For most people, specifically those "overweight", I think the fist-sized portion rule of thumb talked about in the Body For Life book is a good way to measure how much carbs and protein you need, and I think you'll be getting the right amount of calories going by that rule. But for all you calorie counters, or those who are not getting expected results and suspect it's because of your nutrition program, then here's a guideline to follow. In my opinion it's best to have a few too many calories than to have too few, so take it for what it's worth. The real secret is to use this as a guideline and find what works best for you.
If you're looking to lose bodyfat and gain muscle size:
If you're looking to lose bodyfat and increase muscle definition:
Figure out your carb, fat, and protein grams based on the following rules:
So, if you decide you need to eat 1500 calories and you want to lose fat and increase muscle definition, each day you want
Pick up a bottle of liquid flaxseed oil and some safflower or canola oil from your local supermarket. The flaxseed oil can be found in the refrigerated section of most health food stores. I just bought some at Alfalfa's and it was $15 for 16 ounces. Mix equal quantities of each and set make sure to keep it refrigerated. You can incorporate these into a salad dressing (one tablespoon of the mixture to 3 or 4 tablespoons of vinegar). Also, add a teaspoon of this mixture to each one of your nutrition shakes per day. This will ensure that you get the right blend of Omega 3 and 6 fatty acids.
Unfortunately there is no food source that you can get these from unless you care for salmon or mackerel. These are loaded with oil, but also loaded with saturated fats (the bad kind of fat). I would stick with the liquid varieties and you'll see some great results. Flax seeds (actual seeds) and capsules are not really preferred simply because you'd need to eat the pills like candy to get your daily dose.
Also, if you check out the email section of the website, you'll see one from former EAS champ Hank Johnson giving a more detailed reason for needing the EFA's.
Sitting around stressing out about what you should or shouldn't be eating is probably the toughest thing to do. I've learned to schedule my day so that I don't have much "wasted" time. For instance, a typical day for me is doing cardio in the morning, eating breakfast, going to work, coming home, resistance training, eating supper, playing my guitar, and going to bed. On the nights I don't resistance train, I play softball, or go to my guitar lessons, or ride my dirtbike if possible. The only point I really have time to think about being hungry or wanting to eat, is the hour I have to kill before guitar lessons. It's this time that I want to eat even though it's not time. So, almost every week I watch the Body Of Work video to kill that hour. By the time I get done watching that, I'm so focused on every aspect of my life again, eating is not even an issue. The moral of the story here is to plan for periods like this, and have a strategy in place to deal with it.
Eating six smaller meals a day compared to 3 squares serves a couple different purposes. First, your body will process food better if eaten in smaller quantities. It's the story of the horse and the bear. The horse, a lean and mean animal, eats a little bit all day long, and burns it up as he goes. The bear on the other hand, an animal with a very large amount of fat, eats one big meal, which is meant to last a long time and does, but consequently stores it as fat. There's a lot better explanation in the book, but I think you get the idea.
The second purpose eating six smaller meals a day serves, is that you're not as hungry. In fact, you'll sometimes feel like you're eating too much. This is the most effective appetite suppressant you can buy because you're solving the problem, not just the symptom.
(Actually, it's recommended that you drink at least .6oz of water per pound of bodyweight, but it usually comes out to about one gallon for most people.) Drinking plenty of water is essential to getting all the quality stuff you're eating to the right parts of the body in a timely fashion. It helps keep your system clean, and it will keep you hydrated during your workouts. There is one big side effect however, and that is that you will be peeing more than you normally do. Who am I kidding, you'll be peeing a lot!!! But, look at the bright side. I can guarantee you'll have some funny stories about barely making it to work without wetting your pants to tell all your friends.
To make sure you're getting your required amount, buy a gallon jug, fill it up in the morning, and then make sure it's empty by the time you go to bed. And don't use water from your jug to make your shakes or mix with your other supplements. That's extra.
The free day is that one day a week when you don't exercise and you eat anything you want-you can have a cheeseburger, pizza, or even apple pie. And it allows you the freedom to be yourself and the freedom to eat for fun. But it's also important in that if you overfeed the body a little bit once a week, it helps convince your body it's not starving and it hasn't just hit a famine. Throughout the timeline of human existence, our bodies have had to adapt to times when there was a lot of food and other times when there wasn't enough food. So if your body begins to think it's hit one of these times when there's going to be a food shortage, the fat is going to come off a lot slower. So the Free Day, believe it or not, accelerates fat loss.
Here's a typical day of eating for me. You'll notice that each meal is a portion of protein, and a portion of carbs, with minimal fat.