N.C Episode 4: The First Step
When you put gas in your car, you usually check its gas levels first. This is called a setpoint, you can also use it in nutrition
Energy Balance Reality Check
Ok, maybe not as easy as checking your gas gauge in your vehicle, but you know what they say:
What comes easy won’t last long and what lasts long won’t come easy.
-Literally Every Successful Person
The Gas Tank Analogy: Overfilled or Walking?
You are checking the level of gas in your 14.82 gallon tank (sorry I didn’t put it in kilos my European friends). This is the point of perfection, equilibrium. If you are like me, you love to see a full gas tank. But for fun’s sake lets pretend like you didn’t put the automatic gas thing and you’re on your phone just filling your tank to the absolute top. Well, logic will tell you that if you put 15 gallons in a 14.82 gallon tank, it will overflow, get all over your new Nikes, ruining them and probably the next hour of your day.
Okay lets flip the script. Lets say you put $7 of gas every time you stop at the gas station, not matter how much you drive, whether you’re driving to Hawaii from New York or from San Antonio to Alamo Heights. Lets cut to the chase, you’re going to run out of gas somewhere along the way because you are driving way more than the gas your putting in intends. You’ll be walking to work next week.
You are a gas guzzler & you need to fill up every single day. The gas is only energy. So how do you know how big your gas tank is before you overfill it or run out of gas? This is something you must know! but unluckily for us, we don’t have a gas gauge to easily check. Would be nice, do you disagree?
How Big is Your Gas Tank?
Only we can use a hint of science and a hint of logic to figure out how big our gas tanks are by finding something called a Setpoint.
A Setpoint is the amount of energy you exert on a daily basis. Are you overfilling to the point of ruining your new shoes or are you underfilling leaving you walking?
How do we find this setpoint? Well, we can’t control the setpoint itself immediately or dramatically on a consistent basis without burning out & altering out life dramatically. So what is one thing we can control and measure? (Going back to first principle thinking).
We can control what we eat, we can even roughly measure the amount of energy we put in our bodies. This is the first piece of information.
We are creatures of habit, so like it or not we eat similar foods every week and intake roughly the same amount of calories in certain patterns. Unless you’re always dramatically losing or gaining 9lbs on a monthly basis, this is most likely true.
Week 1: Track Like a Scientist
Your task for week 1 is finding your setpoint.
Do not change your eating habits. Eat, drink, smoke, as you want. BUT TRACK EVERYTHING. You can use an app like MyFitnessPal or Chronometer (I prefer Chronometer). If you digest it, track it. Don’t judge yourself, just view it as information, although just doing this is surely to change some behaviors, try to act like yourself. This is simply a science experiment.
Be aware!! Your biases as you may be inclined to pick the lower calorie items in the app selection lists. Also be aware that the cooking oil you use at home is measured in tablespoons and probably has around 153 calories per serving. Be sure to add the calories that condiments have as well as cooking oils.
Week 2: Calories Meet Consistency
We now have one facet of information in energy intake, great! The more information, the better. Now it is time to add another piece. Now how much energy are we expending? This one sounds harder, but its not. It is only more meticulous. Buy a scale to weigh yourself. I know you’re not a pro yet, but get all 7 days of last weeks information, average it. Get that average and eat it everyday.
Therefore for week 2 your job is to get your scale, weigh yourself everyday at the same time, preferably in the morning after using the bathroom. Track your calories and hit last weeks 7 day average, every single day for the next 7 days. Keep a journal to track your weights everyday, 1-7 or Monday-Sunday. Doesn’t matter to me.
Note: IDC WHAT YOU EAT OR THE TIME YOU EAT IT, JUST TRACK IT AND HIT THE AVERAGE.
Week 3: The Scale and the 2000-Calorie Test Drive
Don’t give up on me now!! Its Week 3, the initial motivation is now dwindling, I know, I know. What is the rush? If you are in this for life, this is merely a drop in the bucket in terms of time. Again nothing worth it comes easy, but if you do this right, you may never have to do this again. If you didn’t complete the 7 previous days, start over.
For week 3, get all of your weights of all 7 days. Add them, divide by 7 to get the average. This is your real weight. Next, drop your calories to 2000 and repeat the process. Eat 2000 calories everyday give or take 50 calories. Do not eat dramatically less or more. Also keep weighing yourself at the same time everyday, in the morning. Write down all 7 days in a journal like previously.
If you’ve gotten this far, the process of tracking is becoming easier. Like doing reps in the gym, its not getting easier… You’re just getting better.
Week 4: Pattern Spotting & Adjusting the Plan
Week 4 baby!! Its game time now. Get all you calories for all 7 days, average them. This is the number of calories you “intook” everyday, on average. Get all your weights for 7 days, average them. This is your new weight from last week.
What did you notice? A decrease in weight, means your energy expense was greater than the intake, while an increase in weight means your intake was greater than expense. If your weight did not move, that means on average you ate and burned at around a break even level, this is called maintenance.
The Cases: Where Are You Going?
