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If America Knew How Much Energy the Body Produced they’d invade it.

 

Ok, so energy: What do we think of when we think of energy?  Maybe its an electrical grid. Maybe it’s coffee or an energy drink.  Maybe it’s just “I don’t have enough of it.”  Well, let’s narrow that down to the body and it’s ways to keep going- or it’s energy.  We have macronutrients that give us energy, four different pathways to use them, and physiological adaptations to hone in on to be able to conserve energy.  Lets dive right in.

 

So, macros!  You’ve heard of them.  You might not know what they do, however if you’ve ever been around gym people you’ve at least heard the term.  They probably don’t even know exactly what their favorite macros are for, and they sure love telling you what you should do with yours.  Macro nutrients are anything that gives us fuel for daily life that we can convert to energy.  First up, America’s favorite enemy of the state: Carbohydrates.  The unfair war waged on carbohydrates is asinine.  They are good for you and absolutely necessary.  Good carbs, at least, like veggies, whole grains, and fruits give us good energy for our daily lives.  This energy is used in the form of glucose, and fuels our muscles and our brain.  These underdog heroes supply us with energy for any movement over a low intensity.  So walking up your stairs, chasing your kid, and most importantly EXERCISE is fueled by carbs.  Without these guys you can’t think as well, you certainly wont have as much energy, and you don’t perform as well.  Carbs should be 40-60% You’re cheating yourself out of maximum capabilities when you blame your issues on carbs. It’s kind of like how certain political parties like to blame us LGBTQ folks for everything.  Trust me, if I could have a hand in taking down the world simply because of who I’m attracted to I’d love it, but it’s just not there.  My only agenda, much like carbs, is to help you live better and have more energy.

 

Fats!  Fats are also friends.  They help with maintenance of the nervous system, padding and heating of the body, and they also give us energy!  Again, GOOD fats like nuts, avocados, and certain oils help with body function, and give us lower level and more sustainable energy.  They support our day to day functions at our desk, or during exercise once we run out of glucose.  Ever been on a long bout of exercise and felt that “hitting the wall” feeling?  That’s you running out of glucose, and switching to fats.  Fats make food taste good- it’s what any nutrition class will tell you.  However, be careful- each gram of fat has twice the calories as carbs or proteins so they should only be about 10-30 % of your MACROS. 

 

Then protein. First up- ignore literally everything anyone in any gym has ever told you about needing more protein, and go read my blog that I wrote on protein.  Literally like two whole pages on the science of it, so this bit will be quick.  Should only be 10-30% also, and NEVER used for energy.  Like many of us have discovered on drunken evenings, just because you CAN do something doesn’t mean you SHOULD, and protein can be used for energy but should not. Ever.  Period.  It’s basically an anti-starvation device and isn’t good for the body at all.  It should be used for it’s amino acid structure to rebuild the muscles broken down.  That’s it. So that bro that told you that you needed 1 gram of protein per pound of bodyweight is super wrong, and is giving you really, REALLY bad advice. 

 

Alright- so we have that things that can give us energy, but how do we use them?  SHUT UP AND LET ME TELL YOU.  You have four energy pathways:  PCr, Anaerobic Glycolysis, Aerobic Glycolysis, and Aerobic Lipolysis.  So PCr is phosphocreatine.  You might recognize the word creatine from a supplement standpoint, and this might help to understand why it DOES NOT build muscle (see above, protein.) Super simplified version:  we basically take everything and turn it into ATP.  That’s what we use for energy.  Without getting too much into it, let’s think of ATP like one unit of energy.  ATP means Tri-Phosphate.  We break the chemical bonds and remove one of those phosphates releasing energy.  Well, Creatine come around and all like “hey, this phosphate dude is just floating around, let me bring it back over to it’s other two friends.”  And his friends are so happy to see him again that they bond, but much like my mind, one of those phosphates is going to be broken off again and go wandering again.  So creatine is used to recycle the phosphates that are cleaved until we run out of creatine to help out and need more energy. So enter glucose.  Carbohydrates stored in the muscles and liver are called glycogen and in the first bit of exercise we use these bad boys to help out.  Think of Creatine as explosive and intense, and Anaerobic Glycolysis like intense, and slightly longer like weightlifting.  These guys and how they’re used is why resting between sets when lifting is so important- we need to give time to rearrange and get some more in there to go at it again.  Then we move into longer processes of aerobic exercise, like cardio.  Higher intensity requires that glucose to be delivered and the body likes it. So aerobic glycolysis is the use of oxidative methods to produce energy from glucose.  When we run out of that we use fats.  Not “fat” like body fat, but fats in the blood stream floating around hanging out as free fatty acids.  Think long cardio.  All these processes are constantly going on, but the intensity and duration decides which one is more in demand.

 

We all need more of this energy stuff.  How is that accomplished?  Training.  Eating properly allows you to fuel your day, and eating the right stuff before and following exercise allows for better storage and utilization of glucose.  Cardio training increases the amount of mitochondria in the muscles and if there’s one thing our public school systems taught all of us it’s what???  SAY IT OUT LOUD I’M NOT EVEN GOING TO WRITE IT DOWN.  If you don’t know, call your teachers and tell them you’re sorry for not paying attention then google it. The correct supplements might help also, but beware- they’re not FDA regulated (yeah, that’s right everyone who is chugging protein powder but doesn’t want to get a vaccine because it’s not FDA approved- that’s called irony!) and often are more harmful than good when not used properly.  Increasing muscle mass increases energy and output, and simply having better movement patterns.  We call this “economy of movement” and it means how much does it cost to move.  Kids have AWFUL economy of movement-they’re all over the damn place.  As adults, we create better movement patterns and strengthen our muscles to be able to move with less cost.  We can continue this process with proper training.  And then things like sleep, hydration, stress levels… all those can contribute to having more energy. 

 

So I hope that you learned something in this blog that turned out to be much longer than I originally expected. Remember what your macros are and how they’re used.  Take in the proper amount of macros, and then expend the proper amount of energy to stay at a healthy body composition.  Remember your energy systems and how they’re used.  That underscores the importance of eating the proper macros.  And never discount any of our methods to increase your energy because I don’t know a single person that would be like “Nah, I wish I had less energy.”