As A Los Angeles Personal Trainer i would like to inform you of the important fundamental thing you need regardless of your fitness goals, be they losing weight, gaining weight, or increasing athletic performance and that is proper nutrition. In order to keep your metabolism working to optimum levels, and at the same time anti-catabolic, muscle tissue needs nutrients every 3 to 4 hours. This can be achieved by having breakfast, lunch and dinner, and a mid-morning and mid-afternoon snack. The caloric parameters can be adjusted up or down for the purpose of weight gain or loss. The most important thing to start making this eating lifestyle a habit, is to write it down and create a structure for your days.
As with all things in life if we don’t plan for them, thereby developing an awareness of what we need to do on a regular basis, we get inconsistent action. To get consistent results we need to do things not just once in a while, but all the time! Inconsistent action breeds inconsistent results. It’s not about waiting until you are hungry to eat, but eating to a planned structure.
To properly supply all 206 muscles of the body with nutrients, it is important to eat a balance of all the various food groups, each one protein, carbohydrate and fats all serving a different need. The ideal balance for most people leading an active lifestyle is 40% protein, 30% carbohydrate and 20% fat. For a person engaging in distance cardio training , such as training for Marathons it may be necessary to adjust the ratios to 30% protein, 50% carbohydrate and 20% fat.
Proteins assimilate once ingested into amino acids and are the building blocks of muscle, which are required in adequate amounts for repair and recovery from workouts. Carbohydrates are for energy and are divided into simple or complex, and when assimilated store in the muscles as glycogen (blood sugar). It is best to get most of your energy from complex carbohydrates, as these give you sustained energy for peak athletic performance. Simple carbohydrates get into the system very quickly, which can be beneficial for instant exertion, but as a result can soon send your blood sugar down sharply, and along with it your energy. The other drawback most often with simple carbohydrate, is that it can more readily be stored as adipose body fat if not utilized. (For more information visit my ‘Article section “Food And Body Fat”, “Why Avoid Sugar In Your Diet”, “Factors That Contribute To Obesity”).Also ‘Newsletter Archive ” High Glycemic Diets – What To Avoid”, which will give you information on Glycemic indexes.
The most important meal of the day is breakfast, as this ignites your metabolism and regulates your blood sugar. Be sure to have nutrients within the first hour of arising, as this will keep your body from going into the starvation mode, and help against food cravings later in the day. Many folk that do not have breakfast report food cravings later in the day, in particular at night. The other meals to plan as a priority are a pre and post workout meal. A pre-workout meal should be a combination of easily assimilable protein and carbohydrate, ideally consumed not less than an hour prior to a workout.
This will prevent your body from going catabolic, and regulate your blood sugar during workouts. The timing of a post workout meal is also critical to your results, and it is important that you write this timing down… by the time you have completed your workout you would have depleted your glycogen stores, and this is the optimum time to replenish your system with carbohydrates for recovery and to prevent your body going to protein for recovery, as this will put you in a catabolic state. There is a 30 minute window of opportunity when your body is most receptive to carbohydrates, so be sure to plan for it.
The window for protein ingestion is 60 minutes, so also plan for that. I would also suggest taking L’Glutamine pre and post workout ( dosage 5000mg), this will again further help your body to recover.
If you skip a meal, or are on a tight schedule, you can pack a protein bar, or meal replacement shake in your bag the night before. An apple and raw almonds will also stabilize your blood sugar and make an excellent snack.
Digestion requires energy, so the more you cause your body to metabolize calories the faster and more efficient your metabolism becomes, making it harder for your body to store fat. Diets never work, however, lifestyle changes do. So plan on changing habits and do things consistently until they become your new way of eating. We create our life for tomorrow today!
-NicholasIf you are in the Los Angeles area and you would like a complimentary one-on-one assessment with Personal Trainer in L.A. Nicholas Barrett, please don't hesitate to get in touch! Personal trainer Los Angeles. Los Angeles personal trainer. Personal trainer marina del rey.
