Should You Take A BCAA Supplement?

Article Summary

Are branched-chain amino acids (BCAAs) worth taking? Is there scientific evidence that they help to build or maintain muscle mass?

Suffice it to say that there is a lot of conflicting research on the topic of BCAA supplementation. After you cut through the marketing BS and BCAA manufacturer-funded garbage studies, there’s still a pretty muddied scientific stance on BCAA supplementation.

On the whole, however, BCAAs likely fall short of their marketing hype. You simply do not need BCAA supplements to build muscle because many vegan foods like tofu and pea protein are abundantly rich in BCAAs (and far less expensive!)

Although diet and training are by far the most important drivers of muscle growth and fat loss, BCAAs do have their place in a proper bodybuilding regime.

According to the latest research, BCAA supplements are beneficial in two specific circumstances:

1. Supplementation during a serious caloric deficit in which you are at a low body fat percentage and struggle to get enough protein (specifically the amino acid leucine).

2. Supplementation during fasted training as a muscle sparing strategy.

Please read the rest of the article to learn everything you need to know about BCAAs.

What are BCAAs?

There are nine essential amino acids – the building blocks of protein – that must be consumed in your diet because your body cannot produce them. Three of these essential amino acids – leucine, isoleucine, and valine – are called branched-chain amino acids (BCAAs) because of their branched molecular structures.

While most amino acids are broken down in your liver, BCAAs are primarily broken down in your muscle and therefore believed to improve exercise performance and reduce muscle breakdown, particularly during fasted training.

Leucine, in particular, is the MVP of muscle protein synthesis (MPS) because of its star role in building muscle and reducing muscle breakdown.

Should You Take BCAA Supplements?

If you are skeptical of the supplement industry, you have good reason to be.

Bodybuilding supplements are not regulated by the FDA and are often backed by loose pseudoscience. It is alarmingly easy to get a supplement on the market.

But if you look around at various fitness YouTube videos, BodyBuilding.com forums, and “broscience” blogs, you'll find plenty of bodybuilders who swear by their use of various supplements.

Don’t buy into the hype. Many of these same people sell supplements or have been brainwashed by jacked steroid users who shill supplements as their secret to getting ripped.

To be fair, BCAA supplements are one of the most useful, research-backed supplements on the market. There are many studies that tout the legitimate benefits of consuming BCAAs. But don’t be fooled by poor study designs and manufacturer-funded research.

For example, there is plenty of research demonstrating the benefits of BCAA supplementation for subjects following a caloric deficit or consuming low-protein diets.

The most widely cited pro-BCAA supplement study was conducted in 1997 with thirty-one competitive male wrestlers who followed a moderate caloric deficit for 19 days.

The researchers found that BCAA supplementation, in combination with the subjects’ low-protein, energy-restricted diets, induced significant and preferential losses of visceral adipose tissue (i.e. fat) and allowed maintenance of high levels of physical performance.

All this really tells us is that we should use a BCAA supplement if we are consuming less protein than our bodies need during a period of caloric restriction to avoid muscle catabolism.

A meta-analysis of BCAA supplementation literature arrived at the same finding: BCAA supplementation in combination with a moderate caloric deficit has been shown to optimize fat losses without losing muscle or strength.

Again, this isn’t very helpful information. If you aren’t consuming enough protein during a caloric deficit, ingesting amino acids in the form of a BCAA supplement will obviously help you maintain lean body mass.

What we really need is a study that analyzes the effects of BCAA supplementation for resistance-trained athletes consuming high-protein diets!

Thankfully…there are two such studies!

In one of the most comprehensive studies on BCAA supplementation, researchers at Baylor University analyzed the effects of eight weeks of heavy resistance training combined with BCAA supplementation on body composition and muscle performance of 19 non-resistance-trained males.

The researchers concluded that BCAA supplementation failed to alter body composition, muscle strength, or muscle endurance.

Another study from Leeds University analyzed the effects of L-leucine supplementation alone (not all three branched chain amino acids) on strength, lean tissue mass, and fat mass of 26 untrained men following a non-energy-restricted diet during a 12-week resistance training program.

As a brief aside, L-leucine is simply the left rotated form of the amino acid leucine. The body more easily absorbs left rotated amino acids, which are also commonly called “free form” amino acids.

Just like the Baylor University study, researchers found no effect of L-leucine supplementation (4 grams per day) on body composition over the twelve weeks of resistance exercise training.

But in partial contradiction to the Baylor University study, the Leeds University researchers did find improvement in the L-leucine group subjects’ 5 repetition maximum (5RM) strength for five out of the eight exercises tested. The percentage total 5RM strength gains were 40.8% and 31.0% for the L-leucine and placebo groups, respectively.

