THE FLEXIBLE

NUTRITION
BIBLE
Sample Chapter

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CALCULATING YOUR CALORIE
REQUIREMENTS FOR YOUR
FASTEST FAT LOSS EVER
The aim of this free chapter is to show you exactly how to work out how many calories
you need to lose fat (or build lean muscle mass.)

In the full book, this section is prefaced with sections on diet debunking, and discussion
on the science of flexible dieting. Even without reading them though, this chapter
should start to make sense to you. Whether youre well-versed in the practice of calorie
counting and have a rough idea of how many you need, or this is a completely new
concept to you, these fundamentals are vital to every dieter.

If you choose to skip whats outlined below right at the very start of your journey, youre
making things so much harder right from the start. Get this right though, and youll have
an easier time losing weight and getting lean than ever before

Heres the real meat and potatoes part of the book.

Myths have been debunked, Ive dropped a little science and now its time to get
practical.

As Ive talked about already, achieving your goals with a flexible approach isnt too
difficult, provided you meet your numbers, but how do you find those numbers in the
first place?

Step 1: Calories

Calories come first and foremost.

You can look at specific foods all you like, or concentrate solely on macros, but if your
calorie intake isnt in order, youll get nowhere.

Calories are king.

There are several ways you can calculate your calorie needs.

The first is to use a basic equation based on bodyweight.

To determine your maintenance calories (i.e. the number of calories you need per day to
maintain your weight) the following formula is quickest and easiest

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Men:

Multiply bodyweight in pounds by 13 to 16.

Women:

Multiply bodyweight in pounds by 11 to 14.

What number you pick depends on how active you are. If youre sedentary and do little
to no exercise, then go with the lowest multiplier. If youre very active on a daily basis
and train hard, shoot for the top end.

If youre looking for a slightly more accurate way to calculate BMR you could use the
Mifflin St-Jeor Method:

Men:

BMR = [10 * weight(kg)] + [6.25 x height(cm)] [5 x age(y)] + 5

Women:

BMR = [10 x weight(kg)] + [6.25 x height(cm)] [5 x age(y)] - 161

Or Katch-McArdle, which is a little more detailed, as it takes lean mass into account.

BMR = 370 + [9.79759519 x lean mass (in pounds)]

Or go with Alan Aragons, taken from his research review. (Theres a link to this at the end
of volume 2.)

For Men and Women:

25.3 x lean body mass in kg
11.5 x lean body mass in pounds

Youll need to know your lean body mass for this (i.e. your total weight, minus your body
fat. This can be calculated by using calipers.)

From here, once youve essentially calculated how many calories youd burn were you in
a coma, youll need to multiply the answer by one of the activity multipliers below.

Youve got two ways of doing this, either by multiplying your number from above by an
activity variable, or with an alternative calculation from Aragons equation.

Average activity variables are:

1.2 = Sedentary (Desk job, and Little Formal Exercise)

1.3-1.4 = Lightly Active (Light daily activity AND light exercise 1-3 days a week)

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1.5-1.6 = Moderately Active (Moderately daily Activity and Moderate exercise 3-5 days a
week)
1.7-1.8 = Very Active (Physically demanding lifestyle and Hard exercise 6-7 days a week)
1.9-2.2 = Extremely Active (Athlete in ENDURANCE training or VERY HARD physical job)

Or for the Aragon method:

(This is generally more accurate for calculating fat loss calories, so if you use this, then
you can skip step 2, and run straight to step 3.)

Total Energy Expenditure = Target bodyweight in pounds x (8-10 or 9-11 + average total
weekly training hours).

Or in kilograms:

Total Energy Expenditure = Target bodyweight in kilograms x ((8-10 or 9-11 + average total
weekly training hours) * 2.2)

You can also adjust this formula to take into account your gender and differences in daily
activity levels.

If youre a woman or someone with a sedentary lifestyle, use the 8-10 range.

If youre a man or someone with a more active lifestyle, then use the 9-11 range.

This formula also accounts for the intensity of your exercise, including daily movement.

Woman or less active person:

8 = low intensity training.

9 = moderate intensity training.
10 = high intensity training.

Man or more active person:

9 = low intensity training.

