Monthly Archives: May 2010

In the Barebones Fitness Nutrition Plan (BFNP), I laid out the practical information necessary to set up and implement an effective fitness nutrition plan. We talked about specific number calculations and food choices without going into details about where they came from. The reason is I wanted to give you the practical steps you could implement immediately without getting sidetracked with too much technical information. The plan is laid out in black and white, in less than two pages. That’s all you need to know about fitness nutrition, thanks for your time, I’ll be sending you a hefty invoice shortly!!!

Not so fast. While the main goal is to get you to use the basic principles, I do believe it is valuable to learn the reasons why you should be using those principles. In other words, I believe it is important to learn some of the science behind fitness nutrition. Taking this extra step in your fitness journey is valuable for several reasons:

1. Informed Decisions: When we rely solely on our taste buds for making food choices, we’re screwed. We love sugar and fat, and that’s the bottom line. Who doesn’t love fresh baked chocolate chip cookies — the crispy outside, the warm doughy center, the melted chocolate… butI digress (and don’t go eating chocolate chip cookies now and blame it on me).

The fact is that’s the way most of us eat. We make our food choices based on impulse, “I feel like…”. This pattern is not conducive to a lean and fit physique. Learning some of the science behind fitness nutrition will give you another tool in your arsenal so you can make better food selections. You won’t just be eating based on taste, you’ll also think about function. That, my friends, is the key to fitness success.

Hell, I feel like chocolate chip cookies right now, but I’m not going to eat them because I know how the human body processes them. The fat in the cookies will elevate blood fatty acid levels. The sugar will spike blood glucose and insulin levels. This is a deadly combo. Insulin carries circulating fatty acids and excess glucose out of the blood stream and deposits it into fat cells. Although a complex physiological process, it’s sort of true what they say, that junk food is going straight to your ass, or gut, or thighs, or whatever your problem area may be.

When you understand concepts like blood sugar and insulin swings, and how they impact fat storing mechanisms, you will more than likely make a better choice at the dinner table. You don’t have to be boring and eat for function all of the time, but you can’t eat for taste all of the time either. You have to find the balance, and science helps balance that equation.

2. Confidence In Your Plan: You’ve got to believe in what you are doing if you’re going to get results. I don’t want you to eat a certain way because I or anyone else tells you to do so. Ultimately, the decision is up to you. If you don’t believe what you are doing will accomplish your goals, your adherence to a program will not last. I can make all of the promises and tout my credentials and experience all I want, but ultimately you are the one calling the shots. With information comes knowledge, and with knowledge comes confidence. Once you know the way foods impact your internal systems, you’ll understand why you should be eating a certain way.

Lack of confidence generally results in people jumping from one plan to another. They follow something just until the next hot diet book or issue of their favorite fitness magazine hits the stands, and then drastically change everything. You’ll never get results that way. Sure, you need to make minor changes in your program from time to time, but the core foundation should remain based on proven principles, not the latest and greatest fad. Once you understand how the body works, you’ll be able to separate valuable breaking research you can incorporate into your overall plan from — to put it bluntly — BS. And trust me, there is a lot of BS out there. That brings us to the next reason…

3. A Strong BS Detector: By the time you finish reading this article, there will be dozens of new gurus, hundreds of new books, and thousands of new articles related to health and fitness. How do you separate the credible information from the BS? In my earlier years, I wasted time following various worthless programs because I didn’t know any better. I fell for the ridiculous claims and false promises all in the hopes of achieving my physique goals. I wanted to attain them so bad I would try anything. It was only as I progressed in my fitness education that I was able to make wiser decisions and stick to a proven plan. If you rely on established
scientific principles, you’ll never be disappointed with the results.

Most novices who don’t bother becoming educated in the field usually jump around from program to program, diet to diet, without ever giving one a long enough time to do its job. They get swindled, and make their important health and fitness decisions solely based on claims. Lose 30 pounds in 30 seconds, sounds good, sign me up. Once you know how the body works, you’ll know exactly what you need to do, and can leave the magic pill mentality behind. Trust me there is nothing new under the sun, we know everything we need to know about getting into shape, we just have to apply it if we want real world results. But people are always looking for the next
best thing, an easier way, etc.

You don’t have to get a Ph.D. in Human Physiology, but you should spend some time learning about basic fitness nutrition topics. That’s what this Fitness Nutrition 101 Series is all about. In the following series of articles, I’ll attempt to teach you everything you need to know about fitness nutrition so you can make informed decisions. Don’t fall asleep, there will be a test at the
end.

Copyright 2010 Nate Miyaki

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There are many reasons for the health and obesity epidemic that currently plagues the American public. We can point the finger at numerous bad habits that have become the normal way of life for most of us. We don’t exercise, we spend too many hours sitting at a desk, we’re overstressed, we eat too much sugar, trans fat, fried foods, refined foods, etc. However, I believe the biggest contributing factor to our health and body composition problems is our glaring lack of portion control.

We are the land of the super-sized. Everywhere you go restaurants and retailers compete to satisfy the public’s perception that more is better. What’s one of the first compliments we give to restaurants? Good food — nah who really cares about that? But dude, the portion sizes were huge — that place is awesome!

Extra large, king size, two-for-one, free refills, all-you-can-eat, open bar, these are all American marketing creations that appeal to our inherent desire to over-consume. You can get a 32oz steak, a 64oz soda, a triple cheeseburger, a 2lb burrito, and a 5lb bag of chips. C’mon, who the hell really needs to drink 64oz of soda? In a land of entitlement and overindulgence, we have an immense lack of self-control.

If you look at any of the other articles in the Fitness Nutrition 101 Series, you can see that “fitness eating” is in direct opposition to this free-for-all food party where everyone is invited. Fitness nutrition is all about details — exact portions of each macronutrient down to the gram. It’s about a well thought-out plan based on science that gives our bodies exactly what it needs without any excess. The person following a typical American diet lives on the other side of excess.

How do you make the transition from a “super-sizer” to a “just-the-right-sizer”? The answer is to measure your food so you know exactly what is going into your body. This is blasphemy to anyone outside of the fitness world. My ears are already ringing from all of the complaints — “I don’t have time for that, that’s obsessive compulsive, I have a life, I’m not a fitness model, it’s too hard…”

My answer? Quit whining you wussy! All it really takes is one extra step. Yeah, it’s soooo hard to pour your cereal into a measuring cup first before putting it into a bowl. It’s backbreaking to scoop your rice out of the cooker with a measuring cup instead of a serving spoon. It throws your whole day off schedule to pour salad dressing into a tablespoon measure instead of directly onto the salad. Give me a break. For most foods, especially fats and starches, which are the most important to measure, it takes an extra 10 seconds to get an exact measurement, instead of just winging it.

What’s the real reason why most of us fight the idea of measuring our food? Well, some of us are just plain lazy as shit. But for most of us I think it really boils down to the fact that we just don’t want to know the truth. And the truth is most of us eat 3-5 times the normal serving sizes of food.

We don’t want to measure our foods because we know it forces us to exercise good portion control. It forces us to eat sensibly, instead of catering to our bad habit of overeating everything. We don’t want to feel deprived of eating to our heart’s (and belly’s) content, so we sweep the whole idea of portion control under the rug and look for other areas to blame for our ever-expanding waistlines.

There are enough diet and fitness gurus out there that will promise you that you don’t have to exercise good portion control. They blame certain foods (carbs, fats, meat, salt, gluten, etc.) as the cause of all your problems. Cut those out, and you can eat as much as you want of everything else. Sorry, it doesn’t work that way. They’re telling you what you want to hear, not what you need to hear.

The bottom line is that even if you make the right food choices, you still have to stay within your calorie and macronutrient totals to get results. Even too much “good” food can be stored as body fat. You have to get out of the bad habit of just mindlessly eating whatever is put in front of you, and start being an active participant in your weight loss program.

Here are some experiments to show you the value of measuring your food. I want you to measure out ¾ cup of cold cereal or cooked rice, the typical serving size for these foods, and put it into a bowl. What do you see? It’s not a lot of food is it — pretty shocking huh? Much different than what the average person eats with theses foods — fill the bowl to the brim, eat, refill, eat again.

Now take out your favorite salad dressing and measure out 2 tablespoons. It’s just a drizzle isn’t it? Much different than the typical salad drenched with so much dressing that there is a soupy mess by the time you get to the end. You can see that with almost all foods, there is a big discrepancy between the normal serving size that is posted on the label, and what we actually eat. Again, most people who don’t measure their food eat 3-5 times the normal serving sizes.

