Macronutrients
Hopefully simplified overview of macronutrients your nutrition textbooks won't give you.
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Hopefully simplified overview of macronutrients your nutrition textbooks won't give you.
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4 calories per gram
Laymen consider it to be the building blocks of your muscles. I think this is fair, but it's important to consider that they are also calories, and over consuming them will still make you fat despite claims from Atkins. That being said, clean proteins seem to be quite "airy" in terms of relative calories by volume (an entire broiler , I would need to eat two of them to even touch my basal metabolic rate for any given day).
As I've said, a calorie is a calorie, but if you told me I had to prioritize one macronutrient it would be protein. Those opting for general health betterment should strive to make the biggest portion of their meals a protein. This can be difficult when eating out, as restaurants and takeaway eateries optimize for cost and carbohydrates and fats are cheaper than proteins (think about the last time you ordered chicken or fish dish, you would be lucky to get a 3 oz portion with a mountain of 10oz+ of rice or pasta.) Double the protein on your salads or rice bowls.
4 calories per gram
Laymen consider it to be a good source of "energy." While all calories sources can provide this energy, I observe correlation between what seems to be a feeling of energy "availability" and increases in insulin resulting from carbohydrate intake.
As I've detailed in my page, you're unlikely to succeed as a high-impact athlete without good sources of carbohydrates in your diet. Generally, if you're distributing your macronutrients throughout the day then you would want your highest periods of carbohydrate intake in your meals before and after your workouts, when your body requires the highest availability of energy.
9 calories per gram
Remembering that a calorie is a calorie, because of a fat's high calorie density it's easy to villainize them and for a large part of recent American history .
Admittedly, if you're going for weight loss, you want to keep your fat consumption relatively low, probably about 20% of your calories for the day. You would also want to get your fat from "clean sources" that will maximize your intake of valuable micronutrients. This means: avocadoes, dark chocolate, natural peanut butter, maybe some half & half with your coffee.
Restaurants will douse otherwise clean foods in fatty oils and/or butter to make it taste better. Be sure to order these items "dry" or using cooking spray.
7 calories per gram
The big one that everyone wants to know about. Alcohol in its purest form is its own macronutrient. While I don't know the exact chemical process of what your body does while ingesting it, my understanding is that the detriment really comes from alcohol being "burned" before all other macronutrients, therefore making it more likely that the calories your body is holding in reserve to be turned into fat stores.
Accept alcohol for what it is: a treat that is detrimental to your health but beneficial to your spirit. I've heard two different approaches from fitness-minded individuals that I trust. One is to have your night out and consume your alcohol to your liking, do not allow your lowered inhibitions to order late night takeout (on this: don't skip any of your clean meals), and accept that as one night out of your otherwise well-balanced lifestyle to let loose. This approach has worked for me sometimes, as good cardio, workout habits, and controlled calorie consumption the other 6 days of the week seems to even it out.
The other approach that I've heard is to plan out your night and "borrow" from your carbohydrate and fat calories. I imagine this works alright, but my macronutrients are too valuable for my fitness progress and I find it is generally easy to break this plan and ultimately feel even worse about yourself later.
Fat has , such as acting as a solute for fat-soluble vitamins and providing many fatty acids and other valuable biochemical compounds. On top of that, it makes food that would otherwise taste bland taste f***ing delicious!
Claims about moderate alcohol consumption not being conducive to a healthy lifestyle seem to be overblown. Martin Berkhan gives a of some of the observed benefits of moderate alcohol consumption, especially red wines which seem to be a wealth of beneficial components such as antioxidants.