Why Nutrition Is An Essential Part Of Fitness

Reviewed by: | Author: Manoja Kalakanti

In recent times, it has become essential to take care of your health, so a focus on fitness, nutrition and going to the gym can certainly help you stay fit and healthy. Food plays a vital role for us, and it can sometimes determine the way we look and feel about ourselves. Our world is overpopulated and highly polluted; hence, we need to consume supplements or food in the form of medicines to counter the negative health impact caused by the above factors.

Why nutrition is the most important part of fitness

Our primary physical fitness mainly revolves around our food intake. If you succeed in achieving a healthy diet, it slowly gets absorbed into your lifestyle and can create a much healthier and happier space for you in this world. All physicians and health experts believe that a balanced diet is required to improve your overall health and can be considered an effective inclusion in your fitness program in this rat race.

What is Nutrition, and why it is crucial to Physical Fitness?

Nutrition is primarily a process through which humans take in food substances to add nutritional value to their bodies. To find out more, one can refer to this article.

The crucial role of nutrition in physical fitness

Some of the enlisted essential nutrients are:

  • Protein
  • Carbohydrates
  • Fat
  • Minerals
  • Vitamins
  • Electrolytes

Now, the question arises about why we need to include nutrition in our physical fitness and achieve a proper diet plan for weight loss and other related diseases. We often fail to grab the fact that consumption of essential nutrients varies across age and body. To maintain proper physical fitness or remedy certain impending diseases, we need to acquire the best diet plan after appropriate consultation. Some of the conditions which can be cured by adopting healthy food to eat or going to the gym are :

  • Breast Cancer
  • Prostate Cancer
  • Osteoporosis (weak bones)
  • Pregnancy
  • Lactation

Apart from these, a proper nutrition plan and workouts for weight loss have turned into an essential factor for physical fitness, especially for women who have to work hard all day and get less time to take care of their bodies and health issues. Every woman should cut out a chunk of time from their busy schedule and check on themselves and their Body Mass Index (BMI), which indicates their nutritional status and other health-related issues.

The Best Diet For Weight Loss To Fitness

We have reached that age when food has already turned into a replica of medicine as the food is fused explicitly with nutrients, known as ‘Super foods’. These foods are rich in proteins, vitamins, fats, minerals, carbohydrates, and calories to build our bodies. To find out more, one can refer to this article. You need to acquire the best diet plan, including some antioxidants in your food diet and schedule some workouts to lose weight.

The best weight loss diet

Weight loss is an easy task if you can do it judiciously, and for this, you need to follow three simple steps :

Step One

You need to include less or no sugar or starch or carbohydrates in your diet, termed a low carb eating diet plan, and this can be achieved only by replacing your superfoods with some refined whole grains. Some of the benefits you can gain by maintaining a low carb diet:

  • Hunger levels go down instantly, which enable you to take up fewer calories
  • Consumption of low carb foods like whole grains initiates a low-calorie deficit
  • Consumption of fibre facilitates quick digestion
  • Can reduce appetite

Step Two

You need to adopt a diet chart that includes protein, fat and vegetables, which should be a source of proteins, vitamins, minerals, fats and carbohydrates to acquire benefits such as:

  • To improve daily functions and execute personal and professional plans
  • To battle out inflammation
  • To protect your nervous system
  • To gain energy to conduct workout and other fitness activities

Step Three

There is an urgent need to develop a fitness plan to improve your health condition to cure other effects such as :

  • Stress and anxiety
  • Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and trauma
  • Depression
  • Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder

Step Four

You can soon acknowledge the need to include proper exercise in your daily routine to gain benefits such as:

  • Better immune system
  • Much sharper memory
  • Better sleep
  • Improved concentration
  • Strong resilience power

It is indeed hard to suddenly incorporate heavy exercise into your daily routine and so it is recommended to start with small changes and maintain a proper diet chart. In this physical fitness course, we often lose out on ‘fitness foods’ or ‘superfoods’, which can help us build muscle mass and endurance to better the overall immune system. Additionally, it is necessary to stop a poor diet as exercise, or the fitness program won’t work on you if you continue with your unhealthy diet.