I just laugh at fitness folks who proclaim that you don’t need to count calories or macronutrients to get results. Really? Those are generally the ones who are either blessed with great genetics (and could do whatever they want and would still be in shape) or are not in as good as shape as you might think. Trust me, there are plenty of fitness experts, dieticians, and PhD types who hide behind headshots and credentials for a reason. Perhaps that’s why there are so many diet plans out there that don’t work.

I’m not interested in theory or opinion. I’m interested in real world results. And if you look at the diet plans of the fittest people in the world — fitness athletes and models — you’ll see that they all measure their food. Four ounces of this, 1 cup of that, 2 tbsp of this, 1 piece of that, etc, etc., and these are for the “healthy/good” foods. If you are serious about dropping body fat, you should follow their example.

Hopefully I’ve convinced you to take that extra step of measuring food; it’s the only way you’ll truly know if you’re eating the 30g of carbohydrate your supposed to be eating per meal, or 90- 120g. If so, here are some random thoughts about how to implement this process:

• Buy a couple of sets of measuring cups (1/4 cup to 1 cup) and teaspoon/tablespoon measures.
• Use measuring cups as serving spoons instead of traditional serving utensils.
• There is no need to weigh your meats, poultry, and fish on a scale. Simply buy these foods one pound (16oz) at a time and cut them up according to your dietary needs. If you are supposed to be eating 3oz servings cut into 5 pieces, 4oz servings = 4 pieces, 5oz servings = 3 pieces, 8oz servings = 2 pieces. It doesn’t have to be exact; we just want the right range. See I’m not so bad! Food scales are a pain in the butt.
• Pour oils, dressings, and condiments into teaspoon or tablespoon measures before cooking or topping food.
• No need to measure non-starchy vegetables (broccoli, lettuce, spinach, onions, etc.) UNLESS they are cooked in butter or oil. Plain vegetables are pretty much free foods that can be eaten in unlimited amounts.
• Buy smaller bowls and plates so you can’t over serve (i.e., a small bowl that only fits one cup of food). This makes you feel like you are eating larger portions and not depriving yourself. It also gives you the opportunity to “clean your plate”, which is an American habit. Smaller serving dishes are common in many cultures like the Japanese, or Spanish tapas. They key — don’t go back for seconds!
• When you don’t have access to measuring cups and spoons, like eating out at a friend’s or at a restaurant, you’ll have to eyeball portion sizes. Four to six ounces of meat, poultry, or fish is about the size of the palm of your hand or a deck of cards. One cup of starch is about the size of a closed fist. Two tablespoons of dressing is about 2 spoonfuls, or about ½ of most of the cups they use for the “dressing on the side”.
• Most restaurants serve at least 2 times the normal serving sizes of foods, many 3-5 times. When you eat at restaurants a good idea is to eat half the meal and save the other half for leftovers, or give it to a homeless person. They could probably use the calories more than you.

Copyright 2010 Nate Miyaki

In ten years in the fitness industry, I’ve seen one vice slow people’s body composition goals more than anything else — alcohol consumption.

Aren’t we talking about fitness nutrition here — proteins, carbs, fats, nutrient timing, calorie deficits, etc.? What does all that have to do with alcohol? That mindset is one of the reasons why alcohol can be so problematic. Most people don’t even consider it in their dietary plan. They’ll meticulously track numbers and ratios related to food intake, but forget to include the 2-3 drinks a night they have after work, or the all night binge- drinking sessions they have on the
weekend.

Any nutrient (or non-nutrient) you consume that is a source of calories must be considered in a fitness nutrition plan. Alcohol contains calories, changes the metabolism of nutrients, and alters hormones that effect body composition transformation. A couple of drinks can quickly take you out of a fat burning mode and into a fat storing mode, so obviously it is an important consideration when developing a game plan geared towards dropping body fat.

Many heavy drinkers often wonder how they could be doing everything right in the gym and kitchen and still not lose any fat. Below is their answer.

1. Alcohol contains calories, almost as many as fat.

The current trend among fitness industry professionals is a love affair with low carbohydrate diets. To them, carbs are the enemy, and it’s all about cutting carbs if you want to lose fat. They dispense uninformed advice, promising people they can eat or drink unlimited amounts of anything they want as long as it is low in carbohydrates.

The advertising and marketing executives of alcohol companies are very savvy. They followed the trends and jumped on the bandwagon with an abundance of campaigns promoting hearthealthy wines, low carbohydrate beers, and reminders that pure hard alcohols have always been carbohydrate free. Many ads feature professional models paid to endorse their product, which further confuses the naïve dieter.

The negative effects on body fat have nothing to do with the carbohydrates in alcohol; it has to do with the calories. Let’s take a look at some numbers regarding alcohol and nutritional counts:

Beverage	Carbohydrates	Calories
Light Beer, 12 oz	4 g	100
Hard Liquor (vodka, whiskey, etc), 1 oz	0 g	85
Red Wine, 4 oz	2 g	80

Obviously the numbers don’t add up if you just consider carbohydrate calories. At 4 calories per gram, there are only 16, 0, and 8 calories from carbohydrates for each respective drink. The actual calorie totals for each drink are obviously much more. What accounts for the difference?

The booze my friend — alcohol contains calories, a lot of them! Alcohol contains 7 calories per gram, almost as much as fat. While fat has nutritional value, alcohol has none. They are empty calories that serve no nutritional purpose, except to disrupt metabolism and cause body fat accumulation.

Drinking heavily is almost like eating high fat foods like french fries, pizza, and cheeseburgers all night. It can easily add up to 1,000 calories. Again, it’s not about the carbohydrates with alcohol, it’s all about the calories. These calories have a high probability of being stored as fat because they do not serve any metabolic purposes.

2. Alcohol shuts down all fat burning in your body

The biggest problem with alcohol is that it limits the body’s ability to burn fat as a fuel source. Since alcohol is essentially a poison in your system, your body does everything it can to eliminate it. As soon as alcohol hits your blood stream, your body preferentially begins to use it as a fuel source over all other potential sources.

What does this mean for your body composition goals? All fat burning ceases when alcohol is in your system. It doesn’t matter if your diet and exercise protocols have set up the perfect fat burning environment in your body, alcohol stops the fat burning process. And if you eat while you’re drinking, those food calories are much more likely to be stored as body fat than at other times.

3. Alcohol makes you more prone to cheating and binging.

How many times have you finished off a night of heavy drinking by gorging on chips or cookies or fries or ice cream? Or how many times have you started the next morning with a plate of greasy bacon or hash browns? There’s a reason it’s called hangover food. I don’t know if its related to blood sugar or hormones or something else, but I do know that real world evidence is enough to proclaim that alcohol makes it much more likely that you will cheat on your diet and eat junk.

4. Alcohol alters hormone levels.

High and frequent alcohol consumption has been shown to lower testosterone levels. This is particularly detrimental to men. Testosterone helps us build lean muscle and burn body fat. With low testosterone levels, body composition change becomes very difficult. It also impairs sexual activity and performance.

Beer contains large amounts of phytoestrogens. These compounds have the capability of acting like estrogen in the body. Women have higher estrogen-to-testosterone ratios than men. Estrogen results in fat accumulation, and is the reason why women, on average, have higher body fat percentages than men. Obviously anything that increases estrogen activity is highly detrimental to your fat loss goals. Fat tissues around the stomach are highly sensitive to the effects of estrogen, hence the beer gut. Women are not immune to this phenomenon. If you are a female and drink a lot of beer, you can develop the tendency to hold fat in your problem areas — hips, thighs, and stomach.

The moral of the story – don’t drink beer. Chronic beer drinking is one of the worst things you can do for your physique. You lower testosterone, raise estrogen, and your hormonal profile begins to resemble more of a woman’s than a man’s. Beer guts and bitch tits are not myths; they are real results of altered physiology.

Alcohol can also inhibit growth hormone release at night. Growth hormone is one of our most powerful muscle building, fat burning hormones. Disturbances in growth hormone can effect recovery between training sessions and impair body composition transformation.

BURSTING THE RATIONALIZATION BUBBLE

People will come up with all kinds of rationalizations to defend their alcohol consumption; none of them are really valid from a health and fitness standpoint. Here are some of my favorites:

“Alcohol is good for the heart, flushes the heart, dilates the blood vessels, etc.” So does exercise and fish oils.

“Alcohol raises good cholesterol (HDL).” So do monounsaturated fats.

“Alcohol contains antioxidants.” So do fruits, vegetables, and green tea.

The difference is with the latter group you get the health benefits without the drawbacks of alcohol consumption. Besides its negative effects on body composition, alcohol is just not that great for overall health. It stresses the liver because the liver must detoxify the body of alcohol. It puts strain on the kidneys because alcohol dehydrates you.

The studies on alcohol, particularly red wine, generally recommend a 3oz serving to obtain the health benefits. Who the hell just drinks 3 oz of wine? C’mon now, don’t use research studies based on tiny portion sizes to legitimize over-consumption.

