As a Nutrition Coach or Certified Personal Trainer, or Personal Fitness Chef, you know that losing weight is difficult for many of your clients. While tedious, counting calories daily can make the difference between gaining or losing body fat each day. Here are a few tips to share with your clients that can make the calorie counting task more efficient:
- Keep a journal. Track and record your meals and the calories they contain, as well as your exercise and your weekly weight and measurements. You can keep up with your calorie intake for the day and week and you’ll be able to see progress, or lack of progress and make adjustments.
- Count your calories BEFORE you eat them. You may not realize how calorie dense foods are, especially when you are new to counting. Don’t let the calorie count of your meal surprise you and ruin the day’s total – count calories beforehand.
- Let your phone do the heavy counting. There are many new and useful phone apps that count calories for you making counting calories much simpler. These apps are great when eating at restaurants and can help you make healthy choices.
- Ensure you are eating “good” calories while counting them. If your daily calorie goal is 1800, don’t eat 1800 donut calories. You only have 1800 calories, make them work for you and avoid eating empty calories. Choose foods because your body needs fuel, not because it tastes good and you will begin to see positive weight loss results.
Counting calories is a great start to losing weight, however counting macros (macronutrients) may be a better option. Counting macros can not only help you lose weight but also build lean muscle and experience more energy.
The calories in food come from three macronutrients – protein, carbohydrates (carbs) and fats. 1 gram of protein contains 4 calories, 1 gram of carbohydrates contains 4 calories and 1 gram of fat contains 9 calories.
The composition of your diet (percentage of macros) has a big effect on weight loss and the type of weight you gain or lose. More fat will keep you fat, too many carbs (sugar) will have the same effect. Too much protein will overtax your body’s ability to digest, filter and absorb the protein and lead to problems.
Macro counting consists of consuming specific percentages of your daily calories as protein, carbs, and fat in order to reach your full potential and get results. While your nutritional needs are unique, there are standard calorie breakdowns that have proven effective for burning fat and maintaining lean muscle. Start with a calorie break down of 50% Carbs, 30% Protein, and 20% Fats. Using the 1800 calorie example from earlier, your macros target would be:
- Carbs: 50% of your 1800 calories = 900 calories/4 calories per gram = 225 grams
- Protein: 30% of 1800 calories = 540 calories/4 calories per gram = 135 grams
- Fats: 20% of 1800 calories = 360 calories/9 calories per gram = 40 grams
Choose quality macronutrients and you will enjoy the benefits of healthy nutrient dense foods over calorie dense foods leading to the lean body that you desire.
How You Can Help
If you want to help clients with food, diet, weight management and improving the results of their fitness routines, the Fitness Nutrition Coach course is for you. You will learn about optimal nutrition, including proven techniques for increasing energy, optimal health and decreased dependence on medications. Instantly increase your job and career opportunities with this popular professional credential.
You can become a Certified Personal Fitness Chef and expand your current personal chef business, or add a new profit center for your fitness or wellness business. Many personal chefs cook and coach people in groups to help more people and earn more money per hour. Some chefs provide weekly meal prep service for health-minded customers and athletes.
Check out what it takes to start a career in personal fitness training. This is your most affordable and fastest way to become a highly qualified personal trainer.
NESTA coaching programs are open to anyone with a desire to learn and help others. There are no prerequisites.
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