Importance of a Balanced Diet

Our body has this requirement of maintaining such a diet that can supply nutrients to accelerate proper body functioning. Moreover, a balanced diet is essential to intake the right amount of calories, and its sources are :

  • Fresh fruits and vegetables
  • Proteins like eggs, chicken and others
  • Whole grain

A balanced diet

It is a fact that maintaining a balanced diet or eating healthy is always a good idea to feel great and energetic and to have an uplifted mood. If you fail to acquire a nutritious diet, then your body is always susceptible to diseases and infections like :

  • Heart disease
  • Stroke
  • Cancer
  • Diabetes

In addition to that, a proper diet can be beneficial to children as well to acquire growth and development. So it is essential to maintain a healthy and balanced diet for them from the start to strengthen their immune system and body structure and protect them from diseases and infections.

The Chart of a Balanced Diet

It is vital to maintain a chart of a balanced diet, and there some specific healthy food groups that need to be added and highlighted, such as :

  • Vegetables

Leafy greens, starchy vegetables, legumes (beans and peas), and red and orange coloured vegetables

  • Fruits

Whole fruits, fresh and frozen fruits

  • Proteins

Chicken, fish, beans, beef, pork and legumes

  • Grains

Whole grains and refined grains like oats, brown rice, barley and quinoa

  • Dairy products

Low-fat milk, yoghurt, cottage cheese and soya milk

A balanced diet

Thus, these specific healthy food groups can provide similar vital micro and macronutrients to meet nutritional requirements. Moreover, by consuming the right amount of nutrients and calories, one can adequately repair their organs and tissues.

To maintain an ideal weight, one needs to intake the proper quotients of calories, and thus the overall health of a person is dependent on :

  • An appropriate chart of nutrition, physical exercise and a healthy body weight
  • A proper meal fused with protein to repair muscle mass and body cells
  • Good quotients of carbohydrates, lean protein, essential fats and fluids
  • Adequate and improved sleep and mood to improve brain functioning
  • A proper diet of fruits and vegetables
  • An appropriate balance of unsaturated fats to provide relief from inflammation

Tips To Maintain A Healthy Lifestyle

In our daily schedule, it is essential to implement some tips to maintain a healthy lifestyle with ease, like :

  • Practise eating in smaller portions, and if you want to know the reason why, have a look at this article
  • Take time to eat and enjoy your meal to give positive signals to your brain
  • Cut down on ‘junk food’ or greasy snacks
  • Avoid emotional eating when you are stressed, depressed or sad

Best Exercises For Weight Loss And Fitness

At present, we are very conscious about our health and weight loss by adopting exercises that can be easily practised at home and every time you don’t have to rush to the gym, leaving your busy work schedule aside. To be more conscious about your mindfulness, you can refer to this article.

Best weight loss and fitness exercises

Some of the essential enlisted exercises are:

Forward Lunge

  • You need to first stand tall with feet hip-width apart and then place your hands on hips or hold the weights from sides
  • You need to take a controlled step forward with your right leg, and then, you have to keep your spine tall and erect, and then slowly you have to lower your body till your front and back leg form an angle of 90 degree
  • Pause for a moment and then forward your right leg from the back to the start, and then deliver your left leg again and repeat the process
  • Sets : 3
  • Reps: 10 per side

Burpee

  • Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart and arms at your sides
  • Push your hips back, bend your knees and then touch the ground with your palm
  • With hand shoulder-width on the floor, you have to direct the front of your feet
  • Shift your weight to jump back and land softly into a plank position
  • Jump with your feet forward to land outside of your hands
  • You have to jump explosively into the air by reaching hands overhead or leaving by sides
  • Sets : 3
  • Reps: 10 per sides

