There Is A Method to the Madness
This is a podcast where I will be discussing all aspects of physical fitness. I am an exercise physiologist and personal trainer and owner of Maxwell's Fitness Programs for the last 25 years. My passion is health and fitness and I am excited to share my views, some stories, interviews and much more with you.
There Is A Method to the Madness
Calories First, Macros Matter
Welcome to the Fit, Healthy and Happy Podcast hosted by Josh and Kyle from Colossus...
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Welcome to There is a Method to the Madness. My name is Rob Maxwell, and I'm an exercise physiologist and personal trainer. I am the owner of Maxwell's Fitness Program and have been in business since 1994. The purpose of this podcast is to get to the real deal of what really worked and most importantly why things work. Hence the name, there is a method to the magnet. Before I get started today, let me thank Jonathan and Lynn Gilden of the Gilding Group Realty Pros. They are committed to providing the highest level of customer service in home sales. Why don't you give them a shout and figure out what your home is worth? 386-451-2412. I am going to teach you what you need to know about eating, and I'm going to do that between 20 and 30 minutes using your time right here. And it is so simple and something I've been preaching since I've been a professional. The key is will you believe me? Will you believe that all of this is this simple? So I'm going to go over two things that we need to understand regarding eating, diet, weight loss, weight gain, weight maintenance, all that good stuff. Being healthy, having energy to work out, having energy to live, having energy for whatever we need, why we don't have energy, all those good things. All right. But the first thing I need to get you to understand is that two things can be true at the same time. People love dichotomies so much, but that is not how life is. All right. So first you have to nod with me and say, all right, all right, two things can be true at the same time. And now let's talk about what those two things are. The first thing is that weight loss, weight gain, weight maintenance, all of that comes down to calories. Period. It comes down to calories. If we want to lose weight, we have to either consume less calories or burn more calories or some combination of those two things. This is a physiological fact. All right. Now the second thing that's true is macronutrients matter. Macronutrients are carbohydrates, protein, fat, and water. But the energy-giving macronutrients are only protein, carbs, and fat. So minus out the water. They matter. But Rob, why do they matter if it all comes down to calories? Because they do. And you're going to listen and find out how they matter. The first thing we're going to talk about, though, is why everything comes down to calories. Now, if you've ever had science, maybe biology, maybe a different form of biology, you perhaps learned the very first law of thermodynamics, which states energy is neither created nor destroyed. That means energy is always there. Now that's kind of cool when you really, really think about it, right? Because we human beings and all animals are energy. So that's kind of cool. So, you know, just wrap your head around that a little bit, but I'm not going to go too philosophical on you at least today. I'm going to keep this in the realm of what I'm talking about. So, in the case of food, energy is calories. All right. Calories are units of energy. We need energy to continue to move. What happens is energy in the form of carbohydrates and fat, and to an extent, protein, help resynthesize the adenosin triphosphate, which is ATP in your cells, because the only unit of energy small enough to be used at the cell level is ATP. And we only store enough for about three seconds. One, two, three. I'm out of ATP. One, two, three. I'm out of ATP. We cannot move without ATP. All right. ATP is the lifeblood of the cells. The only way we can resynthesize, not create, because remember, energy is neither created nor destroyed. So it's resynthesized. It's broken down from one area and brought to another. The calories is what is needed to resynthesize the ATP. So if we don't have enough calories, we don't have any energy, we don't move. Okay? Now, here is the definition of a calorie, which, you know, you'll get this right on Jeopardy because that will probably be the only place you'll see this unless you are perusing through some textbooks. A calorie is a unit of energy equivalent to the heat energy needed to raise the temperature of one gram of water by one Celsius. That's the definition of a calorie. So it can be measured. That's what a calorie is. So if we need to lose weight, we need to take in less energy from the outside so we can use the energy on the inside. And guess where your energy is stored in the body? Can you guess? Do you know that stuff that starts with an A that nobody likes, adipose tissue? That is stored fat. Okay, that's what adipose is. It's fat. Well, fat is energy. As a matter of fact, one gram of fat has nine calories. So the only way we are going to use that subcutaneous fat on your