10 = moderate intensity training.
11 = high intensity training.

Keep in mind, that the multipliers are fairly generalized, so use common sense when it
comes to picking what suits you best. You may fall in between two categories thats
fine, just pick a suitable number and calculate your starting point.

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Its Just an Estimate!

Dont worry about what the best calorie calculator is. There really isnt a magic formula,
and all youre doing is finding a starting point a baseline if you will.

Any of the formulas here will give you a sensible guide as to what your calories should
start out at, so pick one, go with it, and Ill talk you through how to tweak it depending
on progress in upcoming chapters.

Step 2: Setting the Deficit/ Surplus

After youve found your maintenance calories using one of the methods above, you then
need to tailor this to your goals.

To lose fat, we know we need to consume fewer calories than we burn, and to gain mass,
we need to consume more than we burn.

Youve got 2 options either add or subtract a specific number, or a percentage of your
maintenance, based on what you wish to achieve.

For most people who may only have 5-20 pounds to lose, or someone looking to gain
lean muscle mass, subtracting 500 calories for fat loss, or adding 500 calories for muscle
gain works well enough.

A second option is to add or subtract 10 to 25% of your maintenance. (The higher the
percentage, the more aggressive your diet will be. But aggression isnt always a good
thing Ill be talking a lot more about this in future chapters.) The advantage here is that
your deficit or surplus will be more closely suited to your intake. If youre a very small
female that doesnt carry a great deal of muscle mass for instance, subtracting 500
calories might not be very practical if it means eating very little from the outset, so in this
case it might be wiser to begin by using a percentage.

Looking at an example of someone with a maintenance calorie intake of 2,400 calories,

they could either shoot for

Fat Loss:

1,900 calories (using the -500 method) or -1,800-2,160 (using the 10-25% method.)

Muscle Gain:

2,900 calories (using the +500 method) or 2,640-3,000 (using the 10-25% method.)

Again how you do it doesnt matter too much this is JUST a starting point

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To be continued

I know what youre thinking.

Actually, I know youre thinking one of two things. Either

Wow, this sounds so much more practical and rational than any diet Ive tried before,
where do I learn more?

Or youre thinking

Maths?

Multiplication?

Calorie counting?

That all sounds a little complicated.

If youre in the first camp, you can go here to finally learn how get the body you want
eating the foods you love:

For those of you in the second group though, let me say I understand your way of
thinking.

I used to be exactly the same.

I thought calories didnt count, that all I needed to do was eat clean, and that tracking
my food intake would just take far too long.

I was wrong.

Dead wrong.

Through discovering and using flexible dieting (i.e. working out my calories, and then
tracking these, along with monitoring my macronutrients proteins, carbs and fats) I got
into the best shape of my life, and manage to maintain this year-round.

Im nothing special though.

In fact, all my clients eat this way. Just take a look Click here to see previous client
transformations.

There are several huge misconceptions about flexible dieting, the main ones being it
takes time, its difficult and it doesnt work.

In terms of time, in the book, I talk you through, step-by-step how to easily track your
intake in just a few minutes per day. (Plus, the time youll save by not having to cook and
prep every single boring meal, means youll actually gain back time with flexible dieting.)

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Difficult?

Only if you cant do a few simple sums (the most difficult of which weve just gone
through anyway) and if your technology skills are worse than that of a 95-year old hermit
whos never used a phone before.

Doesnt work?

This is an argument used by those so locked into their false beliefs that dieting has to be
difficult that they refuse to believe losing fat can be this easy.

If youre on the fence, you can either

Dismiss this as being yet another diet book that promises so much, but delivers so little,
go back to your ways of clean eating, your weight loss shakes and detox diets, realise
these dont work when you cant stick to them and pile back on body fat, then come
back here in a month or twos time

Or you can make the smart move and invest now.

If you do that, my guarantee is that Ill give you the easiest, most enjoyable, tasty way to
diet youve ever tried.

Youll lose fat (even get shredded if thats your goal) and learn how to keep this off, all
while eating the foods you love.

'The Flexible Nutrition Bible' will show you how.

Click here to buy 'The Flexible Nutrition Bible'.

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Nick Cheadle Fitness 2016 | All Rights Reserved
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