Nutrition Fundamentals

Nutrition Fundamentals

Nutrition saved my life long before I realized it.

For years, I thought fitness was mostly about exercise. If I trained hard enough, often enough, everything else would take care of itself. I was wrong. Exercise matters, but nutrition is the fuel that makes exercise work—or fail.

Nutrition and exercise are equal partners. One without the other simply doesn’t get you where you want to go.

Calories: Your Body’s Fuel
Every bit of energy your body uses comes from calories, and calories come from three sources:

Protein
Carbohydrates
Fat

These are called macronutrients. Understanding them—even at a basic level—gives you control over how you feel, how you age, and how your body performs.

Protein: The Rebuilding Nutrient
Protein is best known for building and repairing tissue. Every gram of protein provides four calories, but its real value isn’t energy—it’s structure.

Your body is constantly rebuilding itself. Muscle, bone, skin, organs—all of it is in a constant cycle of breakdown and repair. As we age, that rebuilding slows down. That’s why protein becomes even more important later in life.

Every time you exercise a muscle, you create tiny breakdowns. Protein provides the building blocks to rebuild that muscle stronger than before.

Not all proteins are the same:
• Complete proteins contain all essential amino acids (usually animal sources).
• Incomplete proteins lack one or more essential amino acids (most plant sources).

“Complete” doesn’t automatically mean “high quality,” but it does mean your body has everything it needs to rebuild.

Carbohydrates: Energy on Demand
Carbohydrates are your body’s most accessible energy source. Like protein, they provide four calories per gram.

Carbs are often misunderstood, but they are essential. They fuel daily movement, workouts, and basic bodily functions.

There are two main types:

Simple carbohydrates are digested quickly and provide fast energy. They come from fruits, milk, honey, and sugars. While useful, many lack essential nutrients.

Complex carbohydrates digest more slowly and usually contain fiber, vitamins, and minerals. Whole grains, beans, potatoes, rice, and vegetables fall into this category.

Carbohydrates are not the enemy. Poor food choices are.

Fats: Long-Term Energy and Protection
Fat provides nine calories per gram and plays a critical role in health.

Fats:
• Provide backup energy when blood sugar runs low
• Insulate and protect organs
• Help absorb fat-soluble vitamins
• Support cell structure and hormone production
• Add flavor and satisfaction to meals

There are different types:
• Saturated fats – mainly from animal sources
• Unsaturated fats – found in olive oil, nuts, seeds, and fish
• Trans fats – industrially created and offer no health benefit

Cholesterol also gets misunderstood. Your body produces what it needs. HDL helps protect health, while excess LDL can contribute to cardiovascular problems.

Micronutrients: Small but Essential
Vitamins and minerals don’t provide calories, but without them your body can’t use energy properly.

They support metabolism, muscle contraction, bone health, immune function, and recovery. Deficiencies are common in seniors—not because we eat less food, but because modern food often contains fewer nutrients.

Metabolism: How Your Body Uses Food
Metabolism is simply how your body converts food into usable energy.

It has two parts:
• Anabolism – building and repair
• Catabolism – breakdown and energy use

Exercise and nutrition work together to keep this system balanced.

Supplements: Buyer Beware
Supplements are a marketing goldmine. Many claims are unsupported by solid science, and most products are poorly regulated.

If a supplement truly worked as advertised, everyone would be using it—and doctors would be prescribing it.

Food first. Supplements only when clearly needed.

Diet Books and Confusion
There are hundreds of diet plans, all claiming to have the answer. Most work at first because they make you think about what you eat.

Awareness leads to better choices. Better choices lead to better results.

Conclusion
Most of us eventually accept the truth: we are what we eat.

Nutrition is not a diet. It’s a lifelong practice. It fuels your workouts, supports recovery, protects your health, and plays a massive role in how you age.

If fitness saved my life, nutrition made it possible.