When it comes to reaching your fitness goals, it’s important to mind what you eat–even if you exercise. As the old saying goes, "you can't out-train a bad diet.” 

The easiest way to eat a healthy diet is to follow what I call the Healthy Plate Model. This is a a modified version of the USDA’s MyPlate model that was published in 2015, and it shows what your plate should generally look like at meal times.

To build a Healthy Plate, divide your plate in half. Fill up one-half of the plate with 2 servings of vegetables (or with 1 serving of vegetables and 1 serving of fruit). On the other side of the plate, include a lean source of protein that takes up at least a quarter of the plate. Restrict your serving of grains or grain-based foods to the remaining quarter of the plate.

This standard is a good rule of thumb to ensure that you’re getting the nutrients you need in every meal and stay within a healthy calorie range. 

You can modify the model to meet your nutritional needs throughout the day. For example, if you have a higher caloric intake goal, you can increase the grains portion on the plate to a third or even to half. Likewise, if you have high protein needs, you may need to increase the protein portion of the plate as well. 

In general, the Healthy Plate model is a good standard to fall back on when you’re in a more relaxed diet phase. To make your diet more effective for burning fat or building muscle, however, you’ll need to pay closer attention to how many calories and macronutrients you eat. You can do this by tracking what you eat in a food journal or tracking app (like MyFitnessPal). Keep reading below to learn how many calories and macronutrients you should eat every day to support your fitness goals.

How Many Calories Should You Eat?

Calories are the way we measure the energy that we get from our food. It’s also how we measure the energy that our bodies spend day to day.

In general, if you are trying to lose fat, you’ll need to eat less calories than what your body spends each day (what we call a calorie deficit). If you’re trying to build muscle, it’s a good idea to eat more calories than your maintenance level (what we call a calorie surplus).

To figure out your personal calorie target, you’ll first need to estimate roughly how many calories your body spends every day, which is your maintenance level of calories. This is the amount of calories that you would need to eat every day to keep your body weight the same (without gaining weight or losing weight). You can estimate this number by calculating your Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE). 

Keep in mind that your TDEE is just a rough estimation of your maintenance level of calories. You’ll need to test that number over the course of a few weeks to find your actual maintenance calories. To do this, begin by measuring your body weight, and then use a meal tracker app like MyFitnessPal to track what you eat every day staying within the amount of calories every day that you calculated as your TDEE. At the end of 1 week, measure your body weight again, and compare that with your weight at the start of the week:

• If your weight stayed about the same from the beginning to the end of the week, then the number of calories you ate each day is pretty close to your actual maintenance level of calories. 

• If you lost weight, then it’s likely that you ate below your actual maintenance level of calories–so you’ll add between 100 and 250 calories to your daily goal and test that for another week and compare results again. Keep adjusting and testing your calories until your weight stabilizes (stays the same). Once it stabilizes, you know you’ll have reached your actual maintenance level of calories.

• If you gained weight, then it’s likely that you ate above your actual maintenance level of calories–so you’ll need to subtract between 100 and 250 calories from your daily calorie goal and test that new number for a week. Keep adjusting and testing your calories until your weight stabilizes.

Once you figure out what your actual maintenance level of calories is, then you can set a goal number for how many calories you will eat every day, based on your fitness goals. If you are just trying to maintain your body weight, then use your maintenance level of calories as your daily goal. If your fitness goal is to build muscle, you’ll need to plan to eat more calories than your maintenance level of calories (about 20% more than your maintenance level). 

If your goal is to lose fat, you’ll need to be in a calorie deficit–eating less than your maintenance level of calories every day. How much of a deficit you eat depends on how quickly you want to lose weight. Keep in mind that if you are in a calorie deficit, the fewer calories you eat every day, the harder your diet will be to maintain. In order to lose a half-pound of fat per week, you’ll need to eat about 250 calories less than your maintenance level of calories. To lose weight 1lb of fat per week, eat about 500 calories less than your maintenance. Experts don’t recommend going beyond 1,000 calories below maintenance (which would allow you to burn roughly 2 lb of fat per week).

Most people have more success sticking to their calorie deficit in the long run with a more gradual calorie cut of between 250 and 500 calories below maintenance level. If you are planning on doing a deep cut of up to 1,000 calories below maintenance, I recommend easing into it. Start with a 250 calorie deficit for at least a week to give your body time to acclimate. Once you get used to the 250 calorie deficit, then you can gradually decrease your calories by between 100 and 250 calories at a time every 1 or 2 weeks until you reach your goal deficit number.

If you find a larger deficit more difficult to maintain, you always shift into a smaller, more manageable deficit and plan for slower, more sustainable fat loss.

Regardless of how many calories you eat every day, you’ll want to also be mindful of where you get your calories from. Our bodies need a certain amount of our calories each day to come from protein, carbohydrates, and fats (i.e., your macronutrients).

Macronutrients Balance

Keep in mind that there are different approaches to eating according to macronutrients. Some people only track their total daily calories and the amount of protein they eat each day to keep things simple. Others may want to eat a more specific goal for carbohydrates and fats. Keep in mind that the more specifically you track your intake, the more you’ll need to pay close attention to what you eat.

