The difficult thing about diets is that everyone is different and we all respond differently to foods…so there really is no one size fits all.  However, one thing is certain, you are what you eat and eating the right foods can make your weight loss efforts much easier.  Here are a few tips that can make your diet a success.

It’s hard to see past the billion dollar marketing lies that our food industries throw our way, but the best way to bypass all the false hype and gimmick is to stick to real foods that don’t have labels on the them.  If you can stick to eating real foods, you’re going to be significantly better off than 95% of the people out there.  Because here’s the thing, no matter what diet your on, all successful diets have two things in common - reduce calorie intake and provide ample nutrients to your body.  And the best way to do that is by eating real foods and avoid processed foods that have hidden calories and poor nutritious values.

Now even though I mention calories, don’t get me wrong…I HATE counting calories!  And for the most part, it’s unnecessary if you’re eating the right foods.  But, I do think that initially, if you’re coming off of a poor diet, knowing what foods have how many calories is a good thing.  What is important is knowing how much of each macronutrient you need to consume on a daily basis.  Macronutrients are the protein, carbohydrates and fat contents in you food.  Much like counting calories, it first it’s a bit of work, but once you figure out how much protein, carbs and fats you need…it becomes a piece of cake to maintain.  More importantly it allows you to know what you’re putting into your body, so you can take full control of your diet.

So how much of each macronutrient do you need to eat in a day?

I discussed the benefits of protein and how much protein you need to consume in a day, along with how to calculate your lean body weight, in a previous article, but here’s a another quick look at the general guidelines:

• Sedentary - 0.35 - 5 grams per lean body mass

• Moderately - Active 0.6 - 0.8 grams per lean body mass

• Active - 0.8 - 1.0 grams per lean body mass

• Very Active - 1.0 and higher per lean body mass

Now in caloric terms, protein has 4 calories per gram.  So, as an example let’s say you weight 170 lb and have 20% body fat.  That calculates to 136 lb of lean body weight.  And let’s assume that your very active, perhaps doing the MAX Workouts program…hint hint…that would mean that you should be eating about 1 gram of protein for each pound of lean body weight, which would be around 136 g of protein a day.  This equates to 136 g x 4 cal/g = 544 calories in a day.  (Not much considering one Big Mac has roughly 580 calories…just to puts things into perspective.)

Personally, I feel that the biggest culprit of weight gain is due to excessive carbs.  Now, before I get brushed off as another low carb guy…let me explain.  First of all not all carbs are bad.  In fact, unrefined carbohydrates such as vegetables and fruits are great for you, since it provides tons of nutrients and fiber.  It just so happens that majority of the vegetables and some fruits happen to be low in sugar content and low in calories as well. So by default, if you eat mostly vegetables and some fruits for your carbohydrates, you end up eating a low carb diet.  It’s grains and grain products that really ramp up your carb intake.

Whole grains have many health benefits, but unfortunately most grains on the market are not whole grains….they’re processed grains.  Processed grains are in pretty much every product imaginable, from breads, pasta, rice to baked goods, packaged snacks and even healthy snacks.  Grains are dense in calories and packed with sugar, and so when ingested it really increases your insulin activity.  Insulin hormone is like the gate keeper to your fat storage, and since it acts as a storage hormone, it loves to store excess sugar as fat. So the less you get your insulin involved the better, both for you and your fat.  And the best way to do so is by eliminating refined “grains” carb intake and make sure that your carbohydrate content mainly comes from unrefined carbs like vegetables and fruits.

So how many carbs should you eat?

Much like protein, it varies with each individual and their activity levels, but here are some ranges you can use as a general guide:

• At 200 - 300 grams per day you’re likely to steadily gain weight, especially if you’re sedentary or only moderately active.

• At 150-200 grams per day, you’re at the cusp of gaining weight and maintaining your weight is going to depend on your activity levels.  You’ll more than likely need to participate in longer duration “cardio” based activities in order to maintain your current weight.

• At 100-150 grams per day, you should be able to maintain your weight, by being moderately active.  However, if you participate in short duration but higher intensity activities (aka. MAX Workouts), you should be able to lose weight, while building lean muscle.

• At 50-100 grams per day, you should be able to lose weight steadily if you’re moderately active.  And if you participate in short duration high intensity activities, as mentioned above, you should be able to accelerate your weight loss process.

• At 0-50 grams per day, your body starts to metabolize fat for fuel, so you’ll burn fat and lose weight more quickly.  However, it’s not recommended for long term.  It’s an effective initial start up phase, utilized by many low carb diets.  The phase is usually 5 days to 2 weeks in length.

Again, these are just general ranges and it will vary according to each individual.  And if you’ve been eating high amounts of carbs, you shouldn’t cut out carbs immediately.  Instead, you’ll need to slowly ween yourself off of carbs until you get to the appropriate ranges.

