Fitness Nutrition Plan
A good fitness nutrition plan starts with an effort to build good habits.
“Bad habits are easy to form and hard to live with and good habits are hard to form but easy to live with”.
It may take some good amount of hard work to achieve a healthy and toned body, however by developing simple healthy eating habits, you may get there much earlier than you think.
There is absolutely no need to get over-analytical, doing maths and counting carbs and proteins. You will slowly gain the habit of choosing the foods that are low in saturated fat, high in fiber, low in salt and sugar.
Aiming to Lose Weight?
It is simple! No need to go into all those pointless low carb, high carb and high protein or which diet is better kind of arguments. If you eat less calories than you consume, you will lose weight.
More important thing is developing a healthy and balanced diet from a variety of low calorie-high nutrient foods that you will like. Concentrate on building ‘eating habits’ that will help you get leaner, help you control calories while enjoying what you eat.
Are Carbohydrates Bad For You?
Your body needs sufficient amount of energy and fuel to keep goingduring your training. It is best to eat a meal that is rich in slow release carbohydrates, 2 to 3 hours and another snack 30 to 45 mins before the training. It is best to switch to lighter and more easily digestible foods as the training time nears.
Carbohydrates are the most effective source of energy for your body and majority of the carbs you eat should be from complex carbs as they tend to contain other nutrients such as proteins, minerals, vitamins and water, have a high nutrient density and are not linked to any diseases.
Role of Glycemic Index in a Fitness Nutriton Plan:
The glycemic index- GI has recently attracted a lot of attention in the bodybuilding, fitness and weight loss world. It measures how quickly carbohydrates are broken down into sugar in your body. GI includes foods that are generally good for your health but it does not measure the quality of foods for nutritional value. Certain high GI foods are needed by your body as well. It is a measure of the rate of sugar release into your blood, not how high quality a certain food is.
Low to moderate GI ranked foods- pasta, porridge be consumed several hours prior to exercise due to their long slow release of glucose into the blood stream. While high glycemic index foods- corn flakes, honey, sports drinks, sweets should be consumed during or post exercise because they quickly release glucose into the blood stream which will be rapidly taken up into the muscles.
Post-workout meals should have the opposite characteristics of all of your other meals throughout each day. While post-workout meals should have high GI carbs, quickly digested proteins and minimal fat, all of your other meals throughout the day should be comprised of low GI, slowly digested carbs, slow release proteins and healthy fats.
*Here I’d like to tell you about my favorite diet program that uses a lot of the healthy lower GI foods: Isabel de los Rios’ ‘The Diet Solution Program’.
Unsaturated Fats Are Good For You!
The main difference between good fats and bad fats is that the bad- saturated and trans fats will raise your blood cholesterol levels. The good- mono and polyunsaturated fats will help lower your bad cholesterol LDL and raise your good cholesterol HDL. This will in turn put you at a lower risk for heart disease.
If you are aiming to gain weight and build muscles.. unsaturated fats can help you gain weight more quickly than if you didn’t eat any fat at all. Avoid fatty cuts of beef, as well as pork, sausage, bacon and whole milk products because they contain large amounts of artery-clogging, unhealthy saturated fat. The lean types of meat like skinless chicken and turkey, lean beef, egg whites and fish are great in helping muscles.
Muscle Building Diets
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Fitness Nutrition Plan- References:
Lifetime Dynamic Training (2005): Athlete Nutrition and Weight Management Level 3, Part 1.
http://www.fitnessatlantic.com/ fitness-exercise-nutrition-plan.htm : Fitness Nutrition Plan .
Coleman, Ellen (2003). Eating for Endurance, Fitness Nutrition Plan . Boulder, CO: Bull Publishing.
Maximuscle.com, ‘What are Fats?’ article: Athlete Nutrition.