Archive for May, 2010

What are you eating for? Part 2

Brian May 11th, 2010

When are you the most hungry?  Many people say they skip breakfast because they don’t get hungry until later in the day. The human body uses feedback mechanisms via hormones to control hunger and satiety. We should feel hungry after fasting (sleep is a fasting period, thus the term break-fast for the first meal of the day) and after high volume physical exertion. What are the two meals that people usually skimp on, or skip altogether? If you said breakfast and post workout give yourself a star.

When it comes to improving body composition it is not only skipping certain meals when we need nutrients, but also eating too many calories when our calorie requirements are lowest that are important. Many people will skip breakfast, eat a big lunch, an even bigger dinner and then snack until they go to bed. This is a recipe to get a body like this.

Ok, you get the point, but when should you eat and how much. A person’s basal metabolic rate (BMR) is a measure of how many calories your body needs to maintain your current weight and meet the needs of digestion, respiration, and brain function.

For men:

(Bodyweight/2.2) x 24

For women:

((Bodyweight/2.2) x .9) x 24

Now that you know how many calories you need to maintain your current weight we can determine how many calories you need to reach your goals. If you are trying to put on mass shoot for 500 calories/day (from protein and carbs) above BMR, and if you are trying to lean out shoot for 500 calories/day under BMR (from carbs and fat).

In the next installment I will cover the calorie and food breakdown for post workout nutrition.

In Strength,

Brian Ramage

What are you eating for?

Brian May 4th, 2010

Exercise enthusiasts and dieters have been trying to trick the body for decades. Remember the diet craze where people would eat just fat and protein in an attempt to burn body fat (ala Atkins). How about a high protein diet with a smattering of fats and carbohydrates to build muscle while keeping body fat low? The myriad diets are endless, but they fail to address the key concept in weight loss/management: eating for your body’s immediate needs.

The concept is not new, with many fitness “gurus” touting the benefits of this dietary approach. As nomads and cave people we ate only when we needed to. If the tribe or group had a particularly hard day of hunting the hunters were given more meat. The only things we hunt today are grease, salt, and sugar.

The beauty of this approach, if done correctly, is that there is very little waste. Think about pressing the accelerator on your car. If the cylinders cannot handle more gasoline it gets dumped into the exhaust. The fuel going into the exhaust is analogous to your body storing excess calories as body fat. More calories are needed in the morning, and pre and post workout, while less calories are needed before bed or while watching tv.

Check back for part 2 of this series where I discuss carbohydrate and protein needs.

In Strength,

Brian