If you’ve seen BCAA ads stating that a 4-gram daily dose of L-leucine has been shown in a clinical study to increase 5RM strength by over 40% in just 12 weeks, then this is the study they are using.

While this is technically a correct statement, you should take it with a grain of salt. The subjects were novice weightlifters with zero prior training experience. Furthermore, the placebo group experienced a similar, albeit lower, explosion in strength gains over the same 12-week period (31.0% vs. 40.8%).

The study concludes that 4 grams per day of leucine supplementation may be used as a nutritional supplement to enhance strength performance, but these findings aren’t necessarily applicable to experienced strength athletes.

So although there’s a pretty muddied stance on BCAA supplementation in the scientific literature, we can reach a few conclusions from the peer-reviewed studies above:

1. BCAA supplementation is an effective muscle sparring strategy if you are following an energy-restricted diet (i.e. a caloric deficit). BCAA supplementation might also enhance strength performance.

2. If you are consuming enough BCAAs from dietary protein (including protein powder), then supplementing with BCAAs is unlikely to provide additional benefit.

3. Leucine supplementation alone appears to be nearly as effective in stimulating muscle protein synthesis as when all branched chain amino acids are consumed.

When You Should Consider Taking a BCAA Supplement

You’ve likely heard that if you do too much cardio, don’t ingest enough protein, or if you over train, then you risk cannibalizing your muscle.

While there is truth to these concerns, the science isn’t quite so simple. Your body breaks down and utilizes free BCAAs in your muscle first before your body cannibalizes muscle tissue. Your body takes these BCAAs and converts them to glucose through a process called gluconeogenesis (GNG) and uses the glucose for energy.

This process ensures BCAAs do have a muscle sparing action, but this is only helpful in certain situations, namely, if you are in a moderate caloric deficit or engaging in fasted training.

Specifically, the benefit of free form BCAA supplements lies in their ability to quickly flood the blood stream and muscles with high amounts of BCAA, especially leucine, to prevent muscle catabolism.

While your body absorbs amino acids from vegan protein powders (like pea protein) rather quickly (it takes around 45 minutes after consumption before your body begins to extract and absorb amino acids from protein powder), the ingestion of 5 grams of BCAAs from protein powder does not create the same metabolic response as the ingestion of 5 grams of free-form BCAAs from BCAA supplements.

Taking a BCAA supplement before intense cardio, particularly fasted cardio or cardio while following a caloric deficit, will help to preserve muscle mass.

For example, a study from the College of Charleston showed that BCAA supplementation in trained individuals performing resistance training while on a hypocaloric diet maintained lean mass and preserved skeletal muscle performance while losing fat mass.

Although informative, it is worth noting that the subjects didn’t receive a normal dose of BCAAs. The BCAA group received a whopping 28 grams of BCAAs daily (14 grams pre-workout and 14 grams post-workout) while the placebo group received 28 grams of a carbohydrate/electrolyte supplements (14 grams pre-workout and 14 grams post-workout).

Personally, I rarely train fasted and only use BCAAs when I drop below 10% body fat during a cut. While I maintain nearly all of my strength and muscle mass during deep cuts, I cannot attribute my lean body mass (LBM) retention to BCAA supplementation. I carefully plan my diet and training to achieve these results.

Even if you are following a caloric deficit, you can get all of your BCAAs from high-protein vegan foods to prevent muscle catabolism.

For me, supplementing with BCAAs is just to be safe so I don’t risk burning any of my hard-earned vegan gains during a caloric deficit. If an experienced weightlifter (4+ years of weightlifting experience) loses just one pound of muscle while cutting, it will likely take 2 to 6 months of intense weightlifting to gain that pound of muscle back during his/her next bulking period! I'd rather play it safe and supplement with BCAAs to ensure I am doing everything in my power to maintain LBM.

I have also experimented with leucine supplementation for the purpose of LBM retention during cuts, but cannot directly attribute any positive benefits to it either.

Doesn’t BCAA supplementation assist in reducing exercise-induced muscle soreness?

Nope, current research doesn’t support this common belief. A study funded by MusclePharm Corp (a manufacturer of BCAA supplements), which was surprisingly unbiased, found that BCAA supplementation does not reduce muscle soreness, nor does it appear to aid in attenuating the reduction of muscular performance following intense resistance training.

What You Should Take Instead of BCAAs

There is plenty of research that proves raising BCAA levels (leucine in particular) before and after exercise helps us build more muscle and maintain lean mass. However, there is little evidence that consuming BCAAs through supplementation is more effective than a high protein diet.

I think this excerpt from a review of BCAA research literature sums it up well:

“No data support the finding that oral supplementation with amino acids, in contrast to dietary protein, as the source of amino acids is more effective.”

