Nutrition 101: How to Maintain a Well-Rounded Diet

By Kevin C. George

You cannot fake fit. This starts with the old adage, “You cannot outwork a bad diet.” Diet, in this case, is your nutrition. Everyone is killing themselves dieting constantly. Don’t die DIEting. The latest get lean or gain mass eight-week diet does not produce long-term results.

Fats, carbohydrates, and protein all play important roles in the body. The simple truth is the body needs all three of these macronutrients. A diet removes one of these—typically carbs or fat—in a quick attempt to see results. There are few times (for a purpose) to skew the amount of total calories you eat or to keep a macro percentage of your diet low.

As firefighters, we must be well rounded in all ways. This means eating balanced overall to supplement our ability to be fit. Furthermore, we must give our bodies the ability to battle the rapid metabolic diseases in the fire service, such as cancer, heart disease, obesity, diabetes, and even mental health difficulties.

• How Nutrition and Exercise Support Mental Health and Work-Life Balance
• Simple Steps to a Healthier You: Nutrition, Hydration, and Recovery
• The Stress/Fat Connection

Remember, quality nutrition is just as important as an exercise technique. Throughout a career in the fire service, which can range from moments of intensity to periods of being more sedentary, you have to feed your body correctly. This will pay dividends over and over, benefiting you well into retirement. The good news is that this is not complicated. We are firefighters, so we like to keep it simple. Once you get the hang of eating healthy and you discover the right method of feeding your body, you’ll never have to relearn it.

Carbohydrates

Carbs are not the enemy. Yes, some carbohydrates are actually good for you. Do not be afraid. Let that sink in for a moment. Truth be told, cutting carbs is not the answer, like many popular diets suggest today. Rather, eating the appropriate amount to fuel you daily activity is where we all should be. Therefore, replacement of simple carbs and sugars is the right idea. Use complex carbohydrates to fuel your body instead. Carbs equal energy.

Today, everything with a barcode lends a hand in the overconsumption of highly refined carbs. In addition to the cravings that can develop like an addicting drug, the development of cardiovascular disease, cancers, and diabetes also often occurs.

What tends to differentiate a simple carb from a complex one is the high fiber concentration. This aids in promoting healthy digestion. A complex carb is not broken down the same by the body as a simple one. Complex carbs keep the body’s blood sugar steady, leveling energy throughout the day. Meanwhile, simple sugars generate mood swings, cravings, binge eating, insulin resistance from the constant change in blood sugar, and obesity.

Read the label. Make this a habit for some time, and rather quickly you will notice all the labels sound the same. Sugar, sucrose, fructose, corn syrup, and white flour are all simple carbohydrates. Gently place them back on the shelf and move to the perimeter of the store where the highly processed foods are not. The outer limits of the store will generally offer produce such as fruits and vegetables as well as low-calorie food that will have more natural sugar, fiber, and micronutrients that the body craves.

Fats

Just as there are different carbohydrates, not all fat is the same. You have good fats and bad fats. Back to the labels, you want to keep an eye out for the healthy fats, monounsaturated and polyunsaturated. The bad ones to avoid are trans-fats and saturated fats.

Many today flock toward high-fat diets. These diets can lend a hand in treating patients who have specific disease processes occurring but not generally for the majority of individuals who attempt them. Many try to follow these grossly incorrectly. Rather than giving their bodies enough good fats, which provide omega-3s, they eat for their taste buds and enjoy highly saturated fats in gargantuan amounts.

Polyunsaturated fats cannot be made by the body. Omega-3s are an example of these and are considered “essential fats.” There are many types of omega-3s, and you have to get them from your diet. There are some immensely beneficial side effects of taking them in, which follow:

Healthy heart: Omega-3 fatty acids are known to raise your high-density lipoproteins (HDL). This is the good cholesterol, lowering the risk of arterial plaque formation and high blood pressure.

Mental health support: It has been found that by increasing omega-3s in a diet, there is a decrease in signs and symptoms of depression, anxiety, and other behavioral disorders.

Anti-inflammatory: Inflammation is a giant in the arena of causing chronic illnesses. Reducing inflammation can contribute to prevention.

Strong bones: Better bone mineral density coincides with healthy levels of omega-3s.

Protein

Whether you get them from animals, plants, nuts, or legumes, amino acids are the building blocks of protein. To build muscle mass, you need the appropriate amount of protein in your diet. Generally, the average individual gets plenty of this macronutrient. Too much of this macro, like the others, can cause long-term problems such as stressing the kidneys or causing dehydration. Instead of taking in an enormous amount of protein that the body can barely metabolize, focus on making a variety of leaner choices.

