How Nutrition Affects Our Bodies

By Austin Personal Trainer, Tony Waiscki

Hey it’s your coach and friend Tony Wasicki with Versatile Athletics! As a fitness trainer the main thing I hope to persuade people to do is practice proper nutrition. This is the one thing that is going to propel you toward your goals. This is 90% of the work.

Do you want to gain muscle? Lose fat? Or compete at the highest level of athletics? Whatever your goal, the difference that makes a difference is almost always nutrition. Information overload is common and internet guru’s often preach conflicting ideas. Every week there is a new diet to try… and fail.

Sound familiar?

Let’s start off with the understanding of some basics……

* As defined by the ISSA

Energy Balance – The relationship between all sources of energy intake & energy output. An organism is said to be in energy balance when energy flow into the body & out of the body is equal. This is often evidenced by a stable body weight.

Positive energy balance – An organism is in positive energy balance when energy flow exceeds energy
flow out of the body. This often evidenced by an increasing body weight.

Negative energy balance – An organism is in negative energy balance when energy flow out of the body
exceed energy flow into the body. This is often evidenced by a decreasing body weight.

Too much of being in either the negative or positive can have a negative impact on the health of your body. Severe negative energy balance can lead to massive metabolic decline, reductions in thyroid hormone production, reduction in testosterone levels, an inability to concentrate, and a huge reduction in physical performance. Your body thinks that it’s starving, so it slows down or shuts down all non-survival functions including reproductive function, metabolic function, and brain function.

On the other hand, too much of being in the positive has its own negative effects not only in terms of weight gain but in terms of health. Some of these include: plaque building up in your arteries, an increase in blood pressure, & insulin resistance which puts you at high risk of diabetes, and the list goes on.

So what’s the solution?……..

Consume more nutrient dense food! Which is defined by the ratio of nutrients relative to the total
calorie content in food. Examples include:

● Brightly or deeply colored vegetables
● High fiber, unprocessed grains
● Lean meats (chicken breast, lean cuts of red meat such as sirloin & venison)

Examples of foods with a low nutrient density include:
● Table sugar
● Soda
● White flour
● Ice cream

In contrast there are also calorie dense foods which are defined by their ratio of calories to the actual weight of food. Examples of these include:

● Cookies
● Crackers
● Butter
● Bacon

How many calories are enough?

The answer to this question is dependent on your goals. If you are new to the concept of nutrition and
your goal is fat loss, then it is advisable that your diet consists of nutrient dense and low calorie foods. Calorie counting can be confusing, so I recommend eating to satiation which is a state of being pleasantly fed to satisfaction. On the other hand when I have a client whose goal is weight gain then a recommended approach would be to have a diet high in calorie dense and high nutrient dense foods. This would allow for increases in both nutrient intake and calorie intake which is essential for gains in both lean mass & total body weight.

Got it? Great! Get to the gym, train, and start putting some of these principles to use and watch yourself go through an amazing transformation! Still need help? All hope is not lost. My help is always available and your body is an investment as is your health.

I hope you have found this information to be useful. If you are ready to take your health and fitness to the next level, I’m here to support you so contact me today. Until next month this is your friend and coach Tony Wasicki with Versatile Athletics and……

Go Train Baby!!!

---

Tony is a Certified Personal Trainer in Austin, TX. Click here to browse through and connect with all of our trainers in the Austin area.