If you are in a caloric surplus and eat enough protein, particularly leucine, you do not need a BCAA supplement. See my general targets for protein consumption in the table below.

The truth of the matter is that there are plenty of high-protein vegan foods and less expensive vegan protein supplements that are loaded with BCAAs.

For example, pea protein powders can be as high as 20% BCAAs by weight, surpassing even most whey protein powders!

On top of that, every 30 gram serving of pea protein gives you the required amount of leucine that is optimal for muscle growth, which is about 2.5 grams for the average male bodybuilder.

This is what makes pea protein such a great protein source! It is packed with essential amino acids, especially BCAAs!

What Are The Best Food Sources of BCAAs?

BCAAs are found in a number of protein-rich foods, including quinoa, pumpkin seeds, alfalfa seeds, kidney beans, tofu, sesame flour, and sunflower seed flour. One of the best sources, however, is pea protein concentrate, which has one of the highest concentrations of leucine compared to other vegan protein sources.

As previously mentioned, leucine is a particularly important amino acid because it acts as a trigger for muscle protein synthesis (MPS). Most plant proteins have a relatively low leucine content, which reduces their anabolic properties. Therefore, it is very important to consume a variety of high-leucine foods.

A 100-gram serving of pea protein concentrate has about 9.2 grams of leucine compared to 0.8 grams of leucine in 100 grams of dry quinoa, 0.7 grams of leucine in 100 grams of tofu, 1.6 grams of leucine in 100 grams of pumpkin seeds, and 0.7 grams of leucine in 100 grams of kidney beans.

The Bottom Line on BCAA Supplementation

There is no doubt in the scientific literature that adequate levels of branched-chain amino acids (BCAAs) are vital to building muscle, improving strength, and maintaining lean mass. However, there is little evidence that consuming BCAAs through supplementation is more effective than a high protein, BCAA-rich diet.

That being said, if you are at a low body fat percentage (less than 10% for men and less than 15% for women) and following a moderate caloric deficit or training in a fasted state, then BCAA supplements might be beneficial. I use and recommend CleanMachine BCAAs.

Just getting started on your fitness journey? Or want to make sure you’re heading in the right direction?

Try our FREE Vegan Nutrition Calculator to be sure you’re giving your body the nutrients it needs to meet your goals!

Do you have any questions about BCAAs? Send us a DM on Instagram or Facebook!

That's a wrap! Thank you SO MUCH for reading this article!

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How To Eat The Vegan Foods You Love And Still Get Fit (IIFYM)

If you want to learn how to use flexible dieting, also known as IIFYM, to lose fat, gain muscle, and stay healthy while eating the delicious vegan foods you enjoy, then you want to read this article.

What Is IIFYM?

IIFYM is short for “If It Fits Your Macros.”

Macros, short for "macronutrients," is the term used to describe the 3 main macronutrients: protein, carbohydrates, and fat.

Rather than placing all of your attention on counting calories or demonizing certain macronutrients, IIFYM focuses on meeting daily macro goals. Done correctly, this provides a consistent calorie intake, but one that can be personalized in many different ways.

In other words, IIFYM is a diet trend that allows you to eat anything you want whenever you want it and still reach your weight goals! The catch? You have to eat the right amount of carbohydrates, protein, and fat.

Does IIFYM Actually Work?

Is IIFYM effective for both losing fat and gaining muscle? Is it true that you can eat the foods you love while improving your physique?

In short, the answer to these questions is yes.

The principles of IIFYM, when properly applied, allow you to get the body you want by eating the foods you really love.

IIFYM is NOT a diet that consists of only eating junk food. It is a counting system used for accuracy so you can fit junk foods into your diet in moderation while consuming the bulk of your macros from healthy whole foods.

When done right, IIFYM is a solid balance of moderation and flexibility.

Try our FREE Vegan Nutrition Calculator to figure out your macros in less than 5 minutes! Find out what you need to eat to meet your goals..

The 4 Principles of Vegan IIFYM Dieting

1. The number of calories you eat is more important than the source of those calories

2. Macronutrients matter just as much as the number of calories

3. You should get at least 80% of your calories from minimally processed, nutritious food

4. There is no need for “meal timing” so you can eat whenever it fits your schedule and preferences

Principle 1: The number of calories you eat is more important than the source of those calories

Many diet “gurus” – even in the vegan community – claim that a “calorie isn’t a calorie” and that dieting is all about what you eat, not how much.

Well, this is complete garbage.

You gain weight by eating more calories than you burn and you lose weight by eating less calories than you burn. The relationship between how many calories you are consuming versus how many you are burning is called your energy balance.

It’s that simple.

