Gas on the Fire

The fire, in this case, is your metabolism. The gas needed to fuel it is food. Throughout this blog and, indeed, my everyday life I used the words nutrition and diet. I do not mean diet as a temporary change of eating habits. I mean it as a shorter version of the phrase "dietary requirements." And if you're anything like I was you're about to discover there's a hell of a lot more to eating than just counting calories.

For the record this is more for beginners who want to take things to the next level or for intermediate and beyond trainees. It should also be noted that just using intelligent diet choices can also be used for fat loss without any exercise. I don't condone or recommend it, but I've seen it happen – with amazing success no less. On the flip side of the coin I've got a friend out in Utah who I punished several times a week in the gym who lost a lot of weight as well. He used a little bit of dietary control, but the majority of his progress was thanks to the heavy weights I kept making him lift. He had a lot of heart and dedication as well, something I don't see nearly enough of when people ask me for tips, suggestions, or outright help.

So what should you eat? It's been said in many other articles and blogs in print and on the Web: avoid the middle of the grocery store and stick to the outside aisles. Or to paraphrase Sylvester Stallone, "I don't eat anything unless it had a face." He's referring to protein, of course. Meat in particular. And at the very real risk of alienating some people here's this – if you're a vegetarian this article is not for you. Not only that, but I disapprove of your eating habits for many reasons, philosophical, nutritional, and evolutionary. Only the philosophical reasons are debatable, the other two are not. So read on if you like but I'd really prefer you either stopped being so ignorant and stubborn or just went away. I won't debate it either: the power of cognitive dissonance is too great for me to waste my time on.

Your basic item of food can be broken down into three macronutrients: protein, carbohydrates, and fat. One gram of protein is equal to 3.9 calories. One gram of carbohydrates is equal to 3.9 calories. One gram of fat is equal to 9 calories. Yikes! So that's why low fat was all the craze in the nineties. The problem is, a lot of the fats out there are actually good for you. Omega 3s in particular (predominant in fish), and even a moderate amount of saturated fat. Fats are what transports the minerals and vitamins throughout your body. The majority of the brain is made up of fat as well. Zero fat intake, after a little while, can cause a person to turn into fertilizer.

So what's the difference between protein and carbs, if they both are about 4 calories per gram? At the simplest level protein is 10% to 20% harder to digest than carbs are. That means it takes longer to digest and keeps you satiated a little longer. Protein also is loaded full of wonderful things for the body, amino acids, creatine, flavor, and other handy bits and pieces. Protein is what the body uses to repair tissue (muscle, bone, etc.) and grow new tissue. There have also been numerous studies that I'm too lazy to reference that have shown a diet high in protein is not dangerous or harmful to the kidneys (provided the person does not have a pre-existing renal condition).

So let's have meat for every meal, right? You can, and I have. Meat has fat in it, so you're in the clear there, plus you're chewing on plenty of good muscle food. The catch for most people is that with pure protein what goes in can have a hard time coming out. Aka not enough fiber. If you're still not getting it I'm saying too much time on a protein only diet (a few days for some people) and you won't be able to poop!

Carbs are tricky little things. Sugars are carbs, simple carbs in fact. They're called simple because they break down very easily and are quickly digested. Carbs of all sorts provide energy for the body in the form of glucose. Too much glucose and the body has no use for it, so it stores it in fat cells. The cells become swollen and before you know it, you can't see your belt anymore, let alone the struggle to tie your shoes. Simple carbs are worse because they also have a high glucemic index. What? The higher a glucemic index the more easily (and rapidly) a carb turns into glucose. High GI (Glucemic Index) numbers also trigger insulin releases faster.

Wait, insulin? WTF does that have to do with this? Well from a mile high view insulin is what tells the cells that there's fuel in the bloodstream and that they should start gobbling it up. Muscle cells can only handle so much before they pull the hose out of the tank. Fat cells just keep absorbing it and finally, when they become so swollen they can't take anymore, they divide and suck more in. Don't worry though, that only happens in people who are morbidly obese. Incidentally, did you happen to know that morbid obesity is defined as being more than 50% over your normal bodyweight (based on age, height, and weight). There are BMI numbers associated with that but I'm here to tell you any time you here the term BMI put your fingers in your ears and start chanting "Lalalalalala, I can't hear you." BMI is a faulty measurement system that has no use being used for anyone interested in exercising or being physically fit.

As a case in point my BMI is 32.1, which is considered morbidly obese. I'm a little soft in the belly right now thanks to a 3 week stint of no exercise (flu ripped through the family), but the calipers insist my bodyfat is under 12%. I'm a large mammal and a terror in any shop containing delicate or breakable objects, but I'm a long ways from being obese. BMI calculations can't take muscle mass into consideration, thus they are faulty for anybody who weight trains, does active manual labor, or is lucky enough to have the genetics pre-dispositioning them towards being strong.

Off topic again, sorry about that. So back to eating and eating right. A typical ratio of macronutrients people shoot for when they are trying to do things right is around 40% protein, 30% carbs, and 30% fat. For fat loss boost the protein and drop fat to around 20%, Don't drop carbs lower than 10% though. This is because there are plenty of good carbs that are needed. Fruits and vegetables though, avoid the starchy ones (white potatoes, etc.). Fruits and veggies have lots of important minerals and vitamins in them, as well as anti-oxidants, especially for darker fruits like red apples, blueberries, cherries, etc..

