San Antonio Personal Trainer

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Ok so now we know how many calories we need to eat to either gain or lose weight but how do we know how many calories are in the foods that we eat? Obviously we are going to need to know this in order to track our total daily calorie consumption. Let's take a minute to examine the small chart located just above this paragraph. It's actually rather simple, protein contains 4 calories per gram, carbohydrates also contain 4 calories per gram, and fat contains a whopping 9 calories per gram. Using this valuable, basic information we can now calculate the number of calories in any food item as long as the amount of protein, carbohydrate, and fat are all known.

Of course not many people are going to want to spend the time to calculate manually how many calories are in each piece of food they put into their mouths. Fortunately, a lot of the work has already been done for us. I'm sure everyone reading this article is at least vaguely familiar with the nutrition labels that are required on all food products sold in the United States. At the very least you will find: protein grams, total carbohydrate grams, sugar grams, fat grams, and total calories on these labels. Everything we need to know in order to calculate our total calorie consumption; protein, fat & sugar intake, is right there on the label.

Below you can see an item that I pulled from www.caloriecountercharts.com. The website is great. It has calorie, protein, carbohydrate, and fat gram information on 1000 typical food items arranged in an easy to use table.

I have gone to the trouble of explaining much of this information fully aware of the fact that it is not absolutely necessary to know all of this background information to succeed at gaining weight, losing weight, or improving overall fitness. However, over time I have discovered that the better I understand how protein, different types of carbohydrates, and fats affect my body, the easier it has become for me to use food as more than just a way to replenish my depleted muscles and satisfy hunger. Used in the right ratios and consumed at the right times proteins and carbohydrates can be used together as a very powerful anabolic performance aid. I encourage anyone who is reading this article to go out there and do more research. These brief articles only scratch the surface on explaining the role of proteins, fats, and carbohydrates in metabolism, recovery, and muscle repair.

Knowing the total number of calories needed to gain or lose weight is only one part of the nutrition puzzle, so to speak. Equally important is the ratio of protein to carbohydrate, carbohydrate to fat and vice versa. Consuming an adequate amount of protein is absolutely essential to building and repairing muscle. So how much is the right amount?

Opinion on this topic varies a bit but the consensus is that between 1 and 1.5 grams of protein per pound of bodyweight is ideal. My personal experience is that I respond positively and continue to add solid muscle weight until I finally plateau at nearly 2 grams of protein to each pound of body weight. Weighing about 240 pounds, means that I would need to consume almost 500 grams of protein everyday and have a total caloric intake at around 4000 daily.

Consuming 400 to 500 grams of protein everyday can be hard to stomach, literally and quite expensive as well. I would recommend starting at 1 gram of protein per pound of bodyweight for the first few weeks then gradually increasing to a peak of 1.5 grams per pound of body weight. If at this point you are still experiencing muscular gain then gradually increase protein intake by adding 20-30 grams more each day until you reach a maximum of 2 grams of protein per pound of body weight.

Once again I must point out that many factors beyond our control, like genetics, age and health issues can either slow or limit this approaches effectiveness.

Let's say that you weigh 180 pounds and that you have calculated your 'maintenance caloric need' to be 2200 calories and you would like to put on 10 pounds of new muscle by attempting to gain 1 pound of bodyweight a week. Your goal then would be to consume a total of 2700 (2200+500) calories a day, every day, to hit the magic number: 3500 additional calories for the week, to gain one pound.

At a current bodyweight of 180 lbs you should be consuming 180 x 1.5 = 270 grams of protein everyday to ensure proper muscle recovery. Knowing that every gram of protein has 4 calories and that you need to consume 270 grams of protein you can now figure out how many calories you will be consuming from the protein alone 270x4 = 1080 calories. Ok so now you can take the 1080 away from the total calorie daily goal of 2700 - 1080 = 1620 calories still need to be consumed from carbohydrates and fats.

Fat consumption should be about 20% of total caloric goal: 2700 x 20% = 540 calories need to come from fat. So divide 540 / 9 = 60 grams of fat (remember fat has 9 calories per gram). Ok so now we take our goal caloric goal 2700. Subtract 1080 for protein and 540 for fat: 2700 - 1080 = 1620 - 540 = 1080.

So that leaves 1080 remaining calories that have to be consumed from carbohydrate, 1080 / 4 = 270 grams of carbohydrate, preferably from good high quality complex long chain variety.

