Category: nutrition

Macros 101

▪️Protein: When you are consuming protein, your body starts to break down the protein molecules into amino acids and uses them to rebuild new muscle tissue. If you don’t take in enough protein, your body will not get enough amino acids, which will impair your ability to build and repair muscle.

▪️The average sedentary individual can “survive” with very little protein because of the survival mechanism that we inherited from our ancestors. These mechanisms allow us to reuse broken down protein. The fact of the matter is, you would die if you didn’t consume protein, but you can easily survive on tiny amounts. But if you’re reading this, chances are you’re not an average sedentary person, right? Since you regularly lift weights, your body will require more protein intake. In fact, research has discovered that athletes need to eat a high protein diet in order to maximize their performance.

▪️Fats: Dietary fat is the most calorically dense source of energy to the human body. Each gram of fat has twice the amount of calories as a gram of carbohydrates or protein. You can find healthy fats in dairy, meat, eggs, oils, nuts, and fish. These fats give your body the ability to absorb nutrients.

▪️Carbohydrates: A study published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition discovered that when participants were put in a 50% caloric surplus—either purely from consuming carbs or purely from consuming fats—after one day of overeating, the carb-only group stored only 10% of excess calories as fat, vs the fat-only group which stored a whopping 60%. In a nutshell, excess dietary fat will lead to greater fat accumulation than consuming an excess of carbohydrates.

▪️Looking at the bigger picture, this actually makes perfect sense. Especially since there are numerous sources of evidence that shows that carbs are inefficiently stored as body fat even when overfeeding. This process is due to a highly regulated metabolic pathway called de novo lipogenesis.

▪️Carbohydrates are sugars, starches and fibers which can be found in fruits, grains, vegetables and various milk products. Their main influence revolves around energy. This energy stems from a sugar called glucose. So, whether you are getting your carbs from candy or from brown rice, the carbs convert into glucose during digestion, which then becomes the preferred source of energy for both the mind and muscles.

REFEED DAYS VS CHEAT DAYS

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▪️I personally suggest that you should incorporate refeed days instead of cheat days when your goal is to lose fat.

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▪️When it comes to refeed days, calories are raised to maintenance or a slight surplus, through an increase in carbohydrates which will serve as a mental and metabolic  break from dieting. ⁣

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▪️Overall, when you are planning your diet, it’s a good idea to add at least one or even two refeed days every one in a while (frequency should be based on the person’s leanness), and it won’t cause  any “damage” to the progress being made in a diet. ⁣⁣⁣

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▪️Refeed days can also help you reduce water weight because of the increased amount of carbs, which can help decrease stress levels and cause water weight to drop: as a result you generally feel tighter/leaner/fuller, you will also have more energy during your workouts and even your mood your mood will improve.⁣

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▪️And it doesn’t just stop there! ..2 or more (consecutive refeed days) generally referred to as “Diet Breaks” have a positive impact on our Leptin levels, which is the hormone that is responsible for regulating our metabolism. From my experience I’ve seen that Multiple Days spent at maintenance with an increased amount of carbs will increase my energy expenditure and will allow me to train better, without regaining the fat back since the calories are still kept around maintenance. 

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▪️However, on the other hand “Cheat Days” will never be anything more than an excuse not to diet. Cheat days really don’t serve a purpose and will only slow the process down due to the fact that the calories consumed will generally be very high (it’s called “cheat” for a reason). ⁣

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▪️Also the mental aspect of a cheat day, which mostly (not always) tends to make people feel guilty and more likely to quit the diet afterwards. ⁣⁣⁣

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▪️Am I saying that you should never have a cheat day? Certainly not, there are some occasions in which you could cheat a little, however, if the goal is losing fat they would only slow down the process.