The last rationalization I hear regularly from model-types: “Just cut out food from your diet to compensate for increased alcohol consumption.” Calories from proteins, fats, and carbohydrates perform specific nutritional functions in the body. They are essential for building muscle.

Remember, getting lean is as much about gaining or maintaining muscle as it is about losing body fat. Alcohol is an empty calorie and does nothing for the body. Replacing food calories with alcohol calories does not make any sense. You will be robbing your body of the essential nutrients it needs to build muscle, provide energy, and recover from workouts. And as we mentioned above, alcohol completely shuts down the body’s ability to burn fat until it is out of the system, which can take several hours.

FITNESS DRINKING?

I’m not here to tell you what you or I want to hear. I’m here to tell you the objective truth. In my personal opinion, there is no such thing as drinking for health or fitness reasons. You can get all of the benefits of alcohol with better food, beverage, or supplementation choices. To drink for “health” reasons based on some research study is faulty logic at best. Statistics and research can be slanted to make you believe whatever you want to believe.

If you drink, be honest with yourself. You’re drinking to relax, party, have a good time, get wasted, celebrate, or maybe even for more destructive reasons (that are beyond the scope of this article), but you’re not drinking for your health.

I’ll be honest, I like to drink from time to time. I like the occasional celebratory drink with family and friends, or the occasional buzz with a night out on the town. Hell, I don’t think I would have asked out my wife back in the day if I didn’t have the “liquid courage” going that night. But I don’t delude myself into thinking I’m doing something healthy. In fact, I know a night of drinking takes me further away from my health and fitness goals.

What I don’t do is drink when I’m in training for a natural bodybuilding show, or prepping for a photo shoot. In other words, I cut out all of the booze when I’m trying to reach peak body composition levels. It’s just something you have to do to maximize your potential.

My best advice is this:

• First, a test. If you are a heavy drinker, don’t drink any alcohol for 3-4 weeks straight. If you can’t do that, you may have a problem that is beyond the scope of this article. You may want to consider seeking professional help.
• Don’t drink every night to relax. This is a bad habit to get into. Find more positive ways to relax (stretching, yoga, music, etc.).
• Save “drinking nights” for special occasions — birthdays, weddings, family celebrations,nights out on the town, etc. Don’t get wasted every weekend.
• Stay away from drinks mixed with sugar beverages or fruit juices. The sugar + alcohol virtually guarantees fat storage.
• Stay away from beer due to the negative effects on testosterone/estrogen.
• Stick with red wine, straight hard alcohols, or alcohols mixed with no calorie beverages.

Don’t get the wrong idea. Just because I’ve given you some ways to limit the damage, as any good trainer working with real people in real situations should, I would like to reaffirm my position on alcohol. If you want to maximize your results from training and dieting, you should NOT drink on a regular basis.

CASE STUDY

I’ll share with you a personal example that I believe will further my stance against alcohol for the fitness athlete. I started training a private client a couple of years ago. He was a former Division I college athlete, so I knew at some point in his life he had been very athletic and fit. Unfortunately corporate life, married life, and then divorced life took its toll on him, and he came to me about 40lbs overweight, borderline obese, and ready to make some positive changes.

As an ex-athlete, this guy quickly regained his strength and athletic coordination. Within months, we were using advanced programs and training with great intensity and consistency. The problem was, his body composition was not changing. Sure there were minor improvements, but he was still severely overweight.

We tried dietary changes next. He followed every suggestion I made 100% of the time. He even tracked his food in a journal every day and brought it into the gym each time we trained. I tried every nutritional tip in my arsenal. We went low carbohydrate, low fat, nutrient timing,
carbohydrate rotations, the zig-zag approach, etc. After months, there still were no dramatic changes.

Now I was worried. The next step we took was to send him to an Endocrinologist. Perhaps there was an underlying medical condition we were unaware of. He had a complete blood panel, specifically analyzing his hormonal profile. These tests included things like thyroid, cortisol, testosterone, DHEA, and estrogen just to name a few. Everything checked out as normal.

What my client failed to mention from the beginning was that he was a borderline alcoholic. The truth came out when he went from borderline to full-blown, and checked himself into a rehabilitation clinic. After a few months of sobering up and getting his life back together, he came back to the gym ready to give it a second chance.

This time, the final outcome was much different. He dropped about 30lbs of body fat and gained probably 15 pounds of rock hard muscle, all in about 3-4 months. His transformation was incredible. He said he felt like he was in the best shape of his life, even better than his competitive athletic days. We used the same training and dieting techniques we had used originally, the only difference was that he had stopped drinking.

If you are going to give this whole fitness thing a try, than you owe it to yourself to go dry for a little while and see what you can really accomplish. If you really feel you have to drink, than try limiting it to special occasions. You’ll never maximize your body composition drinking daily or binge drinking every weekend.

I’m not going to lie to you, this is not going to be a short or easy article. Carbohydrates are confusing as hell. There is a lot of technical information to cover if you want to understand, once and for all, the truth about optimal carbohydrate intake for the fitness athlete. If all you want to know is WHAT to do, this article is not for you. If you continue reading, I’m assuming you are interested in learning a little more about the science behind carbohydrates, and the WHY behind carbohydrate recommendations.

CARB CONFUSION

If protein is the most important macronutrient, then carbohydrates are certainly the most confusing. High carb, low carb, good carb, bad carb, high glycemic, low glycemic — what’s a person to do?

Twenty years ago nutrition authorities told us to eliminate fat and eat all of the carbohydrates we wanted. Today, the industry trend is to go low carb and eat more healthy fats. For the fitness athlete whose primary goals are to maximize lean muscle and minimize body fat, what is the most efficient and results-producing method?

In the commercial market, there are many high carb foods that are considered “health foods”. There are just as many low carb foods that carry the same tag line. There are big businesses that stand to profit on both sides of the equation. These same businesses can influence the governing bodies that establish dietary guidelines and health maintenance standards. If you want real world results, you have to use science to cut through the biases, marketing, and politics to get down to what really works.

Many nutritionists and health care professionals recommend high carbohydrate diets for fitness athletes. Others recommend low carb diets as the best way to slash fat and optimize body composition. Both camps present an equal amount of research, case studies, and individual success stories to argue the validity of their stance.

The low carb camp calls the high carbohydrate diet archaic and uninformed. The high carb camp calls the low carb diet a passing trend, a fad diet, nothing more than guru nonsense. Each blames the other for the body composition and health woes of America. It’s like two angry children stubbornly arguing to get their way instead of compromising and finding a real-world solution.

One of the major problems is that many nutritionists and fitness authorities try to slot every person into one cookie-cutter program. They are selling a system to the masses, and for it to be successful, they have to convince people that their system will work for everyone, everywhere. They have to make people believe that all people, regardless of lifestyle factors and activity levels need to eat “X”. It doesn’t work that way. Do you really think a fitness athlete who works out 4-6 times a week should be eating the same way as a sedentary office worker?

What works for one group of people is not the best method for the next group. These days you have sedentary office workers following nutrition programs best suited for athletes, athletes following quick-fix programs geared towards housewives, gurus preaching their system is the one and only way, and everyone across the board confused as hell.

The confusion stems from the fact that carbohydrates can be beneficial or detrimental, largely depending upon the circumstances. Carbohydrates can fuel activity, or they can fuel our fat cells. Carbohydrates can help us build muscle in response to activity, or they can help us build fat. Carbohydrates can help us recover from strenuous activity, or they can cause us to fatten up during periods of inactivity. You can see the key word in all of the above scenarios is ACTIVITY.

We’ll get more into the details, but here is a quick summary. Your carb intake should be directly related to your activity level. Carbohydrates fuel intense activity, and help you recover from that activity. If you are sedentary or only perform low intensity activity (i.e., walking, housework) you don’t need a lot of carbs. If you are an athlete and perform high intensity activity (weight training, aerobic activity) then you need carbohydrates, maybe a lot of carbohydrates.

As a fitness athlete, you fall under the second category (unless you’re training like a wimp) so you’ll need to include carbohydrates in your diet to maximize results. The key with carbohydrate intake in relation to optimizing body composition is to eat the right amount of the right types of carbohydrates. As you can see, there’s a lot to understand about carbohydrates if you are going to be successful with your body composition goals. Since the industry trend these days is to go low carb, let’s start first with why fitness athletes need some carbs in their diets.

1. Carbohydrates are the body’s preferred source of energy during high intensity activity.

The body burns predominantly fatty acids at rest and during low intensity activities – any activity you can sustain beyond 3 minutes without rest. This includes activities like housework, walking, and continuous, sub-maximal aerobic activity. Science geeks refer to this as aerobic (with oxygen) metabolism. Aerobic metabolism runs on fats.

