Elite Physique The New Science of Building a Better Body

Nutrition for Muscle Growth or Fat Loss
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discussed in chapter 3. Protein is highly satiating, which means it helps reduce
your appetite. That’s why increasing protein can contribute to fat loss; even if
you don’t deliberately cut calories, you’ll probably eat less simply because you
aren’t as hungry, thanks to the excess protein. But when you’re trying to eat more,
the last thing you want to do is overconsume a macronutrient that suppresses
your desire to eat.
This may seem counterintuitive to you. After all, if muscle tissue is made of
protein, and muscle growth requires a positive protein balance, why wouldn’t
higher protein intake contribute to bigger muscles? Think of it in terms of your
energy balance—the number of calories required to maintain your current body
weight. If you eat fewer calories than your body expends, you lose weight. If you
eat more, you gain weight. All of this is in constant flux. Your body is very good
at downregulating your metabolism in response to an energy deficit, which is one
reason it’s so difficult to lose weight in a steady, predictable way. You move less,
and you burn fewer calories when you do. That’s another reason why increasing
your protein intake helps with fat loss. Protein has a higher thermic effect than
the other macronutrients, which means your body burns more calories processing
it (Halton and Hu 2004).
Given the importance of getting your calories right, you might be surprised
to know that I almost never have my patients count them. Even if you carried
around a nutrition almanac, the likelihood of being accurate is very low, not to
mention frustrating and time consuming. And frankly, it’s usually unnecessary.
In the early stages, all you need to keep track of is your protein intake. From
there, it’s often best (and easiest) to consume the other foods we cover later in this
chapter and not worry about how many calories they contain. By nature, most of
the recommended foods are high in nutrients and relatively low in calories. This
makes them both satisfying and difficult to eat too much of.
If you are someone who wants to count calories, a good starting point for daily
calories for a nonobese person follows. We’ll use a 200-pound (91 kg) person as
an example:
• Lose fat: 10 × body weight in pounds (2,000 calories/day)
• Maintain current weight: 12 × body weight in pounds (2,400 calories/day)
• Gain muscle: 14 × body weight in pounds (2,800 calories/day)
Importantly, these are just estimates and can be greatly affected by age, activity
levels, and metabolic health. For example, an in-season 200-pound football player
would likely lose weight if he consumed 2,800 calories per day. Conversely, if
you’re obese the aforementioned calculation for fat loss might be much higher
than what’s optimal. In that case, you should consult with a registered dietitian
to determine your recommended daily calories, which will likely be based on
your fat free mass. In any case, use an abdomen measurement, mirror, and scale
as your guide to determine if you need to increase or decrease your calories. If
you need to increase your calories, choose healthy sources of carbohydrate and
fat that we cover later.
Maximizing Your Macronutrients
In this section we cover the three types of macronutrients: protein, fat, and
carbohydrate. These nutrients provide the calories your body needs for energy,
growth, and repair. When you choose the right sources of macronutrients, you’ll
also optimize your intake of micronutrients, which are the vitamins and minerals