As I am sure you are well aware, there are two components that determine the success of body composition goals. One being exercise in which I have provided you with a FREE Exercise program, and the other being nutrition or dietary intake in which I have provided a FREE Dietary program. This article will focus on what fuels our body and how weight is gained/lost. As we learned in a previous article called “Introduction to exercise 101“, your body requires a certain form of energy in order to function, ATP. We get this by breaking down the chemical bonds in macro-nutrients(food) to their simplest form through a serious of chemical reactions. But ATP is of limited supply so our body must store other forms of energy that can be broken down into ATP for use at any time. It does this by storing partially broken down carbohydrates known as glycogen in the muscles and liver. However our bodies will eventually run out of these fuel sources too, so we must have yet another source, enter fatty acids(fat)and to a lesser extent amino acids(protein). These sources are used more prominently when exercise duration is extended beyond the anaerobic glycotic stage and oxygen is present. However you are constantly using a mixture of all of these sources to maintain basic metabolic functions. It should be noted that the in a normal circumstances the majority of energy spent by your body on a daily basis is derived from carbohydrates, then to a lesser extent fats, and a minimal amount from proteins. This can be altered by eliminating carbohydrates from your dietary intake and forcing your body to adapt and use fatty acids as the primary fuel source in a process known as ketosis. While it sounds glamorous and a sure fire way to lose weight, I assure you there are much easier ways which will ensure long term success. Now I am not saying ketosis is never a viable option, merely it should be left to the professional athletes and coaches.
Energy Balance Equation
Now with the basic fuel substrates out the way we can focus on how and why people become overweight or underweight. It all comes down to whether the individual energy needs of the body(metabolism) are being met consistently on a daily basis, if they are your body will be using an equal amount of the energy as you are consuming from food, resulting in no net gain or loss. If you are consuming more energy via food then your body requires to function, then you will be at a net gain(weight gain) and under consuming the required energy needs of the body will result in a net loss(weightloss). This equation is known as the energy balance equation. The above explanation of the this equation is extremely primitive, the truth is, it is a far more complicated equation then I dare try to explain. For a more in depth explanation visit here
So if we over consume energy(food) we gain weight, and if we under consume we lose weight. So if we could somehow track the amount of energy our body requires on a daily basis to perform all of it’s functions optimally and eat under that amount we would be half way to losing weight….Luckily for us there are several such equations available that output fairly accurate educated guesses. The other half is somehow figuring out how much energy is is certain foods and giving it a value based on such…Again luckily for you this has been done for you in the form of calories.
If you have not already I implore you to read my previous article “calories, Calories, Kilo-calories, joules and Kilo-joules“. As it explains the assigned values given to the different macro-nutrients, while you are at it read “Introduction to nutrition 101” as it explains the basic building blocks of food, macro-nutrients.
Now as I stated above the equation is far more complex then explained here and a variety of variables can lead to the equation not yielding desired results. However I must emphasize this is no fault of the equation, merely they variables influencing the equation, variables such as environment, disease etc. This does not make the equation flawed, nor does it make it not suitable for everyone. This equation applies to every human being alive, as energy systems are governed by the same laws of physics that rule all energy transformations.
JG:FitNut 