Fitness Nutrition Basics: How to Eat for Your Goals

Simple is sustainable. And when it comes to knowing what to eat for your goals, it can sometimes feel as if fitness nutrition is as far from simple as it could possibly get. The food you eat powers your workouts, fuels your day, and can either support or sabotage your progress. Which means: it’s important. And frankly, it can get complex. But the basics don’t have to be. Here are the nutrition basics for anyone looking to start, or restart, their fitness journey.

The Basics of Fitness Nutrition

Remember when I said Nutrition Basics? Well, this is it. These are your basics. And before you follow anyone’s suggestion to try a three-day water fast, or take the newest fat loss supplement to hit your social media feed, I beg you: get these right. Get these right and I promise you, that fast and those pills will be far less important to how you feel or how you look.

Nutrition does not = calories. Though they are important, calories are just a piece of the puzzle when it comes to understanding how to eat for your goals. Whether you want to lose body fat, or build muscle, or run longer, or jump higher, here’s a birds-eye view of what you should have a basic understanding of:

• overall energy balance
• macronutrients
• micronutrients
• hydration

Energy Balance

In the world of laboratories, a calorie is “the energy needed to raise the temperature of 1 kilogram of water through 1 °C, equal to one thousand small calories and often used to measure the energy value of food.”

In the world of your kitchen, a calorie is a way to measure your total daily food and beverage intake. It’s also how we can keep track of how many calories are expended through daily activity.

When it comes to learning how to eat for your fitness goals, Step 1 is understanding energy balance. What are you consuming? What are you expending? And how does that ratio compare to where you need to be to reach your specific fitness goals?

There is just one way to intake energy: consuming calories from the food and beverages you eat and drink.

There are three general calorie “levels” you can eat at:

• Maintenance: eating enough calories needed to maintain your current body weight
• Deficit: eating fewer calories than you need to maintain (necessary for weight/fat loss)
• Surplus: eating moer calories than you need to maintain t(necessary for weight/muscle gain)

But there are a few ways your body expends energy:

• Resting Metabolic Rate (RMR): The energy used to maintain basic life function while at rest (such as maintaining a constant body temperature, repairing and maintaining cells and tissues, and covering respiratory and cardiovascular needs, shivering, etc.)
• Exercise Energy Expenditure (EEE): energy used for workouts and training
• Non-Exercise Physical Activity (NEPA): energy used for all other activity that isn’t specific to workouts (such as fidgeting, walking around, doing chores, etc.)
• Thermic Effect of Food (TEF): the energy needed to digest food. We’ll dig into this in a bit.

>> Learn the Truth About Weight Loss and Metabolism

Macronutrients

Macronutrients, or macros for short, are the substances required by your body in large amounts to live. This is also how we categorize foods for tracking and goal-achieving purposes. The three macronutrient categories are: protein, fats, and carbohydrates. Macros make up your caloric intake.

So, for example, an avocado falls into the macro category “fat”, and contains calories that contribute to overall energy balance. See how that works?

Why Macros Matter

Now, you’re here to learn how to eat for your fitness goals. So you might be thinking “If all that matters for energy balance is calorie intake, can’t I just pay attention to calories and ignore the rest?”.

You…could.

But here’s why you don’t want to:

Macronutrients vary in the specific benefits they provide tand the specific physiological reactions they stimulate. When you begin to consider the impact different macros have on physical and mental performance, muscle and nervous system recovery recovery, creating and maintaining hormonal balance, and building lean, metabolically active muscle – they start to become very important.

They also vary in a more meaningful way: you. Your ideal macro intake depends very specifically on you, the person, the goals, the fitness experience, the muscle mass, the adherence abilities and so much more.

In my personal experience, macros are a more impactful, more specific and more meaningful metric.

The Power of Protein

Protein is arguably the most important macronutrient to think about when it comes to eating for your goals. It’s an essential nutrient, which means it’s a dietary necessity for survival.

In terms of its importance for your fitness goals, protein influences your body in a few key ways:

• Protein is essential for muscle repair and growth. It allows you to train hard, recover, train hard again, and build more muscle. The more muscle you build, the higher your RMR and the more fat your body will burn.
• Remember TEF? Protein has a high TEF, which means it takes more calories to digest 1 gram of protein than it does to digest 1 gram of carbohydrates or fats. You heard me right…the higher the ratio of protein: other macros in your diet, the more calories you burn simply to digest.
• Protein is satiating which means that it helps you feel and stay fuller, longer when consuming it. If you’ve ever been in a calorie deficit, you know this is a very good thing. It helps both adherence and satisfaction.

Fats: Essential for Hormone Health (and IMHO, Happiness)

Fats are the second, and last, essential macronutrient. I say “essential” because technically you could survive on just proteins and fats. I don’t recommend it, but you could.

