Some would argue that how you fuel your body for performing (and recovery) is as important as how you prepare your body to perform.  Regardless of which side of the discussion you are on, one thing is for sure: how you fuel your body absolutely has a direct effect on your health, your fitness, your physique, and how you perform.  Putting bad food in your body can slow you down, have an impact on your endurance, weigh you down, or simply not be the right fuel for the energy your sport requires.  It also has a major impact on fat loss and building muscle mass.

Choosing the right foods (fuel) that have the macros you need is only part of the equation.  You must also consider quantity while at the same time creating balance.  Creating the right balance helps protect from developing deficiencies as well as helping your body optimize performance. Before we go any further, let’s make sure we are speaking the same language.

Energy = calories

Macronutrients = (there are 3) energy yielding nutrients. We need macros in large amounts – they are measured in grams (g). They are:

• carbohydrates (CHO) – 4 calories per gram
• protein (PRO) – 4 calories per gram
• fat (FAT) – 9 calories per gram

Micronutrients = are vitamins and minerals, occurring in much smaller amounts in food; they are measured in milligrams and micrograms.

• Vitamins – fat- and water-soluble vitamins. Vitamins are not metabolized for energy. Their primary job is working as a catalyst for many chemical reactions in the body, with some being essential for producing energy from the macronutrients.
• Minerals – essential for many vital metabolic processes.

Knowing what and how much you consume gives us a chance to adjust and improve your nutrition habits that will help compliment and maximize your training efforts. At some point, tracking what you consume could be the most important thing you could possibly do. Eating to lose body fat requires a different nutrition plan than eating to maintain where you are or gain lean muscle mass. Think about tracking your nutrition as if it were part of a GPS system. When you type in your destination, it’s impossible to get the correct and most efficient route to your destination WITHOUT having a starting location. When your GPS system starts working on compiling directions to guide you, the very first bit of information it uses is where you are located right now. Getting your nutrition dialed in (which you need to do), starts with tracking what your nutrition is right now.  Your macros are what gets adjusted when working on improving your nutritional habits. The sooner you can establish where we are starting, the sooner we can start your journey. You’ll never be able to out-train a bad diet…