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Sunday, 10 July 2016

Macronutrients......Macro what?


Welcome back to part 3 of our blog series looking at nutritional recommendations for the competitive athlete 

So far, we have covered 'Why nutrition should be a priority' and 'How to set your calories and track accurately' 

We are going to take it a step further and answer the all important question... 

What should I be eating?!

This is one of the most common questions that athlete'sask and one they should definitely seek the answer for if peak performance is what you're after

To perform optimally in training we need to ensure we are consuming adequate amounts of our macronutrients; protein, carbohydrates and fats. 

The macronutrients 

This fancy word is simply what our food consists of - 'Macro' meaning big nutrients 

Protein is necessary to enhance muscle and tissue repair and growth post training - optimal levels of protein intake will enhance our recovery, meaning we can train more often and therefore, improve our performance as we can handle more training volume and train more frequently. 

Carbohydrates are gold dust to athletes. They serve as the main energy source to fuel high intensity activity. This is due to their simple structure being broken down rapidly to re-synthesize our primary fuel source - ATP. If we have insufficient carbohydrate intake, our body will begin to breakdown fat to fuel our exercise. However, this is sub-optimal in high intensity situations as it is a much longer process compared to carbohydrate breakdown. This means we cannot continue to function at this high intensity as our bodies simply cannot keep up.

In a simple analogy, you have a premium race car and two types of fuel. Fuel A is the fuel the car prefers, works best under at top speeds and takes little time to refuel. Fuel B can fuel the car, however, it takes longer to reach a fast speed, it may not reach it's top speed and it takes a long time to refuel once you take a pit stop. Which do you choose? 

Our last macronutrient - fats - have received alot of bad press in the main stream media, leading to alot of athlete's limiting or cutting it out from their diet. However, fat is necessary for performance and health of the athlete. It's important roles include; energy provision for tissues and organs, forming part of the cell membrane, transportation of fat soluble vitamins A, D, E and K which is key for testosterone production, improve satiety and playing a crucial role in nerve signal transmission for muscular contraction (1). Instead of eliminating fat from our diet, we should seek to include it to aid the above functions, providing an optimal environment within the body for recovery and performance. 
How much of each? 

Now the importance of each macronutrient has been covered, we need to address how much of each we need.

To get stated we need to understand the energy value of each macronutrient; 

Protein and carbohydrates- 4 calories per gram
Fats - 9 calories per gram

This will help with some simple calculations towards the end of the article! 
Setting our protein intake 


The first macronutrient we need to set is protein. This is because it's vital for recovery and growth from training and should not be compromised during any nutritional approach. By setting it first, we ensure that it's at optimal levels. We should aim for around 1g of protein per lbof bodyweight each day for optimal recovery and satiety. 

Can we go over this amount? 

Yes we can - you may have heard of the old tale of kidney damage but this is false! 

Sometimes, I set my athlete's a little higher if they struggle with hunger as protein intake is linked to satiety or they generally struggle to not consume alot. However, it does come at the expense of other macronutrients - we will have to lower our carbohydrate or fat intake. Therefore, we should not overeat it by too much as the additional hunger satisfying effect begins to be outweighed by the potential performance or health gains from additional carbohydrate or fat intake. Essentially, it would be robbing Peter to pay Paul! An upper limit would be around 1.3g per lb or 3g per kg of bodyweight. 




Calculating our fat intake 

After we have set our protein, we then set out fat intake. This can range anywhere from 20%-35% of total calories - remember we have worked out our daily caloric intake from part 2 (http://strengthtrainingforyou.blogspot.co.uk/2016/06/dave-carleton-series-issue-2-tracking.html).

This is based upon personal preference - anything within these values are optimal for performance and health. However, you will need to find a value which allows you to feel full between meals, have enough energy for daily function and enough energy for training. For example, if you consume the higher end of fat intake, your carbohydrate intake will be lower, which could lead to dips in energy during intense periods of training. 

To begin with try 30% of total calories, if you feel you are lacking energy drop to 25% or if you feel you are constantly hungry, try bumping it up to 35%. There is no right or wrong here, it's about creating an environment which promotes your best performance! 

Lastly, we set our carbohydrate intake. We set this last as we need to ensure we have our fat intake covered for health and our protein intake for growth and repair. Our carbohydrate intake consists of the remaining calories. 

Calculating our carbohydrate intake 


To calculate our intake, follow these steps; 

1. Calculate your energy intake from protein - grams of protein x 4
2. Calculate your energy intake from fat - Daily caloric intake x 0.2-0.35 then divide by 9. 
3. Add the above figures together and you have your calories from protein and fat
4. Take your daily caloric intake and subtract figure from 'Step 3' - this is your caloric intake from carbohydrates
5. Divide the value from 'Step 4' by 4 to obtain the grams of carbohydrates you should consume 

After following these steps, you should have the amount of grams of each macronutrient you should aim to consume. 

