What should you
actually be eating?
Free, no sign-up. Your calories, macros and portions in about thirty seconds, with no food scale needed. Pick how you eat, from vegan and keto to high protein, and the numbers adjust. These are estimates from a formula, not a plan built around you. That part takes a conversation.
Step 1 of 6
About you
›Know roughly your body fat? It makes the estimate more accurate (optional)
Leave this alone if you are guessing. Being off by five points is about as bad as not setting it at all, so only use it if one of the descriptions above really matches you.
Or measure it, with a tape
Relaxed tape, straight around, not pulled tight. Waist at the navel, neck just below the jaw. Inches or centimeters — whichever your tape has.
The US Navy circumference method. Not a scan, but repeatable with a five-dollar tape — and the direction it moves over a month is the part worth acting on.
Desk work, driving, study
Mostly sedentary outside training
Your workouts matter, but they’re only a few hours of your week. What you do the rest of the day matters more than most people think.
›See calculation
Your day sets the base and training adds to it: ×1.2 + 0.1 = ×1.3 on your resting burn. That split is why the day counts for more here than the gym does; sessions matter, they are just smaller than they feel.*
From your numbers
What your body burns on an average day, before any goal is applied. Pick a goal below and this becomes your target.
Adjust anything above and this number moves with it.
Step 2 of 6
Pick a goal
Optional. Set it and each pace below shows how long it would take.
Step 3 of 6
Pick a pace
Faster is not better. It is just faster, and harder to hold. Your maintenance sits around 2,285 calories.
›What the safety floor is
The floor is 110 percent of your resting burn, the lowest this tool will go. Below it, a deficit starts taking muscle instead of fat, so any pace that works out under the floor gets held at it. More daily activity or training raises your maintenance and makes room for a bigger deficit without going under.
Why I’d start you here
With your current training frequency and goal, I would start with the steady pace. Keep protein close to the target and keep lifting. That is what decides how much of what comes off is fat.
How long do you run this? A deficit is a block, not a lifestyle: 8 to 12 weeks at the pace you picked.
›How to run the block
After the block, spend a week or two back at maintenance before deciding on the next one. Longer fat-loss phases are easier to stick with when you build in those breaks. Set a goal weight above and each pace will show how long the whole thing takes and roughly when you get there.
Step 4 of 6 · Your starting plan
Lose fat · Steady · Balanced
Protein
180 g
Carbs
193 g
Fat
49 g
Fiber
25 g
A day in hands
6 palms
6 fists
8 cupped handfuls
4 thumbs
Cardio
2 to 3 sessions of 30 to 45 minutes a week in Zone 2, at 110–129 bpm, plus 8,000 to 10,000 steps a day.
Step 5 of 6
What that looks like on a plate
Just use your hands
No scale, no app, nothing to weigh. Your hand is sized to you, which is why it works as a measure. Foods shown are balanced.
1.5 palms of protein · 6 a day
Chicken, fish, beef, eggs, Greek yogurt
1.5 fists of vegetables · 6 a day
Anything green, plus peppers, tomatoes, mushrooms
2 cupped handfuls of carbs · 8 a day
Rice, potato, oats, pasta, bread, fruit
1 thumb of fats · 4 a day
Oil, butter, nuts, avocado, cheese
›How to hold your hand
Palm. The size and thickness of your palm, fingers not included. A thin slice the same width is half a palm.
Fist. As much as your closed fist, piled up, not spread thin across the plate.
Cupped hand. Cup your hand and fill it level. A heaped handful is closer to two portions than one.
Thumb. Your whole thumb, tip to base, and just as thick. Most people picture only the tip, which is why fat gets under-counted.
Measure with your own hand, not the drawing. A bigger person has a bigger hand, and that is why this works.
›Build one of my meals
Start each of your 4 meals around:
- 1.5palms of protein
- 1.5fists of vegetables
- 2cupped handfuls of carbs
- 1thumb of fats
This is a template, not a rule. Move portions between meals however you prefer.
›Add an eating window? (16:8 and friends)
An eating window does not burn extra fat. With the same calories and protein, you lose exactly what the deficit gives you. What it can do is make the plan easier to stick to, mostly by cutting out late-evening snacking, where uncounted calories add up. Same targets, same portions. Only the timing changes.
Not for pregnancy, breastfeeding, or trying to conceive; anyone under 18 or underweight; a history of disordered eating; or type 1 diabetes and blood-sugar medication that expects food at set times. On a GLP-1, appetite is already doing the restricting, and a window on top usually costs protein. When in doubt, no window.
The same day, in grams180 g protein · 193 g carbs · 49 g fat · 25 g fiber. Open for the split and the arithmetic.›
›How that was worked out
Protein is set from your bodyweight and held there; fat keeps a floor for hormonal health; carbs take what is left. Balanced: nothing excluded. Fat takes 30% of what is left after protein.
Getting the carbs rightWhich carbs cost what, where the fiber comes from, and the one rule for meal order. Written for balanced eating.›
One cupped handful is a cupped hand of cooked rice, pasta, potato or oats, about 25 g of carbohydrate.
