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Feed The Need | ||
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No matter what level of fitness you wish to achieve or what program you use, no matter what equipment you work out with, one need remains the same – good nutrition. It’s the single biggest element that can spell success or sabotage in your quest for fitness.
It seems so simple, eat good food, get good results, but there’s more to it than that. What if I told you that sometimes it’s more about how you eat than what you eat? Or, sometimes fattening is better than fat free? Teaching someone all about nutrition even in a series of articles would be a daunting task. We can, however, give you some basics to give you a little nudge in the right direction.
First, pick up a book on glycemic index. We won’t go into great detail here, but this book will break down your carbohydrates into best, good and poor. For our purposes, the easy explanation is that the best carbohydrates are those that are broken down slowly in the digestive system. Why, because anytime carbohydrates are digested to quickly they cause your blood sugar to spike. When this happens your body releases insulin into your system to grab and store this excess sugar. So, basically, insulin is the body’s way of capturing excess fuel and storing it as fat.
What we want instead are foods that will go into the system slowly and therefore get burned up as they are released. Take rice cakes “the perfect diet snack”, one of the worst foods to eat by glycemic index. So, get a book and set your carbohydrate choices accordingly.
Now that you know your good carbs from the bad, let’s take the next step. We can also use other foods to help slow down our absorption rate. The Roman comic, Terence once said, “Moderation in all things” and he had it right. It’s going to sound a bit cliché, but a well balanced meal is the key. It’s one of the best ways to slow your absorption rate. Proteins, fats and fiber all digest at a slower rate. So the key is to eat small, balanced meals consisting of proteins, carbohydrates, fats and fibers in each meal.
First, fats can add a lot of calories, so they should be kept to small amounts in the meal. Also, you want to stick to good fats such as peanut and olive oils and stay away from fats that come from meats. Vegetables and breads with high fiber will aid in slowly the process as will whole proteins like lean meats and fish. You can also add in additional fiber with fiber cookies or powders. Powders are especially easy to use as they can be mixed in everything from water to spaghetti sauces.
The last piece of the puzzle is when and how much. Everyone requires a different caloric intake and there are many sources out there to help you find yours. But, in general, keep your three main meals to around 400-600 calories and snacks to 100-200 calories; higher for men, lower for women. Women should try to stick to 5 meals a day and men to six. A good rule of thumb is eating about every three hours or so. These smaller more frequent meals will help to make sure you burn what you eat and will help keep your metabolism running on high. Once your exercise program is in place, use your body as the measuring stick. Not losing enough, cut back slightly on the calories. If you’re too run down after your workouts, add slightly to your calories.
Now what you have isn’t a diet. It’s a sensible, maintainable lifestyle change that you can follow for a lifetime. By Steve Breeden | ||
