You Are What You Eat

To most people, understanding nutrition is only slightly less confusing than understanding Einstein’s theory of relativity. A new book or article comes out weekly espousing the latest, greatest way of eating. What this article concerns itself with is giving the reader a foundation for understanding nutrition with the goal of optimizing your body’s anabolic environment. What does that mean exactly ?

Bodybuilders and other athletes have come to use the term “ anabolic” to mean the building of muscle. This is only partly true. For example, physiology or nutrition texts will normally def ne anabolic or “anabolism” as the phase of metabolism in which simple substances are synthesized into the complex materials of living tissue or a process by which larger molecules are formed from smaller ones.

What does this mean to the reader in plain English ?

When you are in an anabolic state you rarely, if ever, exclusively build muscle. It is unavoidable that some body fat will be added to the equation. Total beginners and people using copious amounts of various drugs (i.e. anabolic steroids, growth hormone, etc.) can put on lean body mass ( LBM) almost exclusively at times, but this is the exception, not the rule. Have you ever seen a pro bodybuilder in person of -season ? They are proof that - even with large amounts of drugs - to add new LBM, adding some body fat is a reality. The pros that do try and stay hard (say under 8 - 9% body fat) year-round also fond their gains in LBM are slow to non-existent. If that’s how it is for them with drugs and great genetics, how do you think it works for you ?

So, for most, the trick is to maximize, as much as possible, adding LBM, while minimizing the addition of body fat. People need to understand that body fat % is a ratio. By optimizing LBM gains, the small amount of fat gained can be easily cut - ultimately leaving them with a larger ratio of LBM to fat. When all is said and done, you can reduce your body fat percentage by increasing LBM even if you never lose an ounce of the fat you started out with.

Example:

A 200 lb. person starting a gaining cycle with 15% bodyfat.
200 lb. x .15 = 30 lb. fat; 200 lb. - 30 lb. = 170 lb. lean mass
Let’s assume he adds 16 lb. of lean mass + 4 lb. of fat (20 lb.) This person will now be 220 lb., with 34 lb. fat and 186 lb. lean mass.
That 4 lb. of additional fat can easily be shed in 2 short weeks of moderate dieting with no loss of LBM.
220 lb. - 4 lb. = 216 lb. (186 lb. LBM + 30 lb. fat
30 lb./216 lb. = 0.139 = 13.9%
Even though the person in this example still has the same 30 lb. of
fat he started with, his body fat percentage has dropped from 15% to
13.9%., due to the increase in lean body mass.

There are three major factors that will dictate whether or not a person will gain muscle mass: genetics, form of exercise (i.e. weight training), and diet. Without any of the three being optimized, gains in lean body mass will be minimal or non-existent. At the very least, the gains in LBM will be sub-optimal at best.

Unfortunately, we have essentially no control over the first, which is your genetics. A well-known quote in bodybuilding circles is, “the most important way to guarantee success in bodybuilding is to pick the right parents!” In truth, modern science is not far away from being able to turn “on” certain genes that are responsible for a variety of functions in the body.

This development would lead to more LBM – such as increasing protein synthesis via up-regulating the production of some hormone or growth factor – but that is some years of and not the focus of this chapter. This leaves us with nutrition and training. With the proper knowledge of both, we can maximize results within our genetic limits. Even if you’ll never be a bodybuilder or f tness model, you can still add a signif cant amount of lean body mass. The result will be an enhanced physique, along with improved health and strength.

Our focus is to lay the foundation for proper nutrition when the goal is to increase LBM, while minimizing increases in body fat. After reading these and some other relate article on this blog, the reader will understand the fundamentals of how to set up a proper diet for gaining lean mass, macronutrients, some basics on metabolism, calculating protein, carbs, fats and total calories, basic ef ects of foods on hormones, etc.

What will be covered :

Macronutrient basics ( protein, fat, carbohydrates): what the food you eat is composed of.
How the food you eat is utilized by your body. Protein, carbohydrates, and fats all have dif erent ef ects on your metabolism.
Optimal food choices: the best food sources for building LBM.
Macronutrient percentages: how to calculate the proportions of protein, carbohydrates and fats in your diet for gaining lean mass.
Calorie calculations: determining daily calorie intakes for active people who want to gain lean body mass while limiting fat.
Nutrient timing: how to spread calories and macronutrients throughout the day for optimal ef ects on metabolism and muscle growth. Pre- and post-workout nutrition: how to combine carbohydrates and protein to enhance the ability of exercise to stimulate muscle growth.

Although the information here is primarily concerned with calories and macronutrients (e.g., protein, carbohydrates, and fat), bear in mind that micronutrients are important too. Foods are also sources of f ber, vitamins, minerals, antioxidants and other bioactive compounds - some of which haven’t even been identif ed yet. It goes without saying that your best food choices will be found among whole or minimally processed foods.

Vitamin pills and other supplements should be considered as additions to - not replacements for - the nutrients available in foods. Understanding the basics of the macronutrients is important, since a fundamental knowledge of what we eat every day only adds to our ability to make proper choices. Proper choices mean the right amount and types of proteins, carbohydrates and fats in the right ratios.

References : Will Brink - Brink's Body Building Revealed