body, that's the fat that's on the midsection, that's the fat that's on the fanny, that's the fat that's on the thighs, that's the fat that's on the biceps, whatever and wherever your body type particularly stores it, that's what that is. That is stored energy. Adipose tissue is stored energy. So all of you are very smart. I know this because you're listening to this podcast. Tell me how you're going to get down and burn that adipose tissue if you're taking in enough energy from the outside? How is that going to happen? How is that going to happen? So if you're trying to use up a bucket of water and you're not allowed to leave until that bucket of water is done for whatever you're doing, watering plants or whatever you're doing, but it's continuing to rain to fill up the bucket. How on earth are you going to get to the bottom of the bucket? How are you going to get to the stored water when all you're pulling off is the water that just came in? You can't, right? It's impossible. So everything is going to come down to calories. The only way to get to the stored energy you have, which is adipose tissue, is to have a deficit. You need a deficit, a caloric deficit. That is the only way, ladies and gentlemen, that you're going to lose weight. So I've had people, you know, those types we all get at workshops or when we're speaking, you know, they think they're being funny or they're trying to challenge you, you know. We call them kind of like rubber balls, you know. So a sponge takes in all the information that you want to give because they really want to get better. So, you know, if you tell them something, they'll say, oh man, you know, no, I never heard that. I'm going to apply that. And, you know, we have enough of those in our life, thank goodness. And then we have the rubber balls people, you know. Every time you tell them something, they yab at you or they tell you something they heard. And basically they're just not ready to grow or get better. So we in the Allied Health industry, and I'm sure in all other industries, kind of just, you know, put them on the back burner and go, oh, there they are, right? But occasionally, if I speak, you'll get one in the audience and they'll raise their hand and go, okay, Rob. So you're telling me that if I only eat Hershey's Kisses, I'm saying this, Hershey's Kisses, you're wondering why is this so freaking specific? Well, you can guess why. Because this is an exact conversation I had with some lovely person once. So you're telling me if I eat nothing but Hershey's Kisses, I can lose weight if I just take in maybe 800 calories worth a day, but it's Hershey's Kisses. So, yep, you will lose weight, Brian. You will lose weight. And you will be unhealthy. And not only will you lose some subcutaneous body fat, you will lose some muscle because you don't have any glycogen there to rebuild it. You don't have any protein there to help it grow. You will not be healthy. Most likely you will turn out, most likely not, you know, not necessarily, but good chance you'll get type 2 diabetes because you really throw your insulin out of whack. You will be in brain fog all the time because you're consuming nothing but sugar. But sure, Brian, you will lose weight. Thanks for the question. All right. So, yes, it all comes down to energy with weight loss, weight gain, weight maintenance, but it doesn't mean you'll be healthy. All right. So macronutrients matter too. Two things can be true at the same time. Does that mean that you're gonna now follow that influencer that's selling you the macro diet online and they're gonna teach you exactly how many grams of carbs, fat, and protein to consume to lose weight? No, because really all they're doing with that is playing the shell game. They're just doing some math for you. That's all they're doing. They're taking the calories that you need and dividing it by a certain percentage to tell you how many grams to eat. You can do that for yourself. You'll learn here how. So, no, you don't have to do that. I'm just telling you that both things are true. Macronutrients matter and calories matter. Okay. So, a definition of a macronutrient is an essential nutrient. And by the way, essential in this case doesn't mean needed. I understand that's a definition of essential, but that's not what it means. Essential in this case means your body can't produce it on its own, so it has to come from an outside source. So a macronutrient is an essential nutrient your body needs in large, that's where the macro comes in, in large amounts for energy, body structure, and bodily function. That's what a macronutrient is, needed in large amounts. A micronutrient is our vitamins and minerals, all right? Essential micronutrients, meaning your body has to take them in from the outside. That's where the essential comes in. Micro means you need them in small amounts. Compared to macro, you need them in larger amounts. Okay, so that's what they are. Now, protein is a macronutrient. Protein has four kilocalories or calories per gram. Same as carbohydrates, four calories per gram. Why is protein needed? Because protein's job is for growth and repair. Now, a lot of times people will say, well, you need protein