Finally it’s arrived – my free food nutrients calculator to help you get the answer to the diet world’s 2nd biggest question: how much am I eating!?
In my previous post I gave away my own personally-created spreadsheet for tallying up your daily meals in order to specifically reach your goals, rather than just guessing.
The obvious question – a question which a client of mine reasonably asked – was, “yes but how much protein, carbs and fats AM I eating?”
Well, I’m used to picking up packets and looking at the nutrients but it can be a pain in the ass. So I made this spreadsheet which contains much of the basics but is also designed for YOU to fill in and customise. Don’t worry, I’ve put in most of the healthy foods I like to eat to get you started. Things like all the basic complex carbs such as brown rice, brown pasta etc. All the usual protein sources like tuna, chicken and turkey etc. A few fats and oils like extra virgin and the fats from peanut butter, plus there’s a section for fruits as well.
For those who live in the US, I’ve included a calculator to convert grams and milliliters into ounces and fluid ounces. I’ve thought of just about everything!
Before we start with the basic instructions (and suggestions) for use, I’m sure you’re wondering what the dieting world’s number ONE biggest question is? Well, I’m working on that next. It’s: “How much SHOULD I eat?”
Well, I have created a spreadsheet for those who are relatively healthy and active and who tend to have less body fat with slightly more muscle than most. This is known as the Cunningham Equation. Expect a post on that soon. But more importantly, I intend to make a more basic calculator for those who are more over weight.
Once this is done we’ll have the three essential calculators for anyone needing to burn fat (or build muscle):
- A calculator to figure out how much food you need each day
- One to figure out ‘how much’ is in your food (this awesome diet food calculator)…
- …and a third to manage those two into a daily goal that you can monitor easily (that would be the daily food planner).
Anyway, instructions please!
Firstly, you’ll need to download the file here.
Edit: I previously made this available only to subscribers but it didn’t work out as intended, so I’m making it free to all!
This food calculator is best used in conjunction with the daily food planner/diary.We’ll be taking the results from this spreadsheet and putting them into the food planner.
Example meal
Let’s say you’re eating 150g of chicken breast with 80g of rice. Simply go to the food calculator and find ‘chicken breast’ under the ‘protein’ tab.
Notice that the default portion is 100g. So go over to the ‘Quantity/Weight Change’ and put in 1.5 which changes the portion size to 150 grams. Notice the numbers in the pale green section change. These would be the figures you use.
So take your 38g of protein and 8g of fat and we’ll move on to calculating the rice.
Go to the Carbohydrates tab.
Look up ‘Brown Rice’ and notice the default is 100g and we want 80g. So change the default weight from 1.0 to 0.8 and again, notice the figures change in the pale green section.
The results are: 6g protein, 64g carbs and 2g fat for a total of 300 Kcal. It’s worth noting that we don’t really add the protein from mainly carbohydrate sources like brown rice. So mainly focus on the 64g of carbs.
Next go into your daily food planner and, under a time slot, enter the figures: protein = 38, carbs = 64 and the fat would = about 10.
There you have it! A full meal breakdown telling you all the macronutrients in your meal!
The next step would be to build up your meals throughout the day to arrive at a satisfactory quantity for the day as a whole.
You can now add to this list of foods by checking your labels and adding the data yourself. This saves you having to check the cupboards every single time you have your favourite pasta meal.
Points to consider…
- There’s not much point in adding the protein from fruits or carbs. It’s not a proper source of protein for building and maintaining muscle tissue. Exceptions to this are if something contains a lot of seeds/nuts.
- There are calculators on the last two tabs for converting grams to ounces etc.
- I’ve added suggested sources of fats in the Fats & Oils section. Find your own and input the data to suit whichever supplements you use. Remember 1000mg = 1 gram if you take capsules.
- In the Fats & Oils section, the breakdown of saturated, polyunsaturated etc. is in grams while the amount/serving is in milliliters.
- The total grams/calories in the Fats & Oils section are for the fat content only i.e. for peanut butter, 100g = 450 kcal but that’s only peanut butter’s fat content, not its total caloric content.
- We’re NOT trying to be 100% precise here. My whole ethos surrounding food counting is not to count up every little thing and get super anal about quantities. What we ARE doing is striking the balance between that and not ever counting up our meals. As such, some of the figures I use won’t be 100% accurate or perhaps they won’t be the same brand of foods that you buy. Don’t worry, we mainly want to get a good idea.
- Buy yourself a cheap set of food scales!
- If you have any feedback, questions or problems with the calculator, please let me know!
Summary
To get the free food nutrients calculator, download the file here!
To get the free food diary/calculator click here!
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