9 Truths You Should Know About Nutrition and Fitness
Facts are proven theories and myths, are popular advice or stories that aren’t proven. In the health and fitness world, myths are certainly one you have to stay away from. But, sometimes, due to how popular these myths are, we start to misplace them as facts. To avoid that, we bring to you in this write-up facts on nutrition and fitness so that you can start identifying them.
- Working out doesn’t give you the right to eat whatever you want
The hard truth is, even with a good workout routine, you can easily out-eat your exercise if you do not practice taking healthy nutrition. The best that working out does is to help you maintain your weight and probably lose a few pounds. It doesn’t assure you that you would never gain weight. The results are not permanent; it requires maintenance.
Why?
Because a workout is all about keeping fit and, to most, maintaining a good weight, however, let’s take a look at a scenario. If your aim for a workout is to shed a few pounds and your workout routine consist of working on the treadmill for an hour every day, burning, let’s say, 500 calories but then you keep eating anything you want and chowing down more than 1000 calories a day, this renders your work out useless because, with every calorie you burn, you are gaining twice in return.
Hence, you must pair your workout routine with healthy nutrition and a balanced diet to maintain good health and a stable weight.
- Fats and carbs aren’t the enemies
It is a popular misconception that fat and carbohydrates are the main cause of weight gain, and you have to avoid them. Well, that’s wrong. You need fats and carbs as much as you need protein and vegetables because carbs are the main form of energy in our nutrition, it aids the digestive system and even keeps our blood cholesterol in check, same goes for fats. Every class of food is essential in our nutrition to help us live healthily, so, rather than seeing fats and carbs as the enemy, why don’t you start seeing unhealthy nutrition as the enemy for a change.
- A lower weight doesn’t quantify good health
Contrary to popular opinions, a good weight doesn’t equal good health.
Why?
Weight is not just about the calories in your body. It is influenced by several things, such as the fluid in your body, undigested food, and even your muscle. Hence, it is possible to exercise regularly and still gain more weight. So, rather than relying on the scale reading for signs of weight loss, which might not appear because the loss of fat is being replaced by muscle gain, monitor your body and measure your waist regularly instead to know how much body fat you have shed due to your exercise.
- Eating smaller portions of meal in intervals doesn’t cause weight loss
This is one of the most popular myths on nutrition out there but, that’s just what it is – a myth. Eating a small portion of meal every two or three hours doesn’t help you lose weight because even if the meal was taken in smaller portions, it doesn’t decrease the total amount of food consumed, and it does not increase the number of calories you burn during the day either because you can only burn as much as you work out not with the intervals between your meal.
- Packaged foods with healthy claims are mostly not
It is no surprise that when we walk into a store searching for a food product to get, our eyes get drawn to those products with the healthy label because that means we still get to eat our favorites, chocolates, yogurt, ice creams, etc. without having to worry about weight gain. But, do you know that packaged meals with healthy nutrition claims such as low fat, low sugar, organic, etc., are mostly not.
Most packaged foods are label healthy to draw a customer’s attention but, if you took the time to check closely, you would see that these packaged foods still have components and replacements for the sugar, fats, etc., that might turn out to be unhealthier for you. Hence, be careful when purchasing processed food.
- Exercise causes weight gain
Do you know that for every pound of muscle gained, 50 extra calories are burned by your body every day? In other words, you are replacing the calories in your body for muscles, but since the scale can’t tell the difference, your weight remains the same or even increase, but that’s not a bad thing; it just means you have gotten more fit. As stated above, just pair your exercise with healthy nutrition to stay healthy.
- Fat-free or low sugar doesn’t mean healthy
As stated above that fat is not the enemy when it comes to weight. Fat-free or low-sugar also doesn’t mean healthy. Most packaged foods branded as fat-free or low sugar may seem healthy, but they are not. The fats are often replaced with something else, i.e., sugar, to give the product a sweet taste rather than a creamy one and several other unhealthy components that can cause weight gain. To be on the safer side, it is better to go with unprocessed, balanced, and healthy nutrition.
- Exercise makes you relaxed
Endorphins, dopamine, and adrenaline are all released when you exercise, reducing anxiety and making you feel relaxed. These released brain chemicals are also capable of making you happy, confident, and relaxed, which is good for your health overall.
- Good health isn’t expensive
Good health isn’t expensive; it is cost-effective. You can invest as much as you can spare for your workout routine and healthy nutrition, but it isn’t necessary. You can spend as less also. You don’t need to register at a gym or buy special and expensive food products. All you have to do is pick a workout routine, dedicate yourself to it, and also eat unprocessed, healthy balanced meals to keep you healthy and fit. After all, a run in the park every morning is free.
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