Basic Nutrition

In order to lose 1lb of fat through exercise you need

to burn 3500 calories?

TrueThere is in fact 3500 calories in one pound

of fat!

Fat, Protein , Carbs, and Alcohol all contain the

same amount of calories?

FalseFat has 9 calories per gram

Protein has 4 calories per gram

Carbs= 4 calories per gram

Alcohol= 7 calories per gram

Cardio is the best way to raise your metabolism?

FalseThe most effective way to raise your metabolism is to increase muscle mass. The more muscle mass that you have the more calories you will burn at all times. Yes even while you’re sleeping!

Skinny people have a higher metabolism

then Heavier people?

FalseBelieve it or not a heavier person will have a much higher metabolism than a skinnier person. Mostly because of the amount of muscle mass needed to support their heavier body mass. Once again muscle mass is the biggest driver of your metabolism.

Metabolism

and

Energy Balance

Very Little Gas (calories)

Lots of Gas (calories)

The amount of fuel or calories you use in a day is your metabolic rate.

What Happens to the calories we

consume?

60%-75% of all of your calories are burned simply by

living

15%-20% of your calories are used

through the thermogenic effect

of food

Only 10%-15% of your calories are used with daily activity or often

not used and stored

60-75%

15-20%

10-15%

BMR- Stands for Basal Metabolic Rate- It is the

body's basic requirements to sustain vital non-movement

related physiological activity. BMR accounts for over 70% of the energy we consume

each day. So if you lied perfectly still in bed all day

70% of our calories you consume would be used just

to keep you alive.

Here is my current BMR estimationBMR-2195 Calories

Between my basal metabolic rate of 2195 calories and my current activity level being working out at least 5 times a week and being active during the days my caloric needs are approximately 3450 calories daily to maintain my current weight and body fat%

With this knowledge about my current caloric needs I can determine in which direction I would like to take my body and make appropriate adjustments in order to reach my goals.

Let Me Show You How!

Let’s say I would like to my goal to be to lose 8 lbs in the next month.

Knowing that there is 3500 calories in one pound of fat I need to create a calorie deficit through diet that would make sense for my goal and also keeping in mind that I don’t want to lose more than 2 lbs a week to avoid losing muscle.

I would need to create a deficit of 7000 calories a week in order to elicit the proper response from my body. With my maintenance calories being 3450 calories per day I can simply reduce my caloric intake to 2450 calories per day and this should net me approximately 2 lbs per week weight loss.

This of course is far from a perfect science and although you have created a calorie deficit weight loss can sometimes still remain stagnant. This is because all foods are not created equally and they can often determine whether or not your body chooses to release the stored fat or not.

“You are what you eat!”

The macro nutrients that we will be concentrating on are as followed:

ProteinCarbohydratesFatsWater

WHAT ARE MACRONUTRIENTS?

Macronutrients are nutrients that provide calories or energy. Nutrients are substances needed for growth, metabolism, and for other body functions. Since “macro” means large, macronutrients are nutrients needed in large amounts.

While each of these macronutrients provides calories, the amount of calories that each one provides varies.

Carbohydrate provides 4 calories per gram.Protein provides 4 calories per gram.Fat provides 9 calories per gram.

This means that if you looked at the Nutrition Facts label of a product and it said 12 grams of carbohydrate, 0 grams of fat, and 0 grams of protein per serving, you would know that this food has about 48 calories per serving (12 grams carbohydrate multiplied by 4 calories for each gram of carbohydrate = 48 calories).

Besides carbohydrate, protein, and fat the only other substance that provides calories is alcohol. Alcohol provides 7 calories per gram. Alcohol, however, is not a macronutrient because we do not need it for survival. Duh!

WHY DO WE NEED CARBOHYDRATES TO SURVIVE?Carbohydrates are the macronutrient that we need in the largest amounts. According to the Dietary Reference Intakes published by the USDA, 45% - 65% of calories should come from carbohydrate. We need this amount of carbohydrate because:

Carbohydrates are the body’s main source of fuel.

Carbohydrates are easily used by the body for energy.

All of the tissues and cells in our body can use glucose for energy.

Carbohydrates are needed for the central nervous system, the kidneys, the brain, the muscles (including the heart) to function properly.

Carbohydrates can be stored in the muscles and liver and later used for energy.

Carbohydrates are important in intestinal health and waste elimination.

Carbohydrates are mainly found in starchy foods (like grain and potatoes), fruits, milk, and yogurt. Other foods like vegetables, beans, nuts, seeds and cottage cheese contain carbohydrates, but in lesser amounts.

Fiber

Fiber refers to certain types of carbohydrates that our body cannot digest. These carbohydrates pass through the intestinal tract intact and help to move waste out of the body. Diets that are low in fiber have been shown to cause problems such as constipation and hemorrhoids and to increase the risk for certain types of cancers such as colon cancer. Diets high in fiber; however, have been shown to decrease risks for heart disease, obesity, and they help lower cholesterol. Foods high in fiber include fruits, vegetables, and whole grain products.

WHY DO WE NEED PROTEIN TO SURVIVE?

According to the Dietary Reference Intakes published by the USDA 10% - 35% of calories should come from protein. Most Americans get plenty of protein, and easily meet this need by consuming a balanced diet. We need protein for:

Growth (especially important for children, teens, and pregnant women)

Tissue repair

Immune function

Making essential hormones and enzymes

Energy when carbohydrate is not available

Preserving lean muscle mass

Protein is found in meats, poultry, fish, meat substitutes, cheese, milk, nuts, legumes, and in smaller quantities in starchy foods and vegetables.

