Body Recomposition: Why You Shouldn’t Overlook Micronutrients

‘Micronutrients’ are indispensable elements required by the body in small amounts.

They include vitamins and minerals. While vitamins take care of energy production, immune function, blood clotting, and other functions, minerals take care of the growth, bone health, fluid balance, and several other processes.

Highlights

• Macronutrients consist of three categories – Proteins, Fats, and Carbohydrates,
• Micronutrients are found within the macronutrients. Closely monitor calories. Consuming enough food to uphold maintenance levels is most often recommended to lose excess body fat,
• There are 13 essential vitamins. They are vital for your body to work optimally, and without them, you may experience unfavourable side effects.

We often hear a lot about macronutrients when we talk about building muscle or losing fat.

“Get your macros right.”

“Focus on your macros, and your diet will fall into place.”

However, the devil lies in the details.

Macronutrients consist of 3 categories

1. Proteins,
2. Fats,
3. Carbohydrates.

Micronutrients are found within the Macronutrients.

For instance, a mango consists of:

1. Vitamin A,
2. Vitamin C,
3. Vitamin K,
4. Potassium,
5. Beta-carotene,
6. Folate,
7. Choline,
8. Magnesium.

The body’s daily functioning aforementioned requires the micronutrients mentioned above inhabiting the macronutrient group, amongst many others. Here’s where it gets interesting.

When macronutrients are put under the scanner, only numbers are considered. This doesn’t paint the complete picture and can often be misleading because of a ‘calories in vs calories out’ mentality.

For instance, 100 calories of a scoop of ice cream are not the same as 100 calories of kale. Depending on the quality of the food consumed, micronutrients play a critical role in not just the external appearance of your body but also the quality of your internal processes, such as metabolic fitness.

Metabolic fitness is crucial to achieving your fitness goal and ensuring long-term optimum health.

Metabolism

It refers to the life-sustaining chemical reactions in the body that convert what you eat and drink into energy. Metabolic fitness, in particular, is a term describing where we fall in the range of metabolic health and how efficiently we are generating and processing energy in the body. 

If your fitness goal is to aim for body recomposition, it’s essential to understand optimise your metabolic health. 

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Body Recomposition

It is a term used to describe the process of losing body fat and gaining muscle mass simultaneously. Weight loss is not the primary objective of this process. The goal is to alter your physique.

We can do this in the following ways:

1. Increase your energy expenditure. The intensity, duration and frequency of the activity are directly proportional to the energy expended.
2. Hit effective workouts like high-intensity interval training.
3. Implement progressive overload to increase your strength, build muscle, and ultimately boost your metabolic rate.
4. Closely monitor calories. Consuming enough food to uphold maintenance levels is most often recommended to lose excess body fat.

Micronutrients play a crucial role in body recomposition. If you want your body to work as efficiently as possible, you need to provide it with the tools to do so.

If you are deficient in any micronutrients, you’re not optimising your fat loss or muscle gain efforts. It also boils down to what you’re consuming or a scarcity that you may ignore or be unaware of.

For instance, low vitamin D levels have been associated with the storage of fat. According to a study that examined low vitamin D levels in women, women with the lowest levels gained more weight despite not changing their diets.

Another example of this is B vitamins, which are essential for metabolic function. If you’re deficient in any B vitamins, your body could most likely be in fat storage mode.
The dominant function of B vitamins is to metabolize macronutrients. If you don’t have the requisite quantity in your blood, you could be storing the calories instead of burning them.

Another study found that vitamin B supplementation was conducive to lowering body weight by increasing metabolism. Although supplementation can help most people, choosing foods that are rich in vitamin B would be beneficial.

When it comes to building muscle, if you lack the necessary nutrients, you could hit the wallVitamin E, for instance is an antioxidant fighting free radical damage and helps to flush out metabolic waste.

During exercise, you create oxidative stress. If you don’t have enough circulating vitamin E, you could experience intensified Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness (DOMS), bad recovery, and poor muscle protein synthesis, the process of building muscle mass.

According to a study published in The International Journal of Preventive Medicine, vitamin E supplementation improved recovery by reducing muscle damage markers.

If you’re counting your macros without giving conscious thought to your micros, you need to reprioritise.

Without micronutrients, your body will perform sub-optimally, you’ll experience adverse side effects, and your fitness goals will be elusive. The selection of foods constantly spikes your blood sugar, making your glucose levels swing erratically.

Are set to be detrimental to your body recomposition goal. Most likely, these foods are also not nutrient-rich and do not provide the ideal nutrition profile.

Types and Functions of Micronutrients

There are 13 essential vitamins. They are vital for your body to work optimally, and without them, you may experience unfavourable side effects like dry hair, acne and increased fat storage, amongst others.  

Vitamins and minerals can be divided into water-soluble vitamins and fat-soluble vitamins, macrominerals, and trace minerals. Regardless of type, vitamins and minerals are absorbed in similar ways in your body and interact in many ways.

There are four fat-soluble vitamins: A, D, E and K that are absorbed readily. The body needs them in small doses and does not require them on a daily basis. When they go unused, they have deposited in \the adipose (fat) tissue.

The remaining nine are water-soluble vitamins that are not stored in the body. This highlights the need to maintain a well-balanced, vitamin-rich diet for optimal functioning and performance.

Functions of Microvitamins include:

1. Maintaining Immune health
2. Healthy and hydrated skin and hair
3. Strong bones and nails
4. Metabolic health and nutrient absorption
5. Heart health
6. Brain health
7. Nervous system regulation
8. Hormonal balance and homeostasis
9. Fighting free radicals and repairing DNA damage

Minerals play an essential role in bone health, growth, regulating fluids in the body, heart health, transmitting nerve impulses and are precursors to many enzymes and hormones. They also play a role in the proper employment of vitamins and other nutrients

1.Macrominerals

Macrominerals are needed in more significant amounts than trace minerals to perform their specific roles in your body.

2.Trace minerals

Trace minerals are needed in smaller amounts than macrominerals but still enable important functions in your body.

Conclusion

Micronutrients are key elements in the optimal functioning of your body. While counting the number of calories in your food is important, focusing merely on the quantity and not the quality is counterproductive to your metabolic health and body recomposition goals.

Fat loss and muscle gain can be further facilitated through optimum consumption of micronutrients, strength training, and ensuring minimal glucose variance.

Disclaimer: The contents of this article are for general information and educational purposes only. It neither provides any medical advice nor intends to substitute professional medical opinion on the treatment, diagnosis, prevention or alleviation of any disease, disorder or disability. Always consult with your doctor or qualified healthcare professional about your health condition and/or concerns and before undertaking a new healthcare regimen including making any dietary or lifestyle changes.

References

1. Metabolism: What It Does, What Affects It, and More
2. The Forgotten Role of Micronutrients in Body Recomposition – Breaking Muscle
3. Micronutrients: Types, Functions, Benefits and More.
4. The Effect of Vitamin C and E Supplementation on Muscle Damage and Oxidative Stress in Female Athletes: A Clinical Trial – PMC
5. Fat-Soluble Vitamins – Diet and Health – NCBI Bookshelf