Can anyone explain, in layman's terms, what roles protein, fats, and carbs play in diet, how much (proportionally) you should have of each, and the best times to consume?
Posted Apr 14, 2010, 3:47 PM UTC
A great website for tracking what you eat:
http://www.livestrong.com/myplate/
I've been using it for about a year straight now. Really makes you become aware of how many calories you are consuming, and where those calories are coming from.
Also shows Recommended Daily Allowances for carbs, protein, fat, sodium, etc.
Wow, thanks for this. This is great. Starting today.
Unless you're an extreme athlete, you don't need to stress too much about protein levels vs carb levels vs fat levels. The main thing is stay away from high calorie foods. Try to eat things that make you feel fuller(which tends to be protein and veggies). Don't drink your calories!
Exercise also doesn't have to be insane. It's mostly there to keep your body from going into low energy mode.
The key point is to not "diet and exercise", it's to make a lifestyle change. Find a way of eating you can stick with forever. Ditto with the exercise.
I'm not expert but from my understanding it goes like this.
Protein is for maintaining and building muscle. You want lots of protein especially after a workout so that your muscles can rebuild. If you aren't lifting weights you still want lots of protein to reduce muscle atrophy.
Carbs are for energy. You want carbs before a workout to give you fuel.
Fat I'm not 100% sure why we need it. It should be a lower portion of your diet though if you are trying to slim down.
I think a good balance is like 20% fat, 40% carb and 40% protein.
I'd love to hear some people tell me if I'm wrong or not as this is what I've generally picked up from reading around.
For a normal 2000 calorie diet for a healthy adult, you should be getting about 300 grams of carbohydrates, 65 grams of fat, and 50 grams of protein.
Fat: 1 gram = about 9 calories
Carbohydrates: 1 gram = about 4 calories
Protein: 1 gram = about 4 calories
So just multiply those calories by the recommended values, and you should be consuming roughly 1200 calories from carbohydrates (60%), 585 calories from fat (29%), and 215 calories from protein (11%).
Fat is used as a long term energy store. Carbohydrates can be converted to glycogen for immediate use. Glycogen that is not used is stored as fat cells. Your body can also burn fat for energy, but it requires breaking it down into glycerol, then back to glycogen, which is a very inefficient process. That is why it's hard to burn fat - it's much easier for your body to just use carbs instead.
That carb intake is waaaay too high for weight loss.
Yeah, it could be if you are a couch potato. Just substitute more protein for some of those carbs. And avoid the simple carbs when possible and stick with the complex carbs.
Switch the percentages of fat and carbs, except before/after a workout. Carbs raise your insulin levels and insulin causes you to store fat. Eating fat is not bad for you; it makes/keeps you more full and pretty much what your body doesn't need will be eliminated (not to be gross, but note that your poop floats when you eat a lot of fat).
You need carbs before/after a workout because if you don't give your body an easy source of energy at that time, it will use muscle for energy because it's easier to get energy from muscle than from fat.
http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/articles
also hit their forums
Go raw. Eat lots of raw vegetables, salads etc.
You will detox, and have lots of energy.
There is no set proportion of nutrition you should be consuming but if you are trying to lose weight, cutting down on fat in food is advisable. Assuming you are trying to build muscle to boost your metabolism -> lose fat, proteins and carbs are essential to build the muscles. You cannot build muscle if you only eat protein and no carbs. Cutting carbs is a shortcut to losing weight but not necessary if you are burning more calories a day than you are taking in. Also eat multiple (4-6) small meals throughout the day.
What kind of exercise are you doing, and to achieve what?
Hitting the heavy bag for cardio, losing weight.
I'm sure you're going to ignore this, but doing cardio is a really inefficient way to get rid of body fat. You'll probably end up losing more muscle than body fat.
What's a more efficient way? What would you recommend?
I'd recommend a diet that induces ketosis, and compound free weights training to increase muscle mass. This combination is the most effective non-surgical body fat loss method.
Proteins: Build up muscle tissue, use up extra energy in digesting, help feel fuller. Advisable consumption on a fat loss diet is either 30-40% of total calories, or 1g / lb bodyweight (or more, if wanted)
Carbs: Give quick energy, spike Insulin, help preserve and retain tissue. Not advisable in high doses as the energy you want to use on a diet is that tire around your waist, and although it can preserve muscle, it does this to fat as well. Advisable intake; high GI sugar during or before a weights workout for energy (maybe 30g?), veggies, fruits, and beans in small doses when desired.
Fat: Helps make you feel fuller, gives taste to the diet, helps produce hormones and other signalling molecules as well as contribute to cell integrity and structure. Advisable intake on a fat loss diet: As much as is needed to fill the remaining calories for the day when proteins and carbs are taken into consideration, advisable to aim for up to 3g total EPA/DHA from fish oils as well.
Should be added: Muscle is very important in losing weight. The more muscle you have, the more calories your body burns, so don't just think that cardio and dieting is the way, you need to build up those muscles too.
Shouldn't fruits, veggies and beans be a higher portion of the diet?
It depends on your goals and body composition, for weight loss their benefits are outweighed by protein sources benefits, thus protein gets the nod.