Nutrition is an aspect of fitness that is often overlooked by fitness enthusiasts, something that holds back the overall results that one can achieve in the gym. This means that without keeping your nutrition in check, all the work that you put into your gym sessions might feel like a waste. Because of this common problem, let’s go over the basics of nutrition and how you can improve your overall results in the gym!
When talking about the basics of nutrition, the three most known aspects are proteins, carbohydrates, and fats; all of which are important for your body to reach your goals. Additionally, micronutrients, meaning vitamins and minerals, come into play to further improve your results. However, for today, we are mainly going to be covering the three macronutrients.
Protein
Starting off with protein, the building blocks of muscle. Protein is built from amino acids and there are 20 amino acids that the human body requires to function optimally. The amino acids are split into three different sections known as the Nonessential Amino Acids, the Conditionally Essential Amino Acids, and the Essential Amino Acids (EAAs). The only amino acids that we will focus on today are the EAAs. These amino acids are needed for necessary bodily functions, and we need to consume them in our diet because our bodies can’t synthesize them. A part of the EAAs is the Branched Chain Amino Acids, also known as BCAAs. The BCAAs, Leucine, Isoleucine, and Valine, are amino acids that are found in large quantities in skeletal muscle tissue. BCAAs might sound familiar as it a common supplement for fitness enthusiasts, but if you have good sources and quantities of protein in your diet, BCAA supplementation will have no noticeable effect.
When talking about how much protein is needed in your diet, the most known “fact” is that we have a need of 1g of protein per pound of bodyweight/1.8g of protein per kilogram of bodyweight. However, for optimal protein synthesis for muscle gain, the body has a need of 0.8-1.1g/lb/bw or 1.8-2.2g/kg/bw depending on activity levels. For fat/weight loss, it is essential to keep this number high to maintain muscle mass while being in a calorie deficit.
Protein quality is another factor of protein that will have a crucial effect on your results in the gym. The quality of protein is determined by how many EAAs a product has, meaning if the body will be able to use the proteins or not, as well as the digestibility of the protein. A good way to look at it is in terms of complete proteins and incomplete proteins. Complete proteins are proteins with all the EAAs, and incomplete proteins are proteins missing some of the EAAs. Keep in mind that the body needs complete proteins to be able to use them. Products like meat, poultry, and whey protein are complete proteins and plant proteins are incomplete proteins. A good way to make complete proteins without meat, poultry, or whey protein is to eat several sources of plant protein together. An example of this is eating rice and beans together.
Lastly, protein timing. To maintain an optimal muscle protein synthesis (MPS), meaning the time your body is actively building muscle, is to eat 20-40g of protein every 3 hours. This means that for a person who needs to eat 160g of protein in a day, four meals containing 40g of protein would be optimal. Let’s say this person eats four meals, but instead of having 40g of protein per meal, the person eats 10-15g of protein for breakfast, 65 of protein for lunch, 10-15g of protein for a snack, and then 65g of protein for dinner. In this case, the person would see up to a 25% decrease in MPS. What we get out of this is that the person who eats more often with 20-40g of protein per meal will have a more optimal MPS and therefore the “Anabolic Threshold” will be maintained throughout the entire day. For muscle gain, this is something to consider. A common myth for fitness enthusiasts is that the “anabolic window” after working out is 20-30 minutes, but science has shown that the “anabolic window” after resistance training is 1-2 hours. What you can take from this is that you don’t need that post-workout shake right after your workout in the gym locker room, you have time to go home first.
Carbohydrates
Moving on to carbohydrates, the body’s primary fuel source. Carbohydrates are referred to as both sugars and starches, or simple and complex carbohydrates. Starches include foods such as grains, rice, vegetables, beans, and wheat. Sugars include foods such as candy, cane sugar, fruit sugar, and milk. Often carbohydrates are blamed for weight gain, but this is not the case at all. This misinformation is attributed to misinformation and misunderstandings. These misunderstandings tend to be because of the association of carbohydrates and sugar. Fortunately, not all carbohydrates are sugar, so it is easily achievable to consume carbohydrates without sugars. However, there is a difference between naturally occurring sugars, such as those found in fruit, and added sugars. Fruit is something we should consume on a regular basis because of the nutrients vitamins and fiber found in fruit, even though it has sugar in it. The added sugars are not naturally found in foods, and it includes syrups and other caloric sweeteners found in items like candy and soda. The main idea for carbohydrates is to avoid added sugars as much as possible, and rather have your daily intake of sugar come from natural sources.
Fiber is another carbohydrate that is important in our diet. For starters, weight loss can benefit drastically from having good amounts of fiber as it takes longer to digest food in the stomach when fiber is present, as well as fiber promotes a feeling of fullness for longer. Fiber also reduces the risk of cardiovascular disease because it binds to cholesterol particles. When it binds to the cholesterol particles, it prevents the absorption of the cholesterol and removes it from the body. Additionally, fiber is not absorbed in the body. Because of this, it has the potential to reduce blood sugar spikes which act as diabetes protection. Instead, fiber makes the process of digestion slower in the small intestine which gives the body more time to absorb the nutrients consumed.
Overall, a healthy diet should include 45-65% carbohydrates as recommended by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. There are many reasons for this, but the biggest factor is the importance of carbohydrates for the brain. The brain’s main fuel source, accounting for at least 80% of the fuel for the brain so without carbohydrates in our diet the functions of the brain will be reduced.
Fats
Lastly, let’s talk about fat. Fat is another macronutrient that is essential in our diet, but because of misinformation and misunderstandings it might seem like fats are the enemy. However, fat has crucial functions in our body. Three of the biggest contributions fat has include them being a major source of energy, metabolizing fat-soluble vitamins (A, D, E, and K), and obtaining essential fatty acids. There are two different types of fat that we consume, them being saturated and unsaturated. Saturated fats are the fats that we want to limit. This is because saturated fats raise low-density lipoproteins cholesterol levels in the blood which can increase the risk of heart disease and stroke. These fats are solid at room temperature and are most typically found in products such as butter, animal fat, palm oil, and coconut oil. Unsaturated fats are the good fats that we want to have in our diet. Unsaturated fats raise high-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels in the blood which carries excess cholesterol away from the cells to the liver where they get disposed of. This means that they lower the risk of heart disease and stroke. The unsaturated fats are found in liquid form at room temperature, and the most common form of unsaturated fats is olive oil.
One additional form of fat that is found in foods is trans fats. These fats are the fats that should be avoided at all costs. Trans fats affect a range of cardiovascular disease risk factors, including raising low-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels, lowering high-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels, increasing inflammation, and promoting endothelial dysfunction.
Overall, fats have an essential function in our bodies and should be 20-35% of our total calorie intake every day. Consuming fats does not mean that you will gain weight, and consuming fats has no association with gaining body fat if there is an overall calorie deficit in the diet.