To help you understand a little more, we will use an example; 

James is 200lb, trains 4x per week, is pretty active outside the gym and has a maintenance intake of around 3000 calories per day. We are going to aim for 1g per lb of protein and 25% of calories from fat as he likes his carbs. 

Protein intake = 1g per pound = 200g which gives us 800 calories from protein (200x4)

Fat intake = 25% of total calories = 3000 x 0.25 = 750 calories from fat then divide by 9 to get our amount in grams = 83g of fat per day

Carbohydrate intake = Daily intake - fat and protein calories then divide by 4. This would be, 3000 calories - 1550 calories = 1450 divided by four = 362 grams of carbohydrate per day 


How do I aim for these goals? 


To begin to aim for these values, download a calorie tracking app such as myfitnesspal and log your food intake over a number of days, aiming for the values. 

I have written an extensive guide to tracking your intake on my blog, check it out here - http://carletonperformanceandnutrition.co.uk/blog-post/454

If you aren't exact, don't worry! The difference will be minimal as long as you are close - I get my athlete's to focus on hitting their calories within 100-200, their protein and carbs within 10-15 grams and their fat intake within 5 grams. 

We aim for slightly more accuracy with fat intake as it has a higher energy value and therefore, contributes more to our total energy intake. 


Summary


At this point we should know our daily caloric goal to support our performance and body weight goals, be able to set up our macronutrients in an optimal way to promote peak performance and recovery, know the important of including all three macronutrients and why it may not be a good idea to over consume one or the other. 

In our next installment we will cover meal frequency and what to eat pre, during and post training to help promote recovery. 

If you have any questions please feel free to message me on the links below! 

About the Author


Dave Carleton is a powerlifter who competes in the 66kg class and has represented Great Britain at European and World Championship level. He is currently study Sports and Exercise Science in Edinburgh and runs a nutrition and training coaching service, helping individuals improve their sporting performance, get stronger and achieve their body composition goals. He creates regular articles and tips through his blog and facebook page which are linked below. He also has a free facebook group with members interested in strength training, nutrition and sports performance. Within the group, helpful tips, training feedback and nutritional support is provided – if this sounds like it would be beneficial to you, request to join on the link below.
https://www.facebook.com/Davy-Carleton-Performance-Nutrition-1650952501824022/?ref=aymt_homepage_panel  
carletonperformanceandnutrition.co.uk/blog-3


References

1 – Antonio, J. et al. (2008). Essentials of Sports Nutrition and Supplements. Hamana Press, Totowa.  


I hope you enjoyed this article

Thanks for reading

Kind regards 



Andrew Richardson, Founder of Strength is Never a Weakness Blog





















I have a BSc (Hons) in Applied Sport Science and a Merit in my MSc in Sport and Exercise Science and I passed my PGCE at Teesside University. 
Now I will be commencing my PhD into "Investigating Sedentary Lifestyles of the Tees Valley" this October 2019. 

I am employed by Teesside University Sport and WellBeing Department as a PT/Fitness Instructor.  


My long term goal is to become a Sport Science and/or Sport and Exercise Lecturer. I am also keen to contribute to academia via continued research in a quest for new knowledge.


My most recent publications: 


My passion is for Sport Science which has led to additional interests incorporating Sports Psychology, Body Dysmorphia, AAS, Doping and Strength and Conditioning. 
Within these respective fields, I have a passion for Strength Training, Fitness Testing, Periodisation and Tapering. 
I write for numerous websites across the UK and Ireland including my own blog Strength is Never a Weakness. 
























I had my own business for providing training plans for teams and athletes. 
I was one of the Irish National Coaches for Powerlifting, and have attained two 3rd places at the first World University Championships, 
in Belarus in July 2016.Feel free to email me or call me as I am always looking for the next challenge. 



Contact details below; 

Facebook: Andrew Richardson (search for)

Facebook Page: @StrengthisNeveraWeakness

Twitter: @arichie17 

Instagram: @arichiepowerlifting

Snapchat: @andypowerlifter 

Email: a.s.richardson@tees.ac.uk

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrew-richardson-b0039278 


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Saturday, 4 June 2016

Dave Carleton Series: Issue 2; Tracking Bodyweight and Food


Welcome back to the second instalment in my nutrition series for Andrew’s blog! If you missed part one, we covered why nutrition is important for the athlete and the problems associated with under and over eating. I suggest you check it out before going any further by clicking the link! (http://strengthtrainingforyou.blogspot.co.uk/2016/05/why-nutrition-should-be-of-priority-to.html)

So, we know that we don’t want to massively under eat as we won’t have energy for recovery and training and we don’t want to overeat as we just get fat – which doesn’t really help our performance!

