“What Should I Eat to stay healthy?”

If you want to show off your hard work then nutrition is going to be key to your success. We don’t get to choose where we lose fat on our bodies and the the stomach fat is usually last to go. Typically, we lose fat in the limbs, upper body, and face first.

Now, what can really make or break a meal in terms of how healthy it is for you ultimately comes down to proportions. We all generally know what foods are healthy and what aren’t great general rule of thumb to apply when prepping a meal is to have:

• Veggies and protein make up a majority of your plate

• Carbs generally making up the smaller portion

• Stay away from highly processed fats like vegetable/canola oil (capitalize on fats your body can process well like olive oil, avacado, fish oil, and certain nuts)

• The less processed sugar, the better
  

Carbs are not the enemy, but in our culture we consume far more of this one macronutrient than we arguably should without properly burning it off and usually have it in processed form. The body prefers carbohydrates over our body fat as an energy source so if we are consistently full of carbs throughout the day then we don’t give our bodies the best chance to burn off fat.

Also, When the energy from carbohydrates isn’t used, it is also converted and stored as fat. So it’s not that carbs are unhealthy, it’s more that we have to develop a healthy relationship with them and stay way from highly processed junk that lacks nutrients.

If you haven’t been active throughout your day it’s a better idea to lower the amount of carbs you’re eating and always limit heavily processed foods. A lot of shelf products are highly processed and lack nutrients that allow our bodies to function optimally so stick to whole foods.

The “best” diet is subjective & depends on the individual. Some people function at their best on keto diets, some on vegan diets, some people can eat whatever they want and function optimally. We must learn to understand what foods help us function at our best and then build our diet around that.

“How Much Should I Be Eating?”

It’s important to know how much to eat because eating to build muscle typically requires different proportions of food and a different nutrition strategy than eating to lose fat would require.

Although the body can build muscle while losing fat, you can build muscle faster or lose fat more efficiently when you eat specifically for that goal. This is why you hear the terms “bulking” and “cutting” in gyms. If you want to build your abs and muscle mass then bulking would be the move. If you want to show off your definition and the striations of your muscles then cutting would be a smarter approach. Let’s break these two strategies down in more detail.

Bulking

Bulking is when you are eating at a slight caloric surplus (slightly above what you burn each day) with a high protein intake while working out so that you can gain muscle mass efficiently. When the body is at a caloric balance or surplus, all the protein you take in will go to repair the broken down muscle tissue from working out. The protein breaks down into essential amino acids that repair the tissue and build bigger muscle mass.

Typically the amount of protein intake suitable for building more muscle mass is around .8 to 1.4 grams of protein per pound of bodyweight. If you are eating .8 grams per pound and you weigh 175 pounds then you’d be eating 140 grams of protein a day. It sounds like a lot and it can be, but just start with more protein than you normally eat and slowly build up from there.

Since you’ll be on a caloric surplus you’ll want to be eating around 200-500 calories over what you burned that day. That’s bulking in a nutshell.

Cutting

Cutting is when you eat at a slight caloric deficit (slightly below what you burn each day) with a higher protein intake so that you burn fat, maintain muscle mass, and have a more toned & defined look. When the body is burning more calories than are coming in it will rely on body fat as fuel, thus burning it off. Since we are now at a caloric deficit, the body will also rely on protein as an extra fuel source instead of using it to repair and build muscle tissue. This is why it’s important to eat a larger amount of protein in the cutting phase as well so that there is enough to repair muscle tissue.

The amount of protein intake should follow roughly the same guidelines as for “bulking” above. Since you’ll be at a caloric deficit you’ll want to be eating around 500 calories below what you burn each day.

we hope you enjoyed this simplified guide to understanding your body better!