So we end up with:

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San Antonio Personal Trainer

San Antonio Personal Training

Our Philosophy

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Let one of our experienced certified San Antonio personal trainers; design a complete body transformation program specifically for your body type, age, fitness level, and personal goals.  The most effective way to improve fitness performance no matter if your goal is increased strength, increased endurance or better overall cardio-vascular fitness, is to gradually increase either the total workload or the level of intensity, consistently over time.  Having an experienced, knowledgeable personal trainer by your side to motivate and encourage you even on the days when you may have lost some of your focus, is a perfect illustration of how valuable an asset a personal trainer really is.  Having someone with many years of experience and knowledge right by your side to guide you, motivate you, and educate you, is like suddenly adding 5 years of hands on experience to your own personal fitness arsenal.  Really the only thing more effective than hiring a San Antonio personal trainer is to gain those same years of experience yourself.

Typically the normal, healthy, human body does a very good job of regulating its internal metabolism so as to maintain a near perfect state of homeostasis.  Homeostasis (from the Greek for 'standing still') is the property of a system (in this case the human body) to maintain a stable, constant condition.  Our bodies don't normally like to either loss weight quickly or gain weight quickly under normal conditions.  In other words, if you have decided to make this the year that you are going to lose 20 pounds of body fat, or add 100 pounds to your bench press, then you must first face the fact that having chosen to make rather extreme changes to your body, you now have no choice but to make some equally radical changes in your level of physical activity, the kind of foods you eat, and your exercise regimen.

So far, so good, you have already taken the first step.  The mere fact that you are reading this article means that your odds on reaching your goals have already improved.  Your choice in hiring a personal trainer is a very positive sign that you are taking seriously improving some aspect of your overall state of fitness.  Having one of our personal trainers design a program for you, help guide you through the process, and provide you with encouragement, knowledge and expertise, increases your prospects for success dramatically and measurably over trying to go it alone.  On average only about 5% of the general population exercise consistently enough to provide any real health benefit.

The real key to any fitness program is consistency, consistency, consistency, and of course a little hard work and discipline.  All things being equal, diet is just as important as exercise to improving your health and fitness.  Without a good, clean, healthy diet it will be extremely difficult to reach your goals.  Your body needs good high quality protein to rebuild muscle tissue and bone, unrefined long chain complex carbohydrates for stable insulin and energy levels throughout the day (except for immediately following your workout when some simple sugars should be ingested to restore glycogen levels in the muscles), and omega-3 monounsaturated fatty acids like the ones found in fish, nuts, and olive oil to maintain good heart health and a positive sense of well being.   There are many nutritional supplements available now that can make eating a more healthy diet much more convenient for those of us who have busy schedules.  We also cannot forget about the heart and lungs.  Cardio-vascular fitness is an essential part of any balanced exercise regimen, including those programs that are focused on building muscle and strength.  The heart is the pump that delivers blood to the muscles, and the lungs oxygen to the blood.  Without a strong heart and lungs you are severally hampered in what you can achieve.  One of our San Antonio personal trainers can assist you with nutritional guidance.

The only real way to make lasting changes, regardless of your goals, is to use a 'holistic' (meaning whole body) strategy.  This means that the 'whole body', every muscle group, the heart and lungs, nutrition and diet, and positive mental wellness, all have to be included as part of your overall program if real, meaningful and 'truly transformative' effects are the ultimate goal.

Yes, there will have to be a few sacrifices: it is very important to try to avoid foods that have no nutritional value and/or excessive calories or fat (especially trans-fats and saturated fats), also you should try to spend at least 30 minutes every day either here at the gym exercising with your trainer or on non-training days doing something physically active somewhere, and most important of all, accept the fact that your decision to improve your health and fitness is going to take time, perseverance and patience. Let one of our San Antonio personal trainers be your guide.

Now, you may be thinking, this sounds hard and not all that much fun. Well, let me ease your mind a little and let you know that no fitness program would ever be successful if it wasn't any fun. Our San Antonio personal trainers always keep this in mind and strive to make sure to keep things fun and interesting throughout your time with us. Our primary goal is to help you improve your health and fitness in a positive, enjoyable way in order to provide you with a foundation of knowledge and experience that will hopefully last a lifetime.

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