Balancing my diet

I have studied nutrition and healthy eating for years now and one of the great unsolved questions is what constitutes a "balanced diet". It's just like in biology, where there is still no definition of life. We have the seven signs of life, but are unable to define what "life" actually is. In the same way, doctors and dieticians can look for signs of a healthy diet, such as plenty of vegetables, but cannot define what makes a "balanced" diet.


However, the latest findings in sports science can provide a bit of direction. Not only do moderate/serious athletes need more calories to support their training, they also need a higher proportion of those calories to come from protein to rebuild their muscles after training. The consensus seems to be athletes in training need about 25% of their calories to come from protein, so that is what I'm going to shoot for. As well, endurance athletes can train their body to use a higher proportion of fat as fuel by doing longer, slightly slower workouts combined with a slightly higher healthy fat intake (from nuts, avocados, healthy oils, etc.). This teaches the body to use fat as fuel rather than relying on carbohydrates, which is much more efficient and leads to lower body fat over time. With that in mind, I'm aiming for 25% to 30% of my calories to come from fat. Once I start preparing for running races in the spring I will switch to higher carbohydrates and fewer fats so I have a ready supply of energy to run fast. Let's see if it works!


The Score:

Calories:	Protein:	Carbs:	Fat:	Fibre:
1858.83	102.37g	229.98g	59.04g	39.65g
	22.03%	49.49%	28.59%
Calories burned through exercise:		373

What I ate:

Time	Item	Amount
07:45	Vitamins - Centrum Advance A to Zinc, 400iu of Vitamin E, 1000iu Vitamin D3 and 500mg Glucosamine sulphate
	Mattesson's Turkey rashers	3 rashers
	Gluten Free fruit muesli	70g
	Alpro Soy milk	120mL
	Sainsbury's pressed apple and cherry juice	200mL
09:00	Black tea	500mL
10:30	Raspberry and Echinacea tea	250mL
11:00	Seedless Red Grapes	100g
	Brazil nuts	8g
	Cashews	17g
13:30	Moorish Vegetable Tagine	250g
	Merchant Gourmet tinned puy lentils	104g
	Sainsbury's Strawberry Fruit Dairy Split	60g
14:00	Green tea	250mL
16:30	Citrus Nuun electrolyte tablet in water	500mL
17:00	Total Greek yoghurt	125g
	Sainsbury's frozen mixed Blueberries and strawberries	100g
18:00	Butterkist salted microwave popcorn	35g popped
19:45	Baked salmon	122g
	Boiled and mashed sweet potato	200g
	Steamed broccoli	73g
	Steamed cauliflower	85g