Why you need to get fit. Today. Part 2: Eating right
If you want to do just one thing in your quest for fitness, it should be eating right. Whether you are training for a marathon, working out 6 times a week or just being a lazy ass, eating right can improve the quality of what you are doing by a significant margin.
For part 1, click here.
Macronutrients
Let us start by understanding macronutrients. Carbohydrates, proteins and fats are the three macronutrients, and we get all our energy for sustenance from these. Current conventional wisdom states that most of our energy should be consumed in the form of carbs. Unfortunately, that is quite flawed and in this post I hope to elaborate on why that is so, and what is a better method.
Carbs
Most of our diets are made up of carbs, most of us get about 75% of our energy from carbs today. One of the biggest changes one must make is to reduce the amount of carb-intake. Why? First, because we need a good amount of proteins and fats as well, a lot more than the current 15% or so of our diet. Second, a large amount of carbs that we intake are really really unhealthy carbs — with little nutritional value and a lot of detrimental side-effects (diabetes, for example). The unbelievable availability of processed carbs in every damn place, coupled with it tasting so damn good makes it near impossible to be healthy.
What do I mean by 75% of our energy comes from carbs. Using me as an example (5’6″, 60kgs/132lbs male), it would mean that if I ate 1800 calories a day, 1350 of those calories come from carbohydrates.
What do I mean by reducing the amount of carbs I eat? From constituting three-fourths, it should be reduced to an amount that is tailored to you (the actual number depends on your activity level, specifically the amount of endurance work you do). Please understand that am not saying carbs are dangerous or bad for you — not at all. But the balance between the 3 macronutrients is skewed towards carbs and it should be more balanced towards all three. Also, the reason ‘carbs are bad’ comes across is due to the prevalence of processed carbs in everything we eat. For an average/moderate diet, the amount of carbs you should eat will be around 2 grams per kg of body weight. If you are an endurance athlete, you should be eating around 8 gms of carb per kg of body weight.
To learn more, check out this article. Extremely informative and it will help you figure out how much carbs you should be eating.
Allowed (and not allowed) foods
The list of foods as carbohydrate sources is quite easy to remember — veggies (except starchy ones like potato) and fruit. Most of the carbs should be coming from green veggies and you can supplement it with some fruit (not a lot). For example, if you eat three apples a day, that might probably be your daily quota of carbs! Here’s some more on good carbs.
What should you not eat
- grains (stay with me here, dont react to this yet. We will figure out how to get there eventually). That includes rice, wheat, bread, pasta etc. Read this and this.
- Juice. And obviously, no sodas — diet or otherwise.
- anything processed — muffins, donuts, cakes, candies — you know the stuff.
How can I make the transition? How can I not eat grain? I need to cheat, at least once in a while
Yes, I know. I will try and answer these questions in the future. But start slowly. Start with part of one meal, then replace one meal. For example, if you normally eat two servings of rice, replace one serving with cottage cheese or just pile on the veggies or a combination of both. If you want to quit grain (yes, you do), start here. Replacing white rice with a better grain — quinoa for example, is a great start. But remember, eventually, we want to stop eating grain.
Proteins
The 20 or so amino acids make up the protein requirement. These are broadly classified into two — essential and non-essential. Essential amino acids are ones that need to be ingested and cannot be manufactured by the body, while non-essential ones can be manufactured by the body.
Update: Why do you need protein? Not getting enough protein will lead to a lot of issues, including your body eating your own muscles. For people who are targeting weight loss, if you see a reduction in weight, you could be losing muscle mass (rather than belly fat) if you are not eating enough protein.
How much protein does one need? Again, it depends on your activity level. A reasonable number is 1.6–2.0 grams per kg of lean body weight.
Protein sources. Eggs (and yes, eat the yolk as well. It is good for you), lean meat, whey protein supplements, shelled hemp seeds, cottage cheese. Obviously, if you are vegetarian, a section of that is unavailable to you (I am a pseudo-vegetarian and I manage very easily to get adequate protein). If you have more vegetarian questions, let me know. Other protein sources include tempeh, tofu etc. but soy products should be eaten in moderation. Here’s a list of foods as well — from Mark Sisson.
Dairy/Eggs
Cottage cheese (1 cup) – 28.1 grams
Yogurt, low fat (1 cup) – 10.7 grams
Skim milk (1 cup) – 8.3 grams
Whole milk (1 cup) – 8 grams
American cheese (1 oz.) – 7 grams
Soymilk (6 oz.) – 6.7 grams
Egg (1 large) – 6.3 grams
Meat Substitutes, Beans and Legumes, Nuts
Veggie Burger (6 oz.) – 51.4 grams (I do not recommend eating fake-meat products. They are heavily processed as well. But it might help you in the transition to this diet, if you are vegetarian).
