Nutrition

YOU ARE WHAT YOU EAT!

Exercise is one of the best things you can do to lead a healthy lifestyle, but are you ignoring another critical part of it? Many people do! It is called nutrition. Nutrition is one of the major keys to achieving and maintaining a healthy lifestyle. Exercise alone may not help you lose the weight that you are trying to lose. You have to exercise and eat right to lead a healthy lifestyle.

The keys to proper nutrition are eating the right foods and the correct amounts of those foods. Even by eating the “right foods” you can still gain weight by eating too much. The average adult needs approximately 2000 calories a day. Your caloric intake may be more or less than this depending on how active you are and how big of a person you are (a male that weighs 250lb. will consume more calories than a 100lb. female). If more calories are consumed than the body needs, the body will store the excess as fat-no matter what foods were eaten (even the “right foods”). This will result in weight gain, unless it is burned off by activity such as exercise.

Another key to good nutrition is reading labels. Food labels can be very, very deceiving! Just because it says “light” on the front of the package doesn’t mean it has fewer calories or less fat. Sometimes there are just as many grams of fat or calories as some regular foods. The word “light” is a term used very loosely by some food manufacturers. “Light” may be referring to the fact that they made the color of the product a “lighter” shade. It could also mean that there is less in the container or that it simply weighs less than it did before. Always compare labels to see what the difference is between the regular product and the one that is supposed to have less fat.

One of the oldest cliché’s in nutrition is “you are what you eat”. When your diet contains a lot of fat you can end up gaining a lot of weight (fat) as a result. Fat is not easily used or “metabolized” by the body to make it function. The body uses carbohydrates as its main source of fuel. These carbohydrates are stored in the body as glycogen. By eating pasta, breads, fruits and vegetables in your diet (the healthier foods), your body will get the carbohydrates it needs for fuel. You will also be healthier for eating this way. You just don’t want to eat in excess of what your body can use as mentioned before.

It is important to get a good variety of foods in your diet. Following the four food groups is an excellent way to accomplish this. Eating all of one food group is not recommended because then your body is not getting all the right nutrients it needs. For example, the protein diet claims that you can lose weight by eating only protein. Initially you may be losing weight, however this weight loss is caused by the imbalance created by eating only protein. Most of the weight loss is due to water loss, not loss of fat. Foods that are usually high in protein are also high in fat as well. The body can only use a certain amount of protein and the rest is stored as fat.

What about dietary aids or supplements? Very few, if any, of these methods have been proven to work. The ones that seem to work will help you lose weight by increasing your metabolism. The problem is that you will gain it all back again when you stop using the product. Another drawback is that these dietary methods do not give you the same essential nutrients as eating “real food”.

As you can see, there is no easy way out or shortcut when trying to lose weight. It takes a lot of self control and hard work. Exercising and eating the right foods in sensible portions will prove to be your best choice for attaining your goals.

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