There are carbs that are good to eat as well. Complex carbs, such as whole grains. Avoid the white bread and anything made with processed flour (noodles, bread, batter, blah blah blah). Complex carbs have low GI values and break down / digest more slowly, providing a more steady stream of energy over the quick spike caused by sugars and simple carbs.

Okay, so this is a lot of math and it means reading the nutritional charts on the packages at the grocery store. Ugh. Yes it does, and once you stop bitching about not having time to do it, you'll realize you just don't want to have to deal with it. Well if you're taking this seriously then I've got news for you – not wanting to focus on the growing waistline, popping buttons, and more noticeable stretch marks is what got you where you are now. I'm talking from experience, I was at that point myself several years ago.

The most success I have ever had, and this is a success that other people I have worked with have echoed, came from keeping a food journal. Write down every single thing you put in your mouth. Well, everything that has a nutritional value associated with it. Anything you eat or drink – and most people have no idea how many calories they take in throughout the average day. Especially when soda and coffee laden with creamer and sugar is factored in. Or alcohol – alcohol is bad news for anybody trying to maintain a strict diet. Not only are there a lot of calories in it but it's damaging to the metabolism, slowing it down for a little while (roughly 12 – 24 hours). It inhibits muscle repair and growth and can cause dehydration as well. But before you think I'm a complete douche bag, keep in mind that moderation is the key to survival. I'm no big drinker but on occasion I'm not too proud to have a tasty beverage or two with friends.

So once you've written everything down for a few days if you're honest about it you should be amazed at what you've been eating. Now work out a plan to eat smarter and less – and split it into multiple meals throughout the day. I aim for five to six meals a day, each of them in the 400 — 500 calorie range. I'm maintaining my size presently, for fat loss I'd shoot for 200 — 300 calories per meal. If I were trying to gain I'd go for 500 — 600 per meal.

That's a lot of eating, why not just do three meals a day? Three meals allows you to get hungry between them. Real hungry, in many cases, and that means you're going to overeat. Every time you overeat you stretch out your stomach, which means you won't feel full the next time unless you eat the same amount or more. Also, the body can only process so many calories at a time. If you eat 1000 calories for dinner and you body can only use 400 of them, where do you think the rest of them are going to go? Yeah, right where you don't want them to. The saying a moment on the lips is a lifetime on the hips might not be so funny anymore.

So eating smaller amounts more frequently keeps your body primed to constantly digest and metabolize. It doesn't give it any breaks where it thinks it is starving and therefore any incoming calories should be stored as future fuel (e.g. fat). It doesn't try to break down muscle out of fear that the muscle is going to demand calories in the future that it needs for survival. Instead it feels comfortable that it has a steady stream of fuel keeping it going.

There are a lot of formulas out there for how many calories to eat based on size and weight and goals (maintenance, growth, or fat loss). I stopped paying attention to them a while ago. Oh, they're legitimate and based on a lot of research and peer reviewed studies. I just prefer keeping things simpler. I recommend for women they shoot for around 1400 – 1600 calories a day if they want to lose weight. For men 1800 – 2000. Why more for men? Because life ain't fair. Men have higher metabolisms and generally speaking we are bigger mammals than the smaller, softer, and much more appealing female of our species. It's not our fault though, it's our father's fault – he's the one who supplies the X or Y chromosome.

For maintenance I recommend women aim for 2000 — 2200, men 2400 — 2600. For gaining, tack on another 300 — 500 calories per day. And over time you find out what works best for you and it can be tweaked to a better number. The thing is you can eat more calories on six meals a day than you can on 3 – at least without detrimental effects to your body.

Lastly, these numbers I have experience with. I've witnessed in myself and in others what happens when those kinds of numbers are maintained. I've seen weight losses of 100 pounds or more in as little as six months. The key is not just in losing the weight though, it's in understanding that your lifestyle has to change to always keep these things in mind. Dropping from 300 to 200 pounds is awesome, but feeling satisfied with that and reverting to your old eating habits is going to bring it back on faster than ever. Instead modify your diet slowly until you find the maintenance level, then experiment with what you can and cannot eat safely, from a macronutrient level. It's called the scientific process and it's used because it works.

One last word on nutrition: water. Drink it, lots of it. Your body has to burn calories to process it but it has no calories to return to the body. It helps flush out all the crap stored in fat cells as the fat is released, moves other wastes and toxins through your system better, and keeps you properly hydrated. I personally shoot for 64 – 128 ounces a day. At 128 (a gallon), there's a lot of restroom trips being made. At 64 it's not so bad, but the more the better.

So what's next? I've covered the basics, it's time to get into details on working out. Exercise types, styles of working out, how to mix and match, and what it all means.

And hey, it's my blog so now it's time for me to throw out some random links in hopes anybody cares or, if not, at least it might serve to boost my standings in a search engine somewhere!

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New book out – available at no cost on Smashwords – Voices.