Eating low carbs isn’t difficult if you’re eating the right kinds of foods.  If you stick to eating unrefined carbs (ie. vegetables and some fruits), you shouldn’t have any trouble keeping your carb intake within ranges of 50 - 150 grams per day.  It’s only when you start to include grains into your diet that you get into trouble.  As mentioned earlier, grains are too high in sugar content and readily activates your insulin, making it harder to lose weight and easier to gain weight.

It’s also important to note that your body has the ability to make up to 200 grams of glycogen (stored glucose) a day from proteins and fat.  Much of that glycogen is stored in your muscle (and some in you liver) to be used for physical activities.  So, even with low to zero carb intake, your body can make enough glucose to keep your glycogen levels in your muscles full for fuel.

Now in caloric terms, carbohydrates has 4 calories per gram.  Using the same example as I did in the protein section…let’s say your goal is to lose 25 pounds by the end of the program, which would be 145 lb.  That’s about 2 lb a week, since the program is 12 weeks long.  And let’s say that you decide to cut down your carb intake to a range of about 100 grams per day.  This equals to 100 g x 4 cal/g = 400 calories a day.

So far, your total calorie intake is 544 calories from protein and 400 calories from carbs for a total of 944 calories.

There are a few ways to calculate how many calories you need per day in order for you to achieve your goal weight.  Some calculations require you to plug in your BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate), and some also require you to plug in your lean body weight, and you can use any of these calculations, but a quick, easy and reliable method, is to multiply your goal weight by 10.  So for this example, it would be 145 lb x 10 = 1450 calories a day.  And since the total calorie from protein and carbs is 944 calories, the amount of calories left is 1450 - 944 = 506 calories.  And this last amount of calories should come from fat.  Fat has 9 calories per gram, so that equals 506 cal / 9 cal/g = 84.3 g of fat.  So that means you can consume up to 84 grams of fat and still be within your weight loss caloric intake.

Now…fat is the most misunderstood macronutrient out of them all.  I think it’s because of the name.  Who wants to eat fat when they’re trying to lose fat…right?  But here’s the key to eating fats and still lose weight.  As long as you’re eating the right amounts of macronutrients - protein and carbs - eating fat actually increases you body’s ability to burn stored fat more effectively!

Fats can be divided up into these following categories:

• Saturated Fats - Stable fats found in foods like animal fats and coconuts.

• Monounsaturated Fats - Moderately stable fats found in foods like avocado and in many healthy oils such as olive oil, flaxseed oil, sesame seed oil, sunflower oil, corn oil and peanut oil.

• Polyunsaturated Fats - Least stable of the three main fats, making polyunsaturated fats very susceptible to going rancid quickly when heated.  It’s found in grain products, soybeans, peanuts and fish oils.

You can include any or a combination of all of the fats mentioned above in your daily diet.  The only type of fat that needs to be avoided at all costs is trans fats.  It shouldn’t even be considered fat, since it’s not natural.  It’s chemically manufactured and is added to food to extend shelf life.  However, when ingested, it causes serious damage to your body.  Long term exposure to trans fats have been associated with obesity, diabetes, atherosclerosis, and chronic inflammatory diseases, just to name a few.

It’s important to note, that when you’re deciding to go on a diet, the total amount of calories you choose to eat in a day depends on your goal and how quickly you want to get to your goal.  But here are some key points to keep in mind before you decide:

• Be realistic about your goals and approach it like a marathon slow and steady is the best and healthiest solution

• Cutting out too many calories is a sure way to cause you to rebound by over consuming afterwards, getting you on the infamous yo - yo dieting roller coaster

• Look at your diet as a long term goal and not something you want to achieve today.

• Calories are important, but it’s just as important (if not more so) to watch what you eat.  Not all calories are created equal.  Each food you ingest triggers hormonal responses that can either be helpful and healthy or negative and unhealthy.

• Weight loss should come as a result of a combination of both healthy eating and an effective exercise plan.

In order to figure out how many calories you need a day, you need to find our how much of each macronutrient you should be eating.  And to help you do that, you can go to www.caloriecount.about.com to find out the nutrition content of each food.

So here’s a summary of the tips you can implement to help you succeed in your diet and weight loss efforts.

• Eat real foods and avoid all processed foods, so you can avoid hidden calories and poor nutrition

• Knowing your total caloric intake initially is a good way to have an idea of how much food you should be eating

• Know how much of each macronutrient (protein, carbs and fats) you need to eat

• Cut out refined carbs, especially grains and instead eat unrefined carbs such as vegetables and fruits

• Eating fat helps you lose weight as long as you’re eating the proper amounts of protein and low carbs

• Avoid trans fats at all costs

• Combine healthy eating with an effective exercise program to maximize weight loss

P.S.  If you haven’t heard already, I’m doing my first MAX Workouts Transformation Contest!

I’m giving away $1000 for the top prize winner, $500 for the second prize winner and $250 for the third prize winner.  And all of the winners get a 1 year free membership to my online fitness club (www.maxworkoutclub.com).

I’m super excited about the contest and I can’t wait to see the results in a few months from now.  So if you haven’t had the chance to sign up yet, go to MAX Workouts and sign up today.