ARE YOU EATING FOR YOUR BODY TYPE??? In my last article I wrote about cardio and how it should be a tool ADDED to your training program to lose excess body fat and not the main source of exercise. In this article I will talk a bit about nutrition for your body type. Nutrition is something I would say 90% of gym members fall short on. You are in the gym for around one hour a day on training days, and outside of the gym for 23 hours. This is where good nutrition comes in. If you are over or UNDER eating you will struggle to see any positive changes to your body shape. Nutrition is a key component to getting you to your fitness goals, either fat loss or building muscle. If youre not eating what the body needs to recover and repair from your training you will not progress! From my time as a trainer and outside in day to day life I hear how people skipping breakfast, don’t eat because they havent got time, or just can’t be bothered to eat. If you are finding time to go to the exercise in the pursuit to positively change your body shape planning your meals is a must. I pre-cook 2 maybe 3 days’ worth of meat so when it comes to preparing the next day’s meals it takes me about 30 minutes. It really doesn’t take long at all. If you want to change the way you look in the mirror you need to be prepared to make changes and some sacrifices. So what should you eat? Now this will vary greatly depending on your eating history as eating certain (high carb diets, sweats, and of course junk food) foods for long periods of time can over work some internal organs and some resetting will need to take place. Also our diet will depend up on our body type too. There are 3 main types, Endomorph, Mesomorph and Ectomorph. Everyone wants to be a mesomorph. These are the people who seem to eat want the like and get away with it. These people can eat carbs and make good use of them without putting them away as fat. Then there is ectomorph, these people find it hard to put on weight. When I say weight I also mean muscle as well as fat. These can stuff their face and appear to not get fat too, but they also have to eat several horses a day to put on even a small amount of muscle tissue. Then there is the endomorph, that’s what I am. I can put on muscle fairly easily, but the kicker is I put on fat fairly easy too. So there is a fine line with my daily intake. Going back to what you should eat. Simple rules of thumb: Eat from the land - food types that have lived on or in the land. All animal meats, veg and carbs from the ground Eat 1 ingredient foods - foods that are 100% or close to that. Avoid foods with many added ingredients. Both of these rules will over lap and decent food types like meat will be 1 ingredient anyway. How much of what should I eat? You might be wondering how I work out how much I should be eating. Here there is not a one size fits all approach, I wish there was. But this does depend on your starting position, your food history, activity levels (not just going to the gym, but how hard you push yourself in the gym). If you came to me and asked for a training and nutritional program I would have to ask these questions to dig deeper to start building a plan for you. But to give you an idea on total daily calorie averages, an average moderately active man needs 2,200 to 2,800 calories each day to maintain a healthy body weight. A moderately active women need between 2,000 and 2,200 calories. Once you know your daily calorie intake you then divide that up into your 3 main macro-nutrient components protein, carbs and fat. This is where knowing your body type comes in hand to work out a starting point when planning your daily meals. Below I have put a basic break down of the macro-nutrients percentages for the 3 main body types: Mesomorph: 30% protein, 40% carb, 30% fat Endomorph: 35% protein, 25% carbs and 40% fat. Ectomorph: 25% protein, 55% carbs and 20% fat. Example: If you are a moderately active endomorph male and we go for 2800 daily calories. 2800 = 980 calories from protein 700 calories from carbs 1120 calories from fat Once you know your break down in calories you then divide this up between how many meals you have a day. This could be 4 meals up to 7 or even 8 meals if you are very active. This is a very basic way to put a plan nutritional plan together, there will also be many hormonal events that have to happen in the body for positive changes. The amount of success that can be achieved will be determined by how much testosterone, growth hormone and insulin are produced by the body and whether or not they are produced at the right times. Eating history as mentioned, and life stresses can also play a role on your success and control your hormonal responses to food. These are affected mostly by the quality, timing, amount and ratio of the macro-nutrients consumed on a daily basis. This is where trial and error come in. One way to check for positive or negative changes will be to look in the mirror. An even better way would be to take a before photo and photos during your transformation at weekly or bi weekly intervals. So an individual nutritional plan will be needed to make sure you get to your fitness goal. Just winging it and going to the gym does not get you anywhere. =========================================== If you are looking for help to reach your reach your fitness goals, please feel free to contact me below, where I would be happy to meet and talk through some options with you. T: 0777 33 75 666 E: Paul@1st4fitness
Posted on: Fri, 21 Mar 2014 12:05:08 +0000
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