Nutrition versus Fitness.

Does diet really affect your fitness goals? Next question, can diet alone help you reach your fitness goals?

The answers are Yes and No. Yes diet and nutrition do affect your fitness goals. Your food intake pretty much determines your physique. you’ve probably already heard the saying “you are what you eat”. For instance, a bad diet, or one that is loaded with Bad carbs, saturated fats (a type of fat containing a high proportion of fatty acid molecules without double bonds, considered to be less healthy in the diet than unsaturated fat) and empty calorie foods usually results in mass fat storage becoming visibly present on one’s body. Foods like burgers and fries, pizza and donuts, do not quite satiate your body’s caloric demands, which makes you consume more (quantity wise). Usually with fast foods It’s a battle of quantity over quality.

The second answer is No. Diet alone may not necessarily help you achieve your fitness goals, however this is subjective as fitness goals do vary. For example I knew a young man once, who’s fitness goal was putting on weight, any kind of weight. He did all he could do to gain weight, (mostly the wrong things). His diet consisted of fast food and basically anything he could find to eat. His mistake was not having done enough research to know what he had to be consuming and what benefit or impact the food had to his body. Mind you he did not engage in any exercise nor any workout. The result? He only became “skinny fat”.

Skinny fat is a term popularly known in the fitness industry as a point when your general appearance is skinny but you have fat deposits in common areas such as around the belly area, thighs and at times on the arms.

So not only is it important to have the right diet and workout combination, but it is also important to practice consistency. Fitness or weight-loss do not always really come easy but both aspects require time and effort and usually a lot of time. However it is important not to confuse results and the actual goal. Most people start noticing results and decide to ease off the programme and decide to go slow, only to get frustrated later on when the goal starts to seem too far to reach than they had initially anticipated. Then there’s the other group of people that decide to quit prematurely merely because they have not seen the “results” they perceived they’d have had after a certain period of time. What happens in most cases is, they would have made actual progress in some aspects that may not necessarily be visible to the naked eye such as strength, endurance and even an improved metabolism.

But why do all that, what’s the goal?

More times than not most people (the ones i have come across) in one way or another will tell you their goal is to look good, some even went on as far as to say they want to look good naked…(Don’t ask me why or who).But the real take away from any fitness journey is the overall health boost you get holistically. Your health and wellbeing matter more than you could ever imagine.

However, it is important to note that not everyone has the same fitness or diet goals. Whatever your fitness or diet goal is, the key part is to embrace it as your own and keep on chasing it until you achieve it. Enjoy the process!

My Take?

Embrace both approaches, and value each as an important tool to aid your fitness goals. Have a balanced diet as often as you can, structured to get you to the optimum caloric intake for your goals and also have a good workout routine/regime that compliments your diet.

Your weight-loss or fitness journey has to be one that you enjoy, after all it is you tending to your own personal wellbeing.

The Take away:

Take your fitness journey like sculpture, and your are sculpting the greatest piece of art. The food you consume is the mortar or clay and your workouts are the hammer & chisel. Sculpt your greatest masterpiece ever, you owe it to yourself.

‘The clock is ticking. Are you becoming the person you want to be?’

— Greg Plitt, fitness model

I would love to hear what your own personal views are relating to fitness goals and the dieting side too.

Comment below to share your views and comments.