nutrition Archives | Transcend Fitness Club

Food is MORE Than Calories

I wanted to take a moment today to talk about why I always recommend including whole foods into my clients’ daily food consumption. When we eat, many people focus on the calories going in and out of your body, but food is MORE than calories. The foods we eat all have certain properties and components that all have an effect on our bodies. This is why sometimes you feel bloated when you eat certain foods or feel great when you eat others.

But WHY are Whole Foods Better?

Whole foods and vegetables contain more vitamins and minerals per serving than processed and chemically manufactured foods. The vitamins, minerals, and overall makeup of the food you are consuming CHANGES the way it is absorbed and used in your body. Vitamins and minerals, while not a fuel source or calorie-containing, are essential to carrying out almost all bodily functions. For example, Vitamin B helps your body with energy production and immune function, Vitamin D and Calcium work together to support bone health and strength. The more whole foods you can include, the more vitamins and minerals you are consuming, the better your body is able to function, the better you feel!!

Even though counting calories and macros might help lead you to your goals, filling those calories using whole foods will get you there even faster and feeling better.

How to Incorporate Whole Foods into Your Diet

Whole foods are any foods that have not been processed in any way, or has been minimally altered. An easy way to pick out a whole food is to choose something that doesn’t have any other ingredients than what it is. For example, a carrot doesn’t have any other ingredients other than: carrot. The best way to start incorporating more whole foods into your diet is to shop on the outside aisles of the grocery store. Choose foods like fruits and vegetables in their whole form (or maybe pre-cut if you’re low on time) and meats. There are TONS of quick and easy recipes using just whole foods that you can make a staple of your weekly meal prep. One of my favorites is this Deconstructed Stuffed Pepper from Stupid Easy Paleo.

Give your body the fuel it needs and see how much better you can feel!

So What’s The Deal with Carbs?

Being in the health industry one of the questions that I come across regularly is focused around one topic: CARBS. In America, we have been overexposed to and overfed carbs and then are told that “carbs are evil” and “carbs make you fat”… Well, this isn’t necessarily true, ESPECIALLY for anybody doing weight/resistance/HIIT training. The fact is that our body NEEDS carbs to function. Our brain alone needs about 130g of glucose (one of the simplest forms of carbs, and major energy source for the body) just to function. Our bodies also need glucose to produce ATP that is used for every action in the body, from walking to work all the way down to making new cells. As we use our muscles to curl, press, squat, run, and do burpees, our muscles are using glucose and ATP to make this happen. If our body doesn’t have enough glucose stores from our diets (i.e. eating carbs from whole grains, fruits, veggies, legumes, etc.) we might feel weak, tired, or shaky during our workouts. We also might feel under-recovered, sore, and extra tired if our muscles don’t have enough glucose to take in and repair themselves.

Can Carbs Make You Fat?

BUT what about carbs making us fat?!? Well, carbs are not the only ones to blame for weight gain. There are a lot of factors that can contribute to this, like age, body composition, exercise levels, types of foods we’re eating, and genetics, but what WILL cause weight gain is taking in more energy (food) than you are expending through exercise and daily-life movements. Overeating carbs will likely cause a calorie surplus and lead to weight gain, but the same will also happen if you consume too much protein and/or fat, so carbs are NOT the enemy here.

What Do We Recommend?

Bottom line, don’t be afraid of carbs! They are there to help you train hard, so use them to your advantage. Try to eat roughly a 1 cup serving of carbs in each meal and make sure you’re using whole food sources to get them. If you want more information on when the best time to eat carbs is, click on the link for an article by Precision Nutrition!

Keeping it Whole