As the intensity of activity increases, however, there is a shift in the body’s fuel preference. The body burns predominantly glucose (blood sugar) and glycogen (stored sugar in muscle cells) during high intensity activity — weight training, sprints, and interval aerobics. Science geeks refer to this as anaerobic (without oxygen) metabolism. Anaerobic metabolism runs on carbohydrates.

High intensity activity is the cornerstone of any fitness athlete’s program. Fitness athletes need to consume carbohydrates to provide their bodies with the necessary amounts of glycogen to fuel their workouts. Low glycogen levels as the result of inadequate carbohydrate intake are associated with low energy levels, fatigue, lack of motivation, and decreased performance. Sure the body can convert fatty acids and amino acids into glucose to be used as fuel, but it’s not the most efficient route. That’s like trying to get your accountant to do your plumbing work. It may get done, but its probably not going to get done right. The bottom line is the body prefers carbohydrates for fitness activities.

Hard training is a must if you want to maximize lean muscle mass and minimize body fat. You can’t train hard and reach peak levels in the gym if you don’t provide your body with the necessary fuel for optimum performance. Fitness athletes need carbohydrates to support their intense training.

2. Carbohydrates are anabolic.

Carbohydrates help us build lean muscle mass, period. If you want big biceps, obviously you need to build muscle. But even if your primary goal is fat loss, its important to understand that building lean muscle is an important part of the process. Increasing lean muscle mass boosts your metabolic rate and makes it easier to get lean. So, if you want a slim waist, sexy legs, and a firm backside, you still need to build some LEAN muscle.

Carbohydrates raise blood glucose and insulin levels, and insulin can be highly anabolic. Despite what you’ve heard about how bad insulin is (and it can be very bad); insulin can also do some good things. No hormone your body naturally produces is inherently bad, you just have to manage and control them to achieve the desired results.

Insulin carries nutrients out of the blood and deposits them into muscle cells. More specifically, insulin can shuttle amino acids (from dietary protein) into muscle cells to repair damaged muscle tissue from weight training, and to synthesize new muscle tissue in response to weight training. Insulin, and thus carbohydrates, are an integral part of the muscle building process. You can eat all of the protein in the world, but if you don’t eat enough carbohydrates, you won’t build optimum levels of muscle.

3. Carbohydrates are anti-catabolic during dieting phases

Anti-catabolic means preventing the body from breaking down its own muscle tissue. Carbohydrates spare muscle from being broken down and used as an alternative fuel source when calories are low.

Remember the Golden Fitness Rule: if you want to drop body fat you have to create a calorie deficit. It would be nice if all of the deficit came from fat tissue; however, if that were the case, getting ripped would be as simple as just slashing calories as much as possible.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t work that way. The body can make up for the deficit by converting fatty acids into fuel, but it can also convert amino acids into fuel. Those amino acids can come from dietary protein, but they can also come from the body’s own muscle tissue. Losing muscle is one of the worst things that can happen during a diet. When you lose muscle your metabolism slows down and it becomes harder and harder to lose weight no matter how much you exercise or cut calories. Plus, with muscle loss your body loses its tone/shape and becomes soft and flabby. You become a victim of the Skinny-Fat Guy (or Girl) Syndrome. Not exactly the lean, ripped, toned, firm look a fitness athlete is going for.

Carbohydrates are more muscle sparing than fats, and even protein to some degree. Remember, carbohydrates are the body’s preferred fuel source and can easily be broken down in the body and used for immediate energy. If you keep moderate amounts of carbohydrates in your diet during a calorie deficit, it will help prevent your body from oxidizing protein and using it as a fuel, especially during exercise.

Fitness athletes following extremely low carbohydrate diets will inevitably lose some muscle, that’s the bottom line. Yes, the body can use fatty acids as fuel, but in a frantic scramble to make up for the lack of glucose coming in from carbohydrates, the body will convert amino acids into fuel. Can you outpace it by simply eating more protein and fat? Maybe, but it’s not the most efficient or healthy way.

I stand by my stance that for permanent fat loss, moderation – not extremes – is the way to go. That means keeping a moderate amount of carbohydrates in your diet for anabolic/anti-catabolic purposes.

4. Carbohydrates Support Normal Metabolic Functioning

Ketogenic diets involve reducing carbohydrates to very low levels, sometimes less than 25g a day, while simultaneously increasing fat intake (think certain phases of the Atkins Diet). The body enters an altered physiological state called ketosis, where it produces ketone bodies to fuel the body and brain instead of glucose.

These diets can have a potent fat burning effect. Without glucose and glycogen, the body is forced to burned fatty acids and ketones as fuel. While you can lose a lot of weight, these diets are problematic for fitness athletes. We already discussed how a lack of carbohydrates can cause muscle loss and decreased performance in the gym. There are additional considerations.

First, the brain prefers glucose as its primary fuel. If you deprive your brain of glucose for too long you will become tired, irritable, fatigued, depressed, and will find it hard to focus and concentrate. No six-pack is worth that; you have to live your life and function in the real world. You will also be constantly craving “bad” carbs (sweets, snack foods, etc.) and be more susceptible to wild binge eating if you severely restrict carbohydrates.

Second, ketogenic diets drastically reduce insulin sensitivity. What this means is that if you severely restrict carbohydrates for too long, the body loses its ability to efficiently process them. When you go off the extreme diet and return to eating normal amounts of carbohydrates, your body is more prone to storing those carbohydrates as fat because it doesn’t know how to deal with them. In essence, it’s a more specific form of yo-yo dieting.

WHY NOT GO CRAZY ON THE CARBS?

So if carbohydrates are so essential, why not eat unlimited amounts, or at least very high amounts like the current RDA level recommendations (300-365g of carbohydrates per day)? If they fuel our workouts, help us build muscle, and prevent our bodies from breaking down muscle, wouldn’t it make sense that the more carbs we consume the better? Before you pull up to the bread factory and commit, as Bruno would say, “carbicide,” there is more to the carb story.

5. Carbohydrates can be extremely lipolytic (cause you to gain fat)

For the human body to function normally, it keeps a tight regulation on blood sugar (blood glucose) levels. Whether it rises above or drops below normal, the body releases hormones to return levels back to within its preferred range. The body is always attempting to reach this balanced state.

When more calories are consumed than the body needs, especially carbohydrates, blood sugar rises above the normal upper limit. Insulin is the hormone released from the pancreas in response to elevated blood sugar levels. The primary role of insulin is to clear nutrients out of the bloodstream and deposit them into the body’s cells — including muscle and fat cells. It basically is a “storage” hormone, helping the body store sugar, fatty acids, and amino acids for use at a later date.

One of those storage tanks is glycogen, the storage form of sugar located in the muscle cells and the liver. Glycogen can later be broken down and used as fuel when energy demands increase. Much like a gas tank in a car, the body has a limited storage capacity for glycogen. There is only so much the body can hold. Once glycogen levels are full, however, all other glucose removed from the blood must be stored in the second storage tank – body fat!

Once glycogen levels are full, any excess sugar that insulin clears from the blood goes directly into body fat stores, and this storage tank is limitless. The constant bombarding of the body with high carbohydrate foods leads to full glycogen stores, chronically high levels of blood glucose, insulin, and fat accumulation.

Contrary to popular belief and prevailing myths from the low-fat food industry, you don’t need dietary fat to store fat. The body can convert excess blood sugar into fat stores. That’s one of the reasons why despite a low fat diet, we’ve gotten fatter than ever. High insulin is the real culprit, and high insulin is the result of chronic carbohydrate consumption.

High insulin can also trigger the uptake of fatty acids into fat stores. So it’s a double-edged sword. Insulin can bring both blood sugar and fatty acids to fat stores. It’s a super-sized meal for your fat cells.

HEADS YOU WIN, TAILS YOU’RE GONNA LOSE

So what is a fitness athlete to do? Too many carbs and you’re adding fat. Too little carbs and you’re losing muscle, suppressing your metabolism, and your workout intensity suffers. By understanding the science you now know you have to walk a fine line between eating enough carbs to support training and muscle maintenance/growth, but not so many that you facilitate storing fat.

You can’t go high carb like the Food Pyramid recommends. You also can’t go low carb like Atkins recommends. The answer for fitness athletes, once again, lies in moderation, and balanced protein-to-carbohydrate ratios. They first key for fitness athletes is to eat the right amount of carbohydrates based on their goals.Muscle building requires more carbohydrates, fat loss requires less.

The second key is the type of carbohydrates you eat. Some carbohydrates are more beneficial than others. The fitness athlete needs to maximize the benefits of food and minimize the negative effects.

