Are you sabotaging your exercise program by continuing to eat a bad diet? Whilst exercise is important for health and weight loss, eating a healthy diet is arguably just as important, if not more. Here at UpFit Training Academy, we want our clients to understand that exercise only takes up a very small portion of their day; eating is done throughout the entire day. This means that our clients have to make multiple decisions throughout the day to eat healthily.
They also know that you can’t out-exercise a bad diet. No matter how many calories you burn during your workout, eating excess calories is a lot easier to do than burning them. Aside from calories, eating a bad diet won’t provide you with the nutrients your body requires to carry out its basic functions, making recovery from your workout harder.
Fuelling Your Workout
If you eat before you train, it is also important for you to pay attention to the type of fuel you are putting into your body. Most of the time, it’s important to include some form of carbohydrate as your fuel source as well as some protein before your workout; usually a couple of hours before. However, this is quite personal; some people prefer to eat a quick source of carbohydrates (like a banana) up to 30 minutes before working out, and some people prefer to workout fasted; especially if it’s too earlier in the morning for them to feel like eating.
Having said that, it’s important not to overdo the calories pre-workout as this can make you feel sluggish during your workout. Furthermore, it is a good idea to avoid junk food or food that can make you feel worse or upset your stomach.
Other Considerations
- The gut microbiome is increasingly becoming more studied, showing ties to mood, immune system function and neurological health. Beyond calories, this is an important reason to eat healthily and include a wide range of fruits, vegetables, and protein in your diet. Not to mention, it’s easier to convince yourself to get a workout in when you’re in a good mood.
- Recovery. The body goes through many processes in order to recover from a workout. Eating enough protein and sometimes carbohydrates (depending on your goal) is extremely important in maintaining muscle mass.
- If someone is on a weight loss program, protein can be extremely important in maintaining satiety levels and energy as well as making sure that the weight being lost is not coming from muscle. If not enough protein is consumed, weight loss can start to occur from places we don’t want.
- If someone is trying to gain weight or muscle mass, including protein and clean carbohydrates throughout the day is extremely important in being able to increase muscle size. Without proper nutrition principles, the client won’t be able to gain muscle.
Remember, a healthy body starts in the kitchen, and ends in the gym!
For more information contact us today at Upfit Training Academy
