Nutrition

• lifestyle, goals, and metabolism
• taste in food, prep times, and meals desired per day

The precisely formulated daily menus inform you of...

• total calories, as well as % of carbs/fat/protein eaten
• amount of every vitamin and mineral swallowed

And that's not all! We provide ongoing motivation, education, and support - each time you log on with...

• daily articles on nutrition
• engaging message boards
• insightful diet tips and more

Protein: Protein is broken down into amino acids, which are the building block of the body. Your muscles are approximately ¼ protein and ¾ water. Therefore in order to increase muscle mass or density it is important to have an adequate amount of protein and water in your diet.

Fats: Contrary to popular opinion, not all fats are your enemy. In fact, certain fats are not only beneficial to your health and physical needs, but they are actually essential to many of the biochemical interactions that your body is constantly going through. To keep things simple we will break fat down into 2 categories. Saturated fat (the bad fat) is the fat we need to avoid. This is the fat that is responsible for adding body fat and raising cholesterol. This increases your risk for high blood pressure in turn raising risk of heart disease. For our purpose, this fat should be avoided. On the other hand we have our friend, unsaturated fats. These fats are responsible for giving us energy, lowering cholesterol levels and aiding in digestion. It is important to include small levels of unsaturated fats in your diet.

Carbohydrates: Carbohydrates are broken down into glycogen (sugar) in which your body uses as fuel or energy. There are two basic types of carbohydrates. Complex, which require more extensive digestion, and simple, which require less extensive digestion. Complex carbohydrates can further be broken down into starchy and fibrous. Examples of starchy carbs are pastas, rice, potatoes, breads, etc. Examples of more fibrous carbs are mostly vegetables like broccoli, cauliflower, asparagus, etc. Generally your fibrous carbs have a lower caloric value and require more energy to digest, therefore, are better suited to raise your metabolism.

In order to understand the value of carbohydrates, it is necessary to understand something called glycemic index. If there's one thing you take from this program to be most beneficial to your physical goals. Please let it be understanding this section on Glycemic Index.

GLYCEMIC INDEX

What is the Glycemic Index (GI)?

They glycemic index ranks foods on how they affect our blood sugar levels. This index measures how much your blood sugar increases in the two or three hours after eating.

The glycemic index is about foods high in carbohydrates. Foods high in fat or protein don't cause your blood sugar level to rise much.

Your body (pancreas) secretes a hormone called insulin to counteract the sugar. The insulin acts like a transport mechanism for the distribution of different molecules (glycogen (energy), amino acids (building blocks), fats (stored energy) etc.) to certain cells.

By ingesting foods (carbohydrates) with a high GI, your stimulating your body to secrete high levels of insulin. If your body has not just completed some activity like resistance training, the insulin has no need to transport the carbohydrate (which stimulated the insulin) anywhere for use, therefore it transports it to be stored (in fat cells) for later use. Stored carbohydrates are the number 1 component to adding body fat. Therefore, perhaps the most important factor in controlling body fat is consuming foods with a low GI.
When you make use of glycemic index to prepare healthy meals, it helps to keep your blood sugar levels under control. This is especially important for people with diabetes, although athletes and people who are overweight also stand to benefit from knowing about this relatively new concept in good nutrition.

Scientists have so far measured the glycemic indexes of about 300 high-carbohydrate foods. The key is to eat little of those foods with a high glycemic index and more of those foods with a low index.

What about Portion Size? And how is GI Determined?

The glycemic index is about the quality of the carbohydrates, not the quantity. Obviously, quantity matters too, but the measurement of the glycemic index of a food is not related to portion size. It remains the same whether you eat 10 grams of it or 1000 grams. That's because to make a fair comparison tests of the glycemic indexes of food usually use 50 grams of available carbohydrate in each food. For example, you can eat twice as many carbohydrates in a food that has a glycemic index of 50 than one that has a glycemic index of 100 and have the same blood glucose response.

METABOLISM
Definition: The continuous process in living organisms and cells, comprising those by which food is broken down into simpler substances or waste matter and used to maintain vital function.

Before we can understand how exercise and proper nutrition affect our bodies, we must first understand our metabolism. Your metabolism is like the activity level of your body. The greater the need for energy in your body, the faster your metabolism will be. Likewise, the less energy your body needs the slower your metabolism will be.

Your metabolism is regulated by one thing, which is the amount of lean body mass you have. Therefore, it's not only important to reduce your body fat to increase your metabolism. It is equally important to increase your muscle mass or density. This doesn't necessarily mean increasing the size of your muscle tissues. More often, it means increasing the density of your muscles. This simply means increasing the tonicity of the muscles (making them firmer). The greater your muscle mass or density is, the harder your body has to work to maintain that state.

HOW TO REGULATE YOUR METABOLISM THROUGH YOUR DIET

Since your metabolism is the amount of energy your body expends in order to maintain itself, anything that helps you expend energy, helps to raise your metabolism. For example, exercise expends a great deal of energy; therefore, it is an important factor in increasing your metabolism. The digestive process expends more energy than almost anything you do, therefore, putting your body through the digestive process actually enhances your metabolism. For that reason it is important to eat many small meals through the day, to stimulate your metabolism. For example, a normal person may eat three (3) meals per day, with each meal consisting of 700 calories, totaling 2,100 calories for the day. If every time he ate he burned 500 calories through the digestion process, he will have consumed 2,100 calories and burned 1,500 calories (through digestion) therefore leaving 600 calories for normal daily activity. However, if that same person ate the same amount of food except did so in five portions as opposed to 3 they will now have burned 2,500 calories (through digestion) and still having only consumed 2,100 calories, leaving a deficit of 400 calories. In order to maintain itself the body would have to give up 400 calories (from stored body fat) just to complete digestion. Therefore, a great way to increase your metabolism through your diet is to consume many small meals throughout the day as opposed to less larger meals.

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