HOW TO CREATE YOUR OWN DIET: This should be the most-read article in ALBANIA and leave nutritionists without work.

How do I build a personal diet?

To build a diet, you will use some free online apps and you need to learn a few general basics about nutrition/dietetics. At its core, building a diet means knowing “HOW MUCH” you should eat to gain weight, lose weight, or maintain your current weight. Second, you must know “WHAT” you should eat—and also what you should NOT eat—to reach your goals. Third is “WHEN” you should eat: how many hours should pass between meals, what time should you eat dinner, lunch, or breakfast?

HOW MUCH, WHAT, AND WHEN SHOULD YOU EAT?

How much you eat, what you eat, and when you eat is the core of every diet. The diet must be balanced, meaning during the day we should get all the necessary nutrients the body needs. What are these nutrients? They are proteins, carbohydrates, and fats—also called “macronutrients.” These are the 3 main nutrients because the body needs them in much larger amounts than other nutrients. In practice, you can get these nutrients by eating foods from 4 classes:

1. Meat and fish
2. Vegetables
3. Fruits
4. Dairy products

But how much meat, fish, fruit, vegetables, and dairy should you consume per day? Everyone has different needs, so first we need to find your needs!

To answer the question “How much meat, fish, fruit, vegetables, and dairy do we need?”, dietitians base it on personal factors. They answer it by calculating your age, sex, height, weight, and physical activity level.

You can do this yourself very easily with an online calculator. Link below: https://www.calculator.net/calorie-calculator.html?ctype=metric&cage=25&csex=m&cheightfeet=5&cheightinch=10&cpound=165&cheightmeter=180&ckg=65&cactivity=1.465&cmop=0&coutunit=c&cformula=m&cfatpct=20&printit=0

Your daily food requirement is expressed in “calories.” Just like fuel (gasoline/diesel) for vehicles, calories are fuel for the human body. So calories are energy, and your energy needs determine how many calories your body should take in. Every food has calories, and every food has one of the 3 basic nutrient sources. Some foods have more protein, others more carbohydrates or fats. The online calculator will show how many calories you can consume per day after you enter your data. This number usually comes out around 1500–2000 calories.

After we answer the question “How many calories should we consume?”, we then answer “What should we eat?” to reach 2000 calories.

Based on what we said above, now we need to learn some general info about nutrition/dietetics. The literature suggests that, from your total calorie needs (for example 2000), 20–35% should be protein, 30–50% should be carbohydrates, and 30–50% should be fats.

Now we know a general %, but the question is: how do I turn “30% protein” into real food on my plate? Earlier we said different foods have different values. For example: 100g chicken has 43g protein, 23g fat, and 0 carbs.

We have data for every nutrient per 100g of food. And by weighing food, we understand how many calories and nutrients we get if we consume X amount. But we also need the values of other foods.

For that, we use another app/website that lists foods in detail with how many grams of protein, carbs, and fat X food has per 100g. Link:

https://www.calculator.net/calorie-calculator.html?ctype=metric&cage=25&csex=m&cheightfeet=5&cheightinch=10&cpound=165&cheightmeter=180&ckg=65&cactivity=1.465&cmop=0&coutunit=c&cformula=m&cfatpct=20&printit=0

Ok, now we know:

• How many calories do we need?
• What % should we get from each nutrient source?
• How many calories does each food provide?

The question becomes: How do I convert % into grams and find how many grams of protein, carbs, and fat I need if I need 2000 calories?

To do that, you must know how many calories are in:

• 1 gram of protein
• 1 gram of carbohydrates
• 1 gram of fat

If the body takes 1 gram of protein and burns it for energy, it produces 4 calories. 1 gram of carbohydrates also produces 4 calories. 1 gram of fat produces 9 calories.

So from 2000 calories, if we want 40% to be carbohydrates, that equals 800 calories. That means we must get 800 calories by eating carbohydrates. We do the same for 40% fats and 20% protein.

We get 800 calories from fats and carbs and 400 calories from protein. We said each gram of protein has 4 calories—so how many grams of protein is 400 calories? 400/4 = 100g protein. We do the same for carbs and fats.

Be careful to respect the recommended % ranges. Don’t go to extremes and make it 90% protein.

After we determine how many grams we want from each nutrient source, it’s time to go to the FatSecret website and choose foods.

