Understanding your Dietary Needs
Diving into healthy eating without understanding your current position is a bit like taking control of an oil tanker in the middle of the ocean with no idea where you are or how to monitor and manage the ship. You’ll learn the hard way but you risk going around in circles or worse heading in the complete wrong direction.
Not to trivialise or oversimplify something that is often a sensitive subject for people but for a healthy well balanced diet weight management comes down to quality food in (energy in) vs energy out. One caveat here is this is assuming you have no underlying illnesses or serious injuries in the mix (I mean genuine illnesses and serious injuries).
You need to be very mindful that the quality of the calories you’re eating and the huge role that plays. As I’ve already stated 1,000 calories of pizza is very different to 1,000 calories of wholegrain and healthy carbs, proteins, fats, and grains. Not all calories are created equal which is why eating wholefoods makes it easier to track what you are ingesting.
Typically, the numbers work as follows:
If your food in (energy in) is equal to energy out then you won’t gain or lose weight
If your food in (energy in) is less than energy out you will lose weight
If your food in (energy in) is more than energy out you will gain weight
This methodology is often called your ‘energy balance’. I found it very useful in helping me understand why I was gaining weight.
I had no real understanding of my body and the information I did have was second hand and, in many cases, very wrong. For instance, as a teen, I was told eat as much as I could and train as hard as I can to get super-fit. While it’s not categorically wrong it’s not correct either, it’s too vague and doesn’t account for what I’m eating or how I’m training.
Simply put its incomplete information that could have detrimental effects and in fact did detrimentally impact me in the long term as I grew older and became less active. I wouldn’t have gained as much weight if I had of known how to track what the calorific density of the food I was eating was, me being overweight was partially a result of my own ignorance.
For illustration purposes let’s look at a few dietary ramifications of eating extra calories:
1. If you eat a handful of crisps that are say 65kcal every day for 365 days that would be 65kcal x 365 = 23,725kcal, in terms of weight gain that adds up to 23,725kcal ÷ 3,500 (this is how many calories are in 1lb of fat) = +6.7lbs of fat per year (3kg)
2. If you maintain a level energy in vs energy out balance and add running 1 mile per day 5 days per week you would add 100kcal ÷ mile x 5-mile x 52 weeks = 26,000kcal. That is = -7.4lbs per year (3.3kg)
I don’t mean to bring maths into an already frustratingly difficult school of thought, but you need to understand the concept of energy in vs energy out. If you can get your head around this and start to couple that knowledge with a balanced diet of wholesome healthy foods, your body will immediately begin to respond positively. Eating whole foods simplifies this somewhat as you are sure the food you are eating is ‘clean’ so to speak which means that it doesn’t contain any unknown additives that may impact your weight negatively.
You now need to know how to calculate what’s known as your daily calorific intake or the number of calories you can eat per day without gaining weight i.e., energy in = energy out.
The good news is that there are tons of great calculators online that you can use for free to calculate your daily calorific intake.
My recommendation is that you take the figure from several different calculators and work out the average. Then you need to experiment and eat at that level consistently over time and see if your weight goes up, down or stays the same.
This does take time and harks back to our long-term philosophy approach. This gives you the time you need to figure out what works for you and more importantly what does not. Think about that for a second, you need to fail and get it wrong to understand what will work for you so don’t lose faith when you get it wrong, it’s part of the process folks.
You need to be aware that you’re unique and no calculator available free online is going to get your daily calorific requirements nailed down 100% accurately. So, you’ve a little bit of work to do. In my case I found that the calculator overestimated my daily calorific intake by about 300 calories based on what I was seeing over a few weeks or trialling.
The maths is just maths it’s useless without your inputs, insight, and monitoring. Remember we’re working toward a year’s progress here not a week. Take a few weeks to nail down that daily calorific intake figure and you won’t frustrate yourself by having to adjust down the line.
This is a very personal undertaking to monitor and understand your daily food intake and track your exercise etc. As such be aware that you cannot compare yourself to anyone else on their own journey. It’s crucial that you focus on yourself and trust your choices. It might take you longer to lose the weight or improve your running that’s fine. Progress is progress and if you’re coming from a position of being very unfit and overweight you didn’t get there overnight.
Your metrics are your dashboard they’ll tell you how you’re doing, and you’ll be better able to make judgement calls on what adjustments to make. With that in mind the accuracy of your metrics is important. You need to be the regulator of these metrics and make sure they’re painting the true picture. If you’re gaining weight and your metrics say you shouldn’t be you’re not calculating something correctly. Find out what’s wrong, fix it and restart.
