So, you feel hungry.  What does it mean and what is the best way to feed your hunger?  What should you eat?  Is it OK to ‘cheat’ now and then?  Understanding what your body needs and how to eat in a way to fill those needs.  Different types of exercise require changes in your diet.  As your body heals and repairs itself after injury or surgery, nutrition will play a crucial role.   

Nutrition is the process by which we take in and utilize food (or, nutrients) to fuel our bodies.  Nutrients can be divided up into 2 main categories: Macro Nutrients and Micro Nutrients.

Macro Nutrients are what we typically think of in our diet and are needed in larger amounts to keep our bodies running.  These include carbohydrates, protein, fat, fiber and water.  Carbohydrates, protein and fats are used for energy and are displayed on labels according to their weight in grams.  One gram of carbohydrates, when burned, will provide 4 calories of heat energy.  If not burned off, it will get stored as fat in the body.  Likewise, one gram of fat will provide 9 calories and one gram of protein will provide 4 calories.  Fiber, while classified as a carbohydrate, is not broken down by the body to provide energy, rather it passes through the body and functions in digestive health.  Water provides no nutritional value for energy but is essential to your body for nearly every function.

Micro Nutrients are needed in much smaller amounts in our bodies and are classified as vitamins and minerals.  If we eat a healthy, well-balanced diet, the food we eat to get our macro nutrients will also contain much of the micro nutrients we need.  However, as our diets have evolved to contain much more processed foods, sometimes we may need to add micro nutrients to our diet through supplements in liquid or pill form.

A vitamin is an organic compound whose molecules contain carbon.  It is required as a nutrient in tiny amounts by the human body. For the most part, vitamins are obtained with food, but a few are obtained by other means, such as being synthesized (made) in the human body from other compounds that are eaten.  Vitamins are classified by their activity in the body, not their structure. Several compounds may all have the same action in the body and are, therefore, categorized under the same generic vitamin title.  For example, retanol, retinal and carotenoids are all categorized as Vitamin A as they all have the same biological effect. 

Vitamins can be classified as either fat soluble (they dissolve in fat) or water soluble (they dissolve in water.)  Vitamins that are fat soluble tend to accumulate in fatty stores in the body and you must be careful not to ‘overdose’ on these.  Water soluble vitamins will be washed out of the body when there is an excess.  The fat soluble vitamins are A, D, E and K.  The water soluble vitamins are B1, B2, B3, B5, B6, B7, B9, B12 and C.

Minerals are required in small amounts in the diet to help the body function.  They can be categorized as either macro or trace minerals.  Trace minerals are required in much smaller amounts and act primarily in enzymes as catalysts.  Examples of macro minerals are: calcium, chlorine/chloride, magnesium, phosphorous, potassium, sodium and sulfur.  Examples of trace minerals are: cobalt, copper, chromium, iodine/iodide, iron, manganese, molybdenum, nickel, selenium and zinc.

Nutrition in the ‘Big Picture’

Now that you know a little about nutrition and what is means to your body, let’s look at how you apply that knowledge to what your body needs.  Let’s first start with the bottom line. Your body burns up energy for the simple things such as breathing, walking to the refrigerator, eating, etc.  The amount of energy your body burns for the basic daily body functions is called your ‘basal metabolism’ and it is around 2000 calories per day.  Everybody is different and that number will also change a little with age but for the sake of this article, it’s a good, round number to use!  That means that you need to eat 2000 calories every day just to break even.  If you eat less, then your body will break down excess ‘stores’ to supply enough energy to carry out the basic functions.  This could come from fat (good thing!) or, worse, your body could break down your muscle into protein as an energy source. 

When thinking about how nutrition fits into your situation, you must begin with the end in mind.  If you are going to start an exercise program, think about whether you will be building muscle or sticking with more cardiovascular exercise.  Building muscle will require that you have carbohydrates available for your body to burn during the activity but it also requires protein to repair and build muscle that is broken down with the exercise.  Adding protein, particularly after exercise when your body is in repair mode, will help achieve your goal of building muscle and increasing strength.  Cardiovascular exercise might require less protein and a little more carbohydrates, depending on the type of exercise you choose.