Ya Gotta Eat To Grow
You've heard me say it before, and I'll say it again: The Body Doesn’t Operate On A Bureaucratic Time clock; it merely honors generalities when it comes to time.
Let's put this into a nutritional context:
Your body has NO IDEA if it is 7 AM or 7 PM.
So whatever TV celebrity came up with the rule that you cannot eat after 7 PM is full of it.
Here's what you need to know: Your Body Is ALWAYS Using Energy. Always as in ALWAYS. 24/7/365 (366 on leap year). Your heart is beating, you're breathing, you've got new cells being made, byproducts of metabolism moving around...there's tons of activities occurring inside of your body just to keep you alive.
And every one of those activities requires energy.
When I work with an individual, one of the most difficult hurdles for them to overcome is the mental leap from YEARS of bad habits and wrong beliefs about food and eating.
Most people automatically go into restriction mode (I used to do the same!) in fear of "getting fat."
BUT GUESS WHAT?
If you want to get stronger, or "toned" or even put on a $#!+ ton of muscle, you have to EAT to do it. Period.
Here's why: The Only Way To Be Anabolic Is To Avoid Being Catabolic.
This is accomplished through nutrition, hydration and an intentional recovery strategy.
As per our norm, we gotta go Full-Physiologic-Geekdom first. We're gonna tip into ONE TINY DIMENSION of the nutritional palate and geek it out before we apply it to Maximizing Your Gainz.
FACT: Your body is made of TONS of cells. Wanna know what's smaller than cells? Something called amino acids.
Amino acids are the building blocks of life. Now I gotta admit-all of my years taking Bio classes I could recite that definition, but I NEVER fully understood what that meant until I started learning about the nutritional aspect of Muscular DeVelopment.
We could go on FOREVER about amino acids, but today, let's keep it simple.
Track with me:
Your muscles are made of protein.
Protein is made of amino acids.
Anytime a muscle works, it more or less chews up the amino acids.
This is where intentional planning, diligence, and discipline with your nutrition comes in. The goal of nutrition when it comes to maximizing your gainz is to replace the amino acids that were used and keep a steady stream of them around so that your body doesn't chew up your muscles to get them.
Here's a hard fact, though: Your body doesn't give a $#!+ about your athletic goals.
The ONLY thing your body actually gives a $#!+ about, is keeping you alive. It doesn't care about your hopes and dreams, your goals and aspirations, it doesn't even care about high-level functions. IT ONLY CARES ABOUT KEEPING YOUR VITAL ORGANS PERFUSED AT THE CELLULAR LEVEL.
What does that have to do with Making Gainz?
Everything.
If your body doesn't have the support nutritionally and hydrationally (I just made that word up) it needs to keep you alive, it will prevent you from maximizing your gainz.
Think of it like a 3-tiered model:
1) Your body first has to have the energy/amino acids/hydration to support operation of your vital functions (heart beat, breathing, etc.)
2) Then it has to have the energy/amino acids/hydration to support basic activities of daily living (walking, brushing your teeth, etc.)
3) Then and only then will it allocate energy and resources towards athletic gainz.
HERE'S THE PEARL: Failure to supply the energy/amino acids/hydration to the first two levels, the body will simply respond by basically giving you the finger. It will auto-digest your hard-earned muscle, pull water out of your cells (making 'em all shrively and nasty) and save every ounce of energy by shutting down your metabolism and storing whatever food you give it as fat.
You bet it sucks. (I could totally hear you) But that's how it is.
Even if you're running keto, the concepts apply.
THE ONLY WAY TO BE ANABOLIC IS TO AVOID BEING CATABOLIC.
That's accomplished through nutrition, hydration and a recovery strategy that supports your body's demands.
At the end of the day, You Gotta Eat To Grow.