The basic query with following a diet plan is the constant computations needed to track the calories that you are consuming per day. Besides counting calories, most diets are also limiting the types of foods that you can include in your diet. The constant computation and food exclusion make most dieting plans unattractive to people who want to lose weight. Fortunately, there are companies like Equalution that offer help by tracking your calorie intake. When you incorporate the Equalution app with flexible dieting, you can quickly achieve your dieting goals.
Flexible dieting is a dieting plan that gives the dieter the control on what foods to include in his or her plan. Flexible dieting means that no food is going on the off-limits chart since any food item can be included. However, the basic rule of flexible dieting is that dieters should closely monitor the total number of calories that they take per day and make sure that the calories are properly distributed to the three macronutrients.
- Macronutrients
Every food can be classified into three macronutrient classification, namely protein, carbohydrates, and fats.
- Protei This macronutrient includes all animal sources such as pork, fish, beef, and poultry, as well as plant protein sources such as beans, quinoa, and other legumes. Flexible dieting recommends that protein should account for at most 35 per cent of calorie intake.
- Carbohydrates include food from grain sources such as rice, bread, and pasta. It is recommended that 45 per cent of your total calorie intake should come from carbohydrate-rich foods.
- Fats include oils from both animal and plant sources, such as nuts. Calories coming from fatty foods should be at a maximum of twenty per cent.
- The Number of Calories per Day. The number of total calories that you will need per day will depend on your diet goals and your Total Daily Energy Expenditure.
- Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE). Your TDEE is computed based on your age, height, current weight, and exercise lifestyle. The amount calculated will be an estimate of the number of calories that you will need daily to function normally. You should keep in mind that if you have a more active lifestyle, your TDEE will increase since you need more energy to expend during your activities.
- The number of calorie intake. The total number of calorie intake is the summation of all the calories that you have ingested per day. Each food item has its calorie amount that adds up to your total calorie intake. If you are planning to lose weight, the recommendation is to subtract 20%, from your TDEE.
Sample Calculation
Based on an online TDEE calculator, a 46-year old, 172 cm male with a sedentary office lifestyle needs 2,144 calories per day as his TDEE. If his goal is to lose weight, then he will need to intake 1,715.20 calories. If he follows the 35/45/20 plan, then he will need 600.32 calories coming from protein sources, 771.84 calories for carbohydrates, and 343 calories from fats.
Eat What You Want
The basic answer to the question “what is flexible dieting?” is that it allows you to eat anything you wish just as long as it fits into your macronutrient and calorie schedule.
For example, if the above male is fond of eating steaks and a regular 100-gram steak has 271 calories. Then dividing 600.32 protein calories with 271 calories will give the male an option to consume an estimate of 2.2 servings of steak per day and still be able to lose weight.
When you consider that you do not need to sacrifice some of your most-loved foods in your diet plan, flexible dieting becomes more of a lifestyle choice than a diet.
