There's seems to be so much confusion now a days about nutrition, dieting, eating right and how to lose or gain weight that I'm going to give you the Dummies version of some basic concepts about nutrition and at the same time try to break some "myths" about it.
- The two sides of nutrition: There are two sides to eating. One side deals with what and how you should eat to gain muscle or lose fat. The other sides deals with what you should eat to have a healthy body.
- A fit body and/or a healthy body: I know that these two concepts appear to be one and the same but they are not. It's possible to have a healthy body but remain unfit and vice versa (to be fit but have an unhealthy body). You should choose an eating and fitness plan that allows you to be both: fit and healthy!
- A BASIC equation : When people think about dieting and nutrition they tend to ONLY think about gaining or loosing weight. Also, most people tend to over-complicate things when it comes to dieting. There's NO need for that. Loosing fat or gaining muscle weight is an EASY equation: calories in vs. calories out! Is THAT simple!
Loose weight = calories out > calories in
Gain weight = calories out < calories in
It doesn't matter what diet plan you are following (Atkins, The Zone, South Beach, etc.). And it doesn't matter what foods you eat (as long as we are talking strictly about how to lose weight, NOT how to have a healthy body!). Calories are calories (whether they come from fat, protein or carbs), and if you goals is to lose or gain weight, then calories in vs calories out is all that it matters.
Did you see Super Size Me by Morgan Spurlock? If you haven't, then I HIGHLY recommend that you do. It's not only very funny but also a clear example of how eating the wrong foods can cause you to have an unhealthy body. In the movie Morgan goes on a crazy diet of eating McDonald's all day, every day for 30 days. He ends up putting over 30+ pounds (of FAT that is!). But the reason why I'm bringing the movie up is because, had Morgan followed a fitness plan (weights + cardio) that allowed him to BURN OFF all of the calories that he consummed, he'd have lost weight! Yes, that's right! If he had done ENOUGH exercising to burn all the calories that he ate every day at McDonald's plus a few more, he would have ended up lighter than he was at the beginnig of the movie. Still, and if you watched the movie you already know, he would have ended up lighter but unhealthy!
- 3500 - The magic number: There are 3,500 calories in one pound of fat. So, if you wanted to lose one pound of "fat" (you don't want to lose muscle, bones, skin weight. Right?) a week, then you would need to implement an eating and fitness plan that allows you to create a caloric deficit of 3500 calories in one week (7 days).
| Nutrient: | Calories per 1 gram |
| Fat | 9 |
| Carbohydrates | 4 |
| Protein | 4 |
This page is being updated.... please come back soon for more Nutrition 101.