Nutritional Knowledge for Begginers.

Nutrition is just as important as lifting weights or exercising. Metabolism is different for every person but for most people the resting metabolism is around 1100 calories a day. This is just the calories it takes for your body to live, think of these as your life-support calories.

You will expend more calories as you become active. This could be walking down the street or up and down a flight of stairs. Of course you will burn more on the stairs. This means that you will need more calories for your everyday activities or work. Now if you are a couch potato then you probably will not need much more than the 1100 calories a day to survive. Let's say you consume 1800 calories a day this will leave 700 calories for extra activities. Now if you are a couch potato these calories will turn to stored fat. If you are active you will burn these calories and when they have all been depleted your body will turn to the stored fat for energy.

After training your muscles are broken down and your body is in a negative protein balance. Without a proper balance of protein even though you are lifting you will find that your body was actually losing muscle. Think of muscle growth as a brick wall so if you add four bricks, protein synthesis, but your neighbor removes six, protein breakdown, you have a smaller wall at the end of the day. But if you add six bricks and your neighbor removes takes down only four, you have a bigger wall. Muscle building is a constant battle between building up and tearing down.

That's how muscle growth takes place but if you shift that protein balance from negative to positive. Fat and carbohydrates play important roles in this process as well but protein is the macronutrient that basically supports muscle growth.

For the female readers, here are a few words of wisdom to you. By increasing your protein intake with exercise you will not turn into the Incredible Hulk. Women don't gain muscle as readily as men do and eating more protein will not automatically increase their muscle growth. The main difference between men and women is the T-factor, known as testosterone. Look at all the female dancers and how amazing, strong and beautiful they are and they work out harder than most body builders but they are not bulked up.

You should eat at least six to seven times a day keeping the meals small. You should have three meals and two snacks a day eating about every two and a half to three hours. This will keep the nutrients that your body needs and keeping your metabolism elevated. By eating more frequently if you add up the total caloric intake for both diets you will probably be surprised to find that you are actually in taking less calorie with more snacks and meals because you will not fill like you are hungry.

I have listed several Good and Bad sources of protein below to help you with your diet:

The Good Stuff / The Bad Stuff
1. Seafood / 1. Bacon
2. Beans / 2. Sausage
3. Turkey Breast / 3. Bratwurst
4. Chicken Breast / 4. Pepperoni
5. Ostrich / 5. Prime Rib
6. Beef (100% grass feed) / 6. Fried Fish
7. Eggs / 7. Salami