nutrition and performance book

2. Thermodynamics
What is thermodynamics?
Simply put, the way the human body converts food and liquid to energy.
Calories in v’s calories out.
People think low fat; low carb diets are the success to fat loss. Or smoothie diets or the Aitkens diet
for example. However, the truth is all you need to do is maintain a calorie deficit. Exert more energy
output that the energy you put into your mouth.
A calorie in dietary terms is a unit of energy, found in the food and drink we consume daily.
The number of calories we consume vs. the number of calories we burn will determine how much fat
we will lose or gain. It’s that simple, in most cases.
So, to gain muscle and fat, we must stay in a constant state of caloric surplus, more calories in than
what we burn. Providing you are training for this purpose.
To lose fat and muscle we must be in a constant state of caloric deficit, more calories burnt than
what we consume daily. Providing you are training for this purpose.
It doesn’t matter which program you decide to take on, its more about how you manage your diet
that will determine whether you’re going to be in a deficit or surplus of calories. However, different
programs will have different physical effects on the body. I have written up two great training
programs to show this.
WB Strength and size
WB Re shape and re-build
Also, depending on how you manage your calories and diet will determine how much fat you lose as
opposed to muscle. This works the same for how the amount of muscle you gain instead of fat. The
section on macros will cover this.
To do this safely we must ensure however that we do not increase or decrease the calories too much
at one time as this will have negative effects on the body’s metabolism. Slow and steady increases
and decreases of no more than 250-500 Kcals a day is plenty and in some cases even less is better.
This will be dependent on a few factors, such as your current bodyweight and calorific intake.
If you increase calories too much too soon then the trade off will be fat gains. This isn’t necessarily
bad; however, we must try to keep it to a minimum for health and compositional purposes.
Remember, we want to build muscle. Similarly, dropping calories too much too soon will raise stress
levels in the body, and lead to detrimental results hormonally and physically.
Whilst training the body needs sufficient fuel. If you are new to training, or simply getting back into it
then you may need to increase your calories to start with to ensure the body is getting what it needs
in order to remain energised. In fact, a lot of people notice considerable fat loss when they increase
calories and start training from the outset. This positive consistency is enough to achieve great
results.
How to decide your calorie intake will be discussed further on.
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