We live in a world in which we are obsessed with quantifying everything. Our self worth is measured by how many followers we have on social media. Our fitness is measured by the toing and froing of the our bathroom scales, and now we are measuring the vices and virtues of our diets by our macronutrients. For reference, macronutrients or “macros,” are the proportions of proteins, fats and carbohydrates present in our diets. The idea is that by distilling our foods into a chemical formula will lead us to adorning those perfect summer physiques (when accompanied by exercise of course).
However, is there really a process of alchemy that can be achieved through crunching the numbers on our foods and drinks labels? Were all carbs created equal? To borrow a popular aphorism, is it time to let the scales fall from our eyes?
Calculating your macro intake usually involves a process of setting certain daily targets, such as intaking 100g or protein or 40g of healthy fats. These are usually set by complicated formulas produced by apps on our smartphones. The problem is that this process is inherently arbitrary, as our nutritional requirements fluctuate on a day to day basis. This can be due to a variety of factors from the weather, to whether or not we are running a marathon that day or spending a day in bed watching movies and eating icecream. Our energy demands are not universal, but are relative to the task at hand.
Macro-management is as useful as setting a target for how many times we can blink in a day, or how often we can steal our co-workers pen without them realising (sorry Matt). The human body is an organic biological substance, not a machine, so it’s time to start eating and drinking like one.
For example, carbohydrates act as our body's key source of energy, so we need them present in our bloodstream both before and after exercise. There’s no good burning through our bodies glycogen storages and then failing to replenish them post workout and neglecting the importance of carb cycling. This will lead our bodies to start breaking down our muscle fibers for sustenance and being entirely counterproductive for either muscle gain or weight loss.
The problem is that we will start to neglect the basics of nutrition. Your protein shakes may help top up your amino acid levels, but they are not engineered to give your body everything it needs. You cannot get your daily dose of vitamin C, iron and zinc which are found in fruits and vegetables in these shakes. The same goes for us counting calories. You may add the protein value of chicken over fish, and divide this by sticky toffee pudding and add an avocado into the equation, but is that really necessary?
Instead you have to start listening to your bodies needs. If you are aching for days on end after your gym session, the likelihood is that you haven’t got enough protein in your diet. If you find that you are struggling to shift the winter coats made of extra adipose tissue this summer, you may need to reassess your portion sizes and think about what to eat and when to eat before and after training. If you’re feeling faint after a day of not eating any carbs and then attempting to do an hour long session on the rowing machine, we won’t need to get Sherlock Homes on the phone to launch an investigation to find out why.
In essence, your diet is not an exact science, you need to experiment with what works best for you in regards to your energy requirements and fitness goals.
