Nutrient QUANTITIES

Read nutrition labels on packaging. They inform you of the overall quantities of the major nutrients within the container.  Keep in mind, however, that a “serving size” may be much smaller or larger than what you’ll actually eat at one time.


Find out how much pasta, equals 1g CHO/kg of your body weight.  How much rice would also provide 1g CHO/kg of your body weight? What about your favourite bread?  How many slices of roast beef or cheese is needed for you to get 10g of PRO? How much peanut butter do you typically spread on toast?  


Once you’ve figured this out, it’s pretty simple to do the mental math and determine what your next meal should comprise.  Early on its probably best to keep a log, especially if this is new to you or you fear it may be hard to eat enough or not too much of a particular nutrient.


CARBOHYDRATES:
    Unless restricting CHO intake to achieve body composition goals in the off season (see Gaining and Losing Weight), most athletes will require a minimum of 5g CHO/kg body mass/day in order to provide adequate energy for training and competing.  Particularly intensive and extensive training may increase demand to 10g CHO/kg body mass/day.  Lean mass requires energy simply to sustain itself at rest.  Therefore an elite male athlete, due to his greater proportion of lean mass, typically requires a tiny bit more CHO than an elite female athlete of equal weight.


PROTEIN:
    Our bodies use PRO as an energy source, as well as for building enzymes, and the structural components of cells.  Any excess cannot be stored, instead part of the molecule will be cleaved and excreted, with the remainder being converted to glucose (sugar).  This glucose will be burned for immediate energy, if it is required, or stored as body fat.

Enzymes can degrade with use, as can structural proteins.  High forces acting on on within the body can accelerate this break down.  Some of the soreness after heavy and novel resistance training has been attributed damage suffered by muscle cells.  Haemoglobin, the oxygen carrier within the blood, is known to get broken up from collisions with its neighbours or the blood vessel walls as they are pumped through the circulatory system.  If the components cannot be salvaged, they will be excreted.

protein balance = (PRO intake) - (PRO utilization + PRO excretion)

Having a negative protein balance will result in a loss of lean mass, a decrease in endurance, an increase in injury susceptibility, and potential for overtraining.  A positive protein balance is necessary in training phases so that positive structural adaptations can take place.  A neutral balance is adequate for maintenance.

A minimum of 1g of protein/kg of body mass is required each day for healthy active adults.  Dipping below this threshold almost guarantees a negative protein balance.  The requirement goes up to as much as 2g/kg/day for competitive athletes involved in high intensity or high volume training.  Illness usually increases protein need (to fight the infection and repair damaged caused by the infective agent), but this is usually offset by a decrease in training volume when ill.

Athletes on low CHO diets must increase PRO intake beyond 2g/kg/day to make up for some of the caloric deficit. See Gaining and Losing Weight for more information.


FAT:
    Excessive fat intake should be avoided, but does not need to be eliminated completely.  Choosing leaner cuts of meat, avoiding deep fried foods, trimming excess fat, and selecting smaller dessert portions, are a number of strategies that usually suffice.


VITAMINS & MINERALS:
    A varied diet that includes dairy, meats, seafood, whole grains, nuts, and dark leafy vegetables typically covers the gamut of necessary minerals.  When orange/red garden vegetables are added,  along with a variety fruits, vitamin requirements should also be met.

WATER:
    As eluded to on the Nutrient Types page, maintaining adequate hydration status is mandatory for optimal performance.  Water lost through respiration, perspiration, urination, and defecation must be replaced throughout the day.  Aside from the obvious water content in beverages, most foods contain notable levels of water.  Cooked pasta, for example, is about 50% water, as are many fruits.  Even hard cheeses are about 15% moisture.

You do not lose weight during a workout.  You lose water.  So if the a scale shows that you’ve lost  one kilogram in the past hour and a half (unless you spent some of that sitting on the toilet), it means you must replace that one liter of water.  One pound is about 2 cups.