QUANTITY

For fat loss, I believe the best advice is to keep a 1:1 ratio of protein-to-carbohydrate. Combining protein with carbohydrates slows down the digestion of those carbohydrates and prevents drastic swings in blood sugar and insulin levels. This in turn makes it more likely those carbohydrates will be used for energy and glycogen storage, and less likely they will be stored as fat.

Ratios are important for the day, but also on a meal-per-meal basis. If you eat 20g of carbohydrate, it should be accompanied by 20g of protein. Of course this is not going to be exact at every meal, but the important message is that you should not eat carbohydrates alone without attempting to accompany it with a little bit of protein.

Portion control is key for the fitness athlete. A general serving size of ½ cup of cooked rice or most cereal generally contains 25g of carbohydrate. If you use a measuring cup for precision, you’ll see just how small half a cup really is. Most people eat 3-5 times the normal amount when they fill their plate or bowl, thus drastically overshooting carbohydrate limits.

Daily Carbohydrate Intake Charts

If protein intake for the fitness athlete is set at 0.75g-1.25g protein per 1lb of lean body mass, then carbohydrates should be the same.

Lean Bodyweight	0.75 g/lb	1.0 g/lb	1.25 g/lb
100 lbs	75 g	100 g	125 g
125 lbs	94 g	125 g	156 g
150 lbs	113 g	150 g	188 g
175 lbs	131 g	175 g	219 g
200 lbs	150 g	200 g	250 g
225 lbs	169 g	225 g	281 g
250 lbs	188 g	250 g	313 g
275 lbs	206 g	275 g	344 g

If your primary goal is to add muscle/add body weight, carbohydrates can go up to 1.5-2.0g/1lb of lean body mass:

Lean Bodyweight	1.5 g/lb	2.0 g/lb
100 lbs	150 g	200 g
125 lbs	188 g	250 g
150 lbs	225 g	300 g
175 lbs	263 g	350 g
200 lbs	300 g	400 g
225 lbs	338 g	450 g
250 lbs	375 g	500 g
275 lbs	413 g	550 g

CARB QUALITY: THE CARB RUNDOWN

Sugar

Along with trans fats, sugar is the worst thing you can put into your body, both for body composition and overall health. The rise in sugar consumption (including high fructose corn syrup) is directly related to the health epidemics currently plaguing America. Obesity, type II diabetes, and elevated cholesterol levels are all linked to excessive sugar consumption.

The problem with sugar is that it requires little digestion. It basically is dumped into the bloodstream, which rapidly elevates blood sugar beyond its normal limits. This whole process happens way too fast for the body. The body responds by releasing insulin to clear this sugar out of the blood. Most of this sugar is carried to fat cells to be stored as body fat.

A person can stay within their required calorie and carbohydrate totals and still gain body fat due to the dramatic effect sugar can have on blood sugar and insulin levels. It doesn’t matter if you “eat like a bird” if your bird food is pastries and soda. With rapid elevations in blood sugar, whether from too many calories or too much sugar, the body is going to pack away fat.

There is also evidence that sugar and the resulting high levels of insulin affect appetite centers in the brain. In high amounts, insulin is an appetite stimulant. Eating sugar makes you even hungrier, which in turn causes you to overeat. They are the most dangerous foods to overeat because of this appetite stimulating affect. They make you hungrier and crave more of the same.

Like all things related to fat loss and gain, this can be related to blood sugar levels. When simple sugars are consumed, blood sugar rises above its upper limit. Insulin is released in large amounts to clear sugar from the blood. The large amount of insulin can end up doing too good of a job, so much sugar is cleared from the blood that blood sugar levels are left low, below the normal limits. Low blood sugar causes fatigue, low energy, and hunger.

The body craves food to return blood sugar back to higher amounts. It craves a type of food that will enter into the bloodstream and raise blood sugar levels quickly – more simple sugars. It’s a harsh cycle of peaks and valleys; simple sugars cause you to eat more simple sugars. It’s a roller coaster ride of energy bursts and energy crashes. Not only do you gain body fat, but hormonal processes in the body make you more prone to continue eating in this destructive manner.

Finally, sugar is one of the most addictive compounds known to man. Sugar triggers serotonin release in the brain, which has a calming effect and gives us a sense of well-being. Have you ever just eaten one M&M or one potato chip? You can’t do it, because your body gets a glimpse of that drug-like effect and craves more. Its not just the taste or a weak will, it’s a physiological desire to eat more.

This is the main problem with “emotional eating”. People don’t run to chicken and broccoli when they are stressed, anxious, or depressed. They run to comfort foods that make them feel better. They run to sugar. You need to find healthier ways to deal with your emotions than relying on a drug-like chemical disguised as food.

It certainly is true that you can become both mentally and physically addicted to sugar. With American eating habits, we are abusing a powerful drug that is slowly crippling us.

If you want to lean up and improve your health profile, you have to cut out the sugar intake. This is not easy to do in today’s American lifestyle. Virtually every processed food has sugar in some form or another, whether it is pure cane sugar or things like high fructose corn syrup. The answer is to eat more natural foods, and cut down on the man-made junk.

Just like trans fats, my recommended sugar intake for the fitness athlete is 0g per day. For those interested in general health, my recommended sugar intake is 0g per day.

REFINED STARCHES

Refined starches — things like pastries, chips, crackers, flour, bread, pasta, cereals, etc — are sugar’s ugly cousins. They basically have the same effects on blood sugar, hormonal response, and fat gain as sugar. The fitness athlete needs to approach these types of food with the same apprehension as pure sugar.

Many companies will market processed foods as health foods to get you to feel good about buying and eating them. There are “healthier” versions of chips, crackers, juices, and breakfast cereals. “Uses whole grains,” “heart healthy,” “lowers cholesterol,” “baked not fried,” “100% natural ingredients,” are just some of the tag lines. Just because a sales rep at Kellogg’s says something is healthy doesn’t mean it is.

Foods such as whole grain, high fiber breads, cereals, and snack foods have been touted as health foods. Dieters and health conscious people have long been told by traditional nutritionists to increase their consumption of these types of foods. With less processing and more fiber, clearly these foods are much better choices than refined, simple carbohydrates, but I would argue (and many other fitness authors would agree), that regular consumption of these foods in high amounts is not as good for your physique as most people believe.

Look, is a health food cereal with lots of fiber better for you than Lucky Charms? Absolutely! Is whole grain bread better for you than white bread? Sure. But are “healthier” versions of processed, man-made foods ideal for fitness athletes — absolutely not.

The current food pyramid recommendation for whole grains is 7-11 servings a day. This amount is absolutely ridiculous, especially for those who are sedentary for most of the day. You’ll never get lean following this advice.

Don’t fall for the hype. You know what is low glycemic, has fiber, helps you control blood sugar, and helps you control body fat? Apples, oranges, spinach, and broccoli. There is nothing healthier than truly natural foods – lean meats, vegetables, natural starches, and whole fruits. It’s amazing to see the progress clients make when they can let go of outdated nutrition advice that has been engrained in them from a very young age. When they finally reduce their consumption of whole grain (but man-made) foods that they believed to be healthy, many clients who have struggled with weight loss for years suddenly find fat disappearing from their body.

Symptoms of food allergies such as gluten allergies — lethargy, digestive problems, pain/inflammation, and weight gain — suddenly become less frequent and less intense.

One of the famous lines from fitness icon Jack LaLanne is, “If man made it, don’t eat it”. It is such a simple rule, but says so much at the same time. I believe it is very sound advice. But what about this, or what about that? What about my all-natural whole grain, fiber stick, wheat and bran mix breakfast cereal? The answer is always the same, spoken with a little bit of tough love — if man made it, don’t eat it! By the way, Jack LaLanne is lean, fit, and healthy and he is in his 90’s.

VEGETABLES

Which brings us to the healthiest carbohydrates on earth — vegetables. Vegetables are the carbohydrates Mother Nature intended for us to eat. They are the closest thing to a magic pill that we have. The high fiber content slows down the digestion of other nutrients, which helps to control blood sugar levels and allows the body to properly absorb and utilize the food you take in.

Although low in calories, they are high in food volume. They take up a lot of space in the stomach. This tricks the body into thinking its eating a lot of food, which helps to control hunger and food cravings. If you always include vegetables as a side dish and eat them first, you will be less likely to overeat other macronutrients. They are full of healthy vitamins, minerals, and phytochemicals. They help scrape the internal walls of the digestive track, helping to eliminate waste and in lowering blood lipid and cholesterol levels.

Vegetables are great for both your internal health and external appearance. This is the one food group of which you can eat unlimited amounts. There is no need to measure out or be concerned with portion sizes when it comes to vegetables. In fact, whatever your normal daily intake of vegetables is right now, double it.

