Muscle Gain & Fat Loss - A Simple 3-Step Well-Balanced Diet Plan for Beginners

Building muscle while losing your fat is what all of us want, don’t we?

But here is the big reveal: working hard in the gym amounts only to 30% of results and the rest 70% is the forte of a well-balanced diet plan. Charting a well-balanced diet plan is crucial to reap benefits from your physical exercise and fitness regimen and that is exactly where most people falter. The progress stalls, consequently they lose interest and stop exercising altogether.

The simplest way to lose fat is to maintain a calorie deficit i.e. to consume several calories much below your T.D.E.E. On the contrary, you need to consume slightly more calories than your T.D.E.E to ensure muscle gain.

So, how do you plan a well-balanced diet plan that can help you build scads of muscles while losing the unwanted fat simultaneously?

Here’s a simple 5-step approach that can help you achieve exactly that. If you are a lean individual at body fat < 20% with a desire to build muscle over time, then this process is for you:

Step 1- Know Your Maintenance Calories:

Maintenance calories are the total number of calories that costs you to go through a day. The Maintenance calories also called T.D.E.E (Total Energy Expenditure) is the sum of calories you burn at rest, calories you burn to digest your food and calories you burn through daily movements. The maintenance calories primarily depend upon age, gender, activity level. There are many TDEE Calculators available on the web for you to measure up your maintenance calories. Or you can easily measure them up with a simple formula here:

T.D.E.E = (10*(Weight in lbs))*A

WT = Weight training 3 times a week.

Step 2 - Plan Your Macros:

Protein builds muscle and calorie deficit helps you lose fat. Both these factors are to be considered in planning your macros.

• A protein intake of 1.5 gm/pound of lean body mass is ideal for gaining muscle for beginners with low body fat.
• Calories from fat must be determined as per your activity level. Lower activity level we recommend an average of 30% and for higher activity levels 20% is ideal.
• Subtract the calories from protein and fat and you get the calories you must be taken from carbohydrates.

Let us take an example:
Consider an active individual of weight 150 pounds with a body fat of 10%. So his lean body mass would be 135 pounds (150-(0.15). His TDEE according to the above formula comes around 2923.

• T.D.E.E = 2923
• Protein intake = 1.5 gm/pound = 202.5 * 4 = 810 calories (1 gram of protein = 4 calories)
• Fat intake = 20% of T.D.E.E = 58 grams of fat = 522 calories
• Protein + fat = 810+522= 1332
• Carb intake = 1332/4 = 333 grams of carbohydrates.

It is recommended to stick to whole foods to reach above macro targets. In case 200 grams of protein is not reachable through a natural diet if recommend you to take Whey Protein Supplements to reach your desired protein intake level.

Step 3: Take adequate Micronutrients 

Micronutrients are the vitamins and minerals that our body needs in small amounts for the healthy development of your body. These micronutrients help in proper functioning and repair your body undergoing a lot of physical stress during your workouts.

Omega-3 fatty acids, Zinc, Magnesium, B-Vitamins, Iron, Calcium and Vitamin D are the most important micronutrients that you must receive through fruits and vegetables. If you fall short of your RDI (browse up!), you can always take help from quality vitamin and mineral supplements available in the market.