You can’t eat 50 bananas a day and expect to lose weight and get the body of your dreams. You can be the “cleanest” eater in the world, eating the most nutritious foods, and still be weak and skinny fat if you eat too much and don't work out.

I must admit I really like the idea of being able to eat as much fruit as I want and still be able to lose weight, because I freaking LOVE fruit, but the reality is not so simple.

Dieting is all about how much you eat, not what you eat.

To prove that pure calorie counting is what matters most, not the nutritional value of the food, a professor of human nutrition at Kansas State University, Mark Haub, lost 27 pounds eating Twinkies, Little Debbie snacks, Doritos, and Oreos.

Extreme? Most certainly. Unhealthy? Of course. But he proved his point.

When you feed your body fewer calories than it is burning, it must get those extra calories from somewhere, so it turns to its fat stores. When you keep your body in a calorie deficit over time, your body fat will decrease.

Principle 2: Macronutrients matter just as much as the number of calories

A calorie is not a calorie when we are talking about body composition. Whether your main goal is to gain muscle or lose fat, you need to do more than just maintain a caloric surplus or caloric deficit.

• You must eat enough protein every day to gain muscle while bulking and preserve muscle while cutting.

• You must eat enough carbs to give you the energy to push through gruesome workouts and progress in all your lifts.

• You must eat enough fat to maintain proper hormone production.

You should consume most of your dietary fat from monounsaturated fats like avocados, seeds, and nuts. Furthermore, you must pay close attention to your EPA/DHA intake, especially as a vegan. Your body can convert ALA to EPA and DHA, but the conversion ratios are very low. Consequently, I use an EPA/DHA supplement and I recommend all vegans do the same.

So protein, carbs, and fat all play an important role in your health and body composition goals. This is why counting macros is superior to just counting calories. Personally, I follow and recommend a high protein, high carb, low-fat diet for both bulking and shredding.

If you want to calculate your macros to reach your fitness goals, try our FREE Vegan Nutrition Calculator!

Principle 3: You should get at least 80% of your calories from minimally processed, nutritious food

Macros are all that matter for fitness results, but micronutrients are arguably more important for overall health. So the only problem I have with the IIFYM group is that many people tend to use it as an excuse to eat crap. And this is a serious problem because - as Professor Mark Haub demonstrated with his Twinkie diet - you can actually eat crap while improving your physique.

The reality is that your body turns carbs from Oreos into glucose and glycogen just like the carbs from kale.

But, using the principles of IIFYM as an excuse to eat junk food while getting in shape is completely stupid.

Just because you can eat a half gallon of Non-Dairy Ben & Jerry’s Peanut Butter Cookie ice cream every day and still get shredded doesn’t mean you should.

I use the principles of IIFYM to achieve my physique goals, but I don’t use it as an excuse to eat junk food all the time. I stick to a diet of mostly whole plant foods whether I am bulking or cutting and I recommend you do the same.

As a general guideline, you should get at least 80% of your calories from nutritious whole foods - preferably more. Here’s a brief list of the healthy foods you should be eating:

Protein sources:

• Lentils

• Beans (black, pinto, kidney, etc.)

• Sweet peas

• Chickpeas

• Hemp hearts (seed)

• Buckwheat

• Quinoa

• Pumpkin seed

• Spirulina

• Organic tofu

• Tempeh

Fat:

• Almonds (or almond butter)

• Walnuts

• Cashews (or cashew butter)

• Brazil nuts

• Macadamia nuts

• Hazelnuts

• Chestnuts

• Pecans

• Pistachios

• Sesame seeds

• Pine nuts

• Pumpkin seeds

• Avocado

• Flax seed

• Coconut

Fibrous Carbohydrates:

• Kale

• Cabbage

• Broccoli

• Asparagus

• Artichoke

• Bok Choy

• Eggplant

• Sweet bell peppers

• Zucchini

• Brussel Sprouts

• Cauliflower

• Mushrooms

• Parsley

• Onions

• Tomato

• Spinach

• Cucumber

• Collard greens

• Lettuce

• Leeks

• Celery

Starchy Carbohydrates

• Sweet potatoes

• Quinoa

• Couscous

• Rice

• Pasta

• Oats

• Carrots

• Legumes

Principle 4: There is no need for “meal timing” so you can eat whenever it fits your schedule and preferences

You don’t have to stick with “feeding windows,” eat protein every 2-3 hours to avoid “going catabolic,” or avoid carbs after 6PM.

And your metabolism won’t slow down if you eat 2 meals instead of 6.

I happen to prefer to eat more, smaller meals every day, but it doesn’t have any effect on my metabolism. If you prefer calorie dense foods, you can easily work them into your macros by eating fewer, higher calorie meals.

