Nutrition Tracking: Finding Calories for Fat Loss

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Did you know that research shows that people who track their food lose twice as much weight as those who don’t?

Tracking your food is an incredibly useful tool to help you lose weight without feeling like you’re on a diet. Finding calories for fat loss can feel really overwhelming to – but not for long.

Keep reading to learn more about the difference between calories and macros. I’ll also help you learn how to calculate your own fat loss targets.

More interested in hearing what I have to say instead of reading about it – give this episode of the Live Diet-Free Podcast a listen.

Why Track Calories & Macros?

Tracking our food intake is one of the best tools we have to collect data about our current nutrition habits and what needs to change to reach our weight loss goals.  

Not only will tracking help you see better and more consistent results, it will also help you overcome black-and-white thinking about food (being either “good” or “bad”), enjoy the foods you’re eating more since nothing is off-limits, and it will teach you invaluable lessons that will help you be successful long-term, even without tracking.

What Are Calories?

The science answer to that question is that calories are units of heat energy that are commonly used to measure the energy value of food.

But, you’re probably more interested in how that relates to fat loss – one absolute non-negotiable is that you must be in a calorie deficit in order to lose weight. This means you are taking in fewer calories than your body needs.

Alternatively, if you are gaining weight, it’s because you are taking in more calories than your body needs. This is called a surplus.

When your intake and outputs are relatively matched, you maintain your weight.

When finding calories for fat loss, a good starting point is to multiply your bodyweight by 10-13.

This means if you weigh 150 pounds, you are likely to lose weight if you are taking in 1500-1950 calories per day.

I recommend starting at the higher end of this range and tracking your results for a couple of weeks before decreasing.

Why eat less when you can eat more and still lose weight?!

If you are consistently eating 1950 calories for 1-2 weeks but not seeing any changes on the scale or in your measurements or photos, slowly decrease by 50-100 calories until you start to see results.

What Are Macros?

The term “macro” is short for macronutrient. These are the three categories of food that your body needs in large quantities:

  • Protein – 4 calories per gram
  • Carbs (veggies are included here) – 4 calories per gram
  • Fats – 9 calories per gram

Alcohol doesn’t fit into any of the categories above. Since it doesn’t provide your body with nutrients, it’s not technically a macronutrient but with an energy value of 7 calories per gram, it gets its own category.

When finding calories for fat loss, you’ll use the calories per gram breakdown above to help you set your targets:

Protein

Protein plays and important role in building and repairing tissues (hair, skin, nails, bones, muscle), synthesizing hormones, and boosting your immune system.

When trying to lose fat, protein also has a few other important roles: 

  • It’s the most satiating macronutrient, meaning it helps you feel satisfied after eating.
  • Getting sufficient protein will help ensure that more of the weight you lose will be fat, as opposed to muscle.
  • It has the highest thermic effect of all the macronutrients. This means it “costs” your body more (aka burns more calories!) to digest protein than carbs or fat – up to 5x more!

Protein has 4 calories per gram and is found in sources like animal meats, seafood, soy, dairy, and legumes.

The Recommended Dietary Allowance for protein is only .8 grams per 2 pounds of bodyweight.

While this may be a sufficient minimum intake, it’s not necessarily optimal for many people.

The range for optimal health may be in the range of .54-.7 grams per pound of bodyweight. Meta-analyses of research suggest that for active populations – and those looking to lose weight – the range is even higher.

A goal of .7-1 grams of protein per pound of bodyweight is preferable for these populations given its thermic effect, and important roles in satiety and muscle retention. This will likely be in the ballpark of 25-35% of your total calories coming from protein.

If you’re not used to eating much protein, set your sights on the lower end of the range since it may feel challenging to take in that much at first. 

There doesn’t seem to be an upper limit for protein intake so if you’re so inclined, there’s nothing wrong with having more. It just means you’ll be eating fewer carbs and fat.

A Note About Calories & Protein

Being in a calorie deficit and eating sufficient protein are the 2 most important weight loss factors.

