Nutrition

Macronutrients

Macronutrients are dietary requirements we need in larger amounts for survival.

They are carbohydrates, fats, and protein.

Anything that contains a calorie comes from one of our macronutrient sources

Each one of these has an amount of energy associated with it.

• Carbs have 4 cals/g
• protein has 4 cals/g
• Fat has 9 cals/g
• Alcohol has 7 cals/g

So when you see a chocolate bar has 180 calories, those 180 cals is some sort of combination of carbs, fat, and protein.

For the sake of simplicity, in addition to overall calories, you’re going to want to focus on protein.

Carbohydrates

Simple carbs digest more quickly and usually enter the bloodstream immediately, whereas complex carbs are slow-digesting and enter the blood stream more slowly.

• Both types of carbs are an important part of nutrition for athletes; it is the macro which plays the biggest role in our training performance and also helps to fill out our muscles by storing extra energy in the muscle, rather than in fat cells.

When it comes to training and nutrition, most will benefit from eating about 50% of your carbs for the day around your training session (pre, intra, and post workout).

Some common signs that we need more carbs in our diet are exhaustion, brain fog, low energy, mood swings, dizziness, and poor digestion.

Short term energy macro

Protein

When we consume protein, it prioritizes its energy on building and repairing tissues in our body.

• important for our muscle, bones, hair, nails, blood, and skin.
• builds and prevents you from losing too much muscle

When working out, we’re breaking down our muscle tissues in the gym; the recovery and “building” of the actual muscle occurs due to protein in our diet.

helps you feel full and therefore lessen the need for more food

A good rule of thumb for protein targets is to take a range from your bodyweight of between 1g/lb target and 1g/lb current

• ex. if you weigh 200lbs and your target weight is 170lbs, aim for between 170-200g of protein. If you had a calorie goal of 2000 per day, then of those 2000 calories, somewhere between 680-800 of those calories would be for protein (since protein has 4 calories per gram)

Fat

When we consume fats, it prioritizes its energy on keeping hormones in balance, absorbing essential nutrients, and to protect our organs.

Some common signs that we need more fats in our diet are constant hunger, feeling cold, exhaustion, mood swings, and dry skin.