Hitting your macros is all that matters. Meal timing does not matter.

That being said, I should note that there is a slight exception to this rule. A high-protein post-workout meal or shake is a good idea if you are trying to build muscle and strength.

I also recommend that you consume some pre-workout carbs to give you the energy to crush your workouts, which in turn helps you progress in all your lifts to gain muscle and strength.

Do you have any questions about IIFYM? Send us a DM on Instagram or Facebook!

The Definitive Guide to Calculating Vegan Macros

The question I get asked more than any other is: “what should my macros be?”

This is a great question! Knowing your macros is the only way to be certain you are on the right path to achieving your fitness goals.

BUT...there isn't a straightforward one-size-fits-all answer to this question. So, I’ve written this comprehensive guide to teach you the exact process I use to calculate macros for my clients and myself.

Try our FREE Vegan Nutrition Calculator to figure out your macros in less than 5 minutes! Find out what you need to eat to meet your goals.

Why Online Macro Calculators Suck

Most people use online macro calculators like IIFYM Online Macro Calculator to determine their macros. In my opinion, the main problem with these online macro calculators is that they use very general activity multipliers to calculate your daily energy expenditure.

In other words, if you describe your activity level as “sedentary” or “very active” then the calculator will assign you a number from 1.0 to 2.0. The calculator then multiplies your basal metabolic rate (BMR) (the amount of calories someone of your gender, age, height, and weight burns, on average, when at rest) by this number to arrive at your total daily energy expenditure (TDEE).

So while these calculators can seem very convenient, they can be quite misleading in reality.

Based on my experience, I’ve found these calculators can be off by as much 30%!! If you are trying to lose weight and you are aiming for 2,000 calories per day, this 30% error could translate to you overeating or undereating by 600 calories!!

This will obviously make it nearly impossible to achieve your fitness goals.

So I recommend you calculate your macros more accurately by doing it yourself. And don’t worry, the math is simple and I will show you the steps in the rest of this article.

Step 1: Determine Your Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE)

The first step in calculating your macros is to determine your Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE). As the name implies, your TDEE is the total number of calories you burn each day.

Many factors determine the total amount of energy that your body burns every day, such as body weight, age, total lean mass, body temperature, the thermic effect of foods (the amount of energy it “costs” to process food for use and storage), stimulant use such as caffeine, and physical activity.

We can group all of these factors into two general categories:

1. Your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR): the amount of calories required to keep your body functioning at rest. BMR is more commonly known as your body’s metabolism.

2. Your Average Activity Burn per Day: the amount of calories you burn each day from activities like walking the dog, cleaning the house, weightlifting, and anything else that gets you moving.

To calculate your TDEE, you simply calculate your BMR and Average Activity Burn per Day and add these two numbers.

As you can imagine, these calculations aren’t an exact science, but we’re going to do our best to determine your TDEE based on your physical characteristics, lifestyle, and fitness goals.

Let’s begin by calculating your BMR.

Step 1A: Calculate Your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR)

There are three widely used and accepted formulas in metabolic literature: the Harris-Benedict equation, the Mifflin-St Jeor equation, and the Katch-McArdle equation. These formulas approximate a person’s BMR.

For simplicity, you can just use the Katch-McArdle calculation. The equation is simple and it gets the job done.

BMR = 370 + (21.6 x LBM), where LBM is your lean body mass in kilograms

To calculate your Lean Body Mass (LBM), you must estimate your body fat percentage. The easiest way to estimate your body fat percentage if you have no idea what it might be is to look at pictures of people whose body fat percentages you know and make an educated guess.

Yes, you really can just guess your body fat percentage by a picture of someone else. It is the easiest way and just as accurate as most inexpensive methods like biometrical impedance analysis.

Contrary to popular belief, biometrical impedance analysis isn't very accurate. I have a rather expensive scale that sends electrical currents through my feet and I know for a fact that it can be off by upwards of +/- 5% when measuring my body fat percentage.

There are very accurate ways to measure body fat percentage: Bod Pod ($75 for a scan), DEXA scan ($50-150), and water displacement tests (also very expensive). If you happen to have results from one of these tests, use that body fat number instead, but these tests are unnecessary for our macro calculation purposes.

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Example BMR Calculation

As an example, I will run through my own BMR calculation.

Here’s a picture of me that I took last week.

Based on the pictures of example body fat percentages for males, I’d guess that I am about 9% body fat. My fasted body weight (measured in the morning) is 170 pounds.

So let’s plug these numbers into the Katch-McArdle equation:

BMR = 370 + (21.6 x LBM), where LBM is your lean body mass in kilograms

First, I need to know my LBM. LBM is simply your total body weight minus fat weight.

