The foundation for successful exercise is nutrition. Food fuels our bodies for movement and gives us the nutrients we need to recover and adapt to exercise training stimuli.  We are going to talk about the basic components of what we eat, the macronutrients.

Food is made up of energy, or calories, and this energy comes in the form of protein, carbohydrates, or fat (the macronutrients). Protein and carbohydrates contain 4 calories per gram, where fat contains 9 calories per gram. This is why foods high in fat are high calorie foods as well. It is very important to have the proper balance of carbohydrates, protein and fat in your diet. The USDA recommends for the average 2000-2500 calorie diet that 50% of your daily calories come from carbohydrates, 30% from fat, and 20% from protein. This is a guideline, so depending on your fitness goals these may be different.

Keep in mind that a 2000-2500 calorie diet is average and not appropriate for everyone. To know how many calories you should be consuming daily you must first determine your daily caloric expenditure. How many calories you burn in a day is a combination of your resting metabolism or how many calories your body burns on its own with no activity and the amount of calories you burn from all physical activity completed during that day. You can calculate your resting metabolic rate with the Harris-Benedict formula:                                                                                                            

Men: BMR = 66 + (13.7 X wt in kg) + (5 X ht in cm) - (6.8 X age in years)                                                     

Women: BMR = 655 + (9.6 X wt in kg) + (1.8 X ht in cm) - (4.7 X age in years)                 

Then you will need to determine how many calories you burn in a day from activity by using a simple multiplier that is based on your physical activity level:

Sedentary = BMR X 1.2 (little or no exercise, desk job)
                       

Lightly active = BMR X 1.375 (light exercise/sports 1-3 days/wk)
                       

Mod. active = BMR X 1.55 (moderate exercise/sports 3-5 days/wk)
           

Very active = BMR X 1.725 (hard exercise/sports 6-7 days/wk)
                       

Extr. active = BMR X 1.9 (hard daily exercise/sports & physical job or 2X day training, i.e marathon, contest etc.)

Once you have determined how many calories you burn in a day you can determine how many you should be eating per day. Your caloric intake is dependent on your fitness goals. For instance, if you have weight loss as a goal, you will need to make sure that your caloric expenditure exceeds your caloric intake. If you are trying to maintain your weight they should be equal and if you’re trying to gain muscle mass intake must exceed expenditure.

When we eat is also an important factor. To make the best use of our body’s metabolism it is important to spread out our daily intake by have smaller, more frequent meals. This keeps our metabolism operating at a more even rate throughout the day, reduces the occurrence of hunger, eliminates the crash we feel after having too big a meal, and increases our energy levels. Remember breakfast is the most important meal of the day because it kick starts our metabolism. Not eating breakfast can make your metabolism start off the day at a lower rate and affect how calories eaten later in the day are used. It is also very important to eat a meal after your workout. This is the time of day that your metabolism is at its highest because of the large amount of energy expended during exercise. It is important to ingest both carbohydrates and protein after workouts to replenish energy stores and rebuild damaged muscle tissue.

Finally don’t forget that calories are not the only important consideration when it comes to nutrition, hardly in fact. You also need to consider the sources of your calories and make sure that you are eating healthy foods. Wellness Clinic members please take advantage of our nutrition specialist Liz Graham. Liz can help you organize your diet and give you healthy ideas for meals. She has office hours in the Clinic on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 12 to 1pm. You can email her at egraham2@ithaca.edu to set up an appointment.

Make sure that your hard work in the gym isn’t going to waste because of poor eating habits.

Live Well,

Marc