Here’s why dietary fats are important to your fitness goals:

*P.S. it’s an unfortunate lack of words that accounts for massive confusion between dietary fat and body fat – and the subsequent demonization of the former. From here on out, try to seperate the two in your fitness-nutrition related thoughts!

• Healthy fats are essential for hormone production because they provide the raw materials for hormone synthesis. This is crucial to your fitness because hormones play a key role in many physiological processes, including muscle growth, metabolism, and energy levels.
• Fat is a fuel source, albeit a secondary one. But for slower, more sustainable activity like moving around the house or doing errands, fat gives you that maintainable energy.
• Key vitamins – such as vitamins A, D and K – are fat soluble. Without a transportation source coming from dietary fat, your body wouldn’t be able to absorb or use these crucial nutrients.
• Finally, fat, like protein, is super satiating.

The Queen of Carbs: Your Body’s Favorite Source of Energy

While it’s not physiologically essential to consume carbs, they are your body’s preferred energy source and they play a few important roles that can have a major impact on the effectiveness of your workouts:

• On the note of effectiveness: carbs are the body’s primary fuel and energy source specifically when it comes to higher intensity activities and muscles being able to actually work for us. Meaning: when it comes to strength training, building muscle and hiit workouts (without a doubt 3 out of 5 of the most effective components of training program), carbs help you push to the next level.
• Carbs are an enabler. Though protein gets most of the post-workout praise, really it’s the carb-protein combo that deserves the credit. Carbs help replenish muscle glycogen that has been depleted during a workout. It actually enables protein to do the job you want it to: build and repair muscle. This 1-2 punch of nutrients gets you working harder and back to the gym faster.
• They are an abundant source of fiber. Fiber – both soluble and insoluble – improves digestion and bowel health. High fiber foods are often rich in antioxidants and phytochemicals which contribute to reducing exercise-induced oxidative stress.

Micronutrients

Micronutrients – vitamins and minerals are called “micro” not because of their lack of importance in optimizing your health and fitness, but because in comparison to macronutrients, they’re needed in miniscule amounts. And while micros don’t provide a direct source of energy the way macros do, they’re essential for utilizing that energy, surviving and thriving.

The good news is that if 90% of your diet is whole foods focused, you should have little-to-no trouble maintaining optimal levels of micronutrients. If that’s not the case, you might want to consider talking to your doctor and getting some supplements to support your fitness goals and health.

Every vitamin and mineral has its own list of benefits and needs, which we won’t get into here. But its not a bad idea to know the basics:

Vitamins

Vitamins are divided into two main categories: water-soluble and fat soluble.

• Water-soluble vitamins (like Bs and C), require water to be absorbed.
• Fat-soluble vitamins (such as A and D), are absorbed and used by the body with the add of fat. Meaning they need fat to be of use.

Minerals

Minerals too, can be divided into two main categories: macro and micro.

• Macrominerals (potassium, calcium, phosphorus, sulfur, sodium, chlorine, and magnesium) are needed in larger doses. These are mostly directly linked to fluid balance which is crucial for hydration, electrolyte balance, recovery and performance (nevermind health in general).
• Microminerals (like iron, zinc and selenium), as the name suggests, are needed in smaller amounts. Unlike the name suggests, microminerals are still vital components of your diet.

If you’d like to geek out about vitamins and minerals, put your helmet on and head here.

Speaking of Hydration…

A quick word on the final component of the basics of hydration (before we move on to the ACTION STEPS).

There’s a substance out on shelves right now that improves mood and cognition, reduces the risk of high blood pressure and high blood glucose, and helps reduce appetite thus reducing body weight and overeating. There’s some evidence that suggests regular consumption of this substance decreases the risk of certain diseases and actually, optimizes health at a cellular level.

Hint: it’s free, it’s simple, and it can be pretty boring in terms of trend-catchiness.

*drum roll*

It’s water!

All cheese aside, your body has an inherent need for water. H2O is the medium in which all metabolic reactions occur. It helps to maintain a safe body temperature, gives form to cells, lubricates joints and tissues, and transports nutrients and waste.

Don’t let it’s simplicity dupe you into thinking you shouldn’t be putting it at the top of your priorities list.

Action Steps: How to Eat for Your Goals

Now, here’s how to take all of this information and turn it into the exact action steps you need to take to eat for your goals.

Set Your Goal(s)

The very first question you need to answer is: what do I aim to achieve?

For most people this comes down to 1 of 3 fitness goals:

• Fat Loss: which will require a calorie deficit (burning more than you consume) while ensuring enough protein to maintain muscle mass.
• Muscle Gain: for which you will prioritize a calorie surplus (eating more than you burn) with a high protein intake and plenty of carbs for energy.
• Maintenance: balance your intake to match your energy output, ensuring you hit all macronutrient targets for overall health.

