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I often encounter people
with poor eating habits, so I decided to devote an issue to just
that—nutrition. While it is obviously important to exercise
regularly, it is equally important to eat regularly. Contrary
to what most people think, you should eat four to six times a
day (including snacks), even if your goal is to lose weight. The
size of the meal will deviate according to the individual as well
as the goal. The meals should be spread out throughout the day,
with no more than four hours between any two. While I am not a
nutritionist or dietician, and so do not give nutrition plans
drawing from my own knowledge, I do give general guidelines for
my clients to follow, using common sense, simply because it is
difficult to make health and fitness gains without proper nutrition.
A lot of people are under
the impression that if they want to lose weight, they should stop
eating. Well, that mindset couldn’t be further from the truth.
While it is true that you need to burn off more calories than
you consume (causing a calorie deficit) in order to lose weight,
you should do this gradually, consuming well-balanced meals. Cutting
your dietary intake drastically can slow your metabolism to a
less-than-healthy point, actually causing your body to hold onto
fat, and worse yet, causing serious health problems.
I like to use the horse
and bear analogy with my clients. The bear, an animal with a high
percentage of fat, eats a very large meal at one sitting and then
is able to store his body fat to nourish him throughout his hibernation.
But the horse, a much leaner animal, grazes all day consuming
small portions, and so burns calories at a much greater rate than
the bear. So if you want to be like the horse, you need to eat
small, more frequent meals throughout the day in order to keep
your metabolism high.
While you should consume
foods low in saturated fat, I’ve noticed that many people
have a difficult time doing so. Not because the person doesn’t
know how to eat healthy, but because he/ she hasn’t planned
ahead and then gets caught unprepared, resulting in an unhealthy
choice due to hunger or a lack of time. I can’t say enough
just how important it is to plan ahead so that you don’t
catch yourself in this position. I, too, have been guilty of this.
So plan ahead so this doesn’t happen to you.
Having said that, hopefully
anyone out there who is thinking about “crash dieting”
will reconsider. If you suffer from a dietary disorder or are
in need of dietary assistance, please seek out a registered dietician
or nutritionist. For any athletes out there who needs to cut calories
due to competition within their given sport, please do so with
professional guidance. Hopefully this has shed a little light
on an often-misunderstood subject. To summarize:
_ Eat 4-6 small meals
per day
_ Space out your meals to keep your metabolism high
_ Be a horse, not a bear
_ Eat foods low in saturated fats
_ Plan your meals ahead of time
_ Eat well-balanced meals; no “crash dieting’
_ Seek professional help if you have dietary concerns
Have a great week and
I’ll talk to you all soon!
Melissa Allen is a certified
personal trainer, Blackbelt & fitness consultant, as well
as the owner of Optimum Condition— personal fitness training
and kickboxing instruction. She is a regular columnist with various
newspapers and welcomes input from her readers. Please contact
her with any questions or comments that you may have by calling
(619) 252-4993, email her at Opticondit@aol.com, or visit her
website at www.optimumcondition.com. |