Most of my weight loss coaching clients have great success with just a calorie and protein target and letting their carb and fat intake fall where they may day-to-day.

If you’re new to this approach or feel overwhelmed by having so many numbers to think about, stick with just calories and protein in the beginning. You’ll still see great results!

Fat

For decades, we were encouraged to fear fat and embrace low-fat everything.

Now the pendulum has swung the opposite direction and ketogenic diets are all the rage. 

Your best bet is likely somewhere in the middle – eating enough for optimal health but not so much that you’re sacrificing other macronutrients.

Fats are the most energy dense, at 9 calories per gram, but this does not mean to avoid them! You simply have to be aware of portions.

Healthy fats play important roles in hormone function (sex drive, anyone?), nourishing fatty tissues, improving joint mobility, decreasing inflammation, and absorbing fat-soluble vitamins.

Omega-3 fats are an extra healthy type found in seafood such as coldwater fish and algae, and some seeds.

These improve heart and brain health, decrease inflammation, improve cell communication, and more. They also may play a role in things like regulating blood sugar, reducing depression, and preserving memory.

If you are not inclined to eat much fatty fish or many high-omega-3 seeds, you may want to consider a supplement – that’s how important these are!             

Your fat-focus should be on those that occur naturally or only require minimal processing, such as fish, nuts (including butters & flours), olives, seeds, avocados, and their oils. 

At a minimum, fat targets should be set at .3g per pound of bodyweight to cover your essential fat.

This comes out to about 20-25% but more is just fine if you prefer. (For reference, a ketogenic diet would be 60-75% fat.)

I typically start clients around 30-40% of total calories coming from fat. From there, we’re able to tweak based on personal preference and results. 

Carbs

Your body doesn’t need carbs for survival but they are the preferred source of fuel. They also provide your body with important micronutrients (vitamins & minerals needed by your body in smaller amounts.)

Carbs also help regulate digestion, blood sugar, and hormones. Unprocessed carbs like fruit, veggies, tubers, squashes, whole grains, and beans, digest slowly and help you feel satisfied.

Even if you prefer a lower-carb diet, you’ll want to make sure you’re covering your micronutrient and fiber bases.

Lifestyle, activity level, and personal preference can help you decide how much of your diet you want to come from carbs.

If you are sedentary, maybe most of your carb intake will come from vegetable sources.

If you’re very active or have a very physical job, maybe a larger percentage of your daily calories come from carbs like whole grains, root vegetables, and fruit. 

Once you have calculated your calorie, protein, and fat targets, whatever’s leftover is your carbohydrate budget.

This could be anywhere from 10-55% of your total calories depending on where your other targets are set.

Within your carb budget, shoot for about 25g of fiber each day.

Note: If you drastically reduce your carb intake, you’re likely to see a big drop on the scale due to water weight. Each gram of stored carbohydrate (called glycogen) also retains 3 grams of water. When you deplete your glycogen stores, you drop a bunch of water. You have not lost a bunch of fat and the scale will go back up when/if you take in more carbs.

Typically I start clients with somewhere in the ballpark of 30-40% of their total daily calories coming from carbs. From there, we’re able to tweak based on personal preference and results. 

Next Steps

If you are feeling overwhelmed, start with just a calorie and protein target. Don’t stress too much about fats and carbs as long as calories and protein are in check. (Or, consider my Gone For Good weight loss coaching program to help guide you along the way!)

One approach is to log your food for a few days, see where your fats and carbs fall, and set your targets in that vicinity.

Another is to set your fat and carb targets at roughly equal percentages of your total intake, seeing if you’re consistently over on one and under on the other. From there, you can adjust accordingly.

Once you have your targets in place, it’s important that you accurately track what you’re eating and drinking. You’ll want to use an app like MyFitnessPal to make this as simple as possible. After you set up the app, you’ll need to input your own targets.

My Beginner’s Guide to Counting Macros for Fat Loss will walk you through how to download the app, tips to make logging a breeze, and fitting in indulgences like wine and chocolate into your weight loss diet.

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