Men's Nutritional Needs Planner

Use this worksheet to recompute your protein/food block needs monthly. You want to lose about 1-1.5 pounds a week--more than that and you will be cutting into your lean body mass for calories to keep going. Recompute if you change your activity level or are losing more weight a week than this.

Never eat more than 5 blocks a meal or 15 blocks a day. Never let more than 5 hours go without eating (except at night when sleeping). Give yourself one or two extra blocks to eat if you are carrying over 30 pounds in excess weight. That's like carrying a 30 pound pack around with you all day long!

Use the chart in Dr. Sears' book on pages 218-219, "Table 1 - Conversion Constants for Prediction of Percentages of Body Fat in Females".

Instructions for Step 1:

Measure your hips at their widest part. Check it a couple of times to make sure you are accurate. Put it on Step1 below. Go to the Women's "Table I Conversion Constants for Prediction of Percentages of Body Fat in Females". on page 218-9 of Dr. Sears book "Entering the Zone" under "Hips". Look to the right of your measurement and record that Constant A on the line indicated below.
Measure you waist at your belly button, not at the narrowest part of your waist ("measure twice, cut once" my builder father used to say). Write it below. Look up "Waist" on Table 1, find Constant B to the right of that, record below.
Measure your height. Write it down and go to Table 1 to find that "Constant" as well. Write it down below.
Follow the formula of Constant A plus Constant B minus Constant C = Your Body Fat Percentage.

Step 1: Percentage of Body Fat Calculation

Average hip measurement ________________ = ____________ Constant A from Table 1

Average abdomen measurement ___________ = _____________Constant B from Table 1

Height in inches ________________________ = _____________Constant C from Table 1

Add Constant A + Constant B minus Constant C = Your Percentage of Body Fat

_____________ + __________ - __________ = _____________________% Body Fat

Now don't freak out! Women need to have about 22% body fat! You can try to figure out how much extra you have in just a minute or two, but you are better off just saying that you will eat to feed your Lean Body Mass, and your body will find that perfect weight on its own.

Step 2: Your Lean Body Mass Calculation

Your Weight times your % of Body Fat equals your Total Body Fat Weight

____________ x ___________________ = ____________ Pounds of Body Fat Weight

(Remember, all you Numerically Challenged, to multiply your weight by say 33% body fat is 0.33, unless you have a percentage key on your calculator. Sorry about that decimal stuff, we won't do it again for another month!.)

Your Physical Activity Factors

0.5----------Sedentary
0.6----------Light, as in walking
0.7----------Moderate, like 30 minutes per day, 3 times a week
0.8----------Active, or 1 hour a day, five times a week
0.9----------Very Active, 2 hours a day, 5 times a week
1.0----------Heavy Weight Training, twice a day, 5 times a week

For each pound of Lean Body Mass, you need a certain number of grams of protein to support it. Use the above table to figure out how many below:

______________ Your Lean Body Mass (LBM) from Step 1

x _____________ Your activity factor (from above Table)

= _____________ Your daily protein requirement, Divide by 7 = __________Daily Blocks

Multiply your LBM by your activity factor. This equals the number of grams of protein you need to eat each day. Divide your daily protein requirements by 7 grams of protein per block. This give you the Daily Blocks of Protein required to maintain your lean body mass each day.

You will also have the same number of blocks of carbohydrates each day, and the same number of blocks of fat each day. One complete food block looks like this:

One Block of Food

9 grams of Carbohydrates

7 grams of Protein

3 grams of Fat

Now that you have figured out how much you need to eat each day, you are going to have to figure out when you are going to eat it and how much you are going to eat at each meal.

You will be eating:

3 meals plus 2 snacks a day
No more than 5 blocks per meal
No fewer than 8 blocks a day (This is from Dr. Dave's FAQ's, a place you should no doubt visit. I don't know why, perhaps that is how much you need to consume in order to prevent adverse effects from gravity losing it's hold on you and sucking you off the surface of the earth. But if you figure less than this, you just ain't eatin' enough, so add those blocks!)
No more than 5 hours between feedings, except at night when sleeping
You will measure and/or weigh everything!!! Why? Because your eyes are bigger than your stomach and your stomach is bigger than your jeans! Also because you want this to work, and it is the balance of the food (the chemistry) that makes it work and because if you get 38 grams of dry pasta per block, what happens if you like MUSHY pasta and you cook it longer and it takes up more room on your plate? 38 grams of dry pasta weigh less than 1/4 cup Mushy pasta which weighs more than the same 38 dry grams of pasta cooked al dente. Let's not cheat ourselves by over eating or under eating!
Give yourself an extra block or two a day if you are over 30 pounds overweight because carrying that extra weight is extra work.
If you are still hungry, eat another block. After your body regulates itself, your cravings (which make you think you are hungry) will go down and you will be able to cut back to the prescribed number of blocks per day.

Pardon my interruption, but perhaps you would like to start with an appetizer of Food Block. Maybe you feel bold enough to Plan Your Day. Now would be a good time to try either one...

©2002, 2003, 2004, 2005 Karen Krooskos Bowers
Karen's Kitchen
2660 Highlands Blvd.
Spring Valley, CA 91977
Ph: 619-697-7269 Fax: 619-469-8092
karen@karenskitchen.com