Best Whey Protein: MMA Diet: Calories

With each word you read right now, your body is burning. It’s burning the meals you’ve consumed. If you’re fasting, no worries, your body will blaze through stored carbohydrates, muscle and fat. If not fed, it will consume itself. A furnace is inside you, and until the day you die you will spend a significant portion of your life stoking this furnace.

A calorie is the amount of heat it takes to raise one gram of water by one degree Celsius. When you see a nutritional chart for a cheeseburger and it reads, “Contains 900 calories,” it means if that cheeseburger were set on fire and burned completely, it would create enough heat to raise 900 grams of water by 1 degree Celsius. As your eyes dart around on this page, as your fingers click to scroll down, as your mind processes what you read, even as you sleep tonight – your body needs to create heat in order to make it all happen.

Federal guidelines state that men between the ages of 19-31 burn anywhere from 2,400 to 3,000 calories per day. Activity level, metabolism and size can all impact these numbers.

Caloric Breakdown:

1 gram of protein = 4 calories

1 gram of carbohydrate = 4 calories

1 gram of fat = 9 calories

Of all the dieting variables, perhaps the one that can be most easily quantified is calories. It’s tough to know how your genetics will respond to a diet high in fat or how your stomach will respond after a few weeks of whey protein shakes. But caloric intake, regardless of the food or drink source, will be the factor that either makes you gain weight or makes you lose it.

There are sports nutritional products that promise (or promise by lavish insinuation) weight gain – they even cite studies about it. This is a flat-out lie. The truth is this:

The only way healthy human beings can gain weight (whether fat or muscle) is by taking in more calories than the body burns. Think surplus.

Conversely, the only way healthy human beings can lose weight (whether fat or muscle) is by consuming fewer calories than the body burns. Think deficit. Example: An athlete burns 2,500 calories per day, but only consumes 2,000.

It takes about 3,500 calories to create one pound. So, assuming the above example takes place for seven consecutive days, our athlete could expect about one pound of weight loss by week’s end.

I’ve watched athletes get the majority of their calories from fried fast foods and yet still gain muscle weight. For the majority of us however, the source of calories does matter. Generally the healthier and “cleaner” our diet, the better our body will respond in the ways we hope. However, in terms of purely losing or gaining weight, the source does not matter. I’ve been asked: “Will protein shakes help me gain muscle weight” or “Will cutting back on fat help me lose weight?” The straight answer to both questions is “No.” The protein shake will help you gain weight only if by adding it to your diet you are creating a caloric intake surplus. You will definitely lose weight by cutting out some fat only if by cutting out those fats you are reducing your caloric intake and creating a deficit.

Two tips for the MMA Athlete to gain weight:

(1) Eat your meals, then drink calories when you’re finished eating. It’s awfully difficult to be stuffed with food and then to try to force down more food. However, even when you’re full you should still be able to gulp down a shake for an additional 300-500 calories.

(2) Use healthy oils. When making that protein shake, drop two tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil into the mix. This tiny amount will get you a whopping 240 extra calories and comes with a ton of health benefits.

Two tips for the MMA Athlete to lose weight:

(1) Incorporate more anaerobic training into your routine. Unlike slow, steady-state exercise, short bouts of high-intensity training has been proven to raise metabolism throughout the rest of the day.

(2) Eat breakfast (and have some protein with it). Researchers continue to find (A) Those who skip breakfast end up slowing down their metabolism and (B) Protein plays a role in satiety (keeps us feeling full longer so we are less likely to overeat). So, rethink breakfast. The oatmeal with blueberries is great, but don’t be afraid to have a few hard-boiled eggs on the side too.