We call this discussion… Building the house: Macronutrients and Your Goals! Nutrition is the foundation of improving health and fitness. Proper nutrition is the best way to peak your physical capabilities. There are many different ways to define “quality” food. In this discussion we will forego the discussion about quality and start with a simple way to improve without changing the types of food you are eating. If you are working out but aren’t getting the results you want fast enough you need to start from the base of the pyramid… Nutrition.
Protein
Building supplies are needed for a sturdy well put together home. Bricks, boards and shingles are all necessary and in proper amounts. Having not enough boards means a smaller house. Having too many means having a lot of waste that sits around in the yard.
A solid nutrition program always accounts for the bodies building materials… proteins. The primary sources are animal products like meat, chicken, fish, milk, cheese, you know things that came from animals. If having a healthy body is important to you, can can’t neglect the supplies necessary to build AND maintain that structure. Those supplies come in the form of protein.
Carbohydrates
Supplies don’t just willy-nilly put themselves together into a beautiful dream home do they? Of course not… in our “building the house” example… Carbohydrates are the building professionals. They help put the supplies where they need to go. There are good builders and bad builders, specialists and generalists. For example, you probably wouldn’t hire the roofer to do your drywall or the tile setter to do the framing. If you don’t have enough workers the house will take too long to be built. If there’s too many workers then there will be a lot of builders hanging around doing nothing.
A solid nutrition program accounts for getting carbohydrates. Prioritizes quality ones over poor ones. So what kind of foods are carbohydrates? The good ones are vegetables and fruits, after that grains and finally processed foods. Where are all these foods derived? Plants! If it comes from a plant it’s very likely a carbohydrate, if you can’t tell where it came from… it’s a bad contractor!
Fats
At our theoretical build site fats are the fence around the yard, the stop signs in the neighborhood and the sound barrier by the highway. All designed to slow down passerby’s of different types from causing danger to your home. These things help create a buffer so that the yard and house don’t get run over. Imagine a 40′ wall around your yard though with no door… too much protection? Probably. Just like protein and carbs… there’s a ideal amount.
A solid nutrition program takes into account the buffer zone that fats provide. You can plan to get your good health fats from nuts, seeds and oils. Just like with carbs, if you can’t imagine how it came to be an oil… probably not your best nutrition choice.
The Seesaw
When building the house macronutrients and Your goals is to have the right amount of supplies, with the right amount of workers and preserve that work. In order to do that we will balance protein and carbohydrate in a way that they don’t affect the productivity at the worksite. Eat protein and carbs at every meal in even quantities and you will make more productive fitness gains easily. Learn more about macronutrients and how to balance them!
Eating in the right balance
So what does a perfect meal look like? Check out this article about how to Eyeball Your Macronutrients
