There’s a good reason we provide nutritional information to clients at UpFit Academy in New York, NY. You need both and a healthy diet is just as important, if not more important than a program of regular exercise. Combining both brings the best results, but if you had to use just one, it would be to eat healthily. The reason is simple, you can’t out-exercise a bad diet. You need to eat healthy to be healthy and also to lose weight. No matter how many hours at the gym you spend exercising, if you’re eating a junk that’s loaded with calories, you won’t be healthy and you won’t lose weight.
A healthy diet has all the nutrients you need to be healthy and build muscles.
You can workout for hours but if you don’t have adequate nutrition, you won’t build muscles. Muscles require the building blocks and that comes from your diet. You also won’t have the energy to workout without proper nutrition. If you’re eating foods high in sugar, it boosts your insulin production, which can make energy levels increase rapidly, only to plummet just as quickly. Eventually, you can develop insulin resistance, which also leads to exhaustion. A bad diet affects your workout and the results you get.
If weight loss is your goal, you need both diet and exercise, but diet is the most important factor.
You can boil weight gain and weight loss to a simple formula, one pound=3,500 calories. Eat 3,500 more than you burn and you’ll gain a pound. Eat 3,500 less than you burn and you’ll lose a pound. No matter how many hours you workout, it’s almost impossible to burn the number of calories necessary to lose a pound. A double quarter pounder with cheese has about 800 calories, combine it with a small chocolate shake and large fries, you add another 1,000 calories. An intense workout at the gym burns between 350 and 550 calories, about 1/3 to ¼ of the 1800 calories from the meal.
Healthy options are more filling and provide more nutrients.
One of the biggest problems with an unhealthy diet is that it is often rife with sugar and lacks fiber. Not only does fiber fill you up, but it also keeps you feeling full longer, so most highly processed foods won’t satisfy your hunger for long. Consider alternatives to those fries, shakes and burgers. You can eat loads of fruit and vegetables are lower in calories. Instead of snacking on a large order of fries, you could be eating a serving of slow-cooker balsamic short ribs with a side of cauliflower rice and a serving of glazed mini carrots or roasted salmon with smoky chickpeas and salad.
- A healthy diet doesn’t actually mean you’re dieting. It means you’re making smarter choices and eliminating highly processed foods and foods with added sugar.
- Your choice of drinks makes a big difference in a healthy diet. Soft drinks are filled with calories and can increase your waistline. Even low calorie drinks are known to build visceral fat around waist. Stick with no calorie natural options like water, tea and coffee.
- A healthy diet is all about changing eating habits. It’s one reason actual diets don’t work. They always end and you go back to old habits. When you change eating habits, you’ll lose weight permanently.
- To be your healthiest, you need both diet and exercise. A healthy diet is the foundation for good health, with regular exercise supplementing that foundation and making it stronger. We can help you with both.
For more information, contact us today at Upfit Training Academy
