Yeah man – so much noise about food out there. High protein, no-carb, low-carb, Paleo, Keto, Mediterranean, eat for your blood type, eat for your geography, and on and on. How do you know what’s right for you?
Unfortunately, there’s no easy answer. Each of us has unique body chemistry. What works for your friend or sibling might not work for you. So you gotta do a little research and try stuff – informed trial and error.
This food discussion could take a really long time, so I intend to cover it over a number of posts, not necessarily in a row. How about we start with how much to eat?
Basal metabolic rate (BMR) is your guide here. BMR is just a long, fancy phrase for how many calories your body burns just to keep its basic functions going at rest. Basic functions being brain function, heart pumping, breathing – you know, that stuff that it’s really hard to live without doing.
That’s really great OldAFFitness guy, how do I know what my BMR is? Go on-line and look up BMR calculator. There are tons of them. Punch in your info and you’ll get a number. That number is the number of calories you need to consume daily to function.
Well OldAFFitness guy, I think you’re wrong because if I don’t eat anything tomorrow I might be really hungry but I’ll keep functioning. Totally true. You may not function as well as you would with proper nutrition that day, but you won’t die. And that’s because you have a surplus of calories sitting in your body in various areas that your body will feed off of in these situations (yeah I might have called you fat). But if you had no fat stores, it would be a different discussion.
So what do I do with this BMR number, OldAFFitness guy? Good question. Before we get into that, let’s cover something else real quick. Let’s say you punch your numbers in and it comes back with 1,700 calories per day as your BMR. And don’t confuse BMR with BMI – BMI is some medical industry formualted number that says everyone is obese. It’s kind of stupid.
So let’s say you decide you’re going to stick to the 1,700 calories per day for a little while. And you love marshmallows and vodka and decide you’re going to take in all 1,700 calories each day in the form of those two “food” items. Don’t complain when in a month you’re in the worst shape of your life with a few new autoimmune disorders. All calories are not created equal.
You need to take in an intelligent mix of quality calories. Sometimes you’ll hear the basic parts of that mix referred to as “macronutrients.” These are just the basic three nutrients your body needs – protein, carbohydrate and fat. A good guideline for the mix is 40% protein, 40% carbohydrate and 20% fat – not a hard and fast rule, but a guideline.
OMG OldAFFitness guy, how would I keep track of such things? Go on-line and you’ll find many apps on which you can track your daily intake in great detail. So 40% of 1,700 is 680, meaning you’d want to take in 680 calories of each of protein and carbohydrate, and the remainder (340 for the mathematically challenged) in fat calories. Now remember each gram of protein and carbohydrate is roughly four calories and each gram of fat is roughly nine calories. So the fat calories add up much more quickly – more than twice as fast.
And, like we discussed before, not all calories are equal. If you decide you want all of your fat calories to come from Cheez Whiz (which I agree is delicious), those fat calories are coming from a cheap oil source – canola oil typically. Just thinking logically, there’s no way that fat from canola oil is going to be as good for you as fat from a fruit like avocado or olives. Yes they are fruits. And they’re green, so shit yeah they’re good for you.
Keep your proteins to fish and pasture-raised eggs and meats, if you can. Grass-fed beef is pretty easy to find, and it was raised eating its natural food source – grass. Cattle don’t naturally graze on corn and soy. But more on that in another post. Pasture-raised eggs are easy to find these days, too. Yeah they cost more, but your health is worth it. The chickens who lay these eggs are raised eating grass and bugs and all the nasty crap they are meant to eat – not necessarily the “vegetarian diet” the mass-produced egg cartons often tout. You’ll see a huge difference in the color of the yolk. Regular mass-produced eggs will have a very pale yellow yolk. Pasture-raised egg yolks will be deep yellow to a sunset orange (sounds sexy – huh?). They contain far more nutrients that your body can easily absorb.
Carbs are the hard part. Sugar is an awful carb. Wheat is a bad carb. And they are so easily available. It’s a problem. Some of the best carbs for you are probably sweet potatoes and white rice. Pain in the butt, I know. But you’ll notice a difference if you cut down on the sugar and wheat and replace those carbs with these items. Lotta controversy on regular potatoes, and we can discuss that another time. Personally, I avoid them.
Above all, make sure you take in a lot of leafy greens. I haven’t found research yet that suggests they are anything but good for you. Spinach, kale, bok choy, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, etc. And keep your greens clean. Soaking them in creamy dressing isn’t the way.
OldAFFitness guy, what about oats, and whole wheat and brown rice and quinoa and all that stuff? There are many schools of thought on these things and I am from one that says those carbohydrate items are hard on and can even be damaging to your system. But more on that in another post.
We covered a lot today and didn’t get back to working from the BMR number to dcetermine a daily caloric intake amount. We can pick up there next time.
I’m adding a little something new to each post going forward:
The cocktail of the day and the exercise tune of the day.
Today’s cocktail is the Southside. A lovely and refreshing gin drink infused with mint and lime. My 11-year old makes ’em like a champ. Yeah you can drink and be healthy, just don’t be a pig about it.
Exercise tune of the day is Shenanigans by Jasiah. Enjoy – until next time!