My question pertains to the meal plan. My husband and I are both following BFL. He is 6'6" and 35 years old. When we follow the sample meal plans that means that both he and I are eating the same amount of food. Shouldn't he be eating more food since he is bigger than I and therefore burns more calories? If he should be eating more how do I determine how much more?
Hey! My husband (6'5") and I started BFL also. I was wondering the same thing. I chalked it up though to portion sizes. My portions relate to my fist/palm and his to his fist/palm ... he obviously gets more! Also, I'm using the Myoplex Lite Shake which is 170 cal with 20 g protein and his shake is the original Myoplex wihich is 300 cal 42g protein. It gets confusing when a package says "4 servings" but my husbands hand says 2. With that being said - everyone's protions are different so I'm not sticking to what the packages say, I'm sticking the hand method.
I guess that is what I am going to have to stick to as well. I just want to make sure I don't starve him.
I agree, the fist/palm method is king! However, I know that isn't always practical, so here is what I do sometimes:
Look at your individual scale weights and figure out your target protein + carbs per meal. For B4L it's recommended to get 1g of protein and 1g of carbs per lb of current body weight. For example, I weigh 150 so I strive for 25g of protein and 25g of carbs per meal (6 x 25 = 150). So if the palm/fist doesn't work easily for some stuff, like shakes or slices of bread, then look at the food packaging and see how many cups/ounces/slices will get you that target number of grams for each meal. This way you are each consuming the correct amount for your individual needs.
Also, in general, men tend to burn more calories and have a higher resting metabolic rate than women, and large/tall men even moreso. This will accelerate even further when it comes to consistent strength training in both men and women, though I believe due to the testosterone levels in a man they do tend to bulk up further, and burn calories faster, than most women do.
Good luck to both of you in your Challenge!
Mwseahorse --
Thanks so much. I am going to do the calculations now and see how that shakes out.
Greetings obrodriguez, I agree with the fist palm method because it is acurate enough and more convienent in everyday use. Bill knew what he was doing with this type of measurement. If you want to know your average daily caloric intake to support your present weight so you can figure out a goal rate to shoot for each day and lose 20% then Dr Life, former BFL Champion who wrote THe Life Plan, suggests that you journal, record, and figure out your caloric intake for one week (7 days divide that by 7 to get an average daily calorie count for your maintaining your current weight and THEN minus 10-20% of that amount for a target goal to shoot for each day. The program BDMOM has recommended to track on line is called My Fitness Pal.com and that has a lot of calorie info and an electronic way to track your results each day along with nutriional info as well. I always used my BFL Success journal this time and did the math as I went along each meal with the target goal in mind . Mine figured out to be 1,814 calories daily to lose for my starting bodyweight of 234 or so.