Protein, Carbs, & Fat - How much do I need?

I HEART HEALTH

Protein, Carbs, & Fat – How much do I need?

By BD Marie Hughes

Recently I spoke with some of my athletes at a local rowing club about nutritional requirements for training. There was much confusion about dietary intake from simply basic healthy living to what facilitates maximum sports performance.

Let’s take a look at what keeps you especially heart healthy on a daily basis.

Protein

Daily requirements:

.5 - .075g/lb wt/ day

Example:

Body weight of 130 lbs x 0.625g (mid point)

= 81.25g protein / day

Carbs

Daily requirements:

2g/lb wt/day

Example:

Body weight of 130 lbs x 2g

= 260g carbs / day

Fat

Daily requirements:

.5g/lb wt/day

Example:

Body weight of 130 lbs x .5g

= 65g fat / day

We most often underestimate our daily carb intake. Repeat after me, “Carbs are my friend”. You need complex carbohydrates to fuel your body. Other than some fats, you can NOT capture “energy” or “fuel” from any other food source. It never comes from supplements or vitamins. These are only marketing “claims”. Test drive your intake for a week. If you feel slow and tired at the end of 7 days, you haven’t been eating enough carbs. The best place to start is with multigrain bread – it packs a punch carb gram-wise.

You may be surprised about the high fat gram daily intake. Those little fat grams add up faster than you think. One Lean Cuisine micro meal can hatch almost 20 g of fat! That’s a third of what you need in a day! Essential fats such as olive oil, eggs, and nuts provide a reasonable balance to keep your needs in check.

Live Fit! Live Beautifully!