When we eat proteins, our body breaks down the protein that they contain into amino acids (the building blocks of proteins). Some amino acids are essential which means that we need to get them from our diet, and others are nonessential which means that our body can make them. Protein that comes from animal sources contains all of the essential amino acids that we need. Plant sources of protein, on the other hand, do not contain all of the essential amino acids. 

WHY DO WE NEED FAT TO SURVIVE?

Although fats have received a bad reputation for causing weight gain, some fat is essential for survival. According to the Dietary Reference Intakes published by the USDA 20% - 35% of calories should come from fat. We need this amount of fat for:

Normal growth and development

Energy (fat is the most concentrated source of energy)

Absorbing certain vitamins ( like vitamins A, D, E, K, and carotenoids)

Providing cushioning for the organs

Maintaining cell membranes

Providing taste, consistency, and stability to foods

Fat is found in meat, poultry, nuts, milk products, butters and margarines, oils, lard, fish, grain products and salad dressings. There are three main types of fat, saturated fat, unsaturated fat, and trans fat. Saturated fat (found in foods like meat, butter, lard, and cream) and trans fat (found in baked goods, snack foods, fried foods, and margarines) have been shown to increase your risk for heart disease. Replacing saturated and trans fat in your diet with unsaturated fat (found in foods like olive oil, avocados, nuts, and canola oil) has been shown decrease the risk of developing heart disease.

Why is water so important?

The 5 functions of water in our bodyCell life

Chemical and metabolic reactions

Transport of nutrients

Body temperature regulation

Elimination of waste 

Cell life

Water is a carrier, distributing essential nutrients to cells, such as minerals, vitamins and glucose. 

Chemical and metabolic reactions

Water removes waste products including toxins that the organs’ cells reject, and removes them through urines and faeces.

Transport of nutrients

Water participates in the biochemical break-down of what we eat.

Body temperature regulation

Water has a large heat capacity which helps limit changes in body temperature in a warm or a cold environment. Water allows the body to release heat when ambient temperature is higher than body temperature (1). The body begins to sweat, and the evaporation of water from the skin surface very efficiently cools the body.

Elimination of water

Water is an effective lubricant around joints. It also acts as a shock absorber for eyes, brain, spinal cord and even for the fetus through amniotic fluid.

Water is at the center of life. This is why nobody can live more than 3 to 5 days without any water intake.

Now for the meat and potatoes

Well the potatoes anyways!

Yes, Sugar (Potatoes) is what makes us

fat!

SugarHighly addictive, horribly debilitating, unfortunately pervasive,

and freaking delicious.

If I had to point to ONE culprit to our country’s expanding waistlines and rapidly deteriorating health, it would be sugar.  The amount of havoc sugar and sugar substitutes have wreaked on our nation is horribly depressing.  Fear not, as I’ve come up with the perfect solution!

Eat less sugar if you want to live longer.  

The end.

Just kidding, there’s so much more to this story than that.

I’m sure you probably have a lot of questions about sugar:

Is sugar THAT bad for you?

Fruit has sugar! Is fruit bad for you?

Are certain kinds of sugar better or worse for you?

Can you really get addicted to sugar?

What about sugar alternatives that are used in drinks like Diet Coke?  What about natural sweeteners?

Let’s nerd out about sugar and find out what you can do to kick your sugar habit and get your life back on track.

This might be the most telling statistic relating to sugar, especially when that close to 70% of America is overweight with a THIRD of the nation  obese:

1822: Americans consume 45 grams of sugar every five days, or the amount of sugar in a can of coke.

2012: Americans consume 756 grams of sugar every five days, or 130 POUNDS of sugar a year.

As we have grown as a country (in more ways than one), sugar has continued to play an increasingly more prominent role in our food.  It’s not just sugary foods like candy and cookies either, but sugar has made its way into practically EVERYTHING we eat.

Unfortunately, it’s not just sugar that’s killing us, but scientifically manufactured “sugar” as well.

Now, we all know that correlation does NOT prove causation, so let’s dig into the science behind why sugar is ruining our bodies. 

What happens in our body when we eat sugar?

When you consume sugar, your body has two options on how to deal with it:

Burn it for energy. WEEEEE!

Convert to fat and store it in your fat cells.  BOOOOO!

Depending on your genetic predisposition, your body might be better equipped to process sugar as energy, or you might be more likely to store it as fat.  Think of this like you think of people with faster metabolisms vs. people with slower metabolisms.

Problem is, there’s a LOT more room for fat storage, and a lot less room to burn the sugar as energy.

So, we have this sugar in our body and blood stream. What happens next? 

When your pancreas detects a rush of sugar, it releases a hormone called insulin to deal with all of that excess sugar.

Insulin helps regulate that level of sugar in our blood; the more sugar in the blood stream, the more insulin is released.  Insulin helps store all of this glucose in the liver and muscles as glycogen and in fat cells (aka adipocytes stored as triglycerides).

Now, oftentimes our body struggles to get that balance right (with us putting way too much sugar in our system very quickly). TOO much insulin is released, which ultimately results in our blood sugar dropping below normal levels.

This is called hypoglycemia, essentially a sugar crash: Our bodies respond by telling us: WE WANT SUGAR.

So we cram sugar down our throats and the process starts again. 

Unfortunately, the more often this process takes place (the more sugar you consume), the more severe the blood sugar spike is, and the more insulin is required. This means it becomes easier and easier to skip using sugar as energy, and go straight to extra insulin and fat storage.

This is best explained by this three minute video, which is definitely worth watching: Why You Got Fat: