.

That's it for this post, let me know if you have any questions.

TIP: Add vegetables to every meal. It will fill you up and keep you from wanting to overeat.

How to Eat Perfectly

So right now I'm going to teach everyone how to eat perfectly. Not hard right?

So first you enter all your info on this site.
http://www.cordianet.com/calculator.htm

Here's where the math comes in.

Then from there you want 50% to be from carbs, 30% to be from protein, and 20% to be from fat.

Still with me?


I'm bad at math and from Arkansas, so I already have 2 strikes against me. Which means if I can do this, then you definitely can.


It's gonna get a little tougher here, but I'll hold your hand through it.

1 gram of protein equals 4 calories.

1 gram of carbs also equals 4 calories.

And 1 gram of fat equals 9 calories.

So if I needed 2000 calories a day, that means I need half of that from carbs. I'm sure most of you won't complain about that.




Why so high? You need it for energy. But it can easily put fat on you which is the catch 22 of carbs, and is why people fear it so much they do that stupid Atkins fad diet.



But I digress, so half of 2000 is 1000 if my math serves me correct. Now, 4 calories equals 1 gram of carbs. Divide 4 into 1000 and you end up with needing 250 grams of carbs for the day.

How you feeling so far, pretty confident?  Good we're almost there. Let's do the same with protein.

Now with protein the standard rule is 1 gram per pound of bodyweight. Unless you're a huge bodybuilder who does up to 2 grams per pound of bodyweight and are usually doing more than just protein shakes(steroids). Stear clear of those guys, they usually have protein farts.




Anyways, we're going to get a little more specifice. Don't worry you don't have to break out the calculator yet. 30% of 2000 is 600, divide 4 into that and you get 150. So 150 grams of protein a day.

Now for the final part. Fat. We know to stay away from fat for the most part. It's called FAT. How can it be any more obvious that it could possibly make you fat. Now I'm not going to make you learn the difference between saturated, non-saturated, poly-saturated fat, etc. right now. I will later. But not now.

You'll also find that you'll get most of you necessary fat while trying to avoid it all together. But remember that you do need your fat, remember to keep it limited. And as you noticed fat is what we try to get the least percentage of.

So with all that said let's do some more math. 20% of 2000 is 400.  Okay, here's where we dust off the calculator. Just kidding, use your cellphone. Does anyone still cary around a TI-81 with them?


400 divided by 9 is...hang on...225...wait what the hell did I do.  Okay, sorry it's 44.44444444444444444444444444444444444444444444444444444444444444444444444444444444444444444444444444444444444444444444444444444444444444444444444444444444444444444444444 you get the idea.

So 44 grams of fat a day. Trust me, not hard to do. But necessary.

So we just figured out what a person on a 2000 calorie diet needs. 250 grams of carbs, 150 grams of protein, and 44 grams of fat.

And of course you want to keep your sugar and sodium low. Though if you're working out a lot and drinking lot's of water, sodium won't hurt you that much.


Now the hard part, knowing what food to throw together to meet those requirements.

I have a nutritionist that makes these plans for people for only $100. She's great at it and experienced, and I even had her do mine. I would suggest you do the same, especially for those just starting out.


Here's a link to her on my page.
http://atxfitbootcamp.com/sign-up/

Click the order a meal plan button.

But if you don't mind spending the time and effort doing it yourself, as well as making mistakes, than be my guest.

Next week we'll go over reading food labels, which will help out those poor souls trying to make their own meal plans.