What a constant battle against a barage of nutrition questions today has been.Fairly random one for me, normally I am asked about exercises, how to get abs and the like.
It all started earlier this morning when a conversation about Slimming World came up and it kind of spiralled from there, to pretty much everywhere. Right down to coming home to this..
Today I honestly feel that I cannot escape the grasps of nutrition based questions so, to save me having to keep repeating myself, here is a post that pretty much sums up everything I think everybody should know about nutrition. Of course, this is NOT going to be everything you need to know ever but the goal is to provide you with a strong base and offer a starting point. You have to agree that is much better than just trying random diets that will have you just eating baby food or just eating meat or.. my biggest pet peeve.. ‘cutting out carbs’…
Just FYI, if ever you say this to me and are met with a look of REALLY I just want you to know that.. that’s exactly what I am thinking and it is taking every bit of will power not to actually scream at you. I may be able to control my mouth but I most definitely cannot control my face. Sorry not sorry.
As of now, the following are totally banned from ever leaving your mouth again:
- I’m not eating carbs;
- I’m only eating 500 calories today;
- I’m not eating anything today (there are exceptions to this one but we wont get into that today)
- I’m cutting out (insert food group) so that I loose weight;
etc. etc. – you get the point.
Now, I am not a nutritional guru, in fact my diet is often rather shambolic; but I know it is terrible and I know why which is the crucial element.
This post here is probably the most nutritional as we are going to get on Contour Allure. I’m not a lover of cooking or experimenting with food and in fact I am probably one of the fussiest eaters you will ever come across. Bring on the days where I can hire a personal chef to make my coco pops for me #Living!
The Basics…
Lets start at the very beginning..I’m told its a very good place to start..
Before you even open your eyes and get out of bed in a morning, your magical little bod is already burning calories for you; you know making sure your heart continues to beat and you continue to breathe and stuff. The amount of calories your body needs to perform these fairly neccessary functions is known as BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate) – whatever this number is, your calorie intake needs to exceed it.
The moment you open your eyes, lift an arm, sit up, speak, basically ANY extra movement – the calorific expenditure of the body increases. The amount of calories burned each day through physical activity plus your BMR gives you your TDEE (Total Daily Energy Expenditure) and this is where it gets interesting.
(The key to working this out if a tad further down.. keep reading)
- weight loss (decrease calories);
- maintenance (same calories); or
- weight gain (increase calories).
macronutrient
makrəʊˈnjuːtrɪənt
noun BIOLOGYnoun: macronutrient;1. a type of food (e.g. fat, protein, carbohydrate) required in large amounts in the diet.
Fats, Carb’s and Protein – it is these numbers that you should pay the most attention too. Whatever the breakdown of macro’s, try to hit this each day and you will be sure to start moving towards your goals.
The body has a need for each different macro therefore, cutting one out altogether is not neccessarily the recipe for success. For example, many people are surprised to hear that fat burns fat, although we do mean the kind from nuts and avocado’s etc. natural fats not the fats found in take away food.