Tofu (6 oz.) – 13.8 grams
Peanut Butter (2 Tbsp.) – 8.1 grams
Almond Butter (2 Tbsp.) – 7 grams
Lentils (1/2 cup) – 9 grams
Split Peas (1/2 cup) – 8.1 grams
Kidney Beans (1/2 cup) – 7.6 grams
Sesame Seeds (1 oz.) – 7.5 grams
Black Beans (1/2 cup) – 7.5 grams
Garbanzo Beans (1/2 cup) – 7.3 grams
Green Peas (1/2 cup) – 4.1 grams
Note about hemp: Hemp is the best natural, vegetarian source for protein as it contains all the essential amino acids you need. And yes, it is perfectly legal to consume hemp. You will not fail any drug tests etc. This is what I buy — if you are in India, get someone to bring this for you.
Fats
The purported villain of the diet, according to conventional wisdom. Well, for the hundredth time, conventional wisdom is dumb and wrong. You have to eat fat to burn fat. And just so we are clear, the fat in your belly (or ass or thighs) IS NOT FROM EATING FAT. It is from eating too much carbs (mostly from processed carbs coz it is really really hard to over-eat on carbs if you are eating only good carbs). Here’s a primer on dietary fats.
How much fat should I be eating? Am sure you know the answer by now — it depends. But since you know your carb and protein values, the rest of your calories are coming from fats. Now, each gram of fat = 9 calories. So, figure it out.
Food sources for fats. Cook your veggies/food (over a low flame. LOW FLAME) in coconut oil or olive oil. Avocado, if you can get your hands on them, are a great source of good fat. Coconut milk, shredded coconut and coconut–anything (not Bounty) are a great source of good fats because of the medium-chain fatty acid groups. Nuts are a great snack — macadamia, cashews and almonds. Egg yolk is another great fat source — do not be scared of eating them — up to 5 eggs a day is totally fine. And yes, I will write a related article regarding cholesterol and stuff. Almond butter is another good source. Add cheese and butter and ghee as well to stuff.
The thing about eating enough good fats is that most of the time, it is part of your meal rather than just eating food sources that are strictly fat. You definitely need to get into the kitchen more to get started on doing this dietary and cultural change.
Points to remember
- Balance your macronutrients
- Get enough protein and good fats
- Reduce carbohydrate intake and severely restrict processed carb intake
- Cheating is cool. Performing at 80% efficiency for 6 months is way better than 100% over 1 month.
- The fat in your belly comes from carbs
- Diabetes, to put it very simplistically, is caused by eating too much processed carb and NOT FATS.
- Fat free ice-cream will make you fat.
- Yes, I understand you are concerned about cholesterol. Increase your fat intake, reduce your carb-intake (and get processed carb as close to zero) and your blood work will improve. Our ancestors ate a lot more fat in their diet and had a lot less heart issues. Fact.
- Links. Carb & Fat controversy.
- Do not be scared of eating whole milk/yoghurt etc i.e. dont pick fat-free versions of dairy products. You are better off eating the whole products with the good fat in them. Plain yoghurt for example is great!
- Update: Here’s a post on how to transition to clean eating
Check out a few sample meals at Raj’s blog. I will update mine over the course of the year as well.
Update: An example
It might be of some use to people if I used an example. So, here goes. I am 5’6″ 132lbs/60kgs. I am trying to lean out i.e. restricting carbs more than average. Here’s how I started to figure out what I needed to eat. Start with protein — I want to get 30% of my daily requirement from proteins. And since I workout 5 times a week, I should be eating higher than normal i.e. around 2.2 grams per kilo of lean body weight. I suppose I have 12% body fat, which puts my lean body weight at 54kgs. So, my protein requirement = approx 120gms per day = 480 calories. So, my daily calorie quotient is (30%=480, 100%=?) 1600 calories. It is a bit more actually, due to my heavy workout schedule (around 1750). The amount of carbs I want to eat is less, around 15–20% = 320 calories = 80gms of carbs. Which leaves the rest for fat (800 calories = 90 grams of fat approx). The extra 100–200 calories, I get from carbs if I did endurance training or a mix of protein and carbs. On rest days, I eat less i.e. closer to 1600 calories.
Note: 1 gram of protein = 4 calories of energy. 1 gram of carb = 4 calories of energy. 1 gram of fat = 9 calories of energy.
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