Nutrition, one of the big four: nutrition, effort, sleep, and consistency, is the most misunderstood aspect of health. There are so many crazy theories running around that its hard to know what to believe and what to reject. The debate on whether eggs are good for you or not has been going on for 1000 years with no real advancement by either side. I'm gonna try to simplify and clarify some of that now.
Fat doesn't make you fat. Neither do carbs. Food makes you fat. Its pretty simple, if you don't get enough calories your body will burn calories from your stored body fat, and if you get to many calories your body will store the extra in the form of fat.
The only reason that fat seems to make people fatter is the fact that it has 9 calories per gram compared to 4 for carbs and proteins. As long as you are reading the amount of calories in your food it doesn't really matter how much fat is inside. That being said, the quality of the food does matter immensely. Eat the right fats, whole grain carbs, and lots of proteins and you will be set.
Carbs are like the nuclear weapon of food. Used right they can be enormously powerful and beneficial; used wrong carbs can make you fat very quickly. So how do you use them right? Well first you have to eat the right ones. White bread and any other source of processed carbs are NOT good at all. They are worth nothing. Secondly you have to eat them at the right time. DON'T have a carb load right before working out, unless you want cramps and no progress... Right after exercise the body is primed and ready to absorb nutrients. That is the perfect time to load up on carbohydrates. Mixed with some fast absorbing protein like whey, and slow absorbing protein like casein your body will be nutritionally jacked.
To determine how you should eat you must establish a goal. My goal is to gain lean muscle mass. Everyone either wants to lose weight or gain weight, its practically impossible to make significant gains in muscle while simultaneously losing fat. If you want to get muscular then you should bulk up first. Eat a lot and workout a ton. You should see the scale going up, and this is good. Don't get fat though, throw some HIIT (high intensity interval training) workouts in to burn off the extra calories and just build muscle. After you are big you can worry about getting lean. Cut the calories and do a lot of cardio or HIIT. Its really that simple. For those who just want to lose weight your road is much easier. Calculate how many calories you need each day to maintain weight with a BMI calculator, then exercise every day with weights, cardio, and HIIT and eat 300-500 less calories than you need. If you are not eating a TON you will not get big and muscular when lifting weights so you girls do not need to worry about getting huge from lifting weights. When choosing a weight loss workout I recommend you do HIIT the most, weight lifting a fair amount, and hardly any cardio. Interval training continues to affect your body for a while after you finish the workout, around 8 hours I believe, and weight lifting's benefits last for 24+ hours, but cardio's benefits end shortly after you finish the workout. Cardio is also really boring and not really that great for you.
So what should your carb/fat/protein ratio be? To gain muscle it should be (in order) around 4/2/4 though eating that much protein is hard and it often ends up more like 6/2/2. Most people have no concept of what a lot of protein is, they will eat 40 grams a day and boast about how much protein they are eating... FYI peanut butter is a (good) fat source NOT protein. If you want to bulk up you will need around 1-1.3 gram of protein per pound of body weight. That also means you will need to eat around 4-6 meals a day to give your body time to digest all of that. If you want to lose weight I recommend a high fat and high protein diet. Something like 2/4/4. Carbs are not useful if you don't want to gain weight, but if you don't eat any you will feel tired and cranky all the time.
Fat doesn't make you fat. Neither do carbs. Food makes you fat. Its pretty simple, if you don't get enough calories your body will burn calories from your stored body fat, and if you get to many calories your body will store the extra in the form of fat.
The only reason that fat seems to make people fatter is the fact that it has 9 calories per gram compared to 4 for carbs and proteins. As long as you are reading the amount of calories in your food it doesn't really matter how much fat is inside. That being said, the quality of the food does matter immensely. Eat the right fats, whole grain carbs, and lots of proteins and you will be set.
Carbs are like the nuclear weapon of food. Used right they can be enormously powerful and beneficial; used wrong carbs can make you fat very quickly. So how do you use them right? Well first you have to eat the right ones. White bread and any other source of processed carbs are NOT good at all. They are worth nothing. Secondly you have to eat them at the right time. DON'T have a carb load right before working out, unless you want cramps and no progress... Right after exercise the body is primed and ready to absorb nutrients. That is the perfect time to load up on carbohydrates. Mixed with some fast absorbing protein like whey, and slow absorbing protein like casein your body will be nutritionally jacked.
To determine how you should eat you must establish a goal. My goal is to gain lean muscle mass. Everyone either wants to lose weight or gain weight, its practically impossible to make significant gains in muscle while simultaneously losing fat. If you want to get muscular then you should bulk up first. Eat a lot and workout a ton. You should see the scale going up, and this is good. Don't get fat though, throw some HIIT (high intensity interval training) workouts in to burn off the extra calories and just build muscle. After you are big you can worry about getting lean. Cut the calories and do a lot of cardio or HIIT. Its really that simple. For those who just want to lose weight your road is much easier. Calculate how many calories you need each day to maintain weight with a BMI calculator, then exercise every day with weights, cardio, and HIIT and eat 300-500 less calories than you need. If you are not eating a TON you will not get big and muscular when lifting weights so you girls do not need to worry about getting huge from lifting weights. When choosing a weight loss workout I recommend you do HIIT the most, weight lifting a fair amount, and hardly any cardio. Interval training continues to affect your body for a while after you finish the workout, around 8 hours I believe, and weight lifting's benefits last for 24+ hours, but cardio's benefits end shortly after you finish the workout. Cardio is also really boring and not really that great for you.
So what should your carb/fat/protein ratio be? To gain muscle it should be (in order) around 4/2/4 though eating that much protein is hard and it often ends up more like 6/2/2. Most people have no concept of what a lot of protein is, they will eat 40 grams a day and boast about how much protein they are eating... FYI peanut butter is a (good) fat source NOT protein. If you want to bulk up you will need around 1-1.3 gram of protein per pound of body weight. That also means you will need to eat around 4-6 meals a day to give your body time to digest all of that. If you want to lose weight I recommend a high fat and high protein diet. Something like 2/4/4. Carbs are not useful if you don't want to gain weight, but if you don't eat any you will feel tired and cranky all the time.