Just as there are different carbs and fats, it is not hard to imagine there are different quality proteins. These are most commonly referred to as “complete” or “incomplete” because of their amino acid makeup. The body itself can only make certain amino acids; the others have to be gathered from foods. The essential (or nine amino acids the body cannot produce) are as follows: histidine, isoleucine, leucine, lysine, methionine, phenylalanine, threonine, tryptophan, and valine. If a protein is considered complete, it is because it contains all the essential amino acids.

Proteins that are generally considered to be complete come from meats, dairy, chia and hemp seeds, quinoa, and soy. Plant-based foods normally have incomplete proteins. Grains, legumes, and vegetables that have trace amounts of protein can be eaten in combination to fulfill the requirements of being a complete protein—for example, this is how vegetarians can effectively fulfil their dietary requirements appropriately.

Hydration and Liquids

Hydration and liquids are a hugely ignored variable in a diet. Proper hydration, other than curbing a truly nonexistent appetite for more food, can give many benefits. For firefighters, this includes reducing fatigue (resulting in more energy) and helping regulate body temperature. A lot of people tend to be very strict and on point with their diet but mess it up by drinking their calories.

An effective diet means zero soda or excessive alcohol consumption. Try to stay away from these sugary drinks. Those calories will catch up to you and add up. Go heavy on water and, if need be, reach for low-calorie drinks such as black coffee or tea.

Take a day out of your week and keep track of the calories ingested from your fluid intake. It is not uncommon to notice a number near 1,000 or 2,000. Most drink away their allotted calories for the whole day. Aim to take in half to all of your body weight in ounces of water per day, with additional hydration during active periods.

Building a Plan

So, all of this is great information, but it only leads to the real questions of what foods (and how much of them) will build a healthy plan moving forward. To determine this, we need to find out some basic information and then build on it.

First, what is your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR)? This is the amount of calories it takes to do the involuntary functions your body completes while sedentary. This can be determined by entering your height, gender, age, and weight into a calculator simply found online by searching “BMR” or using the formula below.

BMR Formula

Women: BMR = 655 + (4.35 x weight in pounds) + (4.7 x height in inches) – (4.7 x age in years)

Men: BMR = 66 + (6.23 x weight in pounds) + (12.7 x height in inches) – (6.8 x age in years)

Second, determine what your activity level is: sedentary, light, moderate, very, or excessively active. Using the Harris Benedict Formula, these levels all have factors ranging from 1.2 to 1.9, which will be multiplied by your BMR to give you the total calories needed to maintain your current body weight. These factors can be easily found online as well while determining your BMR. Once this calculation is completed, determining the amount of calories to add or subtract to reach a target weight is simple. A pound of stored fat is approximately 3,500 calories. Maintaining a daily 500-calorie deficit would add up to 3,500 calories weekly—or roughly one pound of weight loss. It is appropriate to aim for one to two pounds per week.

Harris Benedict Formula

Sedentary (little or no exercise): Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.2

Lightly active (light exercise 1-3 days/week): Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.375

Moderately active (moderate exercise 3-5 days/week):
Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.55

Very active (hard exercise 6-7 days a week): Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.725

Extra active (hard exercise and physical job or 2x training): Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.9

Now, we have a total number of calories we are aiming for each day to reach an ideal weight and have the energy to build fitness. This is where the macros enter to build meals that reach your calorie goal. Recommendations commonly fall around the following approximate percentages for each macronutrient: fat, 20-30%; carbohydrate, 45-65%; and protein, 10-35%.

For example, say your calorie goal is 1,500. If you begin a plan based on the following recommendations, specifically 20% fat, 50% carbs, and 30% protein, you can come up with the calories allotted for each macro—this means, per day, 300 calories from fat, 750 calories from carbs, and 450 calories from protein.

A gram of each macro contains a specific number of calories. Fat is the most calorically dense, having nine calories per gram. Both carbs and protein have four calories per gram. Divide the allowed number of calories for each macro by the calories present in each gram. Using the scenario above, 300 calories of fat translate to 33 grams, carbs translate to 188 grams, and protein translates to 113 grams per day. This comes full circle back to reading the nutrition labels and measuring portion sizes so you can be accurate on the amount of each macro you are receiving at each meal. After a short period of time, you will be familiar with the exact number of grams present in common foods used in your diet.

Stop spending a ridiculous amount of money on supplements that are just supplementing a bad nutrition plan. Spend that money at the grocery store.

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Kevin C. George started with the fire service in October 2004 and currently holds the rank of lieutenant. He has been a nationally registered paramedic since 2007. He has an associate of arts degree from the Community College of Baltimore County and is completing a bachelor of science degree in fire administration with Columbia Southern University. He is an advocate of health and fitness and is a peer fitness trainer for his department.