Everyone still seems to really struggle when it comes to understanding tracking, nutrition, calories and macros.
With this in mind here’s a little analogy I’ve come up with to help get the point across.
I’ll start with calorie as they are number one. In this scenario your calories are going to represent your monthly income.
When you get paid the first thing that comes out are your bills.
Any mortgage payments, rent, council tax, car loan payment.
These are unavoidable if you want to maintain your standard of lifestyle and avoid the consequences.
You might wish that you could spend that money on other things but you simply can’t these bills have to be paid.
This is your protein.
You might not like it but if you want to build or maintain the Physique you want out of the calories you get per day a good number of them is going to have to be used to hit your protein goal.
If you were aiming for say 150g of protein that would be 600 calories.
Just like your salary once you have paid your bills whatever you are left with is yours to spend as you please.
In an ideal world you’d save some of that money and put it towards a pension or savings in the hope for a comfortable retirement whilst trying not to waste it on expensive unnecessary luxuries that provide short term pleasure.
This is where your micronutrients come in.
Ideally you would use the majority of your remaining calories on nutrient dense whole foods that will help maintain your health such as fruit and veggies.
Just like your pension savings you won’t get the benefits of these until a long time from now but the reward should be a long, happy and healthy life free from disease and struggle.
On the other hand you have your nutrient void hyper palatable high calorie food.
These are your frivolous luxuries.
They taste great and make you happy but they don’t provide much in terms of longevity or sustainability.
What is the correct balance then?
Most people probably already get the balance right in terms of finances.
Pay your bills and save as much you can whilst still leaving a little to enjoy life. Very few people just blow their wages on the things they enjoy without planning or thinking about the future.
However, when it comes to nutrition this is exactly what they do.
They don’t do the necessary basics.
They don’t pay any attention to the future.
Instead they blow every penny they have on anything they fancy and when the money they have is gone they take out loans to fund the rest of their spending resulting in dept or in nutritional terms they get fat.
I know this is a bit out there but if people thought about what they ate in the same way as they would their finances they’d be in much better shape.
They’d eat what they needed to before eating anything else (protein) and wouldn’t swap necessities for leisure.
They would be mindful of the future and make sure they planned for it with sensible investments (eating healthier)
They would put enough aside for fun (the stuff you enjoy eating) without over doing It and ending up in trouble.
Finally they would live within their means by not spending what they didn’t have or couldn’t afford (overeating)
I hope this has helped highlight some of the flaws in the way most people eat and will help you be more mindful of how to better improve your eating habits and nutrition.
Dan
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