Whether you are looking to gain muscle, lose fat or maintain your current body composition it is crucial that you monitor your daily food intake. You are what you eat after all!

As simple as it sounds, if you want to lose fat you must be in a caloric deficit and if you want to gain muscle you need to be in a caloric surplus.
 
A simple way to figure out your maintenance calorie level is to maintain a food diary for a week and check your weight at the end of the week. If you weigh the same at the end of the week as you did at the start then you have been consuming a maintenance level of calories. If not, adjust the amount you consume until your weight remains constant for a week. Once you have determined your maintenance amount try increasing or decreasing your calorie consumption depending on your goals.

Keep in mind the slower that weight is lost the more likely you are to retain muscle mass. Conversely when trying to gain muscle, be patient as only so much muscle can be gained per week without the risk of excess fat.

Additionally, by writing down all of the food that you consume each day you are keeping yourself accountable. This should allow you to identify gaps in your diet which you may have been ignoring. You probably weren’t aware of the amount or of the quality of food that you have been consuming. That triple choc fudge brownie may not be so tempting anymore.

Overall, keeping a food diary will help to keep you on track and accountable to achieve the goals that you desire. For specific advice and guidance please get in touch with me.