Dietary Tracking
Let's jump into using nutritional tools and formulas. Read each step before calculating.
🧮 Step 1: Determine Your Calorie Needs
- Find your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR):
Use a formula like the Mifflin-St Jeor equation:- For women:
BMR = 10 × weight(kg) + 6.25 × height(cm) − 5 × age(y) − 161 - For men:
BMR = 10 × weight(kg) + 6.25 × height(cm) − 5 × age(y) + 5
- For women:
- Adjust for Activity Level (TDEE): Multiply your BMR by an activity factor:
- Sedentary (little/no exercise): × 1.2
- Lightly active (1–3 days/week): × 1.375
- Moderately active (3–5 days/week): × 1.55
- Very active (6–7 days/week): × 1.725
- Extra active (athlete/manual labor): × 1.9
- Hate math? Use thisMifflin St Jeor Calculator
🎯 Step 2: Set Your Goal
- Maintain weight: Eat at your TDEE
- Lose weight: Subtract 250–500 calories/day
- Gain weight: Add 250–500 calories/day
🧪 Step 3: Choose Your Macronutrient Ratio
Common guidelines (can vary slightly by goal):
- Balanced diet (general health):
- Carbs: 45–55%
- Protein: 15–25%
- Fats: 20–35%
- Fat and or weight loss: Higher protein with lesser carbs often helps
- Carbs: 30–40%
- Protein: 25–35%
- Fats: 25–35%
- A good start is 40% carb, 30% protein and 30% fat (1)
- Another great tip is to make sure there is always more protein than sugar in an item (2)
- Muscle gain: Emphasize carbs and protein
- Carbs: 45–60%
- Protein: 20–30%
- Fats: 20–30%
🔢 Step 4: Convert Percentages to Grams
- Remember:
- Carbs = 4 calories/gram
- Protein = 4 calories/gram
- Fat = 9 calories/gram
Example (2,000 calorie diet, 50% carbs, 25% protein, 25% fat):
- Carbs: 50% of 2000 = 1000 cal → 1000 ÷ 4 = 250g
- Protein: 25% of 2000 = 500 cal → 500 ÷ 4 = 125g
- Fat: 25% of 2000 = 500 cal → 500 ÷ 9 = 56g
✅ Optional: Use a Calculator
- If math isn’t your thing, MyFitness Pal will do some of this for you. There are also online calculators.
Water
In interest of time, we will use the Mayo Clinic goals of 1.5 cups (2.7 liters) for women and 15.5 cups (3.7 liters) for men
Discussion Prompt
Use the above and MyFitness Pal to determine your daily calorie intake, your % macros and macro gram goals.
Then share then a screen shot of your account with a summary. See My example below. The format should match mine.
- BMR
- Calorie Goal
- % and grams of carbs
- % and grams of fat
- % and grams of protein
Then post a screenshot of you MyFitness Plan page
Find a peer to compare with and reply to.
Please provide your answers in list form as my example below. -5 if not in format.
Example Post
- BMR: My BMNR with moderate exercise was 1750
- Calorie Goal: I want to put some muscle on, so I rounded up to 2000 calories
- % and grams of carbs: 45% (45% of 2000 is 900 divided by 4=) 225 gram carbs
- % and grams of fat: 25% ( 25% of 2000 is 500 divided by 9= ) 56 grams fat
- % and grams of protein: 30% (30% of 2000 is 600 divided by 4=) 150 grams protein
[Image unavailable: Nutrition goals]
Then reply to a peer.
Rubric
3 points each item= 15
10 points screen shot (6 + 4 for SLO)
5 points reply
-5 if not in the format as above
Sourced from Chat GPT 6/12/25