Nutrition 101: A Beginner’s Starting Point

There’s no two ways around it, the nutrition space on social media and the news can leave you confused and frustrated. In reality, good nutrition really should be simple and tends to be most effective when not overcomplicated. In the following excerpts, I hope to clear up any confusion you may have had and point out some facts you may not have been aware of.

What’s Important to Focus on

As far as health and weight management measures are concerned, managing calories intake versus output is what will produce results. Our body derives calories from the macronutrients protein, carbohydrate, and fat. Protein has 4 calories per gram, carbohydrates have 4 calories per gram, and fats have 9 calories per gram. Eating less calories than your body burns in a day will cause you to lose weight and eating more calories than you burn in a day will cause you to gain weight. This is because body fat is essentially a store of calories to be used in a time where your body does not have access to food. For example: If you go a long period without eating, your body still needs to burn calories to keep its basic body functions running (i.e. breathing and heart beat) even though it does not have access to calories from food. During this time, your body will burn its stored body fat and convert it to water and carbon dioxide which you breathe out. This produces the calories your body needs and is the basic method by which body fat is “burned” off of your body. Alternatively, if you eat excess calories in a day, then your body will store any calories it does not immediately need as body fat to be used later on. Now, when eating in a calorie deficit or surplus, the type of weight you lose or gain (fat or muscle) is in large part dictated by the types of foods you’re eating, however this will be explained further in a later section.

You may have heard many people claim that when trying to effectively lose weight you need to cut sugar, cut fats, eat once a day, eat 10 times a day, etc. However, the overwhelming body of research suggests that calorie intake versus calorie output is the deciding factor in body composition; factors such as nutrient/meal timing or macronutrient composition of a diet don’t make much difference whenever daily calories and protein intake are the same [5,7].

Now, something you might be wondering is “what about dieting to be healthier?” Well, for most individuals who have risk factors for diseases like diabetes and cardiovascular disease, lowering their body fat and increasing activity level is what causes the increases in health, not necessarily the specific foods they are eating. The list of benefits from maintaining a healthy body composition go on and on, however, a few notable ones are as follows. Every 10-kg gain in body fat is associated with a 3 mmHg rise in systolic blood pressure and a 2.3 mmHg rise in diastolic blood pressure, on average [1]. Calorie restriction has been shown to help protect against aging cardiomyopathy [8]. Managing body fat has also been shown to help your body manage blood glucose and reduce diabetes risk factors [2] as well as lower your risk for osteoarthritis [3] and rheumatoid arthritis [4]. In conclusion, with all of these factors considered, it becomes apparent the best approach to improving our health is to manage our body composition and stay active.

Related: Macronutrient Basics: Understanding Carbs, Fats, and Protein

Diet Culture (and why I’m not a fan of it)

You’ve probably seen multiple fad diets promote across the news or social media over the years, and each one probably claimed it was better than all the rest. One thing you’ll notice is that for every fad diet, there tends to be one with the exact opposite parameters. For instance, for every person telling you to do intermittent fasting, there’s another telling you to eat 8 small meals a day. For every person telling you to eat high carb, another will tell you to eat high fat. At the end of the day it’s possible to lose weight (or gain weight) using any of these diets. This is because all of these diets accomplish the same goal (reduce calories) they just do it by different methods (restrict a certain macronutrient, restrict when in a day you can eat, restrict how much you can eat in a meal, etc.).

Now, when changing your nutrition, looking at it as a lifestyle change as opposed to a diet is likely a better way to approach it. This is because with any sort of nutritional intervention, the most important aspect of it all is adherence and it is unlikely that you’ll adhere to any diet for a long period of time if you hate the diet. The beauty of calories in versus calories out being the driver of weight management is that it means you can really eat any food as long as it fits into your overall calories for the day, and that no one food is necessarily unhealthy or off-limits. For example, if your day of eating has consisted of lean proteins, fruits, and vegetables, then a few Oreos or a couple cookies at night are unlikely to derail you from your goals (assuming you’re still within your calories for the day). Therefore, you are free to orient your day-to-day diet towards any type of foods (high-carb/low-fat, high-fat/low-carb, etc.).

Related: So Many Different Diets… Which is Best?

How to Approach Your Meals

Now, we know we must be in a calorie deficit in order to lose weight and a calorie surplus in order to gain weight. You might be thinking “does this mean I have to track the calories in everything I eat? Isn’t that a lot of work?” Well, while it definitely helps to track calories to be sure you are in a deficit or surplus, there are many strategies you can take with your meals that will leave fuller for less food; giving you a good chance to be in a calorie deficit without tracking every calorie that goes into your mouth. For most people, tracking your calories for a week can give a good idea of how many calories are in the foods you eat day to day and can give more success when trying to eyeball how many calories are in a meal.

