Uncut Fitness

One of the hardest thing about living a fit lifestyle is counting the calories you put in your body on a daily basis. Most people don't count calories, and these are usually the people who do not see the best results. From my experience most people don't count calories because they don't really know how to or they don't have the necessary resources to do so.

The basic knowledge you need to have about counting calories is that 1g of fat has 9 calories, 1g of protein has 4 calories, and 1g of carbohydrates has 4 calories. If you know that then you can count calories on a basic level with some basic knowledge of the nutritional value of the food your eating.

What I do everyday to count my calories is I take a small notebook with me everywhere and I take a note of everything I eat. I write down the portion size and what I ate. You can also use your phone if it has a basic text editor like the notes app on the iPhone. You don't have to write down the calories contained in each and every meal when you eat it unless you already know how many you eat. I usually wait until the end of the day or when I have time throughout the day to calculate my calories if I don't already have it written down.

I use http://caloriecount.about.com/ to find out how many calories are contained in the food that I am eating. It is a useful tool when you are first starting. After a while you will learn the basic nutritional value of the foods you eat. It makes the process a lot easier.

The most important part of counting calories is to remain vigilant in your efforts and to make sure that you track everything that you eat and drink. If you aren't honest with yourself and your calorie tracking, your results will be nonexistent.

Part I: Developing a Nutrition Plan

In my honest opinion a good nutrition plan is the most important part of getting in shape or building muscle. Despite what the mainstream says, you can lose large amounts of body fat simply by eating the right way, and you can gain pounds of muscle by doing the same thing and lifting weights. A well developed nutrition plan should be the foundation of your fitness plan. In this part of the series I am going to guide you in creating the best nutrition plan for your goals.

Part 1: Macronutrients

Macronutrients are the large building blocks of your body. These include Fats, Carbohydrates, and Proteins. Each of them has an essential part in your body and your nutrition, and they shouldn't be neglected.

Fats

Fats are an essential part of anyones diet. It is not common for people to think that all kinds of fats are bad for you though, and the truth is, they are not. There are fats that are required by our bodies to live, and there are fats that are indeed detrimental to our health.

Trans Fats or unsaturated fats with trans-isomer fatty acids have been known to cause a plethora of health problems such as the risk of coronary heart disease and high cholesterol. Trans fats are something that should be avoided.

Unsaturated fats, (such as polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats) are good for the bodies health in certain amounts. While monounsaturated fats are the least optimal choice because they promote insulin resistance, polyunsaturated fats resist insulin resistance and are optimal at allowing your body to release safe amounts of insulin into the body to aid in muscle growth and development.

With that being said, you should avoid Trans Fat and try to eat enough polyunsaturated fats to promote insulin release.

Carbohydrates

Despite what most people believe, carbohydrates are not your bodies main source of energy, but they are essential to achieving your fitness goal. Carbohydrates can be broken down into many categories but for the sake of sticking to the fitness portion of this series I am going to try and be brief. There are two main types of Carbs, complex and simple carbohydrates.

Complex carbs are going to be your fruits, grains, and vegetables. When eaten, complex carbs will momentarily raise your blood sugar level, causing a spike in your metabolism and are optimal when you are wanting your body to absorb a nutrient quickly such as protein or creatine.

Simple carbs are your basic sugars such as sucrose, glucose, and lactose. You want to keep your simple carbs to a minimum and focus on getting the complex carbs your body needs to build muscle properly.

Proteins

Proteins are going to be the main focus of your nutritional plan as they are the main source of energy and are the building blocks of muscle. Protein can be obtained through meats, nuts, and dairy products. Proteins are made up of amino acids which are your bodies main source of energy and the most important aspect of getting into shape due to their ability to build lean muscle and burn fat.

Most of you are familiar with protein so I am not going to go in-depth on the subject, but be sure that you are getting enough protein in your diet. You will want to get at least 1g of protein per pound of lean body weight. This is extremely important.

Part II: Constructing a Meal Plan That Meets Your Needs.

As I have already said numerous times, your meal plan and nutrition can make or break your fitness goals and you need to spend the adequate amount of time constructing it. I am going to give you some guidelines and examples to get you started but the rest is up to you. Eat what you like as long is it is healthy and fits into your meal plan.

The starting point of constructing a meal plan is to go back and look at your goals. These will determine what you eat and how much of it you eat. You also need to determine your bodies caloric maintenance, meaning how many calories your body burns in a day. A good place to determine this is in this article.

Once you have determined your maintenance level, you need to move on to what your macros are (how much fats, proteins, and carbohydrates you should consume on a daily basis).