The pithy title is a free translation of a quote by Julius Caesar. More than 2000 years ago people already knew how important our energy intake is for a strong performance. Hence, I want to summarize in the last part of the small blog series the most important points and offer somefood for thought.
- Our metabolism has a relatively low efficiency – only about 25% of the consumed calories can be turned into mechanical work. We need the rest to digest food, for «maintenance work» and to keep the body nice and warm at around 36°C.
- 80% of the athletes I consult underestimate their energy needs and have breakthrough experiences upon increasing their intake.
- A positive energy balance results in an increase in body mass.
Attention: if you want to build up muscles, you also need an energy surplus! Energy surplus does not automatically mean that you get chubby immediately. - A negative energy balance results in a reduction of body mass.
Attention: valuable musculature (and thus performance!) is often lost here. If you want to reduce body fat in a targeted way, you have to coordinate energy intake, nutrient mix and training well. - A constant body weight with constant performance is a good indicator for a balanced energy intake. If the weight is constant, but despite good training there is hardly any improvement in performance, energy deficiency could be a reason.
- A long-term energy deficit harms the body. First, the basic metabolic rate drops (also due to decreasing muscle mass), then there are disturbances of vital processes in our body with serious long-term consequences (see part 3, RED‑S).
- In elite sports it may be appropriate to cut body weight radically before a peak competition. Afterwards, however, a normalization should take place – in other words: extreme competition weight must not become a permanent condition!
- As for the long-shot and all the leisure athletes a reasonable energy intake and sustainable optimization of weight & body composition are, hands down, not only better for your health, but also better for your performance.
Food for thought
The energy expenditure you read on your fitness watch is as accurate as a tabloid’s horoscope. The only way to make a precise measurement of the work performed is with a power-measureing system (cycling, rowing, running etc.).
Recently, calory- or macro tracking has become popular. Meals and workouts are entered into an app that automatically analyses energy balance and macronutrient distribution (carbohydrates, protein, fat). While the accuracy of analysis can be debatable, there is no denying that such behavior leads to disordered eating over time. I therefore strongly advise against it.
Starvation is never a recipe for success. If you want to optimize your body and your diet to become stringer, you should do it thoughtfully and not with a sledgehammer. This does not necessarily mean that you have to hire a personal trainer a/o nutritionist, but at least a high degree of common sense.
