Exercise and Healthy Eating

We’ve partnered with Fitness First to provide you with regular health tips and advice. Here’s their advice on exercise and healthy eating:

You may be saying to yourself, “It’s obvious!” But, there’s more to consider about healthy eating than you may at first think…

A healthy diet consists of foods and drinks that primarily enable your body to perform essential functions, like digesting food, thinking, speaking, and even breathing. Whether it’s getting out of bed, doing a hundred press-ups, or running a marathon, your body needs extra energy to perform movement and you get that energy from calories. Carbohydrates, Fats, Proteins, Vitamins, Minerals, Water and more, need to be taken in a careful balance to ensure we can fulfil our body’s incredible potential.

How does it affect me?

Calories come in many guises - good ones and bad ones! If you take on more calories than you need on a daily basis, regardless of what form they come in, the excess will either be stored or excreted. Depending on the type of food (usually carbohydrates and fats), storage is the first option the body takes. If too many carbohydrates are taken on (e.g. pastas, breads, cereals, sugar, fruit and vegetables) the body breaks the food down into a form that it can use for energy – this is called glucose.

In an ideal world, our body would like a constant intake of “good” calories throughout the day, as and when it needs it.

If your body doesn’t need it for energy, the carbohydrate will be broken down into a storable form - glycogen, which is stored in the liver and muscles.

If you take on too much fat, you’re asking for trouble. Although fat has more than twice as much energy (per gram, for example) than carbohydrates, our bodies find it very difficult to break it down and use it for energy. So, any excess will simply be put in storage for a rainy day.

In an ideal world, our body would like a constant intake of “good” calories throughout the day, as and when it needs it. But this would require non-stop nibbling- not a practical solution for most of us. So, with regular, small, balanced meals, you are maximising your body’s chance of using what you intake, and minimising the chances of storing too much of what it can’t use.

What effect will exercise have?

The more exercise and activity you do, the more calories your body burns up to produce the energy to use. If you don’t have enough readily available glycogen to use, or if you are still exercising and have almost run out of this source, your body will turn to another. Usually this is stores of fat, but as we’ve said, this is not easily broken down and you will find that your mental and physical performance is reduced dramatically if your carbohydrate (glycogen) stores are depleted severely.

This forms a strong case against “low-carb” diets like the Atkins Diet, where low/no intake of Carbohydrates can lead to increased fat breakdown, but because the brain’s preferred food is glucose, this is not good for the sharpness of concentration.

You’re probably thinking, “I’ll just eat less than I need and I’m bound to lose weight.” Think again! The body tends to hang on to fat and other stores if you simply don’t give it enough to function - this is a safety mechanism, as your body goes into self-preservation mode.

The key to healthy eating revolves around the Energy Balance; the amount that goes in versus the amount that goes out. A drastic imbalance will lead to the self-preservation mode at one end of the spectrum, to dramatic weight gain at the other end.

An equal balance will be the best for weight maintenance; an imbalance slightly in favour of energy ‘out’ will favour safe weight loss; and an imbalance (of the right kinds of foods) in favour of energy ‘in’ will favour safe weight gain.

Safe weight gain

The key to healthy eating revolves around the Energy Balance; the amount that goes in versus the amount that goes out.

If weight gain is your goal, it is probably because you want to gain muscle mass. Healthy eating has a massive part to play here as muscles need proteins to get stronger and bigger. When you perform any vigorous exercise, you are actually breaking down the muscle tissue.

What determines the success of the workout is what you give the muscle to help rebuild it after you finish lifting. A combination of carbohydrates (to replace lost glycogen and blood sugar) with a safe amount of protein, as soon as possible, will enable the tissue you have just broken down to grow back stronger and more efficient.

Don’t be fooled into taking on too much though (possibly in the form of too many “Protein Shakes”), as the excess protein that the body does not need is excreted and can actually damage the kidneys if continued for a long space of time.

So, if the Energy Balance mindset can be adopted, you’ll never go far wrong. And don’t just think about energy expenditure in terms of workouts at the gym. There’s 168 hours in a week, and a few workouts barely makes a dent. Combine dedicated exercise sessions with a generally active lifestyle and a healthy diet, and your Energy Balance will look after itself.

Fitness First is the largest gym, health and fitness club group in the world so we think they probably know a thing or two about keeping fit and healthy.With more than 180 Fitness First UK gyms there’s bound to be one near you but whether or not you choose to be a member, you can still benefit from some good advice.