We've already talked a little bit about diet and nutrition, and the muscle building and fat loss formula. Now I want to go into more detail and show you everything you need to know about this subject. Some people say the right nutrition makes up 70% of your overall success in your workout having only 30% impact. Others even go so far as to say the ratios 80 to 20%. No matter what the true values may be, every experienced personal trainer will agree that the right diet is essential to reaching your fitness goals. Even though nutrition is such a wide subject, there are some underlying principles that you really need to understand.
The first and most important rule of your diet is to provide your body with what it needs to function properly. The purpose of this program is not only to show you how to build a nice physique, but also how to live a more healthy and active life. You should really see your fitness journey as a way Improving your quality of life and overall level of happiness. Therefore, the role of nutrition is always to help your body stay healthy so it can perform the way you want it to. So what does your body need in order to stay healthy, next to the obvious things such as air and water, they're really only two major nutritional categories. First, the micronutrients, they include vitamins and trace minerals, our body needs micronutrients only in very small amounts, mostly to help trigger certain reactions in our body, or to contribute to the synthesis of things such as proteins or fats.
Along with carbohydrates, protein and fats make up the so called macronutrients. They are the main sources of energy for our body with one gram of carbs and protein yielding four calories, and one gram of fat yielding around nine calories. Let's look at each one of them in more detail, starting with Carbohydrates are carbs, unlike many people think carbs are not evil. Instead, they're an important source of energy that can be used a lot quicker than proteins or fats. For example, when exercising, having carbs in your system will help prevent the body from using protein as an energy source, which protects the muscle from eating itself. Another really important thing about carbohydrates is that there's different kinds of them.
Without going into too much detail here. You need to know that there are simple and complex carbohydrates. simple carbs are made of just one or two sugar molecules. These are the kinds of carbs you'll find soft drinks, syrups and candy. In general, they should be avoided and they're really only two situations where it makes sense to consume simple carbs there right after waking up when your body needs some quick energy and right after your workout when your blood sugar levels are really low. For these two situations, I recommend Eating one tablespoon of honey.
Now to the complex carbs, just like the name says they consist of longer chains of sugar molecules that your body needs to break down first before using it as an energy source. When wanting to build a healthy diet, complex carbs are really the way to go. And I'll now show you the best sources for them. As a general rule of thumb, you can say that around 40% of your total calories should come from carbs. These carbs can be vegetables, oatmeal, brown, rice, quinoa, all kinds of whole grain products and potatoes, both sweet and normal potatoes. Like I said before, try to avoid the simple carbs that are found in candy, processed cereal, fast food, white bread, white pasta, all these kinds of things.
Okay, let's talk about protein. Your body needs protein to build and repair cells. This is why it's all important to have enough protein in your system when wanting to build muscle athletes and really everyone who's doing a lot of sports or exercise need more protein than the average person, they should be consuming around two grams of protein per kilogram body weight, which is around one gram per pound of body weight. Your protein intake should be a little less than your intake of carbs around 30% of your total calories. Good protein sources are things like fish, cheese, leave, or milk and eggs. If you are a vegetarian, then you should focus more on things like peas, canola, or nuts and nut butters onto the last important macronutrient affects just like carbs, fats are often misunderstood and proclaimed as evil.
The problem is not that fats are bad, but that most people eat the wrong kinds of fats. They too many saturated and trans fats which To increase your cholesterol while eating not enough healthy, unsaturated fats. In fact, our bodies really need those healthy fats for our nervous system and to help regulate hormone production. What you also need to know is that they are the densest energy source among the three macronutrients. Like I said before, one gram, carbs and protein yields around four calories, while one gram of fat yields around nine calories. Just like protein fed should make up around 30% of your total calories.
And good sources include avocados, x, olive oil, coconut oil, and even dark chocolate. foods that you should avoid obviously include things like fast food, popcorn, cookies, potato chips, and all kinds of frozen foods. Okay, so now that you know what kinds of nutrients and how much of them you should be eating, let's look at the second most important rule of nutrition. Whatever Your individual goals are in need to adjust your diet accordingly. Think of it as a tool that will help to multiply or divide your fitness results. Depending on how effective you use it.
The two main goals people have is to build muscle and to lose fat. Even though we covered most of this in the muscle building and fat loss formula, let me give you a quick recap of what you need to know. Whenever you want to build more muscle, you really need to focus on a calorie surplus. This means you need to be taken in more calories than your body expands. Of these total calories. 40% should be carbs, 30% protein and 30% fats.
Of course, you don't need to go crazy and count every less calorie, but try to stay within this ratio. When wanting to lose fat on the other side, you will need to cut down on calories to create a calorie deficit while increasing your protein intake to make sure your body has enough protein to maintain its muscle tissue. You know, the last point is also important. What do you before and after your workout, both meals should be really high in carbs and protein. I suggest you eat some oatmeal and drink half a protein shake 30 minutes before your workout and eat a banana and drink the other half of the protein shake right after your workout. Some people also like to add a tablespoon of honey to their post workout shake.
This will make sure to get you those simple carbs we talked about earlier. When talking about nutrition, of course, we also need to talk about supplements. As a beginner, you really need to understand that most of the supplements out there are really just a waste of your money. The supplement industry has grown to a billion dollar marketing machine that oftentimes wants to tell you overpriced pills or powders which will have little to no actual effect on your body. However, this doesn't mean that there aren't a few good supplements that you should be taking. The first and most important supplement is a good protein powder.
Even though in theory you could get all your required protein from a normal diet. This can be inconvenient because you have to eat big amounts of fish, chicken or other protein rich foods. In order to avoid having to cook all the time protein powder can be a really effective supplement to your normal diet. The second supplement I recommend taking is creatine. creatine is an organic acid found naturally in food. It exists in substantial quantities and things like beef and fish.
It will help you reduce muscle soreness after workout, build muscle and improve strength. I know that some beginners are afraid of taking creatine because they heard it can cause kidney damage, but don't worry, these claims have been disproven by countless studies. And lastly, I recommend taking a good fish oil supplement. You don't have to take it if you're eating a lot of fish and getting your omega fatty acids three normal day but most of us aren't. So it makes sense to supplement fish oil which is Really important for your nervous system and joints. Okay, so to end this lesson on diet and nutrition, here's a quick summary of what we've covered.
The number one rule of nutrition is to give your body what it needs to function properly. There we talked about micro macronutrients and how carbs, protein and fats are important for your diet and what sources are good and what sources are bad. The number two rule is that you have to adjust your diet according to your goals. If you want to build muscle, keep in mind a calorie surplus if you want to lose fat, keep in mind a calorie deficit with a high protein intake. And in both cases, remember of importance of pre and post workout meals. Lastly, we talked about supplements and how you don't need most of them.
The only three I recommend are protein powder, creatine and fish oil.