So, my lean body mass (LBM) = 170 pounds x (100% - 9%)

LBM = 170 pounds x 91%

LBM = 170 pounds x 0.91

LBM = 154.7 pounds

So now I have my LBM in pounds. But for the equation, we need LBM in kilograms. There are about 2.2 pounds (lbs) in a kilogram (kg). So to find my LBM in kilograms, I must divide 154.7 pounds by 2.2 (pounds per kilogram).

So, my LBM is 70.2 kilograms (kg).

Now I’ll plug this into the Katch-McArdle equation.

BMR = 370 + (21.6 x 70.2 kg)

BMR = 370 + (1516.32)

BMR = 1886.32

This means that my BMR is 1,886 calories.

Now that we’ve calculated our BMR, let’s calculate our activity burn.

Step 1B: Calculate Your Average Activity Burn per Day

Your energy balance each week, total calories consumed vs. total calories burned, is extremely important in achieving your fitness goals (i.e. cutting, maintaining, or bulking), but your daily energy balance can vary a bit as long as you are consistent over long periods of time.

In other words, your average energy balance over time matters most in achieving your fitness goals. Don’t sweat the small dietary road bumps. We all have them.

To calculate your Average Activity Burn per Day, you should first list all of the activities you do during a typical/average week and the amount of time you spend doing them.

For example, here’s what my average activity each week looks like right now:

• Weight training day 1: Chest and calves (75 minutes)

• Weight training day 2: Back and biceps (75 minutes)

• Weight training day 3: Legs (75 minutes)

• Weight training day 4: Arms and shoulders (75 minutes)

• Weight training day 5: Chest and calves (75 minutes)

• Weight training day 6: Legs (75 minutes)

• Walking the dog (90 minutes per week)

• StairMaster (60 minutes per week)

• Cleaning the house (120 minutes per week)

After you have listed all of your total activity, we will now calculate the number of calories you burn from each of these activities.

When I calculate the activity burn for my clients and myself I use MET (Metabolic Equivalent) data for physical activities from "The Compendium of Physical Activities Tracking Guide" by B. E. Ainsworth.

Each individual activity from my database of over 600 activities has a MET value associated with it. A MET value represents the ratio of energy (i.e. calories) required to perform a particular activity relative to your BMR. My macronutrient calculator estimates your calorie burn by multiplying the MET value for your chosen activity by the duration time of your activity and by your calculated BMR.

Since I cannot easily share this database with you, please use one of the following sites to calculate your activity burn for each of your activities.

My Fitness Pal Calories Burned From Exercise

Using these resources, I found my activity burn to be as follows:

• Weight training day 1: Chest and calves (75 minutes) = 485 calories

• Weight training day 2: Back and biceps (75 minutes) = 485 calories

• Weight training day 3: Legs (75 minutes) = 485 calories

• Weight training day 4: Arms and shoulders (75 minutes) = 485 calories

• Weight training day 5: Chest and calves (75 minutes) = 485 calories

• Weight training day 6: Legs (75 minutes) = 485 calories

• Walking the dog (90 minutes per week) = 230 calories

• StairMaster (60 minutes per week) = 620 calories

• Cleaning the house (120 minutes per week) = 300 calories

Now, add all of your activity burn calories together to arrive at your Total Activity Burn per Week.

My Total Activity Burn per Week is 4,060 calories.

Now remember, our goal is to determine our Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE), so we need to know how many calories we burn per day from activity.

Your Average Activity Burn per Day is the average number of calories you burn each day from your total exercise per week (your Total Activity Burn per Week divided by 7).

My Average Activity Burn per Day is 580 calories (4,060 calories divided by 7).

So, we now know our BMR and Average Activity Burn per Day. We simply add these two numbers together to arrive at our TDEE.

My TDEE is 1,886 calories + 580 calories = 2,466 calories.

And that’s it!

Once again, this isn’t an exact science, but it is much more accurate that the online macro calculators that use general activity multipliers.

The 3 Principles of Body Composition

There are three foundational principles when it comes to building muscle and shredding fat that are well established both scientifically and anecdotally:

1. A caloric surplus is necessary for maximizing muscle growth

2. A caloric deficit is necessary for shredding fat

3. A high-protein diet is vital for both maximizing muscle growth and minimizing muscle loss while shredding fat

Caloric Deficit for Shredding Fat

You must burn more energy than you consume to achieve meaningful fat loss. This is called a caloric deficit (i.e. consume less calories than you burn).

However, eating very little, known as starvation dieting, isn’t ideal for weight loss. If your caloric deficit is too extreme, your metabolism will slow, you will lose muscle along with fat, and you’ll really hate the process.

