“It’s too hard to keep track of” is one of the common phrases I get when helping people come up with a meal plan. The reality is there is a lot of education that goes into proper nutrition, but there is also a way for it to be simple. Note: I did not say easy, I said simple. Here is the “down-low” on how to look at what you’re eating. You can divide food into:
- Proteins
- Carbohydrates
- Fats
Yes every piece of food you eat will fit into one of those 3 categories. So, what does that mean? It means that you only have to remember 3 major things. Now we can get to the next part, which is how many calories are in each of those. It’s easy you just need to remember 2 numbers… 4 and 9.
- Proteins = 4 calories per gram
- Carbohydrates = 4 calories per gram
- Fats = 9 calories per gram
Now it’s starting to make sense, you can now see how the calories are divided out in your foods. This is one reason why it’s very important to read labels. (we will discuss other label reading benefits in a different post) What this means is, when you’re reading a label and it says 9 grams of fat, you can know that 81 of the calories in the serving come from Fat!!! Now you may look at things a little different.
Let’s discuss proteins, fats, and carbohydrates and how they process in your body. Fats are the slowest source of gaining energy, because they take the longest to break down, but are the most energy efficient of these three. In general, our lifestyles do not allow us to burn the required amount of energy needed to break down fat, therefore the fat stays stored in our cells. Proteins break down into amino acids. Protein is the main source that muscles use to get replenished and rebuild. Proteins are not as difficult to break down as fat, which allows for a better control of blood sugar leveling allowing you to have sustained energy for a long period of time. Carbohydrates are the easiest to break down and easiest to absorb out of all three categories. Carbohydrates also give you energy almost immediately. With this information your thinking “why don’t I just eat carbohydrates all day?”. Well the problems lies with in the break down of carbohydrates. Carbohydrates are quick to spike blood sugar levels giving us the immediate energy, but just as quick to fall making us feel tired. With this cycle going on, one will crave more carbohydrates causing yet again another spike and fall situation with their energy. The other factor we must look at it, carbohydrates break down into sugars. Having a huge influx of sugar in the body when not utilized gets stored in the fat cells as fat! I could go on and on about carbohydrates and the dangers of having to many in your diet, but I will spare you the details and leave you with the “cliff notes” version.
My best advice when looking to lose weight or just get a healthy eating regime going is to increase your proteins, manage your fats, and decrease the amount of carbohydrates you are eating. I hope this helps and provides valuable information.
