by Karen Lirio

A whopping 75% of your success in the gym is determined by what you eat, regardless of whether your intention is to lose body fat or gain lean muscle mass, hence the saying, “You are what you eat.”

The basic truth when it comes to food is that:
•    If you consume the same number of calories as you are burning you will maintain your current weight.
•    If you consume more calories than you are burning you will put on weight.
•    If you consume less calories than you are burning you will lose weight.

It is difficult to determine exact calorie requirements for an individual because everyone has a different body composition, basal metabolic rate, and activity level. There are complex formulas that you can use to try and determine your basal metabolic rate and the additional number of calories you expend through activity, if you are mathematically inclined. If not, Matt O’Neil has an excellent product called the Metabolic Jumpstart through which he claims to be able to provide you with a perfectly metabolically matched eating plan. Or there are a myriad of Websites and iPhone Apps that are designed to help you track calories in and calories out. For me, the following tricks have always provided good results for myself and my clients:

1.    Multiply your Desired Body Weight x 30 calories to get your Daily Calorie Intake.

2.    Then add 300 calories for every 60 minutes (or 5 calories for every minute) of vigorous exercise that you do in the gym (if you don’t train every day then average your training hours out over 7 days).

3.    Finally, if you are someone who is good all week and then blows it on the weekend, Multiply your Daily Calorie Intake x 7 days then divide by 8 to give yourself a safety net.

Example If I wanted to weigh 55 kilos, exercised for 1 hour three days per week (an average of 25 mins per day), and enjoyed a piece of cake and a couple of wines every weekend, my Daily Calorie Intake might look like:

1.    55kg x 30cal = 1650cal

2.    25mins x 5cal = 125cal + 1650cal = 1775cal

3.    1775cal x 7 days = 12425cal ÷ 8 days = 1553cal

Tip If you are trying to lose weight then don’t add any additional calories for your exercise to create a greater calorie deficit and fast track your weight loss.

Warning If you have a lot of weight to gain or lose then aim only 5-10kg higher or lower than your current weight, at a time. An extreme calorie addition will add body fat rather than lean muscle mass and an extreme reduction will cause your body to go into defense mode and hold onto everything that it has.

Health authorities have set baselines of 1200 calories per day for women and 1800 calories per day for men. Going below these baselines is not healthy, nor recommended unless under medical supervision.