How do we control our bodyweight and ensure we are eating the correct amount of food?

Simply track your bodyweight, what you are eating and then alter it to suit your goals.

Tracking bodyweight and food




Our food contains calories which are used to fuel our everyday activity such as walking or running. When we eat food these calories, they add up throughout the day and at the end of the day we are left with the total sum.

Therefore, we have our calories that we have consumed through food and the calories we have expended through our daily activity and exercise.

In short this is calories in vs. calories out and the basis for energy balance.



The energy balance equation or calories in vs. calories out states;

·         If we eat enough calories to maintain our bodyweight we are eating at maintenance as there is no change

·         If our bodyweight is falling then we are in a caloric deficit as we are eating less calories than our body needs to maintain it’s weight

·         If our bodyweight is rising then we are in a caloric surplus as we are eating more calories than our body needs to maintain it’s weight






The two act in a tandem – if you are eating less food than you need your bodyweight will fall and vice versa for too much!

 Therefore, we need to find the amount of calories we need to maintain our bodyweight and then we can either increase or decrease to suit our goals. In the case of the athlete this would be primarily to either sit at maintenance calories or in a slight surplus as this give the body the best environment for growth and repair.



The key to controlling your bodyweight is to find your maintenance calorie intake.



Finding maintenance




To find our maintenance calories we need to track both our food intake and our bodyweight. This will give us an idea of the amount of calories we are consuming and what is happening to our bodyweight.

I advise people to do this over a period of 14 days – why?

Quite simply, this gives us a long period to collect data and gives us a better overall view of what is happening.

Our bodyweight fluctuates too much on a daily basis due to changes in our carbohydrate intake, fluid intake, salt intake and other factors such as stress.

Therefore, over the 14 day period these factors should be averaged out and have a minimal impact on the overall number.

Tracking bodyweight


Weigh yourself under the same conditions every morning. For example, don’t weigh yourself clothed one morning and naked the next – the clothes will add more weight and it won’t be a consistent or accurate method of tracking!

I advise my clients to weigh themselves in their underwear, after they have went to the toilet and before they have eaten or drank anything.

Tracking your food intake


To track our food intake we need a set of digital kitchen scales and a calorie tracking app such as myfitnesspal.

Simply, weigh out the amount of food you are going to eat and then search for that food in the calorie tracking app and log the amount of food.

This will then give you the caloric value and the amount of carbs, protein and fat which your food contains.

Make sure you keep the tracking as accurate and consistent as possible. For example, weigh pasta or rice before you cook it as it will absorb different amounts of water depending on how long you have cooked it for.

For a more detailed overview of how to track your food intake using a calorie tracking app, check out an article where I covered a step by step guide – (http://carletonperformanceandnutrition.co.uk/wp-admin/post.php?post=454&action=edit)

Complete the above steps of tracking your bodyweight and caloric intake to determine how many calories you are consuming each day and how your bodyweight responds.

Finding maintenance pt. 2




Once you have gathered your data from the above steps you can then create an average of your bodyweight and caloric intake over each week of the 14 day period. You can then note any increase or decrease in weight between week one and two and determine if you were in a caloric surplus or deficit.

We can then use this increase or decrease in weight to determine a rough estimate of our maintenance.

For example, if you recorded an average increase of 0.5kg between week 1 and 2 and each day you consumed 3000 calories per day, you could use the average figure of 1lb of weight gain =~3500 calories. This would allow you to determine that you were in a surplus of  ~3500kcals for the 14 day period. If we divide this by 14 we get a 250kcal surplus per day for the 14 day period. This means our maintenance figure is approximately 2750kcals per day.



Deficit or surplus?




Once we have worked out our maintenance calories we can then either increase or decrease them to suit our goals.

Remember our goal is to perform at our best both in training and competition so we will want to give our body the best chance at doing so – this means taking a slow and steady approach with any nutritional changes as this will not ‘shock’ the body and allow us to maintain our performance at optimal levels for as long as possible.

If your goal is to increase your muscle mass you will have to eat to facilitate this. If you think you would perform better by reducing your bodyweight and bodyfat then again, you will have to eat to facilitate this.

 


Reducing our bodyfat




If our goal is to reduce our bodyfat we will need to take a slow and steady approach not to negatively affect our performance.

