Nutrition
Do I really need to go into this? Yup, I have to. Nutrition is the building blocks you need to grow. Without nutrition you would die or waste away. This is the way I look at it. Food is energy (it is even rocks are energy, even though they don?t do much) any mass is energy but as athletes we need energy that we can use efficiently. The best things to use as fuel/energy are what come from earth. Man is tainted and everything is loaded with sodium, saturated fats, preservatives and other chemicals.
Nutrient dense foods are the key. So, for you to get an idea of nutrient dense foods I will list my favorites.
* Steak
* chicken
* liver
* fish
* buffalo meat
* deer meat
* eggs
* nuts
* fresh vegetables
* fresh fruits
* raw & organic milks
* grains (as unprocessed as possible) etc.
As you can see these foods are as natural as possible. It?s like living in the wilderness and having to survive. With that type of thinking and eating there is no need for fat storage other than what nature intends. With the luxury of living in the United States, we have fast food restaurants on every block and with our ?no need to stop, money to be made mentality? we eat on the run. Eating on the run makes us consume the most low grade products invented leading us to ?fad? diets, diet pills and other supplements all leading to wasting money.
If you were to eat nutrient dense foods you will save more money than you could imagine. You will be healthier, so no need for doctors visits, medications, tissues etc.
Increased Calories
Okay to keep this as simple as possible you need to eat to fuel your workouts. Calories are a unit of measure for the energy in food. Like I mentioned earlier food is fuel and we need this in order to increase muscle mass. If you eat less calories in a given day then you burn in a day then what happens? You begin to use your body as fuel.
What is used as fuel in your body? A simple way to look at it is fuel in your body is glycogen (stored carbohydrates) fats and protein, but we don?t want to use protein as fuel. If we did then our bodies would be eating the muscle. Say, good bye abs, good bye biceps. That is what ticks me off about people.
?I want to build muscle and lose fat?? yet they don?t eat.
In order for you to support the muscles that you do have you have to eat a lot of food. Not to mention that you need to eat enough calories for your body processes. Did you know that your brain, heart, lungs, digestive process etc. all use calories to function? Most people are recommended to eat 2,000-2,500 calories a day. As an athlete you need to eat even more than that if you are looking to put on muscle.
Intense workouts take energy and for an hour to an hour and a half it usually burns off 500 calories (depending on the work you do). Going to a gym and talking most of the time is not an intense workout.
Thus, to keep the muscle you have and increase it?s size is to give it the fuel to perform exercises in the way of calories. The harder you workout on a given day, the more calories you would take in through out the day.
Myth: ?The more you eat the fatter you will get?
Fact: The more frequently you eat (every 3-4 hours) nutrient dense foods the more fat you will burn and the more nutrients you will supply a growing body. Look at it this way. A steam driven train can not move unless the conductor feeds the furnace coal. The more frequently the furnace receives coal (food) the more consistent the fire will burn (metabolism/burning unwanted fat), thus propelling the train forward along its tracks. Now, if the furnace was fed coal every once in a while (3meal/day breakfast, lunch, dinner) then the train would move, slow down then stop and so on. Now, if the conductor were to supply the furnace with wet coal (saturated fats, refined sugars aka candy, burgers, French fries etc) the fire would smother and take more time to burn and slow down the train (your metabolism). If you were to feed the train?s furnace high quality coal (nutrient dense foods) consistently then the train would move steadily.
This train analogy is the best way that I can put it. This is the relation amongst food (coal) and your body (train). The more frequently you eat good foods the greater result of:
* Increased energy
* Increased mental processing
* Increased muscle gains
* Increased fat loss
* Better feeling of self worth.
source:
http://strengthathletes.com/?page_id=80
what do you guys think
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