FRUITS

Whole fruits are also a good option for carbohydrate intake, but only in limited quantities. More specifically, the average person should only have roughly 1-2 servings of fruit a day. They contain many phytonutrients, antioxidants, and vitamins, along with fiber and water. If overemphasized, however, fruit can be problematic for optimal fat loss.

Fruit contains fructose – a natural sugar, but a sugar nonetheless. The problem with fructose is that it is digested differently than other sugars. Glucose can be stored as glycogen in muscle tissue. Fructose does not go through this same process, and is not stored significantly as muscle glycogen. Fructose is stored predominantly as liver glycogen.

Our bodies only have a limited capacity to store liver glycogen. It doesn’t take much fruit to fill this tank, and once its full, all remaining fructose must be stored as fat. On a gram per gram basis, fructose is more likely to be stored as body fat than starch/glucose.

Concentrated sources of fructose should be eliminated from the diet to avoid this type of overspill. Don’t drink fruit juice or smoothies. Fruit juice is not a health food despite what any so called authority tells you. If you have fruit, you should eat it, not drink it.Never eat any processed food or condiment that contains high fructose corn syrup. Never drink beverages sweetened with fructose or high fructose corn syrup.

We often lump fruits and vegetables into one category. You’ve undoubtedly been told in your life to “eat more fruits and vegetables” if you want to improve your health. This is a mistake as FITNESS vegetables and fruits are very different and have different effects on our bodies. Perhaps this is why famed nutrition author and healthy fat guru Udo Erasmus recommends changing the advice about fruit and vegetable intake. He believes the traditional 5 servings of fruits and vegetables slogan should be changed to 9 servings of vegetables and 1 serving of fruit a day.

Whole fruit, however, is a healthy food and can be included in your nutrition plan. Just make sure not overdo it. 1-2 pieces or servings a day will give you the benefits of fruit without the problems associated with a higher fructose intake.

NATURAL STARCHES

Natural starches should be the primary fuel for fitness athletes. We’re talking foods like yams, sweet potatoes, potatoes, rice, oatmeal, and quinoa. These foods have gotten a bad rap over the years in the low carb dieting craze, but they are important to anyone who is active and consistently training with weights.

Vegetables are great, but they alone do not provide fitness athletes with enough fuel for intense activity. Natural starches provide the more concentrated source of energy necessary for the metabolic demands of hard training athletes.

Natural starches are superior to refined starches and sugars because they digest slower and provide a more even blood sugar response. This controls insulin release and makes it much more likely they will be used for energy, and less likely they will be stored as body fat.

And dare I say it, but I believe natural starches are superior to fruits for fitness athletes. Remember, fruits are preferentially stored as liver glycogen. These stores are limited, and once they are full, all excess nutrients are stored as body fat. Starches are preferentially stored as muscle glycogen, which is a major distinction. These stores are larger and can hold more in reserve.

In addition, MUSCLE GLYCOGEN is the primary energy source used to fuel intense activity like weight training. Doesn’t it make sense, muscle energy reserves fuel muscle activity? As fitness athletes, we need to store and replenish muscle glycogen, and this requires natural starch intake.

Vegetables are the most important carbohydrate for overall health. Natural starches are the most important carbohydrate for activity. Yes, they need to be portioned and controlled to prevent body fat storage, but they provide us with the raw energy compounds necessary to fuel and recover from our workouts, and reap the body transformation benefits of busting our ass in the gym.

THE TAKE HOME MESSAGE

Well, it’s been a long and winding road through this carbohydrate journey. Once again, I’ve thrown a s*#!load of information at you all at once. Don’t worry if you didn’t get it all, because the take home message is a lot simpler than the details of carbohydrate metabolism.

Activity should determine carbohydrate intake, exclamation point! This means that sedentary (non-active) populations should be eating much differently than active fitness athletes.

If you are sedentary, don’t let traditional nutritionists or ADA guidelines make you think you need to be eating a ton of carbohydrates. You don’t. In fact, if you are sedentary and are pounding carbs all day, I’ll bet that you’re fat. For non-active populations, over consuming the wrong types of carbohydrates is the #1 reason why you are overweight.

Lower carbohydrate diets are the best diets for sedentary populations or those who perform exclusively low intensity activity (i.e., walking). Notice I said lower carbohydrate, not NO carbohydrate (yeah I know it’s a double negative, relax grammar boy). You still need to eat vegetables, and to a lesser extent fruits for overall health and micronutrient intake. Carbs ARE the enemy if you are inactive. I wouldn’t even count them. Simply eliminate all starch (even natural starches) and sugar and rely solely on fruits and vegetables for carbohydrate intake. The rest of your calories should come from lean protein and healthy fats. This is the protocol of lower carbohydrate diets like the Zone Diet.

Fitness athletes, however, need more fuel than sedentary populations. If you are active, don’t let some low carb guru make you think that carbs are the devil reincarnated. In fact, if you are active and are severely restricting your carbohydrate intake, you’re sabotaging your potential results. I’d bet that you are not gaining muscle or dropping body fat at the rate you think you should be. You’re not giving yourself the nutrients you need to build/maintain muscle, sculpt your body, boost your metabolism, and burn fat. Fitness athletes need fruits and vegetables for overall health, but they need the extra natural starches because of increased energy and metabolic demands. They should cut out sugars and refined starches, and eat the right amounts and ratios of natural starches to optimize results.

Wow, glad that’s over, now its time for the test. Ready?

CARBOHYDRATE FOOD LISTS

Vegetables (good choice for everyone): Broccoli, Tomato, Green Onion, Peppers, Asparagus, Collard Greens, Celery, Cabbage, Cucumber, Zucchini, Swiss Chard, Bok Choy, Eggplant, Sea vegetables, Lettuce (dark colored greens are best), Mushroom, Cauliflower, Carrots, Brussel Sprouts, Kale, Peas, Spinach, Onion, Sprouts, Artichoke, Green Beans, Okra

Whole Fruits (good choice for everyone, 1-2 servings per day): Apple, Orange, Cherry, Nectarine, Tangerine, Banana, Blueberry, Grapefruit, Grape, Peach, Watermelon, Papaya, Blackberry, Apricot, Honeydew, Pear, Plum, Mango, Raspberry, Cantaloupe, Kiwi, Strawberry, Pineapple

Natural Starches (good choice for fitness athletes): Yam, Sweet Potato, Potato, Rice, Oatmeal, Quinoa, Squash, Beans

Man-Made Carbs (bad choices): Fruit juice, Fruit smoothies, Jam/Jelly, Candy, Soda, Chips, Crackers, Muffins, Bagels, Cereal, Doughnuts, Pasta, Breads, Pita, Pastries, Tortillas, Popcorn, Corn, Dried fruits, Honey, Molasses, Maple syrup, High sugar condiments, Table sugar, Brown sugar, Cereal bars

Copyright 2010 Nate Miyaki

In the 1970′s, research was released that linked excessive saturated fat intake with heart disease. In response, medical professionals and nutritionists advised people to follow a low fat, high carbohydrate diet for optimum health. They recommended people restrict their fat intake, and did not distinguish between the different types of fats. Cut fat across the board was the motto — as long as it was low fat it was thought to be good for you.

Nowadays, there has been a shift in the nutritional paradigm. We now know that there are good fats and bad fats, and a moderate intake of the right types of dietary fat can actually improve our overall health profile. We also know about the dangers of eating too many refined and processed carbohydrates. Over consumption of the wrong types of carbohydrates is the number one reason why so many Americans are overweight and unhealthy. As a result, low carbohydrate diets have become popular in the mainstream health & fitness circles.

Overall health should always be the primary focus of any nutrition plan, but fitness athletes also care about body composition transformation. We have higher aspirations than just being fit and healthy, we want to maximize lean muscle and minimize body fat. The real question is how do we divide up our macronutrient intake to achieve these lofty goals? Should we go the old school route of a low fat intake or the more current, popular trend of going low carb?

In the carbohydrate article in this Nutrition 101 series, I’ll explain to you why a moderate amount of carbohydrates are necessary to build muscle and attain a lean, fit physique. But in this article, we’ll focus on dietary fat. If carbohydrates are going to be moderate, than we need to keep a close eye on our fat intake to make sure our bodies are not receiving too much fuel at once. Too much fuel equals too much body fat, plain and simple.

There are several key points fitness athletes must understand about dietary fat if they are going to reach their body composition goals. So let’s get to it.

1. Fat is the most calorie dense macronutrient

Despite what some fad diet guru may tell you, total calories are still the most important factor in the fat loss equation. If you eat more calories than you burn in a day, you’re going to add body fat. If you eat fewer calories than you burn in a day, you’re going to lose body fat — period for now, but not quite the end of the story. There are no miracle diets that can recreate scientific principles and circumvent the law of thermodynamics.

