If every aspect of health and fitness is a tool ot be used then it’s just a matter of which tools are most important and cover the most bases to establish what you put priority on when starting out. Implementing and practicing baby steps are the best way to go, and the steps that cover the most ground should always be the first taken.

The body is not a mysterious black box, that is, there is a rhyme and reason for how it works, and saving certain medical conditions we can predict how it will react to certain conditions and stimuli. For understanding our metabolism that means understanding what we put into it and the role each of the three macronutrients plays in fueling our body’s.

A Carb’s Role

Carbon (carb) + Water (hydrate) = carbohydrate. As far as exactly “what” a carbohydrate is, that’s it. What it does for you and why it is so important is a bit more complicated.

The importance of carbohydrates cannot be understated. They serve as the main source of energy for muscular exertion and all bodily functions. They are responsible for allowing the digestion and utilization of other foods (fats and proteins), provide the immediate caloric energy for heating the body, and can be broken down into glucose and other free sugars that are essential for fueling the brain, nervous system, muscles, and other body tissues.

Carbohydrates are the main fuel source in the human diet. They are broken down into two groups; simple and complex.

Simple carbohydrates, also called “simple sugars” are found mainly in sweets. This includes fruit juice, syrup, molasses, honey, and processed foods like cookies, cereals, and white bread.

Complex Carbohydrates are found in unprocessed, whole foods. This includes rice, potatoes, corn, and most vegetables.

Neither one is necessarily bad for you, but in general for most people it would make for a happier heart to generally lean towards complex carbs over simple carbs.

Carbohydrates are also necessary for breaking down fat in the liver. While we will talk about the function and importance of fat in a diet in another article, having fat effectively broken down and processed is a must for a healthy nervous system.

Glucose and Glycogen

To understand how to manage carb intake understand why you feel hungry after a bagel or doughnut but not after bowl of oatmeal with the same number of calories needs understanding glucose, glycogen, and the glycemic index.

Glucose is what carbohydrates are broken down into so that they can be used. While carbs are responsible for muscular exertion, bodily functions, digestions, etc, it is only once broken down into this form that they can be used for those jobs.

Compare it to gas for car. While you put gas in your car to create energy to move, it’s not the gas itself that moves the car, but the energy that the gas creates when processed in the engine.

Glycogen is what your body puts into reserve for use later when there is extra glucose in your bloodstream. When you have excess glucose in your bloodstream you release insulin which chains together (polymerizes) the individual glucose molecules into glycogen. This process is called gluconeogenesis (glycogen + genesis/creation). The excess glucose now chained together as glycogen is stored inside of your fat cells for later use.

Glycemic Index

If you’re thinking ahead, you’ve probably realized the problem the above information presents. If you need a constant influx of carbohydrates for energy, can only eat at certain times during the day, but you have a limit on how much glucose can be stored in your blood, then how do you last the day?

If you’re asking that, you’re not alone. Anyone who struggles with being hungry throughout the day even when eating enough calories has the same difficulty. The trick to managing your hunger, so that you’re not hungry, but also not needing to eat every hour, is to understand the glycemic index.

Some carbohydrates digest and become glucose more quickly than others. Honey, for instance, is near the very top of the glycemic index chart, and is as close to instant glucose as you can get. Steel cut oatmeal on the other hand has a very low glycemic index rating. What that means is that it is much more slowly digested. That slow digestion provides a slow but constant release of glucose into your bloodstream so you always have energy available.

Being hungry does not mean your stomach is empty. Being hungry means that you have low blood sugar, that you do not have enough glucose readily available.

Put two and two together, and adding a low glycemic index food to every meal will keep you fuller much longer.

You can look over the glycemic index for yourself, here. While it’s not a complete list, it is extremely comprehensive.

So whether your goal is to lose weight, or just not be as hungry waiting for lunch at work – you can just replace the daily white bagel with a glycemic index of 103 with some banana bread with a glycemic index of 47.

By Flow Trainer, Mackennon Klink, B.S., CSCS, CES, PN1

Losing weight is a fairly straight forward process: it comes down to calories in vs calories out.  You eat less, workout more, and soon enough, you’ll have that dream body, right?  Well….there’s a little more involved.  Let’s examine calorie counting, one of the most popular ways to measure calorie consumption. The idea being that you count every calorie you take in, aiming to be in a deficit against the calories you expend.  While it can work, it’s not the best long-term solution to the problem.

