Indian Diet Plan – The Ultimate Guide to Plan your meal!
Learn, Apply, Start your Indian Diet plan
What is the right food and how much to eat? This Indian diet plan guide will help you understand the basic steps of a diet plan; Pushes you to start with your goals. – lose weight, gain muscle or maintain weight. This is the science behind all fitness apps.
Indian Diet Plan – Step1: Identify your calorie needs!
A calorie is a unit of energy. All types of food we eat are important sources of calories to live and function. Your ideal calorie intake depends on factors such as age, weight, height, sex, lifestyle, and overall general health.
To identify your calorie needs you have to first understand BMR & TDEE.
Sounds technical? Not really. This guide will help you understand within minutes.
Find your BMR
Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) value is the number of calories you burn when your body is in total rest in a day. It does not include the calories you burn from normal daily activities or exercise. BMR is a good place to start.
How to calculate BMR?
Calorie calculation ideally involves a lab test. However, experts have derived a formula to find your BMR using your basic information such as age, sex, weight, height, and lifestyle.
Let’s identify calorie need using the Revised Harris-Benedict formula:
Let us take this example of a 42-year-old man.
Men: If a man is 60 kg, 180cm, and 42 years old, his BMR value is 1,824 calories. BMR of Men: (88.40 + 13.40 x weight in kg) + (4.80 x height in cm) – (5.68 x age in years)
Women: If a woman is 52 kg, 150cm, and 36 years old, her BMR value is 1,340 calories. BMR of Women: (447.60 + 9.25 x weight in kg) + (3.10 x height in cm) – (4.33 x age)
Substitute your values in the above formula to find your BMR.
Find your TDEE
Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE) is the number of calories you burn when your body is involved in all daily activities and workouts.
How physically active you are is an important factor to find your TDEE. Your activity level includes all regular activities like climbing up the stairs, walking to the bus, physical exercise, workouts, playing with children, and all other activities. Your activity level in a day is called the activity multiplier.
Activity Multiplier value
Sedentary or no activity – 1
Light activity – 1.2
Moderate activity – 1.5
Active – 1.6 Very
Active – 1.8
How to calculate TDEE?
Multiple your BMR value with your activity multiplier value. TDEE = BMR x activity multiplier
For example, if your BMR is 1,340 calories and your physical activity level during a day is Moderate, then your TDEE is: 1340 x 1.5 = 2010 calories
Try this super simple BMR calculator
Indian Diet Plan – Step2: Identify your Macros!
Not all calories are the same. It can be carb, protein, or fat.
For example, 1 piece of idli provides 0.4 grams of fat, 12 grams of carbs, and 1.6 grams of protein. Thus 1 idly gives you 66 calories. Sambar’s calories will give you a different ratio.
Macros or Macronutrients are proteins, fats, and carbs.
How to count macros?
1g of Protein will give 4 calories, 1g of Carb will give 4 calories and 1g of fat will give 9 calories.
You can calculate the calories for each macro by multiplying its designated calorie count.
0.4g of fat x 9 calories per gram = 3.6 fat calories
12g of carbs x 4 calories per gram = 48 carbs calories
1.6g of protein x 4 calories per gram = 14.4 protein calories
Total calories 66
Identify your macro
Indian Diet Plan – Step3: Identify your Macro Ratio!
A good balance of these macronutrients is essential for your diet goals. This ratio helps you understand the amount of macro nutrition you have to consume to gain your calorie value.
How to create macros ratios?
Divide individual calorie value by total calories and multiply by 100.
Your macro ratio from 1 idli will be
(3.6 fat calories / 66) % = 5%
(48 carb calories / 66) % = 73%
(14.4 protein calories / 66) % = 22%
Result – C73: F5: P 22
Indian Diet Plan – Step4: Define your Goals!
The basic idea of goal definition is to identify the right macro ratio you need to achieve your goal.
How to define your goals?
A simple calculation would be,
Weight Maintenance – Moderate protein, carb, and fat
Weight loss – High protein, low carb, and low-fat
Muscle gain – High protein, high carb, low fat
If you are in a low carb diet, you shall maintain a macro ratio of (C25:P35:F40). You have to choose your recipes accordingly.
High Carb (C60:P25:F15), Moderate Carb (C50:P30:F20), Zone Diet (C40:P30:F30), Low carb (C25:P35:F40), and Keto diet (C05:P35:F60) are some of the macro ratios in practice.
Identify the nutrition facts in your food
Indian Diet Plan – Step5: Plan Your Meal!
You have defined your personal macro ratios, it’s time to create your eating schedule, finding recipes that you need, and building a balanced meal plan. You have defined your personal macro ratios, it’s time to create your eating schedule, finding recipes that you need, and building a balanced meal plan.
How to prepare a meal plan?
Let’s say you like to have 3 meals and 2 snacks a day, divide your total daily target considering calories, carbs, fat, and protein.
Create an Eating Schedule:
Let’s say you like to have 3 meals and 2 snacks a day, divide your total daily target considering calories, carbs, fat, and protein.
Build a balanced Meal Plan:
Now you have your eating schedule, perfect recipes, and ingredients in your kitchen, it’s time to organize them into a simple and easy meal plan. Start with a day, move on to a week, continue with a monthly plan, and track your goals. Explore and experiment until you understand the entire process.
Create your Meal Planner
Find right recipes:
Identify the right recipes that support your macro ratio. Also, consider your food preference, health condition, and environmental factors.
Identify right ingredients to buy:
Explore Nutritious ingredients handpicked from trusted farmers & producers.
“Remember, calories can guide but do not over-stress it. You might end up stress eating.”
Tips for a Successful Diet!
Remember the content presented are to educate and understand the process only. Always seek advice from your physician or other qualified healthcare providers. With professional guidance, you will be able to develop an effective plan to reach your fitness goals considering your health condition and medical restrictions.