I was underestimating the calorie content of many foods before I started using apps to help me and the result was that my weight loss was a lot less that my planning forecasted. In hindsight it took me far too long to realise that I had the numbers wrong.
If you’re new to nutrition and you’re starting to feel a little out of your depth, don’t. Nutrition is an ever-expanding field of study. Don’t fool yourself into thinking you’ll ever know it all, instead just look to learn a little bit more everyday via your own body.
When you eat something ask how did it make you feel, did it make you lethargic, did it give you energy? Did it upset of settle your stomach? Did you sleep better? Is your mind clearer? You don’t need to have a degree in nutrition, but you do need to know what works for you.
Understanding carbohydrates:
Carbohydrates have gotten a bad reputation as of late due to a combination of fad diets and poor research. As stated, before you should question any diet that mandates the removal of an entire food group. Carbs are an important food especially if you’re doing endurance or resistance training. Carbs are an essential source of energy and are vital for competitive athletic events, mental agility, and having a healthy balanced diet. In my experience cutting carbs cannot be sustained for very long, it leads to short term weight loss however once you re-introduce carbs your body re-adjusts, and you’ll steadily regain the weight.
A lot of people seem to now be of the habit of blaming carbs for their weight gain. This may be the case, but it doesn’t call for the omission of them from your diet, instead the quality and the amount of carbohydrates should be in line with your requirements.
Carbohydrates are often classified as either simple or complex carbs.
Simple Carbohydrates: Simple sugars that include fructose, sucrose, lactose, and several other sugars.
Complex Carbohydrates: Complex sugars that are made up of sugars with more complex chains, such as fibre, vegetables, beans, and whole grains.
Carbohydrates are an essential part of your diet; your body needs them for fuel. Your muscles, brain, heart, and other organs all need carbs especially in the form of glucose. Carbs are essential for creating chemicals related to your joints and bone structures needed by the body. Remember there are good carbs out there available to you.
As part of martial arts, boxing many fighters cut carbs in their last week before a fight to drop extra weight to make a weight in. This is always done under supervised conditions as it leaves the fighters in a bad way. Many are forced to take supplements and even IV drips post weight cutting. I’ve seen people first-hand carb cutting and they are sluggish, in poor mood and have no real motivation to do anything and everything is a chore.
Scientifically speaking no body of research has ever shown that foods high in carbs are unhealthy or lead to weight gain. No one has ever been able to show that performance suffers from consuming potatoes, rice, and bread.
To the contrary, performance is enhanced by such foods when eaten as part of a balanced diet in line with your dietary needs and with regular exercise.
Also remember that processed food is just bad regardless of the level of carbohydrates contained within, so many of these low carb diets recommended cutting foods that are awful for you in any case.
High carb food such as sweet potatoes and wholegrain rice are quite good for you as part of a balanced diet.
Understanding fat:
You might be surprised to learn that fat is an essential part of your dietary requirements and that it plays a very important role in your body. Obviously, there are good and bad fats and I think most people can readily tell the difference, however if you can gain an understanding of the different types of fat, what they do to the body you can ensure that the levels of fat you are eating are at the optimum level and as such won't impact your health negatively.
Why should you eat fats? Fat is part of the major food groups and as such it plays an important role in your bodies day-to-day functioning. Fat keeps you warn, it provides energy during training and if you ever find yourself in a situation whereby you must go for a period without food, you’ll be glad of your body’s fat stores.
Fat also surrounds your organs and provides protection; it helps to ensure nutrients get to the right place in your body and at a cellular level fat has a role to play in cell structure. Once again don’t remove fat from your diet, it’s necessary for you to eat fats you once again just need to make the right choices as regards what you eat.
If you consume too much unhealthy fats, you put yourself at the risk of several fat associated diseases. Unfortunately, there is a body of scientific evidence to back this up, so you really need to monitor and control your fat intake.
Heart diseases, cancer and diabetes are all associated with unhealthy high unhealthy fat diets. As well as that obesity is often because of consuming a high unhealthy fat diet coupled with lack of exercise and other unhealthy foods.
When you’re planning your meals make sure you look to eat healthy natural fats such as dairy products, nuts, seeds, and fish. Avoid any man-made fats such as those found in fast food or processed food. These are no good for you and will serve only to impact your health and fitness lifestyle.
By all means treat yourself every once in a while, to your favourite fast food but make sure it’s in moderation and don’t binge or eat large quantities of this food in one sitting. If you must eat fast food eat slowly and try to control your portion sizes.