Not every carb is one handful
- Counts as one
- Cooked rice, pasta, potato, quinoa, cooked oats
- Counts double
- Bread, wraps, dry oats, granola, dried fruit, pastry
- Counts half
- Berries, most fruit, squash, beans, lentils, plain yogurt
›Why they count differently
- Counts as one.
- Cooked, so they are mostly water. This is the handful the 25 g reference is set from.
- Counts double.
- The water has been baked or dried out, so the same handful holds roughly twice the carbohydrate. A cupped hand of granola is nearer two of rice.
- Counts half.
- Mostly water and fiber, so a handful carries about half. These are the easiest carbs to be generous with.
Juice, smoothies, sweetened coffee and alcohol count the same as food but fill you up far less. Count a drink as one cupped handful and a cocktail as two. Where you can, eat your carbs rather than drink them.
A scoop of protein powder counts as one palm. Whatever goes in the blender counts too: a banana is a cupped handful, a spoonful of peanut butter is a thumb, and a glass of milk adds about half a cupped handful and a thumb. Count a shake like a meal, because it is one.
Where the fiber comes from
Your target is 25 g a day. No single food gets you there.
›Where those grams actually come from
- Vegetables.
- About 2 to 4 g a fist, and they do not count against your carbs.
- Whole carbs.
- Beans, lentils, oats, potato with the skin, whole fruit. A handful brings a few grams of fiber with it.
- Refined carbs.
- White bread, crackers, juice, candy. Count the same as whole carbs but bring almost none of the fiber. Whole grain versions get some of it back.
Fiber matters more the lower your calories go. It slows a meal down and keeps you full afterward. Spend your carbs on vegetables and whole foods first. Bread gets whatever is left.
At each meal, eat the protein and vegetables first and the starch last. You end up needing less of it.
None of this needs memorizing. In the app, a photo of your plate is checked against these rules for you, and Sean adjusts your targets as your progress comes in. See how coaching works →
Cardio, by heart rate2 to 3 sessions of 30 to 45 minutes a week in Zone 2 (110–129 bpm at 35), plus 8,000 to 10,000 steps a day. Open for what counts, when to do it, and the zones.›
Your cardio this week
- Zone 2
- 2 to 3 sessions of 30 to 45 minutes, at 110–129 bpm.
- Steps
- 8,000 to 10,000 a day, every day. Walking is the cardio that never costs recovery.
- Harder session
- Six to eight rounds of one minute hard (Zone 4) and two minutes easy, once a week, only in weeks you slept and recovered well.
- What counts
- Brisk walking, incline treadmill, bike, rower, swimming, easy jogging. Anything that keeps your heart rate in the zone for the whole time.
- When
- After lifting, or on a separate day. Not right before a heavy leg session.
- No watch
- No watch? Zone 2 is the pace where you can talk in full sentences but could not sing. Or count ten seconds at your neck and multiply by six.
The deficit does the fat loss. Cardio is for your heart, your recovery and your step count, not for earning food.
The zones come from the age you entered above. Max heart rate drops gradually with age, so a 35 year old and a 60 year old train to different numbers, and this table updates if you change your age.
Recovery · 92–110 bpm
Barely feels like effort. Warm-ups, cool-downs, easy walks.
Base · 110–129 bpm
Where most of it belongsYou could hold a conversation the whole time. Builds the aerobic engine, and it is where most cardio should live at every age.
Tempo · 129–147 bpm
Talking drops to short sentences. Useful in doses, easy to overuse.
Threshold · 147–166 bpm
A few words at a time. Hard intervals that buy fitness and cost recovery.
Max · 166–184 bpm
Near flat out, in bursts of seconds to a couple of minutes.
* Under 40. Zone 2 builds the base. For most users, keep most cardio here and add up to one harder session per week. Recovery depends on training history, sleep, stress and total workload, not age alone.
›Where these numbers come from
A formula: 208 minus 0.7 times your age, so treat the edges as soft. The talk test in each zone is the honest check, and a max you have actually seen on a hard effort beats the arithmetic.
Your first 14 daysFour rules before you change a numberHit the target most days, keep protein close, weigh the same way each morning, and go by the two-week average, never a single day. Open for the full version and what to do after two weeks.›
- 1Hit these calories and portions most days. It does not have to be every day.
- 2Keep protein close to the target. If you only get one number right, make it that one.
- 3Weigh yourself a few mornings a week, the same way each time: same time, after the bathroom, before you eat.
- 4After two weeks, look at the average of those mornings, not any single one. Any one morning is mostly water and what you ate the day before.
Then read the two weeks
- ·If your average is moving about 0.5 to 1 lb a week, stay where you are.
- ·If it has not moved after two consistent weeks, the target needs adjusting.
- ·If it is dropping a lot faster than that and your training or recovery is suffering, the calories are too low.
MovementSeven things your body should still be able to doThe numbers above say what to eat. These say what to keep. None needs a gym, and they predict how the next thirty years go better than anything on a scale.›
Where to start at 18 to 39. Scaled by age, not by sex — the research splits by decade far more than it splits men from women.
