Q: Im 30 years old, 6'1' tall, and weigh 220 pounds. It is calculated that to lose fat i need 2860 calories a day. This is broken up into 6 meals, telling me how many cals, carbs, fat and protein i need in each meal. This is great but im finding it difficult to put these figures into actual recipies....please help mike!

A: I'll do my best. Unfortunately coming up with a detailed personalized diet plan is a very time-intensive and, ideally, interactive process, so it's difficult to do it over the internet. But let's give it a shot...

Take a look at this sample fat-burning plan. It has 5 meals totalling 1930 calories with the same protein/carb/fat proportion that you'll be following (basically a fat-burning diet). So you'll use this sample plan as a stepping stone to your plan as following:

Step 1. Take that sample plan as is.

Step 2. Add another meal identical to the sample plan meal #2. This brings you up to 6 meals and about 2350 calories. This is your starting point and you can switch to it immediately.

Step 3. Gradually, over a few weeks, increase portion sizes in all 6 meals until they hit about 20% more than they are in the sample plan.

Completing step 3 will put you right around 2860 calories that you need with the right proportion of protein/carbs/fat. And taking a couple of weeks to hit step 3 will allow your system to gradually adjust to the new amounts of food which are likely to be more than you are eating now.

Note that this is actually a lot of food and you will need to be following an solid weight training program (such as the ones I give in the weight-lifting article) and you'll need to push yourself hard in the gym in order for this diet to be effective. Without weight training this much food can easily make you gain weight! You can also do a little cardio, but limit it to 2-3 times per week, no more than 30 minutes per session. Also note that you will need to learn and exercise portion control -- it's very easy to put in 3 tablespoons of olive oil when you mean to put in one. If you are not sure how big a portion to use, err on the low side!

As always, this diet plan will need to be adjusted every month or so depending on your progress or lack of it. Aim for weight loss of around one pound per week for most effective long-term fat loss. Ignore the first couple of weeks which your body will use to adjust to the new diet and new training, but after that start tracking your weight closely (weigh yourself in the morning on empty stomach) and adjust your diet as needed. Reduce serving sizes slightly if you are not losing weight fast enough and increase serving sizes slightly if you losing it too fast (more than 2 pounds per week is definitely too fast). Also, read http://www.mikesfitness.com/content/different-body-weight-different-days about weight fluctuations and weight tracking. Good luck!