There are 2 themes that apply to all fitness programs: Exercise and Nutrition. Whether the goal is losing weight, gaining weight, decreasing body fat, building strength, flexibility, mobility, increasing endurance, completing an athletic event or becoming a better athlete these themes are all that matter. In fact they are so important that in many cases one with out the other just won't do. Below is a BRIEF explanation of Nutrition (post on Exercise to come) and how to use scientific principles to devise methods to achieve your goal.
Nutrition
"Nutrition" for the purpose of this post refers to anything that you put into your body. To keep this short and sweet let's focus primarily on Macronutrients (carbohydrates, proteins and fats), Micronutrients (vitamins and minerals) and Water. Your body basically uses all these items to maintain your castle(body) and you are ultimately a product of the the products you take in. However, let's look at this from a principles approach.
To keep it very simple (simple enough to still reach the goals of any non-elite athlete), realize that your body is able to take in energy and either use it or store it. Thus, if you....
Use the same energy as you consume and you will maintain your body weight
Use less energy than you consume and you will gain weight
Use more energy than you consume and you will lose weight
Now, decide which of the above best lies within your goal.
When I hear people talk about their "diet" (the kinds of food that a person habitually eats) related to a fitness goal there are usually two major approaches that people take (whether or not they know it): Quality and/or Quantity. Quantity refers to the amount of calories (energy) you eat vs. use. Quality refers to the quality of the food you consume and can be described as healthy, unhealthy, protein, fat, carbohydrates, nutritious, etc. In almost all cases I tend to lean toward a "Quantity" focus with a "Quality" emphasis. Here is why:
Quantity
Because most of us have a plethora of stored energy within our body (often enough stored energy to last us weeks if we could harness it). We want to get rid of some of that energy (for different health and aesthetic reasons). The way that we do this is by using this stored energy and not fully replenishing our stores. I like to use a simple snowman example:
You build a snowman (your body) in the winter after a heavy snowstorm. The storm passes and the weather heats up just a little (our "metabolism" is constantly using energy for different reasons such as regulating body temperature, digestion, and breathing). With this small increase of heat your snowman is slowly melting. If you want to maintain your snowman than each day (morning, afternoon, night or all throughout) you pack some snow (eat some food) back on your snowman to keep him just the right size and shape. If you don't pack enough snow back on after a few days, weeks or a month your snowman is smaller and possibly gone. If you continually pack more snow on, than has melted, your snowman will grow.
Fact: There is approximately 3,500 calories in each pound of body fat
Thus, if you wanted to lose one pound of fat in a week than you would try to eat 500 calories less than you burn each day for a 7 day period (7x500=3,500) The same idea applies when you want to go the opposite direction (weight gain) although there are a few other considerations.
This is why quantity is the backbone of most goals.
Quality
The reason why there should and usually is a quality emphasis is that we need to care about where this energy is coming from and what else is packaged together with it (vitamins, minerals, water).
Obviously we all know what healthy is. I like to think fruits, vegetables, lean meats, whole grains, etc. without "sweating the small Sh!t"(see previous post).
Additionally take into consideration the energy that accompanies each macronutrient (fat, protein and carbohydrate). In the fact below realize that each "gram" (size of a paperclip) harnesses a different amount of energy.
Fact:
1 gram of carbohydrate = about 4 calories
1 gram of protein= about 4 calories
1 gram of fat= about 9 calories
1 gram of alcohol= about 7 calories
So, now you should be able to see why most diets that are low in fat and alcohol consumption tend to be more successful. If 1stick of butter has about 1,600 calories you could eat 3 large chicken breasts, or 7 cups of brown rice, or 1 chicken breast and 2 cups of brown rice (putting you in a caloric deficit to lose weight).
In some cases this is a hard concept to grasp, but at the end of the day it is calories consumed vs. calories used. My recommendation is to use a food log or journal such as myfitnesspal.com or other such nutrition program that has a mobile phone app to get started. Just keeping track of what you eat on a daily and weekly basis can be eye opening. Stop waiting and get on it!
For additional information check out http://www.nutrition.gov/weight-management and comment or email.