Explosive Lunge

  • Start with your feet together and your hands on the hips
  • Step forward with your right leg and have to lower into a lungee
  • Keep your right leg bending at a 90-degree angle
  • Land softly with your left leg ahead after immediately dropping into a lungee
  • Sets : 3
  • Reps: Repeat for 1 minute

Squat

  • Start with your feet-hip width apart, keeping arms either at sides holding weights or by clasping in front of chests
  • Keep your weight on your heels and keep your back straight
  • Sit with hips back and bend knees to lower into a squat
  • Sets : 3
  • Reps: 15

Double Jump

  • Stand with your feet slightly wider than hip-width apart
  • Lower your body into a deep squat
  • You need to rise and land in a lunge position with your right leg back
  • Use the momentum to jump from this lunge position and back to a squat
  • Repeat landing in a lunge on the opposite position
  • Sets: 2
  • Reps: Repeat for 45 seconds

Exercise is essential for our overall health, and at present most of us aim to lose weight without taking the pain of going to the gym and spending a good amount of money there. Instead, most of us are willing to do exercises in our home at our own convenient time. These exercises can be quite effective, enhancing proper functional movement skills.

Before You Go

Whether we accept it or not, our food plays a vital role in our lives, like how we look or how we feel. Eating nutritious food and doing exercise should turn into a ritual for us all. This can significantly impact our fitness and lifestyle, which we continually want to evolve by maintaining a nicely implemented fitness program.

FAQ’s

1. What nutrients are required by my body?

Nutrients like vitamins, carbohydrates, fats, fibre, minerals and proteins are required by our body to stay fit and healthy and to acquire energy to carry on with our daily personal and professional activities.

2. How to maintain proper physical fitness at home?

We need to learn some exercises and in-hand workouts to maintain proper physical fitness at home at least for an hour or so. Fitballs, Dumb-bells, Exercise Bands and push up bars are inexpensive things that can be used to enhance physical fitness at home by maintaining a proper routine.

3. Why is a balanced diet turning into an integral part of our fitness program?

Fitness experts worldwide have popularised the positive health transformation achievable through a healthy and balanced diet. This has inspired people to follow in their footsteps.

4. Why should every woman today take up a fitness program seriously?

In this challenging and fast life of ours, every woman should practice regular exercising to avoid early ageing and from getting infected to any unwanted diseases/infections. It has been researched long back that moving can help you to lead a much healthy and fit lifestyle.

5. What do you mean by superfood?

‘Superfood’, ‘Fitness food’ or ‘Power Food’ are currently available food in the market which offers high-level nutrients of your preference and it can also be regarded as a powerful food which holds all the properties to encourage weight loss or to heal certain diseases.

6. Why is it essential to achieve a diet plan to protect our body from diseases and infection?

Healthy Eating is always a good option to protect your body from getting affected by any disease or infection. It can prevent you from obesity which is regarded as the root cause for many life-threatening diseases.

7. Why should we start practice eating slowly?

We should start practising eating slowly because it has been researched that chewing helps with better digestion and can make you feel fuller and healthier. In addition to that, it can facilitate you with good hydration and can even help to lose considerable weight.

8. What type of exercises are needed for weight loss?

There are many exercises to refer to for weight loss, and some among them are – Squat, Double Jump, Forward Lunge, Explosive Lunge and Burpee. Apart from weight loss, it can better your heart and make your body flexible and strong.

9. Why is exercise required for our overall health?

Regular exercise and maintaining fitness has currently turned into a way of life for many as it has a huge contribution towards the cardiovascular system and also towards improving muscle strength and brain functioning largely.

10. How can physical fitness enhance proper functional movement skills?

Physical fitness can accelerate your body flexibility, and this enhances proper functional movement skills which cannot develop naturally within a short span of time. Thus, this movement can be categorized into three parts, namely: locomotion, object controls and stability.

 

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