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Calorie tracking works.
It works for fat loss.
It works for muscle gain.
But the problem isn’t whether or not it works, the problem is how well you do it, and how
consistently you can do it.
As a quick recap, so the rest of this guide makes sense…
Here is how to track your calories for fat loss.
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Measure your food (weighing, or using volume measurements).
Enter data into an application (like Cronometer or MacroFactor *see note) to find
nutrition values.
Ensure that your daily intake is in the right ranges to lose weight.
Do this consistently.
This is fantastic in theory, but can have practical problems.
People don’t live in research laboratories.
You will visit your parents for lunch.
You will go out for a beer and wings.
You will want to eat some fun foods, like pizza and ice cream.
Those values are often unknown.
Your grandmother is not counting the macros in your lunch.
In that case, we’re left with two options:
The old school way
Mark is able to pre-prepare his meals for the week, and use a food scale to weigh out each
and every gram of each and every meal.
He then takes that data, plugs it into an application, to calculate the number of calories and
the macros.
He has to be sure that the amount of food he’s eating lines up with his calorie and macro
targets for the day.
So he pays a coach online to give him some custom macros.
Let’s say he needs to eat 2065 calories, 185g of protein, 65g of fat, and 185g of carbs for the
day.
*MacroFactor is the GOAT calorie tracker, and you can use code MARRA for a free trial.
He’ll have to do some calculations at the end of the day, or in advance, in order to hit those
goals.
It takes him a couple extra hours to figure it all out, and a few more to get it just right.
He’s got all his Tupperwares lined up, and the food scale ready.
150g of chicken per meal, 100g of cooked rice, and 10g of olive oil, for example.
And yes, he’ll hit his goals, and lose fat each and every week.
But what happens when he wants something fun, like pizza?
Or he goes to a friend's house who cooks him dinner?
Will he simply give up on the calorie counting?
Refuse the food like some kind of psychopath?
That’s where his plan lacks flexibility.
The structure is great, but he cannot adapt.
Mark will only stick to tracking for a limited amount of time before falling off.
He will have a huge cheat meal on Saturday that he doesn’t track, that totally negates all the
calories he cut throughout the week.
Then he’ll wonder why it’s not working for him.
Then give up.
There’s a better way.
Enter “The 250 Method”.
It’s flexible, and easy-to-use.
For fat loss calorie goals, keep it simple.
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Multiply your body weight (in pounds) by 9.
Don’t eat less than that in calories
Now multiply your body weight by 11.
Don’t eat more than that in calories.
Make sure you’re losing weight, on weekly averages, or subtract 250.
Now track calories as you normally would.
But when you want to have something fun, or with unknown calories, track in 250s.
Is it a 0 calorie food? Forget about it.
If not 0, is it 250 calories?
More?
Then it’s 500.
If more than 500, is it 750?
And so on.
Feel free to punch the food into the calorie app to find something similar if you have no idea.
Or just estimate, and err on the side of tracking more calories than you think you need.
That’s it.
Let’s say you went hard and ate 4 slices of pizza.
1000 calories.
Who cares?
The average guy will still have another 600-1000 calories to play with for the day.
He’s happy he had some pizza, and is still going to be on track for the day.
He’ll keep tracking for 5 more weeks and lose 12 lbs.
His friends will wonder how he did it, even though they saw him smash half a pizza.
PRO TIPS:
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If you know you’re going to have a big dinner / night out, try limiting calories in the
morning, either by fasting or eating light.
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If you know you’ll be having A HUGE BLOWOUT on Saturday Night, reduce 100-150
calories from each day the week prior. You just earned a 1000 cal buffer.
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Got a meal you eat every day for breakfast? Track it once, round up to the nearest
250, then forget about tracking it. Just reduce that number from your daily target.
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It doesn’t matter if you slightly overestimate your intake, maybe you’ll be off by a
couple hundred at most by the end of the day. It’ll all even out over time.
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Try losing fat by hitting calorie targets for 6 weeks straight, then bumping calories
back up to 13x-15x for a 2 week break before pushing again.
Let’s take a look at how this might actually work in practice…
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Cheat Sheet
Food
250 Method Calories
3 Slices Pizza
750
Bowl of Ice Cream
500
1 Tall Can of Beer
250
Egg McMuffin
250
Burger and Fries
1000
Handful of Chips
250
The best part about the 250 method?
The more you use it, the better you get at it. The more time you save.
It’s just like compound interest.
And lastly…
Do you want my help to lose 10+lbs in the next 45 days?
I guarantee you’ll lose the weight, reveal visible muscle definition, and feel amazing by the
end of it.
All in under 3 hours per week.
And if you stick to the plan but it doesn’t work, you’ll get all your money back just by shooting
me a text message.
You have nothing to lose and everything to gain.
Book a call with me to chat 1on1 and put together a game plan for you using the link below.
Book a Call Here
Thank you for reading!
Be sure to check me out on YouTube and Instagram for my latest.
And if you want an A to Z guide to fat loss…
Check out Clear Cut Fat Loss.
It’s my simplified nutrition approach to helping busy guys lose 15+ lbs of belly fat.
Check out Clear Cut Fat Loss
-Matteo