Nutrition and Diet. A Beginners Guide to a Balanced Diet

Ever heard the phrase 

"You are what you eat"

It's true! The body reflects what you eat. In fact the term nutrition is all about eating a healthy and balanced diet. The energy body required by the body is provided by the food you eat and drink, so If you eat bad food all the time, your body is going to look the same, 

But what is bad food exactly? 

Bad food is any type of food that is unhealthy for the body and poses a health risk either immediately or in the long run. With that being said bad food specifically junk food like burgers, tacos or pizzas should not be forsaken completely as they provide a sense of satisfaction to the consumer. Every once a week, junk food should be used to reward oneself upon doing something good like exercising, you exercise the whole week as you had planned and on Sunday OR Saturday, you can eat 1 type of junk food one time per day in the form of a "CHEAT MEAL". REMEMBER! It's a cheat meal NOT a cheat day, don't go crazy on those carbs.

With that said, let’s have a look at what makes a diet really balanced.

A typical diet consists of TWO major components 

• Macros, and
• Micros

• MACROS:

These consist of carbohydrates, commonly known as CARBS, fats and proteins.

The breakdown of these for a healthy and balanced diet should be.

Approximately; 

• (45-60% of your total calorie requirement should be fulfilled by Carbs).
• (20-35% should be from Fats).
• and (10-35% should be from protein)

So, If a man has a requirement of 2500 calories per day,

•  Then, he should get about 1125 kcals from Carbs.
• 750 kcals from Fats
• and 750 kcals from Proteins

You're probably wondering, how do I know How much Calories i need to consume in a day?

Well to first know your total caloric requirement, we need to know how much energy you need to support you essential systems. These are your circulatory system, respiratory system and so on. Here is a simple formula for that:

MEN; BEE (kcal/d) = 66.5 + (13.8 x W) + (5.0 x H) - (6.8 x A)

Women; BEE (kcal/d) = 655.1 + (9.1 x W) + (1.8 x H) - (4.7 x A)

PLEASE NOTE: Height should be in centimeters for accuracy.

Don't be intimidated by the length of the formula it's pretty simple, all you need to know is your Height (H), Weight (W) and your Age (A) feed that into the formula and we have you BASAL ENERGY EXPENDITURE or (BEE).

To find your total energy expenditure we need to multiply the Basal Energy Expenditure BEE with the activity multipliers, these are the activities that you do daily.

 

They are;

SEDENTARY; 1.1

MODERATE; 1.3

ACTIVE; 1.5

VERY ACTIVE; 1.7/2

• SEDENTARY is for those people who do very little activity in the day. They may also have a 9 to 5 er desk job with very little activity like walking in between.
• MODERATE is for those people who do a fair amount of activity in the day like climbing stairs or walking a fair amount.
• ACTIVE is for those types of people that do physical exercise or any activity for 15 to 30 minutes per day.
• VERY ACTIVE is for the athletes and fitness freaks and all other people who do rigorous physical activity for a minimum of 45 minutes.

To find your TOTAL ENERGY EXPENDITURE or (TEE)

 simply multiply the BEE value with the Multiplier that applies to you... and we have your TOTAL CALORIC REQUIREMENTS.

Now divide the three Macros discussed earlier to fit your calorie requirements.

let me show you an Example

Let's say a woman of 25 years whose weight is 85 kg and height is 5 feet 6 inches with a moderate lifestyle wants to calculate her Calories.

Here is the formula again for women

BEE (kcal/d) = 655.1 + (9.1 x W) + (1.8 x H) - (4.7 x A)

add the values

BEE (kcal/d) = 655.1 + (9.1 x 85) + (1.8 x170 ) - (4.7 x 25)

BEE (kcal/d) = 1311 kcal/d

Now, 

TEE = BEE X activity multiplier 1.3

This comes around 1704 kcal/d

DIVIDING THE MACROS:

• 766-1022 kcals should come from Carbs

• and 340- 596 kcals from Fats.

• 340-596 kcals should come from Protein.

• MICROS:

Micros are your vitamins and minerals that are required to maintain proper functioning of the body. Requirements of these are can  be fulfilled if you eat food from all 5 food groups these are

• Meat

• Vegetables

• Fruits

• Grains

• Poultry /Dairy

CONCLUSION:

Try to incorporate an item from each food group into your meal a day, while staying within your caloric requirements to achieve the perfect balanced diet. A cheat meal of moderate proportions every week is fine so long as you don't go overboard on the carbs.