Page 34 - The Skinny On Your Diet Plan

pizza, etc.) tend to make people eat more, and feel less satisfied.

This means:

When planning a macronutrient-based program, consider how much energy
you will need in order to:

• move towards body weight or body composition goals; and

• support physical activity, recovery, and/or metabolic health.
We’ll dive deeper into more specific recommendations in the next section.
All you need to know right now is that each macronutrient stores a different

amount of energy, and regardless of how energy is measured, what matters

most is:
• There is an important relationship between energy going into the

body, and energy stored, used, and excreted by the body.
• Different macronutrients and types of food contain and release

different amounts of energy.
In the real world, calculating energy needs, intake, and use is more of an art

than a science. While we can make an educated guess at how much energy a
person might need or expend, it’s only ever a guess.

Outside of a lab:

• We can’t know exactly how many calories and nutrients we
absorb, use, and/or excrete.

• We can’t know exactly how many calories and nutrients are in
our food.

• We can’t know exactly how many calories and nutrients we
expend through metabolism and movement.

Thus:
Precise, meticulous, highly detailed calorie counting as a way to manage

diet and exercise is time consuming, tedious, and unnecessary for most
people. Instead, we can start with predictive equations to estimate how much

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