Fitness Blog # 2 : body composition percentages, understanding calories, calorie count and their role

Hey steemians

This is your guy JBN. And as written in my fitness blog # 1, i am here to enlighten you all on proteins, carbs and fats composition percentages in a body, basic concepts of calories, how to count your existing calories requirements and how to fluctuate them in order to either gain mass or shred.

Body Composition Ideal Percentages

There are no ideal percentages when it comes to proteins, carbs and fats per say, yet you need to understand that how do you want these percentages to be if you are going for either shredding or bulking (goes for both females and males).

Generally speaking, most of the fitness people follow 40%(proteins), 40% (carbs) and 20%(fats) formula. But if you want to gain more clean mass you should change this equation to 45/40/15. Now lets say as per my current diet, if i take 30% proteins, 40% carbs and 30% fats and i want clean gains with fat reduction, i will burn out in gym while feeding my body a diet that contains appx 40% proteins, 40% carbs and 20% fats. If i want to go beyond, i can upgrade proteins to 50% and reduce fats to 10% (which is very very extreme). Right now, you don't need to change anything. Just understand this concept so that when i dish out diet plans in future, you must know the science behind the proteins, carbs and fats compositions. If anyone wondering about my own percentages, i take 45% protiens, 40% carbs and 15% fat (since i am on bulking program).

P.S. please note that 20% fats doesnt mean you will have 20% body fat percentage. That is a separate topic and will be covered in my future blogs.

Calories

In very simple words, calories are the nutrients that you take in to stay alive. Anything you eat or drink contains few calories (you might have seen a table or chart on back of a commercial product regarding this. If you haven't, check it now). For a normal human being, calorie count per day is often calculated to be at 2000-2500 cals/day. However, you can calculate your daily count via this simple calorie calculator
Forget about what the site says on other stuff. Just notice your daily calorie requirements.

P.S. this is an approximation tool. If you want more precise values then eat your daily diet for about 3 days and note down all the calories that you are taking in per day and then take average of those 3 readings (a bag of chips you casually eat also counts in those calories). The commercial products have calories written over them and you can find caloric information about organic food (like eggs, vegetables, fruits etc) on google with a simple search like "calories in 1 egg".

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Fluctuating calories intake to suit your needs

Now this is where the basics of your diet plan lies. Lets say you are taking 2500 calories per day (with no exercise and normal routine). Your body burns those calories and converts them as source of energy and you do certain tasks with that energy (for example walking, running, sitting etc). Everything you do, consumes calories (even taking stress consumes alot of calories).
So at the end of the day, if you have consumed 2300 calories but you took in 2500 calories, those extra 200 calories will start to add up in your weight (because they were a supplement source that didn't burn).

On the contrary, if you burn 2700 calories with 2500 cals intake, you are burning extra energy. Human body is intelligent enough to provide you this energy by consuming existing fats, proteins and carbs nutrients in your body weight and thus you start to lose weight.

So the rule is, if you want to add mass, take more calories than you burn and if you want to shred then take less calories than you burn

This is just the basics of it. Of course, there are other things involved in this whole mayhem like,

1. If i eat nothing but only 6 bags of chips daily that contain 500 cals per bag, would i bulk up?
2. Is taking 2 bananas equivalent to eating a slice of pizza?
3. can i take 100 boiled eggs per day and call it a healthy diet?
4. If i am super thin with 1500 calories per day requirement and i need to bulk up, can i straight away start taking in 3000 calories?
5. If i walk 10 kms a day and burn 1000 calories then why should i go to gym to burn the same amount with lifting and stuff?

These are valid questions and this is where the proteins, carbs, fats compositions cross paths with calories. This is also where the gym steps in. These questions along with "why do i need to exercise and what is metabolism" will be answered in my next blog, which is going to be my Fitness Blog # 3.

What do i do with this information

Okay. You have made it this far. If you have consumed the above information, then you are already more educated on fitness than most people on planet. Don't do anything with this information (not yet at least). Just note these down and keep them as record. They come in handy when i will guide you on how to create your diet plan as per your own requirement.

If you haven't seen my Fitness Blog # 1. Check it out here

Do Upvote, Comment and Resteem for others to benefit.

P.S. Guys, as a seasoned body builder, it takes a lot of effort to compile basic information from your head and dish it out in a fashion that everybody understands. So, please be generous with your valuable comments and upvotes. Also, if you think that my fitness blogs need some more clarity or you need to contact me personally, you can reach me on my facebook
Even though i barely discuss about fitness on facebook, yet my fellow steemians are welcome for any sort of help, support and queries.

Regards
JBN