Why, you might ask?  Let me  tell you….

Calorie counting can quickly become tedious, inaccurate, and impractical, – especially if you are a busy professional.  Any conscious dietary change to achieve a physique goal will create some level of stress and difficult choices.  Anyone who’s gone through the calorie counting process has eventually asked themselves: did meal out fit within the allowed calories and how do I accurately track it? How many pumps of Pumkpin Spice can I have?  After a while, these questions can drive any person insane.

In addition, you might achieve your short-term physique goal, but the honest truth is that calorie counting is not a long term solution to maintain  your dream body. I know from experience.  In the Spring of 2017, I adhered  to a strict diet plan, and lost over 20 pounds in fat while building muscle in six short weeks.  While those six weeks were challenging (yet ultimately rewarding) the true challenge came to me right after:  how do I keep the weight off? 

Enter The Precision Nutrition Hand Guide.  I credit this guide to helping me control my portion sizes, maintain my current physique post diet and, more importantly, not going crazy or second guessing myself with every meal decision.

The goal of the hand size portion guide is to help you reach your nutrition and fitness goals without the tedious and somewhat difficult process of calorie counting.  This is a super simple and easy method to help keep calories in control and to learn portion sizes.  The best part is all you need is your hand.

The hand size methods works for a few reasons:

1. Hands are portable.  Unlike food scales, your hands will always be with you.

1. Hands are scaled to the individual.  Generally speaking, bigger people need more food and tend to have bigger hands, therefore getting larger portions.  Smaller people need less food, tend to have smaller hands and therefore receive smaller portions.

1. By using your hand as a guide, it will provide reasonable amounts of nutrient dense food while still providing the necessary macronutrients (protein, carbohydrates, and fats) and calorie needs. Nutrient dense foods will be your key attribute to any successful diet program, regardless if it’s fat loss or gain muscle.

In short, this guide will help you create a nutritional foundation or baseline without making it overly complicated.  Most people will start getting positive results by simply sticking to these simple recommendations.  As you progress, you can make adjustments to speed your process or overcome a plateau.

In the beginning, it may be a bit difficult to assess portion sizes, but practice makes perfect.  After a few meals, this method will become familiar and in no time this will be a breeze.  Take it one meal and one day at a time.

Total Daily Intake

	Men	Women
Protein	6-8 palms	4-6 palms
Vegetables	6-8 fists	4-6 fists
Carb (optional)	6-8 cupped handfuls	4-6 cupped handfuls
Fat	6-8 thumbs	4-6 thumbs

Here’s another way to view your nutrition intake for each meal (assuming 3 meals each day).

	Men	Women
Protein	1-2 palms	1 palm
Vegetables	1-2 fists	1 fist
Carbs (optional)	1-2 cupped handfuls	1 cupped handful
Fats	1-2 thumbs	1 thumb

This is your starting point.  This will allow you to get in the adequate food and calories to meet your goals.  Again, don’t worry about counting calories; you’re focusing on developing healthy eating habits. You have to build the foundation before you build the house. 

  You may be wondering what does that look like?  Well, because I like you, here’s a visual guide to the hand portion control.  Pretty simple right?

Wondering what that would look in a real world application? No problem.  I got you covered.   Here is another visual rep to help see what a (breakfast, lunch, dinner) plate should consist of:

This next plate illustrates what a “post-workout” looks like.  Eat a post workout meal within one hour of your weight training or intense exercise session.  This plate differs from the previous plate by taking advantage of the body’s metabolic response to exercise. After exercise, your body needs both carbs and protein to help rebuild your muscles and restore overall energy levels.

Depending on your fitness goals, you’ll modify your post workout meal.

• Looking to gain lean mass or improve your recovery from your workouts?  Increase the carbs in your post-workout meal

• Looking to lose body fat fast?  Keep starchy carbs low and post-workout.

Do you enjoy the calorie counting process and getting good results?  Great!  Continue doing what working for you!  If not, then you may want to switch to the hand portion guide. Calorie counting, while effective, isn’t a reliable long-term option for sustaining fat loss.  Calorie counting is an excellent tool to gain awareness and notice treads within your diet.

The key to any successful plan will be consistency. 

The best plans are rarely the best designed, most complex, or most scientifically in depth.  The best plans are practical and can be done consistently.  Regardless of what diet or exercise plan you’re doing, the key will consistency.