What to
Eat and When to Eat: The Basics of Nutrition
What to
Eat and When to Eat: The Basics of Nutrition
by: Chris Connelly
Many of you training hard everyday to get ready for the beach this summer and that’s great! But are you still seeing actual results or is something just not clicking anymore? If you feel as though you’re stuck in a rut, don’t worry because you may be just a few simple dietary changes away from getting back on pace.
Nutrition is something that most people tend to forget in their fitness regimen, but is what’s responsible for nearly 70 percent of your visible results. The other 30 percent can be attributed to your training, rest and recovery time.
For most of us no matter how hard we train if we are not eating correctly we are not going to see results! The reason for this is because we might eat too much to the point that even with exercise, our bodies will still store fat.
Others may consume way too little figuring they will lose fat quicker and this will actually work for the first or second week of doing so. After the second week however, your body is going to feel as though you’ve been stranded on a desert island. Your entire system will begin to function a bit slower in order to conserve nutrients and energy. As a result, everything that you do actually eat, no matter how healthy it is, will be stored and held on by your body. So eating too little actually decreases the speed of your fat burning process. That is definitely not something that we want to happen!
Instead of consuming too much or too little each day, your goal should be to maintain a well balanced diet that includes Protein, Carbohydrates, and essential Fats. I know that may sound rather complicated but don’t worry, I’m going to help you figure out when and what to eat each day.
Let’s begin with protein. Ah protein the nutrient that breaks down into amino acids, which are the building blocks of our muscles. There is a lot of talk about consuming extreme amounts of protein these days. Honestly you might need a lot if you are a 250 pound shredded bodybuilder, but for our general population it just depends on how much lean muscle mass you have on your body.
To calculate how much protein your body requires, simply take your weight (for example, I’m 185lbs) and divide that number by 100 (185/100 = 1.85).
Next you’ll need to find out your body fat percentage. If you don’t know what yours is, don’t hesitate to ask the NYSC Training Staff to calculate it for you. Mine is currently around 12 percent.. Once you know what your particular body fat percentage is, multiply that number by the first figure we came up with to determine how many pounds of fat are on your body. So in my case, I have 22.2 pounds of fat (12x1.85= 22.2).
Your final step is to take your total weight and subtract the pounds of fat to estimate how much of your total body weight is lean muscle mass (185-22.2= 162.8). So in my case, that number is 163. That’s approximately how many grams of protein I need each day not 250 or some of these other extreme figures provided by fad diets! Obviously your particular protein intake needs may vary, but try to stay near the amount of grams that you just calculated. Too much protein will be difficult for your body to process or will store as fat.
Now moving on to carbohydrates, carbs have been getting a really bad rap for the past decade and honestly its just so companies can make their money on us. Carbs are totally fine as long as we are not engulfing 100 grams at a time (which is equivalent to the amount found in a large bowl of spaghetti at a restaurant).
Carbs are the fuel for our muscles and help our brain function properly, so if we don’t have them in our diet we are not actually living the “Healthy Lifestyle” that we are trying to live.
Carbohydrate intake depends on your level of physical activity it’s the more you do the more you need principal! The most important times to consume your carbs are in the morning, 3 hours before your workout, and the meal you have right after your workout. Those 3 sittings should account for around ¾ of your carb intake for the day.
The other ¼ you can just have during the day in healthy snacks with minimal sugar. Oh I almost forgot about sugar. Limit yourself to sugar in the morning and after workouts. Those are optimal times when your body actually needs sugars to replenish your muscles.
Finally let’s discuss fats. Fats do sound very scary to some people, but as long as you are eating the correct fats it will help you in toning up for the summer. The USDA recommends keeping fats around 20 to 35 percent for daily caloric intake. That equals around 50 to 55 grams for the average person. And we need to keep saturated fats to minimum, no more then 15-20 grams a day. Those of you who have heart problems in your family tree should make sure that you are keeping cholesterol at 300 mg or less a day!
BONUS: Alcohol
If you are trying to lose fat and tone up for the summer you really need to restrict alcohol consumption. Whenever you drink, everything that you ate during the few hours prior to consuming that beverage is going to be stored as fat to help burn the alcohol because it’s a toxin. Now a glass of wine once in a while is totally fine and may actually be beneficial in weight loss, but kicking back and having drinks with your friends is going to plateau any diet no matter how well you eat and train.
Don’t worry we are almost done and you’ll be ready to start incinerating that fat like never before when you’re finished reading! We are on the last subject and that is when to eat. The most important times to eat are when you wake up; to kick start the fat burning process, a couple hours before your workout to give your body the fuel it needs to work correctly, and after your workout because that is when your body is like a turbocharged vacuum and just sucks up everything and stores it into the muscles.
Another recommendation is to eat every 3 or 4 hours. This will keep your body’s garbage disposal button always on and will definitely help your body burn fat faster.
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