Lesson 10

Basic Food Science

Welcome to Lesson 10! Yeah!

Alright! Welcome to the first day of module 2! This module goes more in-depth on macros and introduces us to exercise! Today we are not learning a new feature - instead, we are going to learn about calories and macros more in-depth. I know it’s a bit of a long read, stick with it though! Read it all and you get a 🍪

tl;dr - Fats, Carbohydrates, and Proteins are the core building blocks of nutrition. A healthy diet usually consists of some combination of all 3. It is possible to survive without carbohydrates, it is not possible to survive without fats or protein. When we refer to our ‘macro split’, we are referring to how much of each macronutrient we are aiming to intake. Different splits work better for different people with different goals.

Yay macro time! Read each topic below and at the end, we still have our daily TODOs to accomplish! Happy Reading!

Calories ⚖️

A quick refresher - calories are just a scientific measure of food energy, nothing more, nothing less. Everything we do requires energy: eat, sleep, walk, run, think. That energy is measured in calories. Where do we get calories from? 3 places actually - food (obviously), stored body fat, and cannibalizing our muscle. The first two are great options, the third is not - fortunately with resistance training and moderate weight loss measures, you don’t have to worry about losing your muscle!

With that information, let’s introduce our good friend - the First Law of Thermodynamics:

Energy can neither be created nor destroyed -law of conservation of energy

In this case, we are talking about the energy in calories. This amounts to the phrase “Calories in equals calories out”. When we do something, the energy needs to come from food, stored fat, and/or muscle. The amount of calories you burn in a day just to live is called your TDEE, or Total Daily Energy Expenditure (we will calculate this for you tomorrow). If you eat fewer calories than your TDEE (caloric deficit), you’ll use up stored fat, you eat more (caloric surplus), you’ll store fat. If you try to lose fat too fast your body will start eating your muscles, which is bad. The more muscle you have the higher your TDEE. This is because muscle is active tissue and requires calories just to keep around. Your body will also eat away muscle if you don’t use it. That’s exactly why resistance training is so important! (more on that later in the module) Tangent over… Calories in = Calories out. If we want to lose 1 pound of body fat in 1 week (a healthy goal), we’ll need a caloric deficit of 3500 calories over the week. 🌳

We can get in a deficit 1 of 2 ways, eat less or move more. Either eat below your TDEE or burn additional active calories from exercise. Unfortunately, calories out can be hard to calculate. Apple watches and Fitbits only estimate your calorie burn. Your actual burn may be more or less due to hormones and other factors. However, it is very easy to control what is going in! So if you want to be absolutely sure of something, track your food!⁠ This is why we’ve been starting to log what we eat! Yay Calories!

Fats 🥑

A quick refresher - fats are the densest macronutrient at 9 calories per gram. That is what makes fat a great long-term fuel source. That’s actually why our body stores fat! It’s dense and packs a lot of energy. Remember, 1lb of body fat is equivalent to 3500 calories. 🌳However, we need to get rid of the idea, that eating fat makes us fat - fortunately, that stigma seems to be fading. Remember the only way to lose fat is to be in a caloric deficit. Also, fats are a vital macronutrient, they help with hormonal support and vitamin uptake! As a guy, I try to keep my daily fat intake higher than 50g per day, anything less and there are hormonal consequences. I really think that’s why fat tastes soooooo good - our body tells us what we need through cravings. There are several types of fat, but for the sake of brevity, all you need to do is avoid trans-fat (basically anything deep-fried). Yay Fats!

Carbohydrates 🍚

A quick refresher - carbs are 4 calories per gram. Carbs come in one of 3 forms: sugars (simple), starches (complex), and fiber (non-digestible). Sugars are simple and easy to break down into energy. Starches are more complex and take longer to break down, but can give more steady energy over time. Finally, we have fiber, this is indigestible to us but our gut bacteria love it. Gut Bacteria - AKA our second brain. Sugars and starches eventually get broken down into glucose. From here glucose can be stored as glycogen in the muscle or be used up right away. Fun fact, the brain runs mostly on glucose! That all being said, we don’t actually need carbohydrates. Our bodies are absolute miracles, yes we need glycogen, especially for our big brains and strong muscles, but we don’t have to get it by eating carbs! Our body can CREATE glucose by progress called gluconeogenesis! However, this is a relatively slow process, so if you like high-intensity, fast-paced activities, you’ll probably want carbs. Plus, for me personally, carbs make me a bit happier. Yay Carbs!

Proteins 🍗

A quick refresher - proteins are 4 calories per gram. Protein, in my humble opinion, is the most important macronutrient. Not only does it make eating in a calorie deficit easier because of how satiating it is, but it is VITAL to building and maintaining muscle. Muscle is VITAL to everything we do. We want to prepare ourselves to have the best quality of life for as long as we can. My goal is to still be running and biking at 100. Seriously. Appropriate amounts of protein intake, resistance training, and some luck will get me there. I digress, most people, I’d argue are not getting enough protein daily. I’d shoot for 0.8 grams/protein per lb of body weight a day at the low end. If you’re weight training a bunch - 1.2 grams/protein per lb of bodyweight a day at the high end. That being said, your body can only use so much protein a day, so anything more than that is kind of wasted. The phrase used to be ‘Eat your veggies!’, I say ‘Eat your protein!’. Oh, and no protein does not need to come from an animal source - just make sure you are getting complete proteins. Yay Proteins!

Macro Splits 🧮

A macro split is just a way of saying how much of each macronutrient you choose to eat. Some combinations are better than others and some are similar in effectiveness but comes to personal choice and goal.

• Good Splits

  • Moderate Fat, Carb, Protein - Balanced Diet

  • High Fat, Moderate/High Protein, Low Carb - Keto

    • Side note - there are reported hormonal benefits to keto and may have additional weight loss properties due to insulin. However, from a personal 6-month strict keto experiment - I learned it was not for me. Others may like it.

  • High Carb, High Protein, Low Fat - Traditional Weight Loss

    • This is what I currently utilize.

• Not-So-Good Splits

  • Stupid High Protein, Moderate Fat, Low Carb - Atkins (boo)

  • High Fat, High Carb, Low Protein - Standard American Diet (BOO)

  • Anything with low Protein - BOOO HISS BOOO

Woof, thanks for sticking with the reading today - I promise the knowledge is worth having! Remember to keep logging! Have a great day! Oh, here is your cookie -> 🍪

TODOs

• ☑️ Log your weight

• ☑️ Log your food

• ☑️ Log your habit

Complete TODOs Below