Proper Dieting

Many weeks ago I talked about tracking your diet and working with macronutrients to reach your fitness goals, but I never really talked about proper dieting or what food you should actually be eating to fit your macros.

If you don’t know how to calculate your macros or track your dieting on a daily basis don’t worry, these is my favorite macro calculator and diet tracker:

• ·      IIFYM.com
• ·      MyFitnessPal 

Protein

Whether you are trying to build muscle and add body weight or maintain muscle but lose fat it is important to get around 1 gram of protein per pound of your goal body weight per day. Proteins make up the primary building blocks of muscle tissue so they are extremely important in the building and recovery of your muscles. An example of this would be that someone who weighs 150 pounds would need 150 grams of protein per day.

The best examples of protein sources are meats, poultry, seafood, beans, peas, eggs, nuts, and seeds.

Carbohydrates

The common belief is that carbohydrates are bad for you, but this is far from the truth. Carbs are fuel for the body and would leave you with really low energy if you don’t get enough of them. There are two types of carbohydrates, which are known as simple carbs and complex carbs. Simple carbs can most commonly be found in sugary foods and drinks and only offer a short burst of energy. On the other hand there are the more preferred complex carbs, which offer much longer and sustained energy that can be found in whole grains, brown rice, and sweet potatoes. The ideal amount of carbohydrates to eat on a fitness routine is 1 to 1.5 grams per pound of bodyweight per day. This means that a 150-pound person should eat 150g to 225g of carbohydrates per day.

The best examples of carbohydrate sources are wheat, rice, oats, cornmeal, or barley, which come in the form of breads, pasta, oatmeal, cereal, tortillas, and grits.

Fats

Fats can also be seen as the enemy in any diet, but this is also far from the truth. Fats are very important to many bodily functions and are even required if you want to successfully lose weight in the long term. When the body is getting enough energy and fat from your diet then it will realize that it doesn’t need to hold on to excess fat for a rainy day. It is hard to suggest an exact number in grams of fat that the body needs per day, however, I like to stick to 20% of my daily caloric intake in fats.

The best examples of healthy fats are in the form of olive oil, sunflower oil, coconut oil, nuts, peanut butter, almond butter, and some types of fish, avocados, and seeds.