My lack of real knowledge about nutrition cost me hundreds and hundreds of wasted workouts at the gym.  Once I learned the fundamentals of good nutrition and applied them to my diet, my body started to drastically change. 

Along with cardio, I was doing a “Body for Life” style of weight lifting for a few years before I changed my diet.  Looking back at my training journals, there was no significant change in the amount I was capable of lifting in almost 2 years.  After carefully planning my diet for four months, the amount of weight I could lift increased over 25% on all exercises.  I did not significantly change my weight training or cardio, but now my body was responding to my hard work!

This convinced me that what you eat, when you eat, and in what ratios has a huge impact on your body.  I was always of the opinion that calories were the only thing that you really needed to worry about.  Calories are an important part, but I soon realized that all calories were not created equal.  Overall nutrition has the greatest impact on the composition of your body.

Everybody intuitively knows that nutrition is important for any fitness goal.  We all know that Arnold Schwarzenegger did not develop his body by eating only chocolate bars, cookies and candy.  It then makes sense that we can’t develop a lean and toned body just by counting calories either.

The group of athletes that are most concerned about their body composition are body builders and fitness models.  These are the people that build muscle and keep their body fat levels to a minimum.  It surprised me to learn that many professional body builders consider nutrition to be at least 60-70% responsible for the way they look!  Most people would think that the most important factor would be pumping iron in the gym.

The Macronutrients

Remember when Fat was bad for you in the 80’s and 90’s?  Now Carbohydrates are evil and should be avoided.  I almost forgot, lots of Protein is bad for you too and causes kidney damage…  Maybe the most healthy diet should not have Carbs, Protein or Fat.  Give me a break!  It is about time that people realize that you need all three to be healthy.

Most mainstream diets that you hear about vary the ratios of these basic macronutrients.  As well, If you look at most of the popular diets over time, they all seem to eat the same basic foods.  All that they really seem to do is vary the amount of these basic foods that they tell you to eat.

Here is a very quick summary:

1.  Carbohydrates – this is your body’s main source of energy.  Carbs are found in foods such as fruits, vegetables, breads, pastas, and rice. 

Insulin is the hormone that is released in your body to help take the carbs out of your bloodstream and store them in your muscle tissues for later use.  If you eat too many carbs, they will get stored as body fat.  Overweight people can actually wear out their body’s ability to use insulin effectively over time.  This can lead to the development of type 2 diabetes.

There are 2 types of carbohydrates.  Simple and Complex. 

Simple carbs have a high sugar content and are absorbed by the body very quickly.  Most “sinful” foods have a high percentage of simple carbs, but some healthy foods such as fruit are also in this category.  These foods cause a huge spike in the amount of insulin in your body.  These carbs are absorbed very quickly, but you are hungry soon after.

Complex carbs are absorbed slowly by the body.  There is not a large insulin spike after eating, and you will remain fuller much longer that if you had eaten simple carbs.  The likelihood of complex carbs being stored as fat is much lower as well.  Examples of complex carbs are multi grain breads and pastas, potatoes, yams, oatmeal, and most vegetables.

2.  Protein – this is what your body is really made of.  Every tissue in your body consists of proteins.  Everything from your muscles and organs, to you skin, fingernails and hair. 

Protein is found in all meats, eggs, milk, vegetables, beans, grains and legumes.

Proteins are made up of amino acids.  Your body can make 11 of the 20 amino acids.  The rest of them, you must eat. 

Most animal sources of protein are “complete” sources because they have all of the amino acids present in them.  Vegetable sources of protein are “incomplete” and are missing various amino acids.  If you are a vegetarian, you need to eat a variety of vegetables so that the combination of them will give you all of the amino acids that your body needs. 

Just like carbohydrates, excess protein can be converted to fat.

3.  Fats - all cells in your body contain some level of fat.  Your joints are lubricated by fats and many of your hormones come from fats.   Dry skin can even be a symptom of not ingesting enough fat.  It is vital that you do eat some fat in your diet.

The “fat phobia” of the 80’s and 90’s is probably the single greatest reason that the average person is fatter today.  Thousands of products came to market that proclaimed to be “fat free” or low in fat.  The problem with most of these products, is that they had the same or even more calories than their original. 

Fat tended to be replaced by sugar.  In fact, 100% sugar is fat-free.  People felt that they had a license to eat as much as they wanted of low-fat food.  They thought that they were eating healthy and moderately, but in reality the average person continued to gain more fat. 

There are basically 2 types of fats:

Saturated Fat – the bad one.

