Why Fibre is important!

bdamaster60

A good little read I pulled from D-Curt Fitness Facebook page. He said I could reference this here. I felt like sharing it as it might help a few people
http://www.facebook.com/dcurtfitness

Dietary Fiber

Along with fats, dietary fiber is the most recurring problem I tend to find with all the countless diets I review, in most cases there is usually one of two errors people make:

1. There is literally no dietary fiber to be seen in their diet
2. There is too little dietary fiber within their diet.

I'm Going to keep the first part of this write-up short & sweet so it's a bit more clear-cut and easy to understand.

Benefits of dietary fiber?

- Increases satiety (as it slows down digestion in some cases, meaning food is sitting in your stomach for longer, thus suppressing
appetite)

- Takes longer to chew/eat thus an effective way of burning calories.

- Lower in calorie content than most foods which can be a good thing for weight loss, but with fat loss specifically I always recommend to eat more & Do more (do more being, more calories burnt through workouts/cardio or supplementation)

- Lowers secretion of insulin as well as fat depositing/deposits within the body.

- Decreases Blood pressure

- Improves serum lipid levels (more of your good cholesterols - HDL & less of your bad ones - LDL

- Enhances weight loss & provides greater weight control

- Improves Digestive tract function & excretion

Source: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8172129

How much Dietary Fiber Should I aim for a Day?

A good standard value to aim for on either a bulk or cut would be 40-50g of Dietary Fiber, According to http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19335713 14g of Dietary fiber per 1000 calories is recommended for both children & adults, as such an individual on a 3000 calorie diet should be attempting to consume almost 50g a day.

What Foods are best for Dietary Fiber Intake?

1. Brans: This may involve any of the following - Corn, Wheat, Rice, Oat
2. cocoa or dark chocolate
3. berries: (raspberries & strawberries in particular)
4. Nuts: (walnuts, almonds)
5. seeds: (sesame seeds, flaxeed, sunflower kernels)
6. Grains: (brown rice, quinoa, Aramanth)
7. Beans: (lentils, soybeans, french, kidney beans)
8. Fruits: Passionfruit, pears & apples
9. Greens: Broccoli, kale (cabbage), cauliflower, celery
10. Supplement Based & other grains: metamucil, psyllium husk, polenta etc

adding more dietary fiber in is as simple as making an easy substitution like oats for oatbran or the addition of more
greens or grain based foods, pick any & you'll be sure to notice more improvement in both your fat loss & digestive function! Might be frequenting the toilet a lot but its worth it! Also worth noting that Dietary Fiber also has quite a high antioxidant content.

Does Dietary Fiber have a caloric value?

yes it does, it is comprised of several forms of carbohydrates, which are mostly starch based, however it also has some derivatives which are not metabolized as carbohydrates & are actually indigestible, as such it does not have the equivalent caloric value as a typical carbohydrate would (4 calories) & varies depending on the type of fiber & also how much of it's components is digestible. You could safely assume 1g of fiber would be equivalent to somewhere around
2-4 calories though.

I'm Going to start getting a bit more complex here, so all the keen readers, feel free to read on

What Is dietary fiber?

Dietary fibre is the part of the plants we eat that we cannot fully digest, it is derivative from the plants cell wall.

How is Dietary fiber metabolised if we cant digest it properly?

It is metabolised within the intestines through bacteria & although it has the molecular structure of a carbohydrate,
which you would automatically assume is broken down into glucose, it is actually broken down into short chain fatty acids,
which are then absorbed thereafter, as a result it also greatly assists lipolysis (breakdown of fats) and improves digestive tract function in an acute & also long term manner.

What is Dietary Fiber Comrpised off?

As said previously, it is essentially a starch based carb, which is formed out of a multitude of polysaccharides (several sugars bonded together) some of these for example are Pectin, which is the most degradable/metabolized at 90-100% & then on the opposing end you have Lignin which is completely indigestible, as I talked about earlier, this is the attributed reason as to why caloric values of dietary fiber can vary.

What are the different type of fibers?

1, Soluble dietary fibe:

This type of dietary fiber is soluble in water. It is known to lowers both glucose and cholesterol in the blood. Food sources rich in soluble dietary fiber include the following: legumes, vegetables (such as brussel sprouts and cabbage), fruits, oat bran and pysllium seeds.
Soluble dietary fiber, due to its higher degradability rate, it actually causes digestion to slow down, it also has a higher calorie content in comparison to insoluble dietary fiber.

Insoluble dietary fiber:

Insoluble dietary fiber is obviously the reverse of soluble in that it is insoluble in water. Insoluble fiber helps ease constipation by regulating food movement in the gastrointestinal tract. Foods with a rich insoluble fiber content include: flaxseed, whole grain breakfast cereals, and vegetables such as celery and carrots. As stated before the fermentation (rate at which its broken down) is much slower than soluble.

Both forms are important, so be sure to up the dietary fiber intake, as I know for a lot of people it might be a contributing factor to continual fat loss & weight loss when the issue is amended, with a bit of luck I'm going to try get a few more write-ups done in the next couple of weeks.

4mydogs

Fiber is important because you can get diverticulitus. I was 45 and had three hospitalizations and finally colon surgery. It changed my life and how I eat. Now I eat at least 30g but mostly 45-50g of fiber daily. All my friends upped thier fiber after seeing what I went through and how tough it was!! Thanks for the post!!

bdamaster60

thank you for sharing!!! let that be another reason why fibre is an important macronutrient to watch carefully in any diet!

ahamm002

Good post! Too many people on these boards seem to think that as long as you're hitting your calorie and macro goals, then the source of those calories doesn't matter. But it's hard to get the recommended amount of fiber without focusing on eating plenty of fruits, veggies, nuts, legumes, etc.

Firefox7275

40g to 50g good grief! I just about hit 25g, and I am not eating any refined grains or added sugars and many of my fats in whole plant form (nuts, seeds, cocoa, coconut, avocado). Really don't fancy supplementing with bran or psyllium, if you can't get what you need from real food your diet is likely not balanced.

ahamm002

40g to 50g good grief! I just about hit 25g, and I am not eating any refined grains or added sugars and many of my fats in whole plant form (nuts, seeds, cocoa, coconut, avocado). Really don't fancy supplementing with bran or psyllium, if you can't get what you need from real food your diet is likely not balanced.

It's not 40 to 50g, it's 14 g per 1000 calories. 40 to 50 grams would be for an active individual eating a pretty high cal diet (3000 cals/day).

Firefox7275

It's not 40 to 50g, it's 14 g per 1000 calories. 40 to 50 grams would be for an active individual eating a pretty high cal diet (3000 cals/day).

The post states "How much Dietary Fiber Should I aim for a Day? A good standard value to aim for on either a bulk OR CUT would be 40-50g of Dietary Fiber." I read it as the 14g per 1000 kcals being your US official minimum, 40g to 50g being the author's ideal for all. If that wasn't the intention that paragraph is very badly written/ punctuated.

4mydogs

I eat 40-50 grams and eat about 1600 calories. I eat whole grains, lots of berries, lentils, beans, high fiber tortillas, fruits like apples. A healthy diet consisting of whole foods will get you to 40 easily.

bdamaster60

40g to 50g good grief! I just about hit 25g, and I am not eating any refined grains or added sugars and many of my fats in whole plant form (nuts, seeds, cocoa, coconut, avocado). Really don't fancy supplementing with bran or psyllium, if you can't get what you need from real food your diet is likely not balanced.

A bodybuilding diet is not balanced. The diet is designed to sustain growth to attain a god-like physique, not a mediocre one.