Proteins good, fats bad-right? Wrong.
Basics:
Proteins – essential to growth and repair of muscle and other body tissues
Fats – source of energy and important in relation to fat soluble vitamins
Explanation:
Fats are a phenomenal source of energy with one gram of fat giving you 9calories of energy as opposed to 4calories of energy from carbohydrates and protein. That said there are good and bad fats-unsaturated and saturated fats. With these it’s fairly black and white-saturated fats (bacon, cheese, biscuits, crisps) are bad; unsaturated fats (sunflower oil, olive oil, nuts) are good. In December I’ll be trying to gain weight again in time for the May start. I’ll cover weight gain in a later Training Tuesday but I’ll be taking in a many unsaturated fats as possible. Whilst I realise that any weight gain is unhealthy and that I’m taking my life/future into my own hands this will be the best way to manage my weight needs.
Proteins are what our body uses to repair and strengthen our body. With my trip in mind proteins are especially important as the body at cold temperatures will favour burning protein i.e. muscle rather than fat. To counter this after each or the three sessions each day I’ll be taking a specific recovery drink-although apparently chocolate milk has as good an effect as the top of the range drinks! However there is only so much protein the body can absorb and taking more than this will simpley result in you peeing out protein! The muscle wastage that is associated with long term endurance activites will be one of the major problems I’ll face and the recovery times will be as nutritionally important as the activity sessions.
Previous Training Tuesdays:
Training Tuesday: Carbs and Sugars
Training Tuesday: Why? (Part III)
Training Tuesday: Why? (Part II)
Training Tuesday: Why? (Part I)
Training Tuesday: Windemere
Training Tuesday: Running Injuries
Training Tuesday: Cycling Injuries
Training Tuesday: Swimming Injuries
Training Tuesday: Mind Games
Training Tuesday: Three Moments That Changed My Outdoor Swimming Life
Training Tuesday: Rules For Open Water Swimming
Training Tuesday: Background
This was a very informative post because I knew fats were important but I usually try to have less than 20% of fat for my daily intake. Is that about right?
I think the key here is balance. Having 20% or less of your diet as unsaturated fats seems reasonable. The point I was trying to make is that fats aren’t the big evil and given the choice of unsaturated fats or simple sugars then the fats win!
I’m doing a post in two weeks time about reading food labels and what is alot and what is a little!