Fat contains 9 calories per gram, more than double that of protein and carbohydrate at 4 calories per gram. If you reduce your fat intake you are automatically going to be reducing your total calories. This makes it much more likely you will reach the calorie deficit necessary to drop body fat.

2. In caloric excess (eating above your maintenance calorie level — both per day and per meal), dietary fat is the macronutrient that is most easily stored as body fat.

Once you get beyond the golden rule of total calories, however, the types and ratios of macronutrients you eat DOES play a factor in dropping body fat. Unlike what a traditional nutritionist may preach, a calorie is not just a calorie. Each macronutrient impacts hormones and other chemical processes involved in body composition transformation in different ways.

Extremes usually help people understand basic nutritional concepts that sometimes are hard to grasp. Here is an extreme example. A 1600-calorie diet consisting exclusively of butter will have a much different impact on body composition than a 1600-calorie diet consisting exclusively of chicken breast. Obviously its not just about total calories, its also about the type of calories you eat. Dietary fat is the macronutrient most likely to be stored as body fat when you eat above your calorie needs, both per meal and per day. Why? The chemical composition of dietary fat is similar to that of body fat. It is a relatively easy, efficient process for your body to pack away dietary fat into body fat stores when there is a surplus of energy in the body. Fat cells simply grab on to circulating fatty acids, pull them in, and add them to that roll of blubber beneath the skin.

Carbohydrates and proteins are less likely to be stored as body fat. Carbohydrates and proteins must be digested, broken down, transformed, and reassembled in order to be stored as body fat. This costs energy and effort. While it can and does happen in this manner, as long as there are fatty acids available from dietary fat intake, the body prefers the most efficient route. And that is to store excess dietary fat as body fat.

3. In the presence of high insulin levels (as the result of too large a meal or too much sugar and/or refined carbohydrates), dietary fat is the macronutrient most likely to be stored as body fat.

If you forgot everything else about fitness nutrition, and only implemented one specific core principle, you would probably end up with a decent physique and be happy with the results. That one basic principle is this: Your consumption of carbohydrates (particularly sugars and starches) and dietary fat should be inversely related.

In other words, the more carbohydrates you eat, the less fats you should eat. The more fats you eat, the less carbohydrates you should eat. Like everything else with fitness nutrition, the theory is simple; it’s the real life implementation of that theory that is difficult.

Why? The main problem with our fast food, American lifestyle is that our typical dietary staples are high in both of these nutrients. Mochas, burgers, pizza, fries, chips, doughnuts, pastries, and on and on, these are all foods high in both dietary fat and sugary or starchy carbohydrates. Carbohydrates and fats are our primary energy sources, and if you bombard the body with too much fuel at once, it has no choice but to store the excess as body fat. Its like trying to put two nozzles of gas into one tank, inevitably there will be some spillover. In the human body, excess fuel spills over into fat cells.

Physiologically, here is what happens when you eat a meal high in both dietary fat and sugary/starchy carbohydrates. For some of you who have read diet books or articles, some of this may sound familiar. For others it will sound completely new. I’ll do my best to simplify a complex process.

Dietary fat ultimately ends up as circulating fatty acids in the bloodstream. Carbohydrates, especially refined/processed carbohydrates, elevate blood sugar (blood glucose) levels. The body keeps a tight regulation on blood sugar levels; when blood sugar elevates above normal levels, the body responds by releasing the hormone insulin from the pancreas to clear nutrients from the blood and return blood sugar levels back to within its normal range.

Insulin is basically a “storage” hormone, it helps the body store glucose, amino acids, and fatty acids for use at a later date. Because the chemical structure of dietary fat is similar to that of body fat, when insulin is clearing fatty acids out of the bloodstream, they are readily deposited into fat cells and stored as body fat. In other words, its very easy for body fat cells to basically just “suck up” fatty acids when insulin makes them available.

So elevated insulin (from too many refined carbohydrates or too many calories in general) plus fatty acids in the bloodstream (from too much dietary fat intake) virtually guarantees body fat gain. You don’t have to remember the science, but you should remember the take home message: SUGARY OR STARCHY CARBS + DIETARY FAT = BODY FAT.

In the real world, it is sort of true what they say. That pizza is going straight to your ass, or gut, or whatever your problem area may be.

4. Even if your body is in a fat burning mode, dietary fat will be used as a fuel first before stored body fat.

Let’s say you are doing everything right to set up a fat burning environment in your body. You’re spacing your meals out properly, eating the right portion sizes, choosing the right quality and quantity of carbohydrates, and exercising regularly. Theoretically, you’ve turned your body into a fat burning machine. But are you burning the right type of fat?

If you are eating a high fat diet, then the answer, most likely, is a disappointing no. Here’s the problem. If there are fatty acids circulating in the bloodstream from recent food intake, your body will use those as energy first BEFORE tapping into body fat stores.

Body fat must be broken down into fatty acids to be used as energy. That’s an extra step. If there are already fatty acids available from dietary fat intake, there is no reason for your body to break down body fat. Your body prefers the most efficient route to energy production.

If blood fatty acid levels are chronically elevated from a high fat diet, you’re body is never really going to be forced to tap into fat stores and you’re not going to lose much body fat. This is what happens with people who follow super low carbohydrate, unlimited fat diets (certain phases of the Atkins Diet).

By getting blood sugar under control they initially lose weight, but eventually plateau. Since they lose out on some of the muscle building/preserving effects of carbohydrates, a lot of the weight they lose is lean muscle mass. And since they are eating unlimited amounts of dietary fat, they’re burning mostly that as fuel, not stored body fat.

Muscle weighs more than fat, and you can shed muscle more quickly than fat. That, along with water loss, is why people can lose weight so quickly on those types of diets. But it is not the right type of weight. Preserving body fat and losing lean muscle mass is not the ideal scenario for a fitness athlete. Even though the bathroom scale may say you are winning, the mirror will SHOW you that you are losing.

That’s why extreme diets don’t work in the long run. Even if you haven’t touched a carb since 1999, you still have to keep dietary fat moderate enough to force your body to burn body fat.

CUT THE FAT?

So why not limit fat intake all together like they recommended in the 70′s? If it takes low levels of blood fatty acids to prevent your body from storing fat and to force it to burn body fat, why not just cut dietary fat out completely?

Not so fast, extreme diets don’t work in the long run for super low carbs, but they don’t work for super low fat either. Fats do some good things in our bodies, both for overall health and for body composition transformation. So you’ll need some fat in your diet to achieve your fitness goals.

5. A moderate amount of fat is necessary for optimum hormone production; hormones which ultimately signal our bodies to build muscle and burn fat.

A certain amount of dietary fat is necessary to maintain optimum production and functioning of hormones. Fat and cholesterol are the building blocks necessary to produce certain hormones related to body composition transformation.

Optimum natural levels of hormones such as testosterone and growth hormone are necessary to build muscle, boost metabolism, and burn fat. Deficiencies in these hormones can make it virtually impossible to achieve these goals no matter how diligent you are with the rest of your diet and training programs. If your hormones are working against you, your body is not going to change no matter what you do.

Testosterone is the best example of the impact of dietary intake on hormone production. Research has shown that very low fat diets (less than 15% of total calories) suppress natural testosterone production. Conversely, moderate fat diets (25-40% of total calories) raise natural testosterone levels.

It’s important to note that total calories impact testosterone levels as well, so we don’t want to eat unlimited amounts of fat just to try and boost testosterone levels. This would end up having detrimental effects on our body composition goals. But this research clearly shows the relationship between dietary fat and hormone production. It also shows us why we need to keep some fat in our diets.

6. Certain fats can improve our overall health profile.

A certain amount of fat in the diet is necessary for optimum health and functioning. Fats are involved in the transport of fat-soluble vitamins. Essential fatty acids can’t be made internally and must be obtained through food intake. These nutrients are involved in cellular repair, recovery, skin health, and proper immune system functioning.

The biggest advantage of dietary fat intake is their effects on certain disease risk factors. “Good fats” can have a dramatic impact on our overall health profile. Not only does this make us less prone to deadly diseases, it makes us feel better and more energetic. This translates into better gym performances, and better results.

Omega-3 fats can lower blood triglyceride and blood pressure levels. Monounsaturated fats have been researched and proven to lower bad cholesterol (LDL) levels and raise good cholesterol (LDL) levels.

FINDING THE BALANCE

We are left with a catch-22. We must eat enough of the right types of fat for optimum hormone production and to improve our overall health profile, but not so much that we store the excess as fat or prevent our body from using stored body fat as fuel. The answer, of course, lies in moderation. A little bit of time in the sunshine can be a good thing. It helps our bodies naturally produce vitamin D, elevates our mood, and can even provide us with an attractive tan. Too much time in the sun, however, can be harmful. It can cause painful sunburns, wrinkles, and predispose us to skin cancer. While in moderation spending some time in the sun can be beneficial to our health, overexposure can be deadly.