Caloric Surplus for Muscle Growth

Contrary to shredding fat, you must consume more energy to achieve meaningful muscle growth. This is called a caloric surplus (i.e. consume more calories than you burn).

If you don’t eat enough calories, you will struggle to gain muscle. This is because a caloric deficit decreases your body’s ability to synthesize skeletal muscle proteins, reduces anabolic hormone levels while increasing catabolic hormone levels, and impairs workout performance which in turn impairs progression in your workouts and therefore muscle growth.

I recommend that you maintain a slight 10% caloric surplus when bulking. In other words, you should eat around 110% of your total daily energy expenditure to be in the “sweet spot” for gaining lean muscle.”

It is worth noting that most gym “newbies,” people with less than a year of weightlifting training under their belts, can build muscle and lose fat at the same time, but can’t optimally do both simultaneously. The rest of us will do best by alternating between periods of cutting and bulking.

Step 2: Determine Your MAIN Fitness Goal

Most people I know want to both shred fat and gain more muscle, but unless you are a newbie weightlifter, you cannot both shred fat and gain muscle at the same time.

Doing so would violate the 3 Principles of Body Composition. In order to maximize muscle growth, you must maintain a caloric surplus. In order to shred fat, you must maintain a caloric deficit.

So which one should you pick? Here’s my rule of thumb:

If you have a body fat percentage greater than 15% as a male, you should cut down to 10-12% before beginning to bulk (i.e. gain muscle). If you are a female with a body fat percentage greater than 20%, you should cut down to 15-17% before beginning to bulk.

If you are a male around 10-12% body fat or female around 15-17% body fat, then you’re ready to begin a lean bulk.

Starting to build muscle with a shredded physique is ideal for several reasons:

1. High body fat levels reduce insulin sensitivity, thereby suppressing muscle protein synthesis (known as MPS, which is a vital component of hypertrophy, the muscle growth process).

2. High body fat levels create imbalances in hormonal levels, causing testosterone levels to drop and estrogen levels to rise in men.

3. Bulking from a shredded physique until you reach 15% body fat as a man or 20% as a woman, then cutting back to 10-12% or 15-17%, respectively, saves you from long, grueling cuts.

So here’s the bottom line: body fat makes you fatter, makes it more difficult to build muscle, and creates hormonal imbalances. If your goal is to gain muscle, you should start with a lean physique, 10-12% body fat for men and 15-17% body fat for women.

Step 3: Determine Your Daily Calorie Target

Now that you have determined your main fitness goal, this step is easy. If you decided that it is time to shred fat, then you should aim for a 20% caloric deficit every day. Simply multiply your TDEE by 0.8 to figure out how many calories you should eat every day for fat loss.

For example, I am currently shredding. My TDEE is 2,466 calories, so my Daily Calorie Target should be 1,973 calories per day (2,466 calories x 0.8) to efficiently burn fat.

If I decided to start a lean bulk right now to build muscle, I would aim for a 10% caloric surplus every day. If you also want to lean bulk, simply multiply your TDEE by 1.1 to determine how many calories you should eat every day.

For example, if I stopped shredding and began a lean bulk, I should aim to eat 2,713 calories (2,466 calories x 1.1).

Step 4: Calculate Your Macros

Macronutrients, often referred to as “macros,” are substances required in large amount in the human diet. There are three primary macronutrients that the human body needs in order to function properly: carbohydrates, fat, and protein.

Regardless of the sources foodwise, 1 gram of protein contains 4 calories, 1 gram of carbohydrates contains 4 calories, and 1 gram of fat contains 9 calories.

Step 4A: Determine how much protein you should be eating

According to U.S. and Canadian dietary reference intakes, the recommended daily allowance for protein is 0.36 grams per pound of bodyweight (0.8 grams per kilogram of bodyweight) for healthy adults. This amount is “the average daily intake level that is sufficient to meet the nutrient requirement of nearly all [~98%] of healthy adults.”

As long as you are eating a calorically sufficient diet, this recommendation is extremely easy to meet.

However, many decades of research and anecdotal evidence proves athletes, particularly those who lift heavy weights regularly, need more protein than the average person.

Still, the truth is that I can’t tell you exactly how much protein you need. Only expensive nitrogen balance testing can tell you for sure. However, when it comes to fitness, people tend to fall into one of three groups. Here’s my simple chart:

As things stand right now in the scientific literature, if you are serious about putting on as much muscle mass as possible, and you want to be safe in terms of consuming enough protein to promote that muscle growth, I recommend 0.9 grams of protein per pound of bodyweight for bulking and 1.1 grams per pound of lean body mass (LBM) for cutting.

Keep in mind that my recommendation is likely more than anyone needs to maximize muscle and strength gains, especially for people without serious physique or strength goals.

