Protein: When you consume protein, your body breaks down the protein molecules into amino acids and uses them to build new muscle. If you don’t consume enough protein, however, your body may not get enough of these amino acids, thus impairing your ability to build and repair muscle tissue.
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The average sedentary person can “survive” with very little protein due to a survival mechanism we inherited from our ancestors. This mechanism allows us to recycle broken down protein. Although you would die if you didn’t consume protein, you can easily survive on miniscule amounts.But, you’re not average and sedentary, right? Since you’ll be regularly lifting weights, your body will require more protein. In fact, research has shown that athletes need to eat a high protein diet to maximize performance.
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Fats: Dietary fat is the most calorically dense energy source available to your body. Each gram of fat contains twice as many calories as a gram of carbohydrates or protein. Good fats are found in dairy, meat, eggs, oils, nuts, and fish. These fats aid in your body’s ability to absorb nutrients.
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Carbohydrates: A study published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that when subjects were put in a 50% caloric surplus—either purely from carbs or purely from fats—after one day of overfeeding, the carb-only group stored just 10% of excess calories as fat, while the fat-only group stored a whopping 60%. In short, excess dietary fat leads to greater fat accumulation than does excess dietary carbohydrates.
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This actually makes perfect sense, especially since there is plenty of evidence that carbs are inefficiently stored as body fat even when overfeeding—this is due to a highly regulated metabolic pathway known as de novo lipogenesis.
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Carbohydrates are sugars, starches and fibers found in fruits, grains, vegetables and milk products. Their main responsibility revolves around energy. This energy comes from a sugar called glucose. So, whether you are consuming carbs from candy or from brown rice, the carbs are converted to glucose during digestion, which then becomes the preferred energy source for both the mind and muscles.
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