to grow your muscles. Well, that's partly true, but not really. You need complex carbohydrates to grow your muscles. You need quality carbs for the energy, but you also need protein for the growth and repair. So it's not completely false when they say it, but I don't know that all of them know why they say it. So it is hard to grow muscles without protein because it's hard for the cells to get the repair. But protein by itself is not an energy carbohydrate, all right? Needed for growth and repair. Protein is broken down into essential and non-essential amino acids. When these amino acids are broken down, reach the bloodstream, they do their job. It is best to get protein in lean sources because the problem with protein is sometimes they come in a high-fat diet. So, yeah, you can get a lot of protein in beef, but you're also going to get a lot of saturated fat. So it's best to get your protein from lean sources. And no, I don't care what anybody's telling you right now. There's these idiots online right now saying, this is what we look like when we eat eggs and beef and hamburger. And they're like these jacked guys. It's like, that's not why you look like that, but go ahead and tell yourself that. Saturated fat is going to clog your arteries. I mean, every study in the world has shown that. So, no, we don't need the beef per se because it's really high in saturated fat. Okay. So, yes, it is a macronutrient we need, but we only need it in a certain balance. 15 to 30% of your diet roughly should be in the form of protein. 15 to 30 percent. All right. If you get that, you have enough protein for growth and repair of your endocrine system. So not just your muscles, but also the hormones help build and repair the hormonal system. So you don't need a lot, but we need it in a balance of roughly 15 to 30 percent. All right. The next big boy is carbohydrates. Man, they are demonized still to this day. Look, carbs don't make you fat, okay? Too many calories will make you fat. All right, plain and simple. If you eat too many carbs on top of too much everything else, of course you're going to gain weight. But if we eat everything in balance and eat just what we need, we are not going to gain weight. So is it good to get that, like what some people will call coffee from Starbucks? You know, those smoothie things? Well, no, because that smoothie drink is like 500 calories, mostly sugar. But Rob, sugar isn't bad. No, it's not bad in the right quantity. But most likely you're not using it for exercise at the time or right afterwards. And most likely, if you're eating those things or drinking those things, you're probably also eating and drinking a lot of other stuff too. Okay. So most likely you're adding that on top of already a caloric surplus. All right. And it's nothing but empty calories because you're taking in the sugar. You're not exercising at the time, nor did you just exercise. Most likely, so you're just taking in a lot of calories on top of the calories you probably already ate. Okay. Carbs aren't bad. Carbs are needed for energy. They also have four calories per gram, just like protein. Now, you do want to get the majority of your carbohydrates from complex varieties such as rice, vegetables, whole grains, things like that. Why? Because they have a lower glycemic index, so they're more likely to store as glycogen. So we will store excess carbohydrates in the form of glycogen, not in the form of fat, as long as we don't consume too many. Our body can store up to 500 grams. That's 2,000 calories of carbohydrates, as long as we aren't taking in too many. So if you're very active, you're gonna burn off the glycogen. That's a good thing. And then you can eat more carbohydrates. Isn't that cool? So, like it is a total win-win. But when we take in like a lot of carbs in the form of sugar, we'll get an insulin spike, and we may not store those carbohydrates in the form of glycogen unless we are really in a depleted state, and that's not good. Okay. So the moral of the story is we need carbohydrates. It's best to get good sources of carbohydrates, like complex carbohydrates. Basically, get them from real plants, things that grow in the ground, and you should be okay. All right. Well, guess what? The only energy your brain can use for fuel is carbohydrate. So if you're on nothing but, you know, one of these fatkins diet, you know. And you're really low, low blood sugar, and you're in that brain fog, nothing's going to take you out of it. And that's not healthy, right? You can drive around like that. I've had people come to the gym that don't listen. You know, yes, we get rubber ball clients too that know everything. And oh, I can help you a little bit with your diet. No, no, no. I'm following my friend Karen down at the mall. You know, she's great. You know, she's been battling obesity her whole life, and she really knows her stuff. And uh, yeah, you heard me say that right. That's what we hear sometimes. It's like, okay. And so you get the rubber ball bounced right back at you. So it's like, okay, go ahead. I'm not, if you're not gonna listen, I'm not gonna talk to you about your diet. And so they'll follow these ridiculous, super low-carb