Nutrition - Where to start!
Nutrition is the bedrock of health and fitness - it is often said you can’t out-train a bad diet! But nutrition is also very difficult!
From the boundless amounts of conflicting information, targeted advertising, preparation time and straight up self-discipline to name just a few... it ain’t easy!
The first thing is to decide what you want to achieve, that doesn’t have to be a strict set goal, but it must be rooted in something that you truly want otherwise it won’t last.
Generally speaking, you will sit in one of the following categories;
Eating for health - finding the right calorie intake for your everyday activity level to maintain the weight you’re currently at whilst ensuring you take in the necessary macro and micronutrients.
Eating for Performance - taking a more specific approach to calories, macros and timings relative to training and energy expenditure. Putting nutrition as a very integral part of your crossfit training.
Eating to lose weight - reducing calories relative to everyday activity levels to reduce body mass and body fat percentage. A deficit of around 7000 calories is generally considered to be 1lbs of weight loss but that is relative to the individual. You must still maintain macro and micronutrient intake for health.
Eating to gain weight - more or less the opposite to the above but ensuring you choose the correct calories to increase your overall intake.
Everyone’s target should be relative to the individual and understanding the following can have a huge impact on the results you will see:
Macronutrients - macros! You hear that all the time - they are protein, fat and carbs. Protein is essential for muscle building, recovery and overall maintenance of health. Fat, good fats, are extremely important and an understanding of how they affect you is huge! Fat doesn’t make you fat. Fat is the highest calorie content per gram, around 9kcal, but they are also incredibly important for health, weight management, hormonal balance and organ function. Carbohydrates are the final macro, again lots of talk here! Carbs are ‘energy’ and can be transferred to energy the quickest of any food source, this can be good if you need it, but also detrimental if you don’t! Different carbs have a greatly different affect on you! A balance on macros is the foundation of your nutrition, the difficult thing is everyone’s genetics means there is no one size fits all.
Glycemic index - carbs have a glycemic index, the higher the rating the greater the insuring response and effect on the body. IE. Energy spikes. The lower the level the more slow burning that energy will be for you. Insulin sensitivity is at the heart of so many things relative to your health and fitness including appetite, hormone response to food and maintenance of healthy energy levels.
Good fats, bad fats - good fats are monounsaturated and polyunsaturated sources from things like avocado, nuts, fish and eggs. Bad fats come from highly refined substances and oils, trans-fats which are cheap industrial additives to the worst types of foods and more.
Paleo - the term paleo is often associated with Crossfit and refers to the Palaeolithic (caveman) style of eating. Strict paleo can be challenging but the message here should be adhered to... eat natural, real food! Anything processed, fake or that lasts forever without going off shouldn’t be going into your body!
Food sensitivity - different allergies will affect different people, some very clearly and some in a more subtle sense. If every time you eat dairy (easy example) you get a little bubbly in the stomach and somewhat uncomfortable, you’re likely having difficulty digesting it! The thing is people have all kinds of intolerances if only slight. If you do find a good you feel you may not deal well with, the easiest way is to take it out of your diet for at least 2 weeks and measure the results. Food should nourish the body and leave you feeling full of energy and ready to go, so if what you’re eating has the opposite effect don’t eat it!
Habit - this is the biggest thing, your habits define your cravings, desires, discipline and effectiveness in terms of nutrition. The really difficult thing is that a bad habit is very easy to fall into and the good habits take a lot more work and discipline! But that right there is the choice!
There is so much more to learn about nutrition, which is what I’m trying to do each day, that we want to help wherever we can.
Your performance in the gym will be relative to the food you eat, but much more importantly, you can decide on your actions now to have a truly monumental affect on your health for the rest of your life. The rise of processed food and toxins has lead to the obesity pandemic, mental health issue and a shocking increase in chronic diseases and metabolic derangement.
We are now offering out 30 Minute slots for our members to discuss nutritional habits, goals and how to achieve what you want to achieve.
We will also look to host our first nutritional seminar in the coming weeks to discuss in a group all of the things above and more in detail and relative to how it affects you.
Eat real food, Make good choices as often as possible, 75% of the time is a great starting point, and reap the rewards in every moment of your life from your next workout, sleep, work and family time.
This is the foundation to all you do and it’s time to get it dialled in!
Contact us to get your nutrition on point, some have and are already making progress!
See you all soon,
Michael.
