There are a lot of ways to approach weight loss and fitness. One is through diet alone, one is with exercise and the third is by doing both. Which is more important? If weight loss is your goal, losing weight by simply exercising isn’t enough, especially if you’re eating an unhealthy, high calorie diet. The same is true for building muscles. It takes quality food to provide the building blocks. You also won’t build muscles by simply eating protein.
While you might be the hardest working person in the gym, it won’t help if your diet is poor.
For weight loss, a healthy diet is probably the winner when it comes to achieving your goals. Stopping off at the Burger Quickie after a workout and get a large fry, double cheeseburger with bacon and shake can add far more calories than you burnt in the gym. If you want to lose a pound, you have to eat 3500 calories fewer than you burn. That won’t happen if you constantly eat junk food.
Is your goal building muscles?
You do need the raw material to build muscles, but you definitely need strength training, too. There’s a big debate whether exercise is more important or nutrition. Again, nutrition is the optimal way to go, but you won’t get the big bulging muscles you want. The best way, of course, is to have a diet high in protein and other nutritious food, plus a program of regular exercise that includes strength building workouts regularly.
Diet wins as most important, exercise comes a close second, but combining the two is best.
A healthy diet provides all the nutrients as building blocks and if it contains primarily whole foods, fewer calories, making weight loss easier. Some fast food burgers with all the fixings can contain up to 1500 calories. Barbecued or honey glazed chicken strips can top out at 1600 calories and when you add a cola or shake and a large order of fries, in one meal you’ve eaten more than your daily allotment of calories. When you consider the average calories burned running for an hour is between 600 and 800 an hour to burn those calories, you can see how diet plays the biggest role.
- One benefit of working out is that it boosts metabolism. You build muscle tissue and the more you have the more calories you burn 24/7. Muscle tissue requires more calories to maintain.
- For weight loss, the type of workout makes a difference. While running burns tons of calories, just as strength-building exercises do, it takes those calories from both lean muscle tissue and fat. Strength training burns fat.
- One simple way to eat a healthy diet is to avoid processed food. Stick with lean protein, vegetables, fruit, dairy and whole grains. When you purchase food, such as peanut butter, check the label. The fewer the ingredients the better. In the case of peanut butter, it should be one ingredient: peanuts.
- Eating a small snack before and after working out can make a difference in your performance and whether you build muscles fast. It should be a combination of protein and carbohydrates, such as Greek yogurt and fresh berries or an apple and peanut butter.
For more information, contact us today at Skin Sport Fitness Center