Nutritional Advice Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Nutritional Advice - Essay Example BMI cannot be used for people with a high percentage of muscle mass. This implies that in order to stay healthy, the athlete can increase his or her weight above the normal BMI range provided that the mass that is gained come mostly from muscle gain instead of fat. Given all these, it can be easily deduced that the principle behind the athlete's nutrition program would be to prevent muscle wasting from intensive cardiovascular physical activity by providing energy sources that would spare the muscles, the body's protein from being utilized for energy; and to provide just enough energy for the body to build muscles without gaining much fat. Such is not as easy as it sounds. In order to be successful in gaining muscles, all the three energy sources must be critically controlled: Carbohydrate intake must be controlled only to the extent that all can be utilized for energy and not converted to fat; protein intake must only be limited to the needs of the body to prevent fat synthesis as well as body system complications that might arise (e.g. kidney failure); fat intake must be limited only to the needs of the body but not so much as to affect its other functions such as the synthesis of other body components (e.g. cholesterol and hormones) and the solution of the fat-soluble vitamins, A, D, E and K (Whitney, Cataldo, et. al. 92-196).