Individualize Your Nutrition Plan

Your goal is to determine how much energy you require each day. This is an important step that should not be overlooked. Simply guessing at this number can sabotage all of your efforts. The Estimated Energy Requirement (EER) is a relatively new term that means the dietary energy intake predicted to maintain an energy balance consistent with good health in healthy, normal-weight individuals of a specific age, gender, weight, height, and level of physical activity. In basic terms, your EER tells you how much food you should eat each day to maintain your current weight.

To get started you'll need to know some basic health variables about yourself. Complete worksheet 6.1 to calculate your Body Mass Index (BMI) and body fat percentage. If you are in the normal range, then use worksheet 6.2a to estimate your energy needs. If you are in the overweight or obese range, then use worksheet 6.2b to estimate your energy needs. To calculate your energy needs, select the correct physical activity level coefficient (PA coefficient).

Once you calculate your energy needs, you can follow a strategy to maintain weight, lose weight, or gain weight. I devote a section to each strategy that will guide you through the steps necessary to develop your individualized nutrition plan. After you identify your strategy, keep in mind the following simple nutritional guidelines:

• Try to eat six small meals spread evenly throughout the day. The body can more easily burn a small caloric load than a large one. With larger calorie meals, the excess calories have the potential of going to fat storage. Small, frequent meals help maintain blood glucose levels, keeping you on an even keel all day long. Frequent eating can raise your RMR (remember the thermic effect of food?) and decrease your food cravings.
• Emphasize vegetables and fruits in the diet. Research consistently shows that eating vegetables and fruits lowers the risks for many diseases and that those who eat them on a consistent basis are much healthier than those who don't.
• Eat as many different colors of foods in the diet as possible. Colors are associated with different phytonutrients that work to keep you healthy by providing antioxidants to reduce inflammation in the body.
• Eat meats that are as lean as possible, except fish. The saturated fat in meats raises your LDL cholesterol (the "bad" cholesterol). Fatty fish have polyunsaturated fat, which lowers your LDL cholesterol.
• Eat healthy fats in foods like nuts, olive oil, canola oil, fish oil, and flaxseed oil. Those who eat healthy fats lower their risk for cardiovascular disease, depression, and diabetes.

Maintaining Your Weight

Losing Weight

Gaining Weight