If you decide to turn yourself into a fitness machine, first advice you will likely encounter will be to start exercising. While most people dwell on how much and how often you should train, those indulged few will shake their heads in disapproval. When you decide to build something, you start bottom-up and not the other way around and the foundation of any fitness endeavor is proper diet. Those with enough experience in this field know one truth – you can never out-run a bad diet. Improper eating habits can nullify even the most vigilant training efforts so with this in mind, here are 5 things you need to know.
-
Too much protein turns into fat
When it comes to a proper workout diet, most people will suggest eating as much protein as possible. This however, can often turn into something highly counterproductive. While your body needs a lot of protein to function properly and further develop your muscle tissue, the question of what happens to the reserves which are not spent still remains. Well, the truth is quite simple yet extremely unpleasant. All that extra protein later on turns into fat tissue. This is why, not even eating lean meat or tuna each day every day is a good idea. All things must be taken in moderation since only in this way are their effects beneficial for your body.
-
Metabolism is a subjective thing
Most people speak about metabolism like it is something that is universal, when in fact it greatly differs amongst people. Some simply have significantly slower metabolism and they need significantly less calories to function on a daily basis while people who have faster metabolism can eat a bit more without gaining weight. This is why, the phrase optimal calorie count is a relative thing. The best course of action here would be to visit a nutritionist and do some tests. After this is done, you will know precisely what you need to eat in order to reach the physique of your dreams.
-
Unnecessarily avoiding supplementation
Lack of indulgence by the ever-growing gym populace can lead you to believe that all diet supplements are equally hazardous, which is as far from truth as it gets. In fact, some people simply need adequate supplements in order to properly advance. For example, people who are lactose intolerant have serious problems with acquiring enough protein, because they are forced to exclude dairy products from their diet. This is why, the best way for them to make up for this loss is by taking supplements such as protein powder.
-
Altogether excluding fats
Although trans-fats (such as those found in margarine) are quite bad for your body in general, some people make a mistake of avoiding fat altogether in their diet. This is again a result of a bad habit that some people have of trying to classify a specific nutrient as exclusively good or bad. If used in moderation (same as with protein) natural fats, such as those from olives (or even animal fat) can be extremely healthy and good for your entire organism.
Just look at it this way, your body is a complex mechanism that needs all of its components to perform admirably. In order for every mechanism to work as it should some parts occasionally need to be “greased up.” According to daily intake guidelines, the reference value for fat for an average adult should be somewhere around 70 grams, while for saturated fats it shouldn’t be more than 24 grams per day.
-
Carbs: Too much, or not enough
When it comes to carbohydrates, there is a serious problem that often appears. Namely, some people advise their exclusion from diet altogether (same as with fats) while some insist on their presence. In fact, some studies show that low carb diet works even better than low fat diet if you aim on losing weight. Now, we already determined that not a single nutrient can be absent from a diet in order for it to be considered proper, but moderation is always advised. It is true that too much carbs in your diet is key reason for gaining belly fat, however, some experts claim that carbs are the fuel on which the extra fat is burned. The question now remains: who do you trust?
The optimal daily carb intake depends on the gender, age, body composition and lifestyle of a person in question, but it also depends on some outside factors. For example, during lower temperatures, food richer with carbs is advised in order to keep you warm. Naturally during summer heats the opposite is advised. Still, for a person who is young, lean and active and who just aims to maintain their current weight, the intake of 100 to 150 grams of carbs per day is advisable. However, by reducing this intake to 50-100 or even 20-50 grams per day can show you’re the real results.
Finally, nobody claims that proper training is not necessary, only that its effects can be greatly diminished by improper eating habits. Because of this, if you want to get things done and get into the shape of your life, you need to balance several things. Go to the nutritionist to see what your body actually craves, take all the nutrients in moderation and last but not the least, if necessary, don’t be afraid of resorting to supplementation.