You can starve yourself by drastically reducing your food intake but is this going to allow you to train or compete at your best? Don’t think so!

 If we try to reduce our bodyweight too quickly this can increase the risk of losing muscle and harm our performance during training and competition as we don’t have the necessary fuel and energy reserves to perform our required skills. I suggest losing no more than 1% of your bodyweight per week and only losing weight for a maximum of around 12 weeks before taking a break.

Furthermore, I advise all my athlete’s to only reduce bodyweight or bodyfat in the offseason when they are not required to perform at their peak and the body is not placed under as high a recovery demand as during the competitive season where performance could be affected if we are not eating enough fuel!

Aim to reduce your maintenance calories by around 10% to begin with and then monitor your bodyweight. If you stall or did not lose weight, reduce your calories by a further 5%.

If you are losing more than 1% of your bodyweight a week then increase your calories a little – approximately 100-200 per day with larger folk leaning towards the higher end.









Increasing muscle mass




Likewise, if our goal is to increase our bodyweight we will want to take a slow and steady approach in order to limit the amount of bodyfat we accumulate. In most cases, excess bodyfat will not help performance!

Aim to gain bodyweight in relation to the rates of weight gain suggested from the first article, seen below;



The above is an excerpt from Eric Helms most recent book (1) and gives a good idea of the amount of muscle we can expect to gain in a month



Again, these are extremely low numbers but they will ensure you are mostly adding muscle which is the aim!

To do this, aim for a small increase of calories beyond your maintenance – 100-200 per day – and continue to track your bodyweight.

Gaining too fast? Decrease your calories a little – 50-100 per day and monitor the change.

Gaining too slow? Increase your calories a little – 100-150 per day and monitor the change.





The above calorie goals will go hand in hand with proper macronutrient ratios to aid in your performance, recovery and ensure you are getting the maximum benefit from your nutritional approach. This key topic will be covered in part 3!



Summary




To control our bodyweight we need to determine our maintenance calories. The most accurate way of doing this is to track both our food intake and bodyweight over a period of 14 days, allowing us to create an average for both to determine our maintenance.

Once we have our maintenance we can then either increase or decrease our calories in line with our goal of weight gain or loss.

We should aim to take a slow and steady approach in both cases to avoid any body composition changes impacting our performance, unwanted muscle mass loss and unwanted bodyfat gain – which will not help us perform better as an athlete!

In part 3 we will cover the macronutrients, how much of each we should be eating and how they can influence our performance.

About the Author







Dave Carleton is a powerlifter who competes in the 66kg class and has represented Great Britain at European and World Championship level. He is currently studying Sports and Exercise Science in Edinburgh and runs a nutrition and training coaching service, helping people get stronger and achieve their body composition goals. He creates regular articles and tips through his blog and facebook page which are linked below;




Facebook -  https://www.facebook.com/Davy-Carleton-Performance-Nutrition-1650952501824022/?ref=aymt_homepage_panel




Blog - carletonperformanceandnutrition.co.uk/blog-3

 References



1 - Helms, E., Valdez, A. and Morgan, A. (2015).The Muscle And Strength Pyramid – Nutrition




Andrew Richardson, Founder of Strength is Never a Weakness Blog





















I have a BSc (Hons) in Applied Sport Science and a Merit in my MSc in Sport and Exercise Science and I passed my PGCE at Teesside University. 
Now I will be commencing my PhD into "Investigating Sedentary Lifestyles of the Tees Valley" this October 2019. 

I am employed by Teesside University Sport and WellBeing Department as a PT/Fitness Instructor.  


My long term goal is to become a Sport Science and/or Sport and Exercise Lecturer. I am also keen to contribute to academia via continued research in a quest for new knowledge.


My most recent publications: 


My passion is for Sport Science which has led to additional interests incorporating Sports Psychology, Body Dysmorphia, AAS, Doping and Strength and Conditioning. 
Within these respective fields, I have a passion for Strength Training, Fitness Testing, Periodisation and Tapering. 
I write for numerous websites across the UK and Ireland including my own blog Strength is Never a Weakness. 
























I had my own business for providing training plans for teams and athletes. 
I was one of the Irish National Coaches for Powerlifting, and have attained two 3rd places at the first World University Championships, 
in Belarus in July 2016.Feel free to email me or call me as I am always looking for the next challenge. 



Contact details below; 

Facebook: Andrew Richardson (search for)

Facebook Page: @StrengthisNeveraWeakness

Twitter: @arichie17 

Instagram: @arichiepowerlifting

Snapchat: @andypowerlifter 

Email: a.s.richardson@tees.ac.uk

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrew-richardson-b0039278 


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