I have another inspirational collaborative post for y’all today!!
It is important to eat correctly when exercising. You need to make sure that your body is getting everything it needs to work properly and that you aren’t deficient in certain areas. You also want to be able to get the most out of your chosen exercise. With that in mind, here are some reasons why you need to eat correctly when exercising.
Building Muscle
When exercising on of the things you are likely wanting to do is to build muscle. This means that the next time you exercise, you will be stronger and fitter. In order to grow muscle, you need to have enough protein in your diet. Protein is primarily found in meat and fish. However, you can find it other places such as eggs, lentils and beans. You need to make sure that you are getting enough protein in your diet so that you are able to grow muscle effectively. However, you also want to make sure that you aren’t overdoing it. Make sure that by eating protein you do not push your caloric intake above where it should be. You might also want to take supplements such as protein bars or shakes. Both of these can help to give you enough protein in your diet, but you need to remember that you won’t get the other health benefits of eating things like chicken and kidney beans (both of which also give protein) if you rely solely on supplements.
Malnutrition
It can be easy to have a protein rich diet and focus on exercising and the things that you need to perform well. This might mean that you can end up relying too much on supplements. This can end up causing some that is known as fit sick. You might be wondering, what is fit sick? It is essentially looking fit and healthy, but not being so. One of the ways it can manifest is through malnutrition. As well as getting protein to fuel your muscles and carbs to give you energy, you also need to make sure that you are eating enough fruit and vegetables. This means that you need to make sure that you are getting enough vitamins and minerals in your diet to keep your body running healthily. Lots of fruits and vegetables contain plenty of these vitamins and minerals, but you need to have a varied diet to ensure that you are getting everything. If you are struggling or aren’t sure where to start, then you can find plenty of online resources to help you get started or you can visit a nutritionist.
Have Enough Energy
As mentioned above you will want to ensure that that you have enough energy to complete your exercise. This means that you need to eat certain foods that are high in energy, but that your body won’t burn through too quickly. This means staying away from foods high in glucose and instead of eating carbohydrates. This includes things like pasta and rice. Both of these are great carbohydrate foods that can help give you the energy you need to exercise well. If you don’t have enough energy, then you can end up becoming tired too soon and not being able to reach your goal. If you are tired and you still keep going despite having no more food left to use, then your body will start to burn muscle in order to keep you going. You do not want this to happen as it’s counter to what you want to do with your exercise.
Avoid Unhealthy Food
A lot of people exercise in order to lose or maintain their current weight. This means that you will want to stay away from unhealthy food that is going to make that more difficult. Unhealthy food is often high in fats and calories which means that you might struggle to get enough exercise in to use all of that energy. This energy will then be stored as a fat reserve. You do not want this. Unhealthy food is generally bad for you, but if you are exercising it can be even worse. It normally does not give you long term energy, can make you feel lethargic and it will not give you the nutrients that your body needs to do your exercise and stay healthy. Unhealthy food can be tempting, but you can replace it with healthier alternatives that can taste just as good. Throughout your life, you will want to stay away from unhealthy food, but this is especially true when you are exercising.
This post was a collaborative effort – please check out my disclosure policy for more details.