You can track your daily calorie and macronutrient intake using a food tracking app like MyFitnessPal or by logging your food in a food journal.*

Exactly how many grams of each macronutrient your unique body needs will depend on a variety of factors like your level of activity, your fitness goals, and your body measurements (height, weight, and the percentage of lean muscle tissue in your body versus body fat). The Food and Nutrition Board of the Institutes of Medicine (IOM) recommends that between 10% and 35% of your daily calories come from protein, between 45% and 65% come from carbohydrates, and between 20% and 35% come from dietary fat. 

I find it most helpful to start by setting a goal for how much protein you will eat each day, and then distribute your remaining calories between carbohydrates and fats.

I personally recommend eating on the higher end of the recommended range of daily calories coming from protein (between 20% and 35%). Protein is both a source of energy for your body and also a building block for your body tissues (like muscle). Eating a high-protein diet will help your body to more efficiently build muscle and keep your metabolism boosted.

So once you’ve decided how many of your daily calories are going to come from protein, you’ll then need to figure out how many grams of protein that would be (food labels list protein in terms of grams rather than by calories). Each gram of protein is about 4 calories. To find how many grams of protein your daily goal should be, divide the amount of your daily calories from protein by 4:

(Goal Calories x Goal % from protein) / 4 = daily grams of protein

So if your daily calorie goal is 2000 calories, and you aim to 30% of those calories from protein, that would be 600 calories. Divide 600 by 4, which would be 150 grams of protein.

 eat a high protein diet you’ll need between 400 (20%) and 700 (35%) of your daily calories to come from protein. To find out how many grams that is, we’ll divide 400 and 700 by 4. The results are 100 grams and 175 grams, respectively. 

(2000 x .30) / 4 = 150 grams

Another way to set your protein goal is to plan according to your body weight (or goal body weight). 

A good rule of thumb is to shoot for between 0.7 and 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight if you goal is to build muscle or burn fat.

Once you have set your daily goal of how many grams of protein you’ll eat, divide your remaining calories between carbohydrates and fats.

Carbohydrates are the preferred source of fuel for our bodies. Eating plenty of carbohydrates is essential for powering your workouts and helping you to build muscle.

A higher carbohydrate intake (towards 65% daily calories) is recommended for people who are very active or who do a lot of cardio (that is, more than 150 minutes of moderate-intensity cardio exercise per week). Lower carbohydrate intake (towards 45% daily calories) is best for people with Type II diabetes.

Each gram of carbohydrate is roughly 4 calories. After you decide what percentage of your daily calories will come from carbohydrates, divide that number by 4 to see how many grams of carbohydrates you should eat every day.

​​The remaining 15-35% of your daily calories should come from dietary fat. Fats are an important part of the diet because they provide energy and help your body to absorb certain vitamins and minerals.

You’ll want the majority of your dietary fat intake to come from unsaturated fats (vs saturated fats). Unsaturated fats are loosely packed, tend to be liquid at room temperature, and come from plants. They include things like nuts & seeds, avocado (and avocado oil), and olives (and olive oil). 

Saturated fats, on the other hand, are solid at room temperature and generally come from animal products such as meat and dairy products (milk, butter, shortening, and cheese). Eating a diet too high in saturated fats can increase your (LDL) ("bad") cholesterol levels, putting you at higher risk of developing heart disease and type 2 diabetes. You should also try to avoid trans fats. These are often found in fried food as well as in processed snacks and baked goods. This type of fat has no nutritional value and can harm your health by raising your “bad” (LDL) cholesterol levels and lowering your “good” (HDL) cholesterol levels–which can lead to heart disease and stroke. Unsaturated fats can actually improve your cholesterol levels, lowering your risk of developing cardiovascular disease and other illnesses. 

Each gram of fat is about 9 calories. After you decide how many of your daily calories will come from fat, divide that number by 9 to see how many grams of fat you should eat every day. 

Meal Planning & Meal Prep

Keep in mind that calorie and macronutrient tracking are tools that we can use to refine and optimize your diet, but it isn’t something that you’ll need to do all the time. I generally recommend tracking your calories and macronutrients when you are trying to make a change to your eating habits.

Some people have a hard time logging their food every day in a journal or tracking app, however. It can be pretty tedious, and even stressful. If that’s the case, I recommend planning out your meals and snacks ahead of time. This removes some of the guesswork at mealtimes while ensuring that you’re reaching your daily goals.

You can keep things super simple by meal planning according to the Healthy Plate model discussed above. On a more detailed level, you can also meal plan according to your daily calorie and macronutrient goals. To do this, divide your daily goals by the number of meals and snacks that you plan on eating every day. For example, if you are on a 2000-calorie diet and like to eat 3 meals and 1 snack, then you’ll need each meal and snack to have an average of about 500 calories (more or less). If your daily protein goal is 120 grams, then you’ll need each meal and snack to have about 30 grams of protein. 

Once you have set calorie and macronutrient goals for each meal, then you can use a calorie tracking app to plan out what you will eat. You can plan as much as a day, a week, or even a month ahead of time.

You can save even more time and energy by practicing meal prep. This involves cooking or preparing your meals and snacks ahead of when you will eat them. People often cook recipes in bulk and store the separate servings in containers to grab-and-go throughout the day. I highly recommend this if you have a busy, high-stress lifestyle!

You can create your own meal plan or follow a template like the ones you’ll find in my Meal Plans. To learn more about meal planning and meal prep, check out my ebook Trainer’s Guide to Meal Prep. This guide contains step-by-step guidance as well as over 150 recipes to choose from.