You should choose foods from all 4 food classes and complete the grams for the 3 nutrient sources. Make sure you include meat/fish, vegetables, fruits, and dairy products. One suggestion:

• Breakfast: dairy + grains
• Lunch: meats + fruit
• Dinner: salad with vegetables + nuts/dried fruit

To give you an idea, these are protein-rich foods:

1. Fish
2. Seafood
3. Skinless poultry (white meat)
4. Lean beef (including tenderloin, etc.)
5. Skim or low-fat milk
6. Skim or low-fat yogurt
7. Low-fat or reduced-fat cheese
8. Eggs
9. Lean pork (tenderloin)
10. Beans

To give you an idea, these are fat-rich foods:

• Avocado
• Cheese
• Dark chocolate
• Whole eggs
• Fatty fish (salmon)
• Nuts
• Chia seeds
• Extra virgin olive oil

To give you an idea, these are carbohydrate-rich foods:

• Grains
• Pasta
• Rice
• Fruits: apples, bananas, berries, mango, melon, oranges
• Dairy products like milk and yogurt
• Dried beans and peas
• Vegetables such as potatoes, corn, peas

Let’s talk about timing. I suggest you set meals at fixed times, with 3–5 hours between meals. For example:

• Breakfast at 8
• Lunch at 1
• Dinner at 6 or 7

It’s important to eat dinner at least 2 hours before sleep and not put anything else in your mouth afterward.

Some general tips: I suggest for breakfast you use grains, dried fruits, and dairy products. An example would be oats with sunflower seeds, flaxseed, chia seeds mixed into yogurt.

You can set their quantities based on your diet. In general, try to split total calories across meals, for example: if you need 2000 calories, take 40% at breakfast and 30% at lunch and dinner. Still, you can adjust this split based on your day.

People with a busy day often want a stronger breakfast to keep them going, and people with stomach issues may eat a lighter dinner and take the rest at lunch or breakfast.

Advice

If you want to LOSE weight in a healthy way, don’t use a calorie deficit and cardio. This will make you lose weight temporarily and it won’t work after 2–3 months. Do strength training, lift weights, and tone up as much as possible for 2–3 months. Do the basic gym exercises like squat, deadlift, bench press, lat pulldown, and shoulder press. These exercises will develop muscle mass and increase your metabolism. A faster metabolism burns more calories throughout the day and can be increased by adding muscle mass. After 2–3 months of strength and toning, you can do 1 month of more aerobic training. You can repeat this cycle to achieve any kind of result, even to melt the last extra gram.

Advice:

Remove desserts and fast food. If possible, eliminate bread consumption.

Advice:

Don’t get misled by people who advertise losing 3–4 kg in a week. Most of it is water and often a scam.

Remove table sugar from coffee and tea. There’s no food that “makes you fat” or “makes you lose weight.” Everything depends on the amount you consume of that food. There are no exercises that slim down specific body parts—you need general physical activity. The body decides which part loses fat first.

Advice for gaining weight:

• Sleep before 10 PM as often as possible
• Train 2–4 times per week
• Try to consume +100–300 calories above your daily needs
• Eat 3–5 full meals every day
• Try to get 1.2–1.5 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight
• Eat clean foods to reach your calories. Avoid desserts and fast food.

Practical diet-building explained step by step.

Step 1:

Measure height, weight, waist, hips, thigh, and neck circumference.

Step 2:

Search on Google “body fat calculator” and enter your data. An individual with 64 kg, age 28, height 165, neck 32, waist 69, hips 114, will be around 30% body fat.

Step 3:

Search on Google “calories calculator” and enter your data. Fill age, sex, height and weight, click “+ settings” and choose the last option and add body fat % (in this case 30%). Press “calculate” and the first number is your daily calories.

Step 4:

Calculate what % protein, carbs, and fats you should get. Go to “macro calculator” and fill in the data: age, sex, weight, height, daily activity in general, and your goal. In our case we want to lose weight, so we choose the first option: lose 0.25 kg per week.

Our values are these: Protein 98 grams/day Range: 65 - 137
Carbs Includes Sugar 214 grams/day Range: 172 - 272
Fat Includes Saturated Fat 46 grams/day Range: 37 - 64
Sugar <43 grams/day Saturated Fat <18 grams/day
Food Energy 1,608 Calories/day or 6,732 kJ/day

Step 5:

Split calories across meals, where breakfast and lunch are generally higher than dinner (which can be lighter). Example:

Breakfast 553 kcal (min: 510, max: 595)
Lunch 638 kcal (min: 595, max: 680)
Dinner 510 kcal (min: 425, max: 595)

Step 6:

Take the protein grams you need per day and multiply by 4; do the same for carbs, and multiply fats by 9.

Protein 98 grams * 4 = 348 calories
Carbs Includes Sugar 214 grams * 4 = 856 calories
Fat Includes Saturated Fat 46 grams * 9 = 414 calories

Step 7:

Go to the website or app “FatSecret” and search for different foods and their nutrition values. For breakfast, include foods with protein and fats so you have energy and hunger comes after a few hours. Usually these foods can be dairy products, different grains, and different seeds.

For lunch, include proteins and carbohydrates. These foods can be meat, fish, chicken, dishes with different vegetables, and fruit. For dinner, you can consume protein and fats again by eating different salads or vegetables. Also, if you want, you can include a bit of meat, fish, or chicken.

If you want help

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