Proteins
Protein is an essential nutrients, since
your body can't make its own, so you have to get it from
the foods you eat everyday. Almost anyone half serious about
bodybuilding will know that proteins are an essential nutrient
that you must get enough everyday to support new muscle
growth, and you can get proteins from foods such as all
types of meats, nuts, dairy products, vegetables, supplements
and more.
A protein is made up of a number of amino
acids. There are 20 or so different amino acids that make
up a protein - 8 of them are essential (meaning your body
can't make them), and the rest are non-essential, meaning
your body can make them from the other essential aminos.
Ever hear the term "peptides"
and wonder what the heck they are in protein terminology?
It's really simple. Link a few aminos together, and that
makes a peptide, and link a bunch of peptides together,
you have a protein!
Carbohydrates
Everyone seems to hate carbs these days
- thanks to Atkin's, low carb diet craze, and the media
- everyone's jumping on the bandwagon of following low carb
diets. Which is rather ridiculous if you ask me. Your body
is made to operated on and burn carbs as the main fuel.
On an Atkin's diet, you eat almost no carbs, and as much
fats and proteins as you want...
*shakes my head*
That's just silly! Sure it does work to
burn fat etc etc etc... but at what health risks?!? We have
a great deal of articles debunking the low carb diet craze
authored by other fitness gurus, just see these:
Fats
The sound of the word "fats"
scares many people, but in all honesty, not all fats are
"bad", and fats play an essential role in our
regular diet, and in keeping a balanced nutrition plan.
There are different types of fats, and not all fats are
bad for you.
Saturated fat (bad fat)
Fatty acids are made up of chains of carbon
atoms, and when the carbon atoms have no free bonds to link
with other atoms, the fat is saturated.
Fat fact - saturated fats are the 'BAD' type
of fat. The body has a tough time process saturated fats,
and stores it as fat. Saturated fats raise cholesterol levels,
which increases the chance of heart attacks. Reduce saturated
fats in your diet is the first fat solution towards a healthier
diet.
Saturated fat mainly come from meat sources,
but some are found in vegetable products: i.e. palm and
coconut oil.
Polyunsaturated fat (good fats)
Usually liquid at room temperature, polyunsaturated
fat comes in two types: omega 6 and omega 3. Omega 6 type
comes mainly from vegetables, and omega 3 come from oily
fish. Polyunsaturated fat actually help reduce the level
of cholesterol! So a small consumption is important for
good health.
Monounsaturated fat (good fats)
This type of fat mainly comes from veggies.
For example, they can be found in olive oil and almond oil.
Monounsaturated fat is also thought to help reduce cholesterol
levels.
Daily Nutrition Intake - Sports Nutrition
Planning
Below are 2 sample daily food intake records
during my 6 week period. It includes detail records of everything
eaten during the day, and also includes the protein, carbs,
and fat content of each item eaten. Finally, at the end
is the total protein, carbohydrates, and fat consumed, and
also total daily calories count.
Note: below schedules are NOT made up
out of thin air. They are actual food amounts I consumed
during those days. They were randomly selected from my food
intake journal during those 6 weeks (42 days). So, in other
words, there are 40 others days of food intake journal like
this not posted on here, that would be a little too much.
;-) Sample Daily Meal and Nutrition
In Take |
