The Executive Fitness MBA: Nutrition 101, Class 2: "It's NOT a Diet"

In the first Nutrition 101 segment I gave you fortunate souls the building blocks of your food plan: The Macros.  Recall, if you will, that "food" is not "nutrition". "Nutrition" is the combination of macronutrients, micronutrients, and supplements. The Macros are associated with food, and include protein (PRO), carbohydrates (CHO), and fats (FFA).  FFA contains 9 calories per gram and both CHO and PRO contain 4 calories per gram.  Obviously, the real question is how to organize these macronutrients is what you all want to know.  As a C-suite athlete you expect to see the "executive summary" so I'll give it to you in two words: "It depends" 

In general, most executive athletes will do best by investing in each macronutrient in a defined range based on a target total caloric intake.  Scientific, peer-reviewed, studies have demonstrated that all "diets" work the same in terms of their affect on body composition. Total caloric intake is what affects body composition, and arbitrarily eating a "low carb" or "low fat" diet without an appropriate baseline is madness. Your "diet" is the sum total of that food you eat and the macronutrients you consume with that food. Your "food plan" should reflect your performance and body composition goals.  Your "food plan" is not a "diet", your "diet" is part of your "food plan"!

First and foremost, you should see a physician who specializes in executive physicals and have a complete and thorough physical exam. This will include blood and urine analysis that will accurately identify any dietary changes that you will need to address to maintain or improve your general health. Remembers, the GOAT of wellness investments is your annual physical exam. If you're not healthy, everything else is meaningless. 

So you're asking yourself "What's the punch line, Mr. Sports Nutritionist?" How much of each macro do I need?  Since most of you are "Alphas" I understand your impatience, so here are the ranges of each that are promulgated by the International Society of Sports Nutrition.

• CHO: 45 - 65% of total calories per day.
• FFA: 20 - 50% of total calories per day
• PRO: 10 -15% of total calories.

So where do you fit in the range?  Once again, it all depends...on your age, your activity level, your body composition goals and - most importantly - what your doctor says.  I'll let this sink in a bit because I'm sure you're surprised at these ratios. I'll also tell you that we will make some modifications to these ratios based on your goals.  Seems like a lot of fat, right? Well, that's because you are thinking of "low fat" as a diet and not as "fat" being part of your food plan. We'll fix that.

Class dismissed. Next on the syllabus is determining daily caloric needs and putting together the outline of a food plan.