Does this sound familiar? Probably, because that’s how most things work in real life. Moderation is the key. Too much of anything can be detrimental to our well-being. This is the type of approach you need to take with dietary fat if you want to attain a lean, fit physique. A moderate amount of the right types of fat can do wonders for your overall health profile and
body composition goals. Too much fat, even the “good” kind, will make it impossible for you to lose body fat and look good naked.

QUANTITY

So how much fat are we talking about? As with protein and carbohydrates I recommend you base your fat intake off of your lean body mass rather than percentages. Getting 20% of your calories from fat is considered a low fat diet if you eat 1800-2000 calories a day, but if you eat 5000-6000 calories a day, all of a sudden that 20% turns into a high fat diet.

Making calculations based off of lean body mass is the best way to go because your metabolic rate, or how many calories you burn in a day, is closely linked to your lean body mass. This is the most accurate way to assess what your body truly needs, not some random height, weight, and age food charts.

About ¼ to 1/3g of dietary fat per 1lb of lean body mass is a good place to start.

DIETARY FAT INTAKE CHART

Lean Body Mass	0.25g/lb	0.33g/lb
100 lbs	25g	33g
150 lbs	38g	50g
175 lbs	44g	58g
200 lbs	50g	67g
225 lbs	56g	75g
250 lbs	63g	83g
275 lbs	69g	92g

FAT QUALITY

Back in the No Fat Era of the 70′s, nutritionists and medical professionals failed to distinguish between the various types of dietary fats, hence the recommendations to restrict all fat intact regardless of the source. We now know that different fats have different impacts on our health profile.

In terms of general health, some fats can be beneficial and some can be severely detrimental. In fact there is a commercial diet book called, “Fats that Heal, Fats that Kill.” No other title could be more accurate. In terms of body composition transformation, there are “good” fats that help us produce beneficial hormones and burn fat. There are also “bad” fats that contribute to insulin resistance and make us more prone to storing body fat.

TRANS FATS, HYDROGENATED OILS

Hydrogenated fats/transfats are not natural fats. They have been chemically altered by man to extend shelf life and are incorporated into many snack foods. The majority of the time man has altered foods for taste or mass consumption, it ends up having devastating effects on our health.

Foods that contain trans fats/hydrogenated oils are among the worst foods you could ever ingest. This type of fat is, to put it bluntly, a cold-blooded killer. Trans fats raise total cholesterol, bad cholesterol (LDL), blood triglycerides, and lower good cholesterol (HDL). They are linked to all of our most common health problems: obesity, diabetes and a host of other risk factors for common killers such as heart disease, stroke, and cancer.

As a fitness athlete looking to maximize body composition, the recommended intake of trans fats per day is zero. And for those just pursuing general health, the safe upper limit of trans fat intake per day is zero. Get the point?

SATURATED FATS

Saturated fats are a tricky one. There are some naturally occurring saturated fats in all animal proteins; some are much higher than others. Moderate amounts of saturated fat can actually be beneficial, and aids in the production of some of our natural hormones like testosterone. It can also raise good cholesterol levels.

There is a misconception that all of the fat found in protein foods, particularly beef, is saturated fat. Nothing could be further from the truth. Only about 50% of the fat found in natural beef is saturated fat. The remaining 50% or so is made up of healthy monounsaturated fat. Surprising isn’t it?

Another consideration is that not all saturated fats are created equal. There are different types of fatty acids that fall under the saturated fat category. Some have the capability of raising cholesterol levels, including the bad LDL type. Others, particularly stearic acid (the primary saturated fatty acid found in natural meats), have been researched and proven to have no impact on LDL levels. It turns out the bum rap on animal proteins is not warranted.

That being said, however, excessive amounts of saturated fats have also been linked to some of our most common killers and should be eaten in moderation. I’m certainly not Mr. Atkins, Jr. and recommending you go out and eat a bunch of bacon, butter, and burgers. That’s not going to make you any healthier, or leaner for that matter. You should choose leaner protein sources over their higher fat and processed counterparts to control both fat quantity and quality, but don’t worry about the natural saturated fats found in leaner meats, poultry, and a couple of eggs. Our bodies can process these foods efficiently. They come from nature and we evolved on diets that contained a fair amount of these foods.

You should make an attempt, however, to eliminate other unnecessary sources of saturated fat, especially when it is combined with trans fats and/or sugar (processed meats, junk food, fried foods, cream, high fat dairy, etc.).

MONOUNSATURATED FATS

Monounsaturated fats are probably the best type of fat you can include in your diet. They are the “anti-trans fats”, having positive effects on both our overall health profile and body composition. Monounsaturated fats have been researched and proven to raise good cholesterol and lower total cholesterol, bad cholesterol, and blood triglycerides.

Most people associate monounsaturated fat with olive oil and nuts. These, indeed, are good source of monounsaturated fats. But as I mentioned above, animal proteins also contain a good amount of monounsaturated fat. Diets consisting of lean cuts of meat, poultry, and fish along with moderate amounts of added monounsaturated fats are the best way to go for fitness athletes.

ESSENTIAL FATTY ACIDS

EFA’s, as they are called, are a special subset of polyunsaturated fats. EFA’s are fats that the body cannot produce itself and must be obtained through your diet. They are essential for natural body functioning, and deficiencies can lead to a host of problems. There are two – alphalinolenic acid (Omega 3) and linoleic acid (Omega 6).

Entire books have been written about EFA’s. Obviously, there is too much to cover in this article. In future Nutrition 202 articles, we can go into great depth about the proper uses, ratios, and benefits of these compounds. It is sufficient for this article’s sake just to summarize a few main points.

Omega 6′s can have a positive impact on our blood lipid profiles. And Omega 3′s, what don’t they do? The derivatives of Omega 3’s, EPA (eicosapentaenoic acid) and DHA (docosahexaenoic acid), have been researched and proven to have cardio-protective effects. They contribute to neurological development, brain function, cognitive function, and positive moods. They are responsible for the formation of prostaglandins and other hormone-like substances that regulate blood pressure, the immune system, growth mechanisms, and inflammation/anti-inflammation processes. It’s safe to say Omega 3’s and their derivatives play a vital role in our health and well-being.

There’s no doubt EFA’s can support your muscle building/fat burning hormones, help you burn body fat, and improve your overall health profile. They’re not called ESSENTIAL fatty acids for nothing.

REAL WORLD APPLICATION

Right now you might be saying to yourself, “Thanks Nate for the s*%& load of information, but how does that all translate into the real world of fitness athletes?”

Well, as a fitness athlete you know you are going to be eating a higher protein diet, right around 1g of protein per 1lb of lean body mass. You now know that all lean sources of animal protein contain some fat, usually with a decent amount of healthy monounsaturated fat.

You have to keep your fat intake moderate, so I recommend keeping most of your fat intake as by-product of your lean protein sources — lean meats, lean poultry, fatty fish (i.e., salmon), and whole egg/egg white mixtures (one egg per 4-5 whites). Eliminate fatty cuts of meat and added fats like cream, butter, dairy, and snack/junk foods. If you find that your fat intake is low, you can then add some healthy monounsaturated fats like nuts, nut butters, olive oil, and olive oilbased
salad dressings. Be careful though, it is easy for you to overeat these added fats and shoot past your daily totals. Portion control is key.

FAT FOOD LISTS

GOOD FAT CHOICES

• Meat/Fish/Eggs: Fatty fish (salmon, mackerel, sardines); Lean poultry (chicken breast, turkey breast); Lean meats (top round, eye of round, sirloin, etc.); Eggs (in moderation)
• Nuts/Seeds: Macadamia nuts, Peanuts, Olives, Avocados, Pecans, Walnuts, Cashews, Pine Nuts, Brazil Nuts
• Oils and Spreads: Almond Oil, Natural Almond Butter, Macadamia Nut Oil, Natural Peanut Butter, Cold-pressed olive oil, olive oil-based salad dressing; Guacamole, Fish oil supplements (cod liver oil, salmon oil, sardine oil, EPA/DHA capsules); GLA oil supplementation (Evening primrose, Borage oil)

BAD FAT CHOICES

• Dairy: Full-fat dairy products; Cream; Full-fat cheeses; Cream cheese, Sour cream
• OIls: Canola oil; Corn oil, Soybean oil; Sesame oil; Partially/Hydrogenated oil; Vegetable shortening; Lard; Anything fried in oil
• Spreads and Salad Dressings: Caesar Salad dressing; Ranch dressing; Thousand Island dressing; Mayonnaise; Butter, Margarine