adminInnocent Choga : Fitness
“I have just started working out, how much should I eat and what should I eat, what sort of supplements should I take?” This is the question most people who have started exercising are always asking. Some individuals trying to lose or gain weight even go to the extent of measuring the food content they eat as they try to analyse the calories and other food components derived from the food consumed.It is common knowledge that an increase in activity triggers the appetite resulting in an increase in food consumption. This is why exercise is a good prescription for ill individuals and those who lack appetite. It may be necessary for anyone who is involved in strenuous activity to eat more food to get those required extra food elements like vitamins and minerals.
But then not everyone engaged in exercise wants to eat more, so there is need to exercise caution in this case and eat in a way that ensures maximum benefits from minimum calories.
Generally, it has been established that the modern individual’s food intake is quite low and continues to go down as compared to a hundred years ago. This is because we no longer have to work physically hard to survive. Our energy expenditure is virtually low as compared to the days when the human being used to toil for all their needs including farming for their own food.
Now most of us specialise and rely on others for other needs and we have various labour saving gadgets to assist us, so basically our lifestyles now do not require much energy expenditure.
But still some of us are not getting enough of the recommended dietary allowances because of various reasons.
Despite the fact that we may be able to afford good nutrition, our foods are less nutritious than before because of various reasons. Some foods are lacking food components that they are supposed to contain and this can be due to the fact that they have been grown in unfertile lands. Soils in most counties are said to be overused and they are getting a battering from the changing weather patterns causing them to lose their mineral contents.
Thus foods grown is such lands are not getting the required minerals. So whilst we are what we eat, our food is also as good as the soil it was cultivated in.
In other instances the foods are overcooked or they are being stored for a long time thus losing their nutritional value. This means we will be consuming empty calories with no assurance that we are meeting our daily recommended dietary allowances.
There is the case of some individuals eating enough but getting the wrong type of foods and thus we are still getting overweight and obese.
One of the criteria for selecting nutritious food through observation is to select food that is colourful, dense and heavy.
The other way of ensuring that one is getting adequate nutrition is the use of supplements but these need the recommendation of a dietician and/or the doctor.
Eating a wide range of foods also ensures nutritional adequacy. This does not mean one should eat too much but varying the type of foods we eat. In some sports there is need to gain weight and others there is need to lose but both extremes have been known to be detrimental to health.
Just like individuals who exercise for weight gain and weight loss, most sportspersons are worried about weight control and what they eat. For every sport there is an ideal diet and weight criterion that enables sportspersons in various disciplines perform to their maximum ability.
Marathon runners and body-builders can attain low body fat that can range between 5 to 6 percentage. Very low levels up to 3 percentages are very dangerous and not recommended. These very low levels will leave one incapable of performing to their maximum ability
During the earlier days in the 60’s to the 80’s most weight trainers thought it was ideal that when one exercised with weights there was need to eat a lot of food, (quite a number still believe in that notion).
They believed that the more one ate the bigger and better one looked. And when embarking on diet program it was like; the more strict the diet the better. These athletes went to extremes, the diet programs were radical and as a result the athletes were overweight and unhealthy in the off season and they carried very low body fat, well below the recommended levels in season.
While there is need to consume a bit more it should not be too much. It is not how much one eats but the quality of food those counts, the combinations, proportions, the frequency and the times that we eat.
We need to eat a sensible, properly balanced diet as this will assist in maintaining good health.
How much we have to eat is determined by our level of fitness, the amount of energy we use in our activities, age sex and size.
A good diet is one that has nutritional balance and contains all the six essential elements required in the diet of a human being proteins, carbohydrates, fats, vitamins minerals and water.
Such a diet provides us with heat and energy. It provides material for the growth and repair of tissues broken down in the body. These nutrients do not act independently of each other but they must all be present for our physiques to perform well
I think before we discuss the various types of foods it is important to analyse and appreciate the purpose of the various food components.
The three basic components for growth and fuel in the body are proteins, carbohydrates and fats.
Today, let us analyse the importance of protein. Protein is the number one food as far as weight trainers are concerned. It is common to hear many speaking of protein supplements more than any other substance.
This is because protein is the major building component responsible for the growth, repair and maintenance of all body tissues. Protein is also essential in the formation of hormones, enzymes and antibodies which assist in fighting foreign substances in the bodies. In the absence of adequate carbohydrates and fat, protein will be used for energy.
Protein consists of 22 amino acids, 13 of these are manufactured in the body and the remaining nine essential amino acids should be obtained from the food that we consume. It is necessary that all the amino acids should be present in their correct proportions in order for the body to properly synthesise the protein.
Lack of any one of the components will result in failure to synthesize the protein or lower levels of assimilation of the protein.
In this situation the protein is termed incomplete protein. Complete protein is a situation where all essential amino acids are present.
Quality protein foods are those that provide complete proteins. The quality of protein in any particular food is there by determined by the body’s ability to absorb the protein rather than the quantity of protein it carries.
It is, therefore, necessary to combine and balance foods to complement those with incomplete protein for balance and get the correct proportions of amino acids for total synthesis. We shall discuss this when we analyse various food stuffs along the way.
Protein deficiency will result in the body’s inability to recover from workouts, weaken the body’s ability to fight infections.
This will result in weak nails, poor state of the skin and hair. Low protein, carbohydrate and fat intake or in other words starvation will also result in a catabolic state were protein in less critical tissues is used as fuel for the brain and central nervous system.
On the other hand an overload of protein will result in excess protein being stored as fat and nitrogen being passed out as urea via the urine causing an overload on the kidneys.
Since the function of kidneys decrease with age there is need to exercise caution on protein overload as we get older. According to experts, on average the daily requirement of protein for an individual is around .08 grams of protein per kilogram of the individual’s weight.
So even though protein is an important component it should not constitute the majority of the calories we consume.
Email; [email protected] Innocent Choga is a six-time National Bodybuilding Champion with international experience.
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