You can spot a saturated fat mostly just by looking at it.  If it is solid at room temperature, it is probably saturated.  It generally comes from animal sources and is found in foods such as butter, egg yolks, cheese, shortening and meat fat.  This type of fat is linked to an increase in cholesterol which can be a contributing factor in heart disease.

Unsaturated Fat – the good one

This type of fat is generally liquid at room temperature.  This type of fat actually lowers your cholesterol!  It is found in foods such as fish, walnuts, peanuts, safflower and sunflower oil, and natural peanut butter.

There are some fats that your body cannot produce on its own.  These are known as Essential Fatty Acids and are found in most foods that have unsaturated fat in them.  You may have heard the terms Omega 6 or Omega 3.  These are two examples of Essential Fatty Acids that you can actually find as supplements in a health food store. 

The Best Foods to Eat.

Here are some examples of the best foods in each category.

Carbohydrates:
     The thing you really need to watch out for here are refined carbohydrates.  Refined carbs are generally white and are found in processed foods such as cookies, crackers, and white breads.  Stick to things such as oatmeal, 100% whole-wheat bread, whole-wheat pastas, brown rice, potatoes, yams, beans, lentils etc.

Just like you mother always used to tell you, you can never eat enough fruits and vegetables. 

Protein:
     Not all sources of protein are of the same quality.  Generally, if you choose animal based sources of protein, they will be complete proteins with all of the necessary amino acids.  While a reasonable amount of fat is not bad for you, choose lean proteins.  Examples of good sources are:  chicken breast, turkey breast, fish, lean pork, lean red meat, fresh ham, eggs (limited number of yolks), milk (skim) and cottage cheese. 

Fats:
     The worst thing that you can eat is any fried food or any product that contains “hydrogenated” or “partially hydrogenated” oils in the ingredients.  Consuming some saturated fats from red meat and egg yolks should be reduced, but not completely avoided. 

Some of the best fats are: flax seeds/oil, sunflower seeds/oil, fish oil (capsules or from fish), raw nuts, olive oil, avocados and natural peanut butter.

How Much Should You Eat From Each Category?

This is the real difference between most diets.

High Carbohydrate diets:
     There were many popular diets in the last few decades that fell into this category.  One of the best examples is the Pritikin diet.  It was very similar to a vegetarian diet.  In this diet, you eat 70% Carbs, 20% Protein, and 10% Fat.

Low Carbohydrate diets:
     Many of today’s most popular diets are such as the Atkins, Sugar Busters, and the Zone limit that amount of carbohydrate you can eat.  You may end up eating ratios such as 10% Carbs, 55% Protein and 35% Fat.

A more reasonable approach:
     Everyone has a different body and a different metabolism.  Some people get intense headaches, weakness and bad breath on Low Carb diets, while others have none of these side effects.  Likewise, many people find that they are constantly hungry on High Carb diets and never lose their cravings for a good steak, while a vegetarian may be the complete opposite.

Instead of following the dogma of any specific diet, I would suggest this approach.

Start with a basic diet of around 50% Carbs, 30% Protein and 20% Fat.  Choose to eat an amount of calories that is moderately below what you need to maintain your weight.  Stay on this diet for a few weeks and see how you feel.  If you feel awesome, don’t change anything.  As long as you have a moderate calorie deficit every day, you will lose weight.

If you want to eat more protein for example, you can increase your Protein by 10% and lower your Carbs by 10%.  Continue to eat the same level of calories as you did before, and again see how you feel a few weeks later.

Continue to adjust your ratios, until you find the optimal ratio for your body.  The goal here is to experiment and learn what works for you.  It is much easier to stick to a diet that works for your body and allows you to eat more of the foods that you enjoy.  Remember, you are eating for a lifestyle change, not just for a temporary goal.

Final Tips

1.  Almost all diet plans have you eat 3 meals, plus 2 snacks during the day.  I suggest that you should always eat 5 or 6 meals a day.  Just make your meals smaller.  Your metabolism will actually speed up just through frequent feeding.

2.  Eat some lean protein with each and every meal.

3.  Eat some fruit or vegetables with every meal.

4.  Drink lots and lots of water.  The YMCA recommends that you drink at least a half ounce of water for every pound that you weigh per day.  (A 150 lb person should drink at least 75 ounces each day)

5.  Eat whole foods.  The less processing a food has been through, the more nutrients will be left and the longer the food takes to digest.  Foods that are slow to digest, are less likely to end up being converted to fat.