Weight loss

One way to easily lower calories is to focus on lean proteins, high fiber foods, and high-water volume foods. This is because these are all food groups that tend to be low calorie and have high rates of satiation (leave you fuller). If you have a plate containing all these food groups along with a high-carb or high-fat source, it would be wise to eat the previously mentioned food groups first and then only eat the high-carb or high-fat source until you feel some level of fullness (don’t force yourself to finish every plate). Lean protein sources are foods that are high protein and low fat, foods fitting this criterion include: chicken breast, pork loin, at least 90% lean beef, shellfish, grouper, etc.  High fiber foods include vegetables, fruits, oatmeal, potatoes, quinoa, brown rice, whole wheat bread, and even popcorn (just be careful of the butter)! High-water volume foods are a group of foods that pertains to most fruits. For instance, strawberries are about 96% water and watermelon is about 99% water. Other great examples include blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, kiwis, cantaloupe, honeydew, and more. Bananas are an example of a fruit that would not fall into this category. This is not to say bananas are bad for you, just to understand that they do contain more calories than other fruits. Dried fruits, such as dates or raisins, are another class of fruit to be weary of; with their water content removed, they become very calorie dense.

Another strategy to help lower calories is to be wary of sneaky calories. By “sneaky” calories, I am referring to calories from sauces, oils, and liquid calories (calories from drinks). A big problem with all of these sources of calories is that they can greatly increase your calorie intake for the day while not leaving you much fuller at all. For most common sauces, there are generally versions that have much lower calories per serving. Examples include sugar-free ketchup, sugar-free barbecue sauce, low-fat mayonnaise, etc. As far as oils go, it is best to avoid them as much as possible when cooking. Instead, it will bring you more success to use a non-stick cooking spray instead. Even though most non-stick cooking sprays use oils, you will end up using much less with a spray than if you used the actual oil itself. Liquid calories come in many forms. A big source of liquid calories for most people is their coffee in the morning. It’s not the coffee itself that will increase calories (as black coffee has 0 calories), but the sugar and creamer. However, luckily, there are low calorie versions of each of these as well. Most creamers have low-sugar versions. If you like sugar in your coffee, I highly recommend using something like Splenda instead; you likely won’t notice a difference and will be able to drop your calories in a day significantly. Further on the topic of liquid calories are fruit juices. Many people will drink these thinking they are healthy without considering how many grams of sugar they have. One cup of apple juice can have upwards of 30g of sugar, which equates to 120 extra calories! As opposed to this, a regular apple normally has ~95 calories and will leave you much fuller than the juice. The take home here: always opt for the actual fruit as opposed to a fruit juice.

Related: The Best Tips To Make Fat Loss Easier

Weight gain

When we are talking about a weight gaining phase, we are really talking about a muscle building phase. In order to most efficiently put on muscle, you should be in a calorie surplus. It is possible to build muscle when eating a maintenance or deficit level of calories, however it is much more difficult and much less efficient.

In many ways, you generally want to do the opposite action than you would do as if you were trying to lose weight. For example, you would not want to shy away from using cooking oils, as they contain a lot of calories and can make any meal much more calorie dense. When picking a protein source in a meal, it can be helpful to choose meats that have higher fat content: such as 80/20 ground beef or salmon. You also may want to focus on higher calorie components to your meals, such as pasta, waffles, nuts, peanut butter, etc. (while still eating at least 3-5 servings of fruits or vegetables per day).

In essence, your main goal is just to add higher calorie foods and/or eat more in a day. For some, this part is much easier, for others this part is much more difficult. However, it is important to be wary of how much of a calorie surplus you put yourself into. In general, you want to eat about 250-500 calories more than your maintenance calories per day to help ensure that most of the weight you put on is in the form of muscle and not fat. For example’s sake, if it took 2000 calories a day to maintain your current weight, your calorie goal in a day should be somewhere between 2250-2500. Further, when attempting to put on weight you should also be practicing resistance training to create a muscle building environment in your body. If you are an individual who struggles to eat enough to gain weight, a helpful tip to deploy is liquid calories. In general, liquids leave you less satiated than solids. So if you can make a high calorie smoothie, drink high calorie juices, or use another source of liquid calories, you will find it much easier to hit your calorie goals without feeling overly full.

Related: Easy, Muscle-Gaining Strategies for Hard Gainers

Other important factors to consider

In general, most health benefits from dietary intervention come calorie restriction, and absolute weight management is definitely determined by calories in versus calories out. However, as mentioned previously there are more notable factors to consider in your nutrition that play a role in your body composition at a given weight (weight from muscle versus weight from fat). Further, these considerations to also play an invaluable role in maintaining good health overall.

Protein

In terms of body composition, Protein is the most important macronutrient to focus on of the three. One reason for this is that protein tends to leave you feeling fuller than carbohydrates or fats [13]. For instance, 300 calories of chicken breast are likely to leave you more satiated than 300 calories of rice; and 300 calories of eggs are likely to leave you fuller than 300 calories worth of cookies.

