This is part 1 of a 4-part nutrition coaching series teaching you how to eat to be healthy and achieve your goals.
By the end of this article, you’ll understand the foundations of healthy eating: macronutrients ⛽️- protein, carbs & fiber, fats, & water.
The Easy Way to Eat Healthy
Each meal should have 1-2 palms of protein, 1-2 fists of vegetables or fruit, 1-2 cups of carbohydrates, and 1-2 thumbs of fat. It doesn't get easier than this. If you don't want to track, you don't have to.
Simply build your meals by starting with a serving of protein (1-2 palms), add vegetables or fruit (1-2 fists), add carbohydrates in ratio to your hunger and activity level (1-2 cups), and lastly make sure you have a serving of fat (1-2 thumbs). The remainder of this article will go into further detail on how to do this.
Protein
Proteins are the building blocks of the body: muscle, hair, skin, nails, hormones, enzymes, and antibodies are made of protein. You are basically a walking piece of protein and your #1 nutrition priority is to eat enough protein.
Protein is the most important nutrient for mood, performance, fat loss, and muscle gain because it allows us to preserve muscle, it keeps us full, it’s less likely to be stored as fat, and it burns the most calories just by eating it (see thermic effect of food).
Recommendation: If you exercise, eat 1g of protein per pound of desired body weight, so if you want to weigh 150 pounds, eat 150 grams, or 1-2 palms per meal. Read more about protein.
Fat
Fats are essential because every cell membrane in your body is made of fat, and we need fats to make hormones, absorb nutrients, and perform other vital functions.
There are different types of fat - saturated, unsaturated, omega-3, omega-6, cholesterol - and we need a balance of all of them. Yes, we need cholesterol and saturated fats to provide structure to our cell membranes, to synthesize vitamin D, to create hormones, and many other things.
Doctors claiming that eggs are bad for you are repeating research that was funded by big pharmaceutical companies to promote statin prescriptions, which they earn over $15 billion per year from. Multiple studies have shown that eating up to 35 eggs per day does not raise blood cholesterol (1970s study, 2024 individual study)! Eggs are healthy, so don’t avoid them (What happens if you eat 3 eggs per day)!
Eat 1-2 thumbs of fat per meal. Read about fats & how to choose cooking oils.
Carbohydrate
Carbohydrates are not required for your body to function well, but they help recovery and performance. Eat carbohydrates in ratio to your activity level. If you move a lot, you need a lot. If you don’t move much, you don’t need much. Add 1-2 cups of carbs per meal. Read about carbohydrates.
Fiber
Fiber is also not required, but it speeds up your metabolism and can improve digestion. If your goal is fat loss, or if you have digestion issues, fiber can help. All fruits and vegetables have fiber. Add 1-2 fists of fiber per meal. Read about Fiber.
Water
Your brain is 80% water, and your body is 60% water. If you don’t have enough water, you’re going to be stupid and unhealthy, so drink enough water. The recommended daily amount of water per day is half your bodyweight in ounces, so if you weigh 150lb you want to consume 75 ounces.
I don’t usually track my water intake, but rather I start out my day very hydrated and then I drink as much water as my body needs. So, I’ll chug 4 cups of water as soon as I wake up and I find this wakes up my digestion and makes me feel better almost instantly.
Conclusion & Summary
That is an introduction to healthy eating and the foundation of what the human body needs to function well. If you have questions, leave a comment below or send me a message. This is part 1 of a 4 part nutrition coaching series. In the next article we’re going to discuss micronutrients and antioxidants.
Until next time! - Tom
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