Track Your Macros to Find Maintenance

Now that you’ve set your goal, it’s time to get tracking.

Imagine for a moment, trying to get somewhere important, somewhere you’ve never been (your best friend’s wedding, a hotel in a new city, that doctor’s appointment that you had to schedule 8 months out). To figure out where you need to go, you first need to identify where you’re starting from.

Same rules apply when it comes to learning how to eat for your goals. You need to know where you want to go and where you are starting from so that you can create the best plan to get from A to B.

Tracking your macros gives you answers to some crucial questions:

• What is your true maintenance intake? The best way to find maintenance is to track intake and weight daily (not an online calculator). If your weight stays steady, the average intake over the week is your true maintenance level.
• Are you getting the right amount of protein/carbs/fats?
• Are you getting enough fiber?
• How about water?
• And what about those other micronutrients listed above…are you hitting the daily recommended levels of those or are there gaps that need to be filled?

Adjust Your Macros Based on Your Goals

Now you have 2 vital pieces of information. You know your fitness goal. And you know your maintenance calories.

• If your goal is to lose fat: you’ll need to reduce calorie intake. Start small. Some people will see a difference with just a 100-150 calorie reduction. Others will need to work their way to reduce calories more drastically to see measurable change.
  
  *Don’t cut calories across the board. For the best results, keep protein intake high: upwards of 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight. Most people do best by maintaining a balanced between carbs and fats, but cutting excess calories from these two latter macro categories is best.
  
• If your goal is to build muscle: do the opposite. Start by adding 100-150 calories. Track your progress. If you don’t feel or see a change, add another 100-150 calories.
  
  *Again, keep protein intake high. If you’re not eating 1-1.2 grams of protein per pound of body weight already, start by adding protein to your diet. If you are eating enough protein already, try adding a serving of carbs to your pre- or post-workout meal.
  
• If your goal is maintenance: voila, you’ve found it! Now it’s just a matter of optimizing quality.

Quality Matters

Calories matter. Macros matter. And quality matters, too. If macros is the #1 reason why a calorie is not just a calorie, quality is the #2 reason.

Your body thrives on high quality, minimally processed foods. On paper it’s easy to agree that while you can eat 200 calories of chicken and 200 calories of pizza, the former is giving your body a lot more nutritional benefit than the latter.

Since this is fitness nutrition basics, let’s keep this simple:

• Choose mostly whole, minimally processed foods
• If the food doesn’t require an ingredient list (i.e. an apple), it’s probably a good choice
• If the ingredient list is miles long, leave it on the shelf
• If the ingredient list reads like a science experiment, leave it on the shelf
• As much as possible, avoid trans fats, highly processed meats, fried foods, and foods with large amounts of added sugars

Stay Hydrated with Zero Calorie Beverages

How much water you drink is highly individualized but the fact that you should be drinking water is not. A good rule of thumb is to drink 2/3-3/4 of your body weight in ounces of water/zero-calorie beverages each day. If your pee is a light yellow, you’re probably good.

Prep for Success

Meal can can be intimidating if you’ve never tried it. But it doesn’t need to be! You can go as deep as you want down the meal prep rabbit hole; into the world of matching Tupperware and deep freezers full of pre-cooked ground turkey.

Or, you can do what I do and take a few simple actions each week to make sure that you have what you need to eat for your fitness goals:

• Sketch out a meal plan for the week. This is a good way to a) have some fun finding and trying new recipes, b) cross-utilize ingredients, and c) create a grocery list that enables you to buy what you need to eat for your goals all week.
• Keep the basics on hand at all times. Things like canned beans, frozen fruit, frozen chicken, oats, rice, a good olive oil. Your basics should include the foods and ingredients that make healthier eating easy for you.
• Plan on grocery shopping 1-2 times each week.

Listen, if you struggle to eat mostly healthy most of the time, and it’s because you simply didn’t leave your house to go to the grocery store…make time. Use Instacart. Use home delivery. Use Amazon. I don’t care. Just make sure you’ve got what you need in reach. This can be a super simple success!

>> Learn my Favorite Meal Prep “Cheats”: Grocery Market Grabs Make Meal Prep Easy

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Focus on Consistency, Not Perfection

Consistency beats perfection every time. Life is not going to slow down because you’ve got a fitness goal to reach. That means that you will (and should!) still have a social life. You’ll still travel and celebrate holidays, miss breakfast because you got a flat tire or go waaaaaaaay over calories one summer night because the urge for an ice cream cone hit hard).

That’s okay! In fact, I’d argue that small indulgences here and there improve adherence because you don’t have that “I’m all in or I’m all out” mentality. You don’t need to eat a salad with protein every night to lose weight. Enjoy occasional treats, but keep the foundation of your diet rooted in whole, nutrient-dense foods.