Another important role protein plays is preservation of muscle mass. A goal you should have when losing weight is to retain the muscle mass you have and make sure the weight you’re losing is in the form of fat. On the other side, if you are in a calorie surplus and want to build muscle, you need to make sure you are eating sufficient protein to facilitate that process. Surprisingly, you actually need more protein when in a calorie deficit than when in a surplus. This is because your body will use some of the protein you eat for energy, and so you may need to eat extra to still have enough to maintain muscle mass and strength. A few benefits of having more muscle mass are better regulation of blood glucose [10] and a higher resting metabolic rate [11] (which simply means you burn more calories at rest).

Protein needs vary from person to person, however a good range to aim for is 1.4-1.8 g of protein for every kg you weigh. To find out how much protein this is, simply divide your current weight in pounds by 2.2 to convert it to kg. Then, multiply that number by 1.4 for the bottom end of the range and 1.8 for the top end of the range.

A problem many people face as they age is sarcopenia [12] which can significantly increase risk of injury and falls. The most important steps we can take to combat sarcopenia are resistance training and keeping protein intake high. The older we get, the more susceptible to sarcopenia we become; because of this, the older an individual is, the higher daily protein intake they require.

A common concern many people have about protein is that eating a high protein diet is harmful to our kidneys. However, the body of research on the topic suggests that high protein intake is a problem only if you have a history of pre-existing kidney issues. However, if you have no history of kidney problems and have healthy kidneys, eating a high protein diet is a very effective way to increase satiety (fullness) from your meals as well as increase bone density and health [13].

Related: High Protein and Kidneys: Dangerous or Safe?

Fiber

Fiber is a component of our diets that should also be of high priority. A sufficient intake of fiber is important for three main reasons. The first of which is that dietary fiber has been shown to be protective against heart disease and help manage cholesterol [14]. Second, as previously mentioned, foods high in fiber tend to leave us feeling fuller [15]- which is helpful when trying to manage caloric intake. Lastly, sufficient fiber intake helps maintain a healthy gut microbiome [16], which can contribute to better digestion and overall well-being.

Micronutrients

The list of vitamins and minerals that our body requires is extensive. To remember what each one does in the body is a task that most people simply do not have time for. However, it is important to understand that each one is essential to maintain proper bodily functions. As long as you are eating 3-5 servings of fruits or vegetables a day, then odds are you are getting a sufficient intake of vitamins and minerals. A good rule of thumb is to have at least 1-2 servings of fruits or vegetables with each meal and try to diversify the types of fruits or veggies you are eating.  If there’s ever a day where you aren’t able to eat this many fruits or vegetables, then it’s perfectly fine to take a multivitamin as a substitute. However, it is important to understand that the real foods are always better.

Plateaus

Whether you are trying to gain weight or lose weight, plateaus in general are inevitable. This is because as our weight changes, our resting metabolic rate changes [17]. For instance, say someone dropped 25 pounds, the number of calories needed to maintain that weight is lower than what was needed to maintain the higher weight. Thus, in order to continue weight loss, calorie intake per day would need to be further reduced.     

Now, if you first start to feel like you are plateauing, I would advise that you don’t make any big changes to your diet at first. I argue this because any weight change is never linear. Certain things unrelated to how much body fat or muscle can influence the scale such as water intake, salt intake, or even if you have to take a poop or not!

When tracking your weight, it is generally appropriate to take tour average weight across a week and compare that average week to week. This will give you a clearer idea of which direction your body weight is moving and will help to avoid the headaches of comparing each day to day. Also, make sure you check your weight at the same time each day- preferably first thing when you wake up. This is helpful because as stated before, there are various other factors that cause fluctuations in your weight; weighing yourself at the same time every day will help eliminate that.

Alcohol

A lot of people will tell you that you HAVE to cut out alcohol in order to lose fat or gain muscle, however, this is untrue. It can be argued that consuming alcohol is not optimal, although it is still possible to achieve your goals with alcohol in your diet nevertheless. The main problem with alcohol is that it tends to have a lot of calories. Most mixed drinks have anywhere from 180-300 calories per drink. Having three of these in a night could add 900 calories to you day! You can probably see how that can easily put you in a caloric surplus. However, if you plan on drinking on a night, there are two strategies I recommend you deploy to make this more doable:

1. If you are having mixed drinks focus on mixers that are low calorie. For example, if you want a rum and coke, try having a rum and diet coke instead. If you’re wanting a vodka lemonade, try having a vodka water lime instead. You can easily cut the calories per drink in half by doing this.

2. You can reduce calories from other foods earlier in the day to compensate. You really can look at your calories per day as a budget, so if you’re eating less calories earlier in the day, then you have more calories you are allowed to have night that can be used on any alcoholic drinks. Just try not to subtract calories from your protein intake, and remove either fats or carbs if you want to reduce calories earlier.

References

Listed are the PubMed IDs (PMID) for all referenced research:

1)    22102306

2)    1338382

3)    27180156

4)    29231278

5)    28919842

6)    28630601

7)    19246357

8)    23334601

9)    27338461

10) 24373237

11) 29086530

12) 27886695

13) 25979491

14) 31126110

15) 26724486

16) 28165863

17) 27739007