diets, and they have no energy, they're in a brain fog all the time, and the workouts suck, but hey, Karen told them it's good. All right, not good, people. All right, finally, the last macronutrient is fat. Now, in in the 1980s, it was all about low fat diets. Anybody remember that? Hopefully, there's some people out there that are old enough to remember that. Well, we have segued into low carb diets. But back then, it was all about low fat. Now, in fairness to them, they were thinking correctly in a way because, see, fat has nine calories per gram. So a gram of fat has twice the amount of calories than a gram of protein and carbs. So people were thinking, you know, so if we consume a lot less fat, we're taking in less calories. That is true. But again, everything goes back to calories. So what people ended up doing was they ate as much of everything else as they could get their hands on, like, you know, non-fat potato chips and all this stuff. And so people just started binging on carbs, and then, you know, carbs get the bad name. But really, if people just learned to eat within their means, they'd be fine. But that's not the lesson us Americans like all the time. And so we got fatter in the 80s. People blame the carbs. The reality is, you know, the bottom line is people were eating too many calories because they believed what the media, not the science, was telling them. So fat has nine calories per gram. It is broken down into free fatty acids in your bloodstream. It's used for long-term energy. We store extra fat as fat as adipose tissue for long-term energy. It also helps rebuild the endocrine system, and it's critical to build many hormones. So if you're on a very low-fat diet, that's not healthy. We do need to consume a low, not no, a low saturated fat diet. But we shouldn't be on an ultra-low fat diet. We should consume enough unsaturated, polyunsaturated fats. Basically, if you stick to plant fats, you're going to be fine for the most part. It's the animal fats that are saturated, and that has been linked to heart disease. Only 10 to 30 percent of our diet, I'm sorry, 20 to 30 percent of our diet should be in the form of fat. 20 to 30 percent. Notice though, it's not 10%, it's not 5%. We want to consume enough fat. If we don't consume enough fat, it's not good for our skin, it's not good for our hair, not good for our nails, not good for our endocrine system. We need to have it in a balance, and the proper balance is 20 to 30 percent. All right, so both matter, as I said. Both can be true at the same time. What we need to do is figure out how many calories we need for whatever our goals are, whether it be to lose weight, gain weight as in muscle, or maintain. We figure out what that number is. Then we go by the percentages of a healthy diet. Break it down. I tend to go somewhere around 25% on protein. I tend to go around 55% on carbs for me, and I tend to go around 20% or so on fat. So we figure it out. We stay in our ranges, we simply figure out the calories, we multiply it by the percentage. So, in other words, if we're at 2,000 calories, we're gonna multiply that by 0.25 for protein, figure out how many calories that is, and then we can figure the grams. Or even easier, if we log our food, our MyFitnessPal will tell us our percentages as we eat, and then we can simply check it and go, ooh, I'm consuming too much of this or not enough of this, and fix it. And yes, for many, many decades and centuries, people got fine were absolutely fine without logging their food in these apps. So, yeah, we can use common sense and know like one serving of protein is going to be enough, one serving of good carbohydrates, complex carbs is going to be enough with you know making sure that we're not totally eliminating fat completely. And we will probably hit those macros if we're really conscious. I do believe that once we have the information, we start looking in the right direction. All right. So, yes, people, macros matter and carbohydrates matter. Thanks everybody for listening to today's show. I want to ask you to please hit automatic download from wherever you get your podcast from. It really helps me and it really helps the show. Now I'd like to take a second to thank our sponsors. Without them, we would not be able to have the podcast. First overhead door of Daytona Beach. They are the area's premier garage door company. They have the best product and the best service. I personally vouch for Jeff and Zach Hawk. They are great people. If you have any garage door needs, please give them a call. 386-222-3165. Now I'm very, very happy and excited to announce we have a new sponsor, Procharge Liquid Protein Enhancer. Each container has 40 grams of protein. And what's really cool about this is it's very portable. You can throw the tiny little containers into a suitcase, take it wherever you go. Now you don't have to worry about spilling. And you know what? It tastes really, really good. Just open up the cap, suck down the protein. It's that easy. If you want to try it out, you can check it out at my website, fittothemax.net, and click on Procharge Liquid Protein Enhancer, or you can go directly to their website at www.prochargeprotein.com.