Since I am a vegan bodybuilder currently in the process of shredding and I want to maximize my muscle mass and strength, I am aiming for 1.10 grams of protein per pound of LBM during my cut.

Given my LBM of 154.7 pounds, this means that I should aim for 170 grams of protein per day.

I know, I know. This number probably sounds really high. And it likely is higher than necessary.

But I’d rather hit my protein and be safe than risk burning any of my hard-earned vegan muscle gains when I’m on a caloric deficit. For example, if an experienced weightlifter (4+ years of weightlifting experience) loses just a single pound of muscle while shredding, it could take 2 to 6 months of intense weightlifting to gain that pound of muscle back during his/her next bulking period! Assuming five 1-hour workouts per week, that single pound of muscle could take upwards of 135 hours of intense weightlifting to gain back!

I don’t know about you, but I’d rather eat a bit more protein than I probably need to avoid losing any muscle instead of killing myself for 135 hours in the gym just to get back to my pre-shredding LBM.

That being said, hitting 1.1 grams of protein per pound of LBM while on a caloric deficit is difficult. It requires careful planning and most likely protein supplementation, but if you stay within the body fat percentages I recommended earlier, then you won’t be cutting for extended periods of time.

Step 4B: Determine how much fat you should be eating

You should only consume enough fat to maintain optimal health. Eating more fat wouldn’t necessarily be harmful to your health, but it would limit the amount of carbohydrates you could eat, which form the bulk nutritious foods like whole grains, legumes, fruits, and vegetables.

Generally speaking, replacing carb calories with fat calories makes it more difficult to build muscle and strength. Remember, lower carb intake equals lower insulin response and less energy during workouts.

Still, many so-called “experts” claim eating dietary fat is the key to losing body fat. The reality is that this couldn’t be further from the truth. A caloric deficit along with high protein consumption is the best way to lose fat.

A 2015 study by scientists at the National Institutes of Health found that calorie for calorie, low fat dieting is more effective for fat loss than low carb for obese individuals.

Free fatty acids, which come from excess dietary fat and circulate in the bloodstream, cause inflammation, oxidative stress, and insulin resistance in our muscles.

When you put people on a low-carb diet, fat builds up in their muscles within two hours and insulin sensitivity drops.

In conclusion, I recommend consuming enough dietary fat to maintain optimal health, but no more. This should be approximately 0.3 grams per pound of bodyweight. When shredding, I typically eat a bit less than 0.3 grams per pound of bodyweight because my calories are low and I don’t like to drop my carbs very low.

Following the 0.3 grams of fat per pound of bodyweight rule of thumb, I should be consuming 51 grams of fat each day (170 pounds x 0.3).

Ideally, you should consume no oil and limit your saturated fat intake to below 10% of your daily calories. You should consume most of your dietary fat from monounsaturated fats like avocados, seeds, and nuts.

Furthermore, you must pay close attention to your EPA/DHA intake, especially as a vegan. Your body can convert ALA to EPA and DHA, but the conversion ratios are very low. Consequently, I use an EPA/DHA supplement and I recommend all vegans do the same.

Step 4C: Allocate the rest of your calories for carbs

So by this point, you know your Daily Calorie Target and the number of grams of protein and fat that you should be eating each day.

To calculate the grams of carbs in our macros, we will calculate how many calories we have left in our Daily Calorie Target after subtracting protein and fat calories then divide by 4 because there are 4 calories in a gram of carbs.

To determine the number of calories you are spending each day for protein, simply multiply your grams of protein by 4 because there are 4 calories in a gram of protein.

Since I am aiming for 170 grams of protein per day, this means I should be consuming 680 calories of protein per day (170 grams x 4 calories per gram).

To determine the number of calories you are spending each day for fat, simply multiply your grams of fat by 9 because there are 9 calories in a gram of fat.

Since I am aiming for 51 grams of fat per day, this means I should be consuming 459 calories of fat per day (51 grams x 9 calories per gram).

As a reminder, my Daily Calorie Target is 1,973 calories per day. To determine the number of calories I have for left for carbs, I must subtract my protein and fat calories from my Daily Calorie Target.

So my carb calories = 1,973 – 680 – 459 = 834 calories.

Just divide your carb calories by 4 (4 calories per gram) and you have your total carb macros.

For me, this means I should eat about 208 grams of carbs per day (834 calories divided by 4).

At this point, I know what my calories and macros should be to achieve my main fitness goal!

Daily Calorie Target: 1,973 calories per day

Target Macros: 170 grams of protein, 51 grams of fat, and 208 grams of carbs

Once you've done these calculations for yourself, you can use Cronometer or My Fitness Pal to track your calories and macros each day. I prefer Cronometer, but you can use whatever you prefer.

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