The risk of getting heart disease, diabetes and cancer through poor dietary choices should be enough to keep you honest in this sense. If you ever need more motivation just google some of those illnesses or speak to a nurse/doctor and you’ll soon find it again.
Understanding Protein:
Protein has garnered a wonderful reputation amongst fitness anoraks for being a magical substance that enables you to grow huge muscles and make ‘gains. Lots of people are now substituting food in their meals for protein bars or shakes.
Protein can provide you with energy however it shouldn’t be your main source, fats and carbohydrates should constitute the main source of your energy in a healthy balanced diet. Proteins have many roles to play in your body such as assisting with the created of muscles, hair, nails, skin, and other body tissues. Protein plays a key role in repairing damage to your muscles especially after training. Protein is needed for virtually every part of the body in terms of structural roles e.g., joints.
So, you should binge on protein and screw all the rest right?
Wrong, like everything you need to determine your own protein requirement based on your age, weight etc. If you binge on protein, you’re not going to simply gain muscle. Your protein intake should be in line with your dietary requirements and part of a balanced diet.
Take your protein shake or bar after training but just make sure you’re eating the right amount of protein and not binging on it. Consuming too much protein in an unbalanced diet puts pressure on your kidneys and liver.
It’s the age old saying, too much of a good thing is a bad thing. Don’t be that person. Make that extra effort to do the math and figure out exactly how much you need, aim to consume that amount of as close as possible and ignore the fancy marketing and fad products.
Understanding Water:
We’re going to look at water next, something that many people don’t associate with nutrition. Luckily after reading this section, you won’t be that person and you’ll know how to fuel your body with enough water for your daily needs.
Water is the most abundant part of your body. Over 50% - 70% of your body’s total weight is water. This depends on your own body composition, but you should note that a more athletic person will require more water as muscle requires more water than fat.
Your body will show you if you’re dehydrated the best a simplest indicator is the colour of your urine. The darker the urine the more dehydrated you are.
If you’re going to adopt a successful health and fitness lifestyle you need to ensure you’re consuming enough water. Water is in everything in your body, cells cannot function without water. You can go quite some time without food, but you only have days to live without water.
Most people can regulate their water intake by listening to their bodies. If you need water, you’ll generally feel thirsty. However, having a dry mouth, very strongly coloured urine, not urinating a lot, feeling tired or weak, having headaches, inability to focus or concentrate and excessive tiredness can all be indicators of dehydration.
If you are poorly hydrated, you will not be able to perform anywhere near the peak of your abilities. You’ll see declines in your cognitive abilities your physical abilities and you’ll in turn increase the risk of injuring yourself.
The good news is that once you’re aware of this you’ll be able to regulate your water weight better. You can also increase your water intake by eating certain foods. Many vegetables such as spinach and cucumber are full of water as are many berries and fruit such as strawberries or watermelons.
Be wary of sports drinks and fruit juices while these are marketed as healthy drinks but can contain huge amounts of sugars, even if the carbohydrates and calories are listed as very low these sugars are not good for you and will damage your teeth.
Listening to your body
Everyone is unique and has different requirements as regards water intake. It’s important that you listen to your body day-to-day and try to get the balance right. Too much water can lead to migraines and impact sodium levels in your body. Don’t be put off by this section by thinking you need to carry out any sort of detailed analysis to calculate how much water you need. There is a myriad of free calculators online you can use to get the figure for your body and then use your own trial and error to get the balance just right for you.
As always don’t rely on one calculator, get the results from several calculators, and find the average figure and work with that. Start slow if you’re increasing your water intake and remember you’re making small changes over a longer period.
Give your body time to adapt. Listen to your body and act accordingly. There is significant scientific evidence showing the ill-effects of being dehydrated. Not only do your physical capabilities see significant reductions but your mental capacity is reduced.
A lot of people associate thirst with hunger accidently and eat when really all they need to do is hydrate. By no means should you replace eating with drinking but try and be conscious of the last time you ate and how much water you’ve taken on board, especially if you start getting hungry again right after a big meal.
Soft drinks are not a substitute for water. Whilst they can indeed quench your thirst they are typically loaded with sugars and chemicals that are of no use and in fact can be detrimental to your health. Try to move away from any reliance on soft drinks or coffee and get your water in. Have soft drinks and coffee as part of your balanced diet but do not rely on these to be your principal source of hydration.
Remember, chin up, chest out and handle it.
Yours,
Stephen