What is nutrition?
Nutrition is simply providing your body with the food necessary to live.
What are calories and kilojules?
The energy we gain from food and drinks is measured in kilojoules(kJ) and calories is the metric term used in countries like USA. In New Zealand, most food labels display nutritional information in kilojules. In order to convert kilojules to calories or vice versa the ratio accounts to one calorie is about roughly four kilojules.
For example, on most packaged goods in New Zealand it will say one serving is based on a percentage of recommended dietary intake (RDI) of an adult diet of 8700kj. Therefore, in order to get calores we can divide 8700 kilojules by four which gives us 2079(kcals).
How to read a food label in New Zealand
In New Zealand, nutritional information can often be quiet difficult to understand so I am going to try describe this for you in simple terms.
On the right is an image of spring water tuna from Countdown. We can see that there is two servings per pack. On the left side of the label it says quantity per serving which shows energy 280kj (kilojules) and just beneath that it shows 67cal (calories), therefore if we were to eat this entire can we would be having two servings totalling 134cal (calories).
After discovering how many calories in the tin, we can look at the overarching macronutient contents protein, fats and carbohydrates. As shown in the image, one serving contains 15.4g of protien, 0.4g of fat, and 0.2g of carbohydrates.
How many calories you should be eating
Firstly, using a free calorie calculator online will help you determine how much food you require to help achieve your goal. There are many different diets that you can follow but eating in calorie deficit is goin to be the only way to loose body fat. Here is website which you can use to get a rough estimate for how many calories you should be using a free calorie calculator
Diets
In the health and fitness industry you will commonly here about trending diets that are supposedly better than others. Ultimately eating a balanced diet of macronutrient is the most sustainable as you arent restricting particular food groups. If it fits your macros (IFFYM) is a dieting technique which involves counting the number of macronutrients (protein, carbs and fats), rather than calories that a person is consuming.
What are macronutrients and micronutrients?
Macronutrients are the nutrients that your body needs in large amounts, which include proteins, carbohydrates (carbs) and fats. Whereas, micronutrients are consumed in miniscule amounts which are mostly vitamins and minerals.
What to eat to build muscle
If you are wanting to build muscle and have a been consistenetly undertaking resistence training at the gym, eating suffieicent protein will enable you to grow muscle mass. A good indication of how many grams of protien you should be eating is around two times your bodyweight in kilograms. For example, a male weighing 85kgs should be eating a minimum of 170g (two times bodyweight) of protien per day if they are wanting to build muscle. This is the same for a woman weighing 65kgs they should be eating a minimum of 130g to gain more muscle.
Biggest myths regarding nutrition
One of the biggest myths with nutrition is that carbohydrates are bad. Carbohydrates are one of the three main marconutrients found in food and drinks. Although the body can survive without carbohydrates for a period of time, carbohydrates are a highly beneficial as foods containing carbohydrates are used to make glucose, which is your body's main energy source. Glucose, or blood sugar, is the main source of energy for your body's cells, tissues, and organs which can be used right away or stored and used later. Another common myth that circulates through society is eating late at night will make you fat. However, eating at any time of the day is fine as long as your not eating in a calorie surplus.
Balanced lifestyle
If ideally you aren't wanting to become the next mr olympia or training for a marathon, having a balanced approach to nutrition and training will give you a deisrable lifestyle. This is because restricitng calories constantly and feeling bad for eating convienience food can put a damper on your psychological health which can futher cause eating disorders down the line. Allowing yourself to eat a few treats throughout the week will keep you satisfied and help provide you with more energy.