So you go to the gym seven days a week and yet you have trouble maintaining your desired weight. What am I doing wrong you ask. Sounds familiar?
I personally know several people who are currently in this predicament but let me put in my disclaimer, however, these people are not under my supervision.
Some folks work out for hours which cause the body to release free radicals. This can lead to damaging of cells which, in turn, can lead to a build up of inflammation in the body. Based on a lot of research I have done it is almost impossible to lose any weight when a body has excess inflammation. Finding your balance is crucial and what I mean by this is simply understanding your intake of nutrition versus your exercise routine. Ask yourself if you are feeding your body with the right amount of “good” foods that would equate the type of workout that you are currently engaged in.
As you move away from these long arduous workout routines, it would be advisable to use your time planning and preparing your meals and snacks at home instead of buying all those processed offerings available out there.
Now you might ask why this is important right, well here is why. You might spend hours in the gym trying to burn off the “junk” you ate whether consciously or unconsciously because you left the preparation of what you consumed in the hands of others thereby leaving you ignorant of the true nutritional content or lack thereof of your food intake.
Now it would probably make a whole lot more sense for you to control your desired weight via ensuring healthy eating by preparing your own meals.
Too many people seem to spend more time in the gym than they do in their own kitchens and, in my humble opinion, this is a colossal error. Good sound nutrition which includes proper supplements trumps exercise all day long.
Let’s be real, almost everyone is actually undernourished. Now this may sound almost insane right? Well it is actually true because hardly anyone takes all the essential minerals, vitamins, amino acids and fatty acids our bodies need (there are about 90 of them by the way) to function at the optimal God given capabilities, yet for some reason we are of the belief that our bodies can live up to the expectations and demands we put them through day after day. It is actually pure madness.
You can be working out, torching calories, left, right and centre but if you continue to consume excessive fried foods and processed carbohydrates, your ability to access and burn stored body fats would be seriously compromised.
Therefore if you are of the view that you can consume “junk” that causes inflammation in the body thinking that you can just burn it all off at the gym, you would have to rethink that position because it just won’t work. I cannot impress upon you enough just how important your diet is when it comes to health and weight loss. So pay attention to this even more than your gym frequency.
Please note that all exercise can cause an inflammatory response and slow down your metabolism if done in excess which means little or no weight loss. It would be more practical for you to work out harder or more intense (not longer), not more frequently, get adequate rest to facilitate harder workouts albeit shorter ones. This is conducive to your metabolism and can inhibit the production of inflammation.
Stay alert and keep reading the Health Plus Magazine in the T&T Guardian for more health information.