Congratulations if you wished to lose weight and did. You are in what called a deficit. Keep on doing what you are doing. One day you’ll hit a plateau and stop losing weight, but when that happens you know to only drop your calories 50-100 from 2000 to achieve some sort of weight loss, then when you hit that plateau drop a little more until you hit your desired weight, which you will. To go “faster” I would not decrease calories dramatically more than 400 calories. This could have long term deleterious effect.
If you wished to lose weight and you gained weight, you are still in surplus. In this case, just decrease the calories by 100 then repeat the week. Keep doing this until you don’t gain or lose weight, achieving maintenance, then drop a little at a time after that to achieve weight loss goals.
If you were trying to gain weight and you lost weight, well you simply did not eat enough calories. Increase your calorie intake by 100 every week, until you hit maintenance. If you dramatically lost weight, increase by 200 every week until you hit maintenance. Once you do, take that caloric maintenance number, multiply it by .125, you’ll get a number. Add it to your maintenance number. These are new calories. Beware of the dirty bulk, after around 12% over your calories, the muscle building benefits will seize and the majority of what you’ll gain is fat.
Now congrats if you were trying to gain weight and did, I would stay right there until your weight plateaus or you goals change. In the case of plateau, just multiply your calories x .125 and add it on to your calories. You’ll start gaining again soon.
The last case is if you wanted to maintain, but you lost or gained. Either way note this number down, this is your setpoint and its beautiful knowledge for the future. If you lost weight, add 100 calories at a time until plateau. If you gained weight, decrease 100 calories every time until plateau.
When I say “Add or decrease every time” this means weekly. A weeks information is just enough information to work off of. Really, you’re just repeating week 3 every week with new calories.
Macros: The Food Equation That Matters
So in all actuality it is week 4 still, you’re missing a piece. Your macros, the actual state of your food whether it is a protein, fat or carbohydrate. I’m going to give you my general formula for getting calories based on my weight so you can repeat it for yourself.
Above is merely a good starting place. If you are in a surplus, protein intake can be 80% of bodyweight, if you are in a deficit maybe be around 10-15g of protein above your bodyweight. Just trust me on those metrics.
One other important thing, fat and carbohydrates are interchangeable on a 2:1 basis. 2g of carbohydrates is == to 1g fat, you’ll have to price that out accordingly.
The Recap
Week 1: Track Everything, No Changes Yet
Eat as usual—don’t adjust anything yet. Track everything you consume using an app like MyFitnessPal or Chronometer. This includes food, drinks, condiments, and cooking oils. You’re gathering data to understand your current eating habits, so just observe, no judgment!
Week 2: Hit Your Baseline Consistently
Calculate the average calories from Week 1 and aim to hit that number every day for seven days. Begin weighing yourself daily at the same time (ideally in the morning), and log these weights. This consistency will help identify how your body responds to your current habits.
Week 3: 2000-Calorie Test
Set a target of 2000 calories per day, sticking within 50 calories of this amount. Track your weight every morning to observe how your body reacts to this calorie adjustment. Consistency is key here, so aim to hit 2000 calories each day and log daily weights.
Week 4: Analyze and Adjust Based on Goals
Calculate your weekly weight and calorie averages. Based on whether you lost, gained, or maintained weight, adjust your intake:
For Weight Loss: Decrease by 50-100 calories per week.
For Weight Gain: Increase by 100-150 calories per week.
For Maintenance: Stay at the current intake if weight remains stable.
This data-driven approach lets you make small, effective adjustments based on your specific goal.
Macros: Balancing Protein, Carbs, and Fats
Now that you have a calorie baseline, focus on your macronutrients. Here’s a general formula:
Protein: Aim for around 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight. If you’re in a deficit, consider increasing protein slightly above body weight to support muscle maintenance.
Carbs and Fats: Adjust these based on preference, using a general 2:1 carb-to-fat ratio (2 grams of carbs are roughly equal in energy to 1 gram of fat).
Balancing macros will help ensure you’re not only hitting calorie targets but also fueling your body with a good nutrient mix.
The Wrap-Up: Consistency Wins
We went through this whole process and now the work starts. Focus on being consistent, track your metrics until you reach your goal. After the goal is reached, you’ll probably be a human tracker and can track without actually having to track. Although you will make human errors still, if you ever want to get back on a track you can always revert to tracking again when you get more serious. This should build habits inside of you.
As you can see, calories is a measurement of energy and macros are the same thing but on a bigger scale, composing what your food is made of. Calories are macros and macros are calories… and calories are a scientific measurement we can use to manipulate our weight, body composition.
Sneak Peek: The Trickiness of Tracking
In next writing I will talk about some of the fallacies of tracking *Hint* the companies attempt to fool you in every way and sometimes they will succeed. I will also be talking about how to stay full (satiety) but also within your calories. Save this post and go through the whole process, I would love for you to achieve sustainable results!
As promised, here is one of my easy go to recipes. This one is quick and Cajun. Add Cayenne for a spice!
