First let me list the Main groups of nutrition I pay attention to; Fat, Protein, Carbohydrates, Sodium, Potassium.
Protein is a chain of Amino Acids that our body uses to Build, Repair, Replace many of the body’s tissue’s. It has many more uses than just muscle repair but that’s what we will be focusing on. The human body needs 20 different amino acids to produce the proteins (ex: actin, myosin, collagen, ect..) in our body. Our bodies can create 10 of these 20 amino acids by synthesis. The other 10 which are; threonine, lysine, methionine, arginine, valine, phenylalanine, leucine, tryptophan, isoleucine and histidine, must be obtained from a well balanced diet or supplemented (preferably well balanced diet). In the lack of Carbohydrates and Fat, your body can & will break protein down to be utilized as energy. This protein can be obtained from your diet or if not properly eating, your muscle’s protein to energize your body. Knowing this simple fact should play a big role in understanding why protein is the key to losing weight as well as building muscle, which if not is already, will become clear as you read on.
Fat is a chain of Fatty Acids that play a vital role in maintaining healthy skin and hair, insulating body organs against shock, maintaining body temperature, and promoting healthy cell (including MUSCLE cell) function. The fat we are going to be talking about is more commonly known as energy stores for our body. Don’t forget that simple fact. FAT IS AN ENERGY STORE. Your body, adapting to your diet and activity, chose to store fat either because it could not metabolize/utilize the amount of Fat you’re eating OR the amount of Carbs (energy/sugar) you are eating exceeds your activity level. If the ladder, your body stores this extra energy (carbs) as fat thinking your loading up for something that will use a lot of energy in the future. Your body breaks down Fat as Glycerol for use in the body and Free Fatty Acids are what’s left after the breakdown. Free fatty acids are an important source of fuel for many tissues since they can yield relatively large quantities of ATP. Many cell types can use either glucose (mostly obtained from carbohydrates) or fatty acids for this purpose. In particular, heart and skeletal muscle prefer fatty acids. The brain cannot use fatty acids as a source of fuel; it relies on glucose, or on ketone bodies. Ketone bodies are produced in the liver by fatty acid metabolism during starvation, or during periods of low carbohydrate intake.
Carbohydrates, “Simple” or “Complex” broken down are basically sugar or glucose. Carbs play many roles in our body however they primarily give our bodies the energy to perform certain tasks. They some what act as a taxi for nutrients to be carried through out the body to be utilized. When we eat a carbohydrate such as sugar in a basic form our body does not need to break it down much more, so it immediately releases it into our bloodstream. Other forms of Carbohydrates, referred to as “Complex” carbs such as brown rice, are a chain of sugars that our body needs to break down first. This releases the “sugar” into our blood stream over a timelier manner, not “dumping” it into our blood stream like “Simple” carbs do. Our bodies are in immediate need of nutrients and energy post workout. It makes sense to send as many “Nutrient Taxi Drivers” to our muscles as quickly as possible to replenish and start to recover/grow. Post workout is a great time for your “cheat” meal if you cheat, just be sure to eat a high protein meal about an hour prior to working out. Otherwise “Complex” carbohydrates make more sense. If your muscles are not in need of excess nutrients, they do not need a lot of taxi drivers dumping nutrients on them. If the nutrients can’t be used, the carbohydrate shuttles to get stored in fat cells or dropped out as #2. When a carbohydrate (glucose) is released into the blood stream your body responds by releasing Insulin. Insulin is what binds the carbohydrates and nutrients to cell’s that need repair or growth. This is why diabetics have to inject insulin, their bodies don’t respond to the increased blood sugar level and nutrients are reaching the cells that need attention because the receptor (insulin) is now where to be found. If they did not use insulin the carbohydrate would think it couldn’t be used and be stored as fat or get wasted. Insulin is a huge factor in blood sugar levels, which is directly related to carbohydrate intake. Understand what Insulin does to the body, how it affects other natural hormones like HGH, IFG-1, & testosterone and you will greatly benefit in weight loss and/or weight gain.