- 1Deep squat holdStart here: 60 seconds, heels downBuilds toward: 2 minutes, heels downThe squat is a resting position before it is an exercise. Time at the bottom means ankles, knees and hips all still do their jobs.
- 2Bar hangStart here: 30 secondsBuilds toward: 60 secondsShoulders that can hang decompress the spine and keep the cuff honest. Grip strength is a health marker in its own right.
- 3Floor sit-and-riseStart here: Down and up without handsBuilds toward: Down and up without handsGetting off the floor unassisted is one of the strongest predictors of ageing well. Strength, balance and mobility in one move.
- 4Single-leg balanceStart here: 30 seconds per sideBuilds toward: 30 seconds per sideEvery step is a single-leg event. Thirty quiet seconds per side is ankles, hips and attention working together.
- 5Deep split squatStart here: Back knee to a 15 cm blockBuilds toward: Back knee to the floor, under controlFull-range single-leg strength with the knee travelling the way it is designed to. Earned through the ladder, never forced.
- 6Toe touchStart here: Fingertips to the floor, knees softBuilds toward: Fingertips to the floor, knees softA hinge that reaches the floor means the whole back line, calves to lower back, still has its length.
- 7Loaded carryStart here: 40% of bodyweight, 40 mBuilds toward: Half your bodyweight, 40 metersCarrying is the pattern life actually tests: grip, trunk and posture under a real load, moving.
DrinksWhat a drink actually costs youAlcohol is not a carbohydrate. It is its own thing at 7 calories a gram, it comes off the top of your target before any food, and it is the one line you can cut without eating a gram less.›
A standard drink is a bottle of beer, a 5 oz glass of wine, or a 1.5 oz shot — about 94 calories from the alcohol alone, before any sugar.
Four on a Friday and four on a Saturday is 752 calories, about 6% of your week, or 0.4 of a day’s food — before anything you ate with them.
A few, in full
- Pint of lager, 5%568 mL · 1.7 drinks · 21 g244 kcal
- Bottle of beer, 5%341 mL · 1 drink · 13 g146 kcal
- Tall can of IPA, 6.5%473 mL · 1.8 drinks · 20 g249 kcal
- Glass of dry wine142 mL, a 5 oz pour · 1 drink · 3 g106 kcal
- Restaurant pour of wine250 mL · 1.9 drinks · 5 g199 kcal
- Spirit with soda water1.5 oz · 1 drink · no carbs, and still not free94 kcal
- Rum and cola1.5 oz plus mixer · 1 drink · 21 g178 kcal
- Margaritabar pour · 1.4 drinks · 24 g228 kcal
The sugar in the glass counts separately, in cupped hands. Alcohol-free still counts its sugar: a 0.0 beer carries about the same carbohydrate as the one it replaces, and a mocktail is often sweeter than the cocktail.
Eating outThe plan still works when someone else cookedProtein first, one fist of vegetables, one cupped handful of the starch, count the drinks, and do not aim for a perfect meal. Hands work on any plate.›
- Pick the protein first and ask how it is cooked. Grilled, roasted or seared beats breaded or fried.
- One fist of vegetables if the menu has any. A side salad counts. Fries are the starch, not the vegetable.
- There will be rice, potatoes or bread on the plate. Eat one cupped handful of it and leave the rest.
- Count the drinks as drinks, not as carbs. A standard drink is about 94 calories of alcohol before any sugar, and a pint is nearly two of them. None of it fills you up.
- You do not need a perfect meal. Get the protein in, enjoy yourself, and get back on plan at the next meal.
Step 6 of 6
Take it with you
Photograph a plate
Reads the portions and calories on the plate and shows what it leaves of your day. Correct a portion and the number corrects with it. Nothing is stored.
Packaged food? Photograph the nutrition label instead and it reads the numbers straight off it.
How to shoot it›
- Put your hand in the frame. Put it beside the plate, not on it. It is the one thing in the photo with a known size.
- Shoot at an angle, not straight down. Shooting straight down flattens a pile of rice into a circle and hides how high it is.
- One plate per photo. Everything you are about to eat, nothing you are not.
- Bright, even light. Daylight beats a warm bulb, and dim photos miss oils and sauces.
- Shoot before you start eating. A half-finished plate reads as a small meal.
Share or save this plan
A link that reopens this page with your numbers already in it.
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Three pages, sent to your inbox: your numbers, your portions, your first 14 days. Still there in two weeks when it is time to read the trend.
Personalize your PDFAnswer a few optional questions and I will include them in your plan, so it is more useful if you decide to work with me later.›
What have you already tried?Pick as many as apply (optional)›
What usually gets in the way?Pick as many as apply (optional)›
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A calculator only knows the four numbers you typed in. It does not know how you train, how you sleep, what injuries you are working around, or what you have already tried. Start here, stay with it for two weeks, then adjust based on your results.
Want a plan that adapts with you?
The app comes with coaching: a program built around you, progress tracking that helps guide your next adjustment, and Sean reviewing changes along the way. That is the part a formula cannot do.
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