Potassium is utilized by the autonomic nervous system. The autonomic nervous system (ANS) controls heart beat, brain functions, and other crucial physiological processes. Potassium has been shown to help maintain healthy blood pressure1. Potassium plays a key role in the function of nerve firing [an involuntary physiologic response to stimuli], and the contraction of muscles. Potassium may help reduce muscle soreness that results from training. Any deficiency in potassium levels may result in decreased strength, and the early onset of exercise induced fatigue. Potassium helps to regulate water balance and is also needed for the synthesis of dietary proteins. That was taken straight from bb.com. This is why you hear of many bodybuilders including a Banana in their pre-workout meal.
Sodium is necessary for regulation of blood and body fluids, transmission of nerve impulses, heart activity, and certain metabolic functions. Sodium is found in blood plasma and other extracellular fluids. It acts as to bathe cells and carry out transport functions for nutrients and waste. If you lose a lot of water in your body, your Sodium blood level increases. This typically results in thirst. If you drink too much your body almost immediately pee’s it out to bring your blood sodium level back to normal. A Severely dehydrated person will usually have very high blood sodium concentrations. This concentration needs to be slowly and carefully returned to normal. Too-rapid correction may results in brain damage from cellular swelling, as water moves suddenly into cells. This helps you realize the correlation of how much water your body can retain for cellular functioning. More sodium= more water you can hold. More water = more volume to a cell. More volume = more nutrients and Creatine. I don’t know of many down sides to Sodium besides it makes you retain water and it takes a way from your lean look. Too much sodium (salt) is not good for you and is too easily to come by in TV dinners and what not… which you shouldn’t be eating any how.
Now to piece these together to find your own balance/ratio of what you should be eating. From reading above, I make the conclusion that Protein can be used for most all functions we need. It repairs and builds and can also be used as energy. From above I also conclude that Carbs are primarily used solely for energy. Fat are basically used in the same way as carbs but provide other bodily functions as well.
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The way I looked at it was… I am fat. My body has stored energy in fat cells to be used later.. but they keep adding up due to NOT being used. So my first thing was to cut way back on the fat in my daily diet. I mean, why eat fat when there is excessive stores of it on my body? Then look at your carbs. Carbs are primarily what your body burns for energy. If you’re constantly eating simple carbs what your doing is actually DUMPING insulin into your blood stream. Insulin we know carries the carbs and nutrients to cells in need, if the cells are not in need- it stores them as more FAT. Now, Complex carbs release a smaller amount of glucose into the blood stream in turn your body releases a smaller amount of insulin to the glucose response, which normal cell activity can usually keep up with. IF your do activity that requires more energy, your body will first use the carbs it has available and then start metabolizing the FAT stores to get energy. From the above writing, Free Fatty Acids are preferrably utilized in skeletal muscle due to the large amounts of ATP it creates. So far the Idea is to Keep carb intake complex and low, only simple carbs directly after working out to replenish the muscles, keep fat intake low but still eat some fat. For an over weight person, protein should still be kept high but not too high until you start loosing more of stored fat. Protein is the last thing your body breaks down for energy so keep it high for cell repair and growth but not too high that its getting stored as fat because your cells don’t need it- protein intake is direct correlation of intensity your lifting with. The more you ”burn” your muscles, the more protein it will need to re-build. Its good to throw in 1 or 2 higher Carb and Fat days to keep your metabolism guessing, running, and replenishing. IF you don’t have TOO much body fat stored then protein will most likely be used for energy and obviously cell repair. Well if you don’t have fat stored, there is no stored energy if you eat on a low carb diet like this so your body will either breakdown the protein in your DIET or the protein in your MUSCLE to provide this energy and cellular repair. This is why it is important to keep the protein intake HIGH! I would rather gain a little fat (which wont be much) because my muscles didn’t need all the protein rather than a lack of protein and my just worked arm muscles steal protein from my chest muscles.
Really understanding how everything works makes it incredibly easy to maintain healthy weight with the ability to force your body to grow like never before.
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