How Should I eat for Exercise while Losing Weight?
Written by Jordyn King BS, MS Nutrition Science
When you're working out, you want to make the best out of it right? What if I told you this goes the same with nutrition and what you eat. You want to make the best out of everything. Nutrition is very important associated with exercise. We need to know what to eat and how to provide the right amount of energy to get you through the day to determine our weight gain or weight loss goals. However, with exercise and nutrition recommendations, they are both individualized. An active lifestyle and exercise routine, along with eating well, is the best way to stay within your weight goals and keep you healthy. This all depends on all the individuals themselves, what they are doing for exercise and what their overall goals of energy needs are(Ex.Increasing muscle or losing fat). Our team, The Millennial Nutritionist wants to address to you that we can help you with both achieve your nutrition and exercise habits in a healthy way without going overboard!
How does nutrition affect performance?
Getting enough protein and nutrients in your day, needs to provide enough energy to meet the demands of training, exercise and even performance. Good nutrition can affect performance. Well planned out nutritious high protein meals can help you achieve muscle growth and repair. Nutrition can help with performance. The more muscle, the more power which means you can burn more calories, which also means you're working towards your calorie deficit goals. Joining The Millennial Nutritionist gets you the proper calorie deficit goals you need to lose the weight you want.
Can eating right make your workouts better?
Consuming a good nutritious meal before and after your workouts can help you achieve energy needs during performance time. Consuming carbohydrate foods before a workout can also make you perform faster and high protein foods can help increase muscle mass. We can take athletes for example? Athletes use a wide range of techniques to increase performance. They dedicate their time for the right performance trainings and they fuel their bodies the right way. They eat the right amount of protein and carbs to get them through their performance with proper nutrition and energy needs. Carbohydrates are needed for energy. Carbohydrates are the nutrients most frequently used as an energy source (containing 4kcal per gram), as they are fast-acting and turn into energy as soon as they are ingested. Protein is needed for muscle and can repair muscle tissue overtime. Water and other fluids or electrolytes can also help you keep you hydrated and stay within normal temperature ranges.
If you are losing weight do you need to worry about nutrition and exercise?
Yes, When you're losing weight, you need to focus on nutrition and exercise together because the goal is to overall lose weight. Performance is important as well, but eating right is most important.
What is the calorie deficit?
We all know that calories are the units of energy you get from food and beverages and when you consume fewer calories than you burn you achieve what’s called a calorie deficit. Doing this pattern consistently for long periods of time results in weight loss. Eat something before to power you through your workouts. Add physical activity in your day and focus on your calorie deficit. Paying more attention to nutrition and eating healthy is essential. In some cases, individuals need to pay more attention to nutrition. You should have a healthy, less-restrictive eating option that doesn't feel like a diet and will keep you in your long term weight goals. You don’t always need to focus on exercising or improving your performance and muscle growth. Focusing on eating healthy while staying in moderate physical activity will help you get to the weight goals you want. The role of exercise for weight loss is for the calorie burning process for your calorie deficit, so performance in the exercise isn't as important.
How to fuel up when exercising and achieving best performances?
When burning calories and exercising, there are a number of factors to focus on when it comes to the amount of energy, physical fitness and the type of exercise. Remember, the key to losing weight isn't all about working out and physical activity, it's about your lifestyle eating habits. Providing or adding in simple carbs before workouts will provide you with your energy needs during your workouts. Providing insufficient energy needs will leave you tired and irritable throughout your workouts. Keep in mind, choose to eat before your workouts if you're going for the early morning workouts,(it will be worth it!). The key is to choose foods with high protein and healthy carbohydrate content to provide enough energy for you to get through your workouts without feeling faint or tired, just satisfied. But remember, don't eat too much (For example, a simple 15g-30g protein bar or shake with a 20-30g carbohydrate snack is great). Even then a carbohydrate rich snack is recommended to replete your hour long workouts too.
So how should I eat if I'm trying to lose weight and exercise?
The high protein and high carbohydrate foods you can choose to consume before, during or after your workouts are:
Orange slices
Peanut butter crackers
A banana
Beef Jerky
1/2 Chicken breast w/ sweet potatoes
A high protein bar or shake (15g-30g)
Trail mix with dried fruit and chocolate
Turkey roll ups
Greek Yogurt w/ Almonds or Granola
Apple w/ Peanut Butter
In Conclusion…
Remember, nutrition should be personalized for everyone since everyone has different weight goals and achievements. Whether you have a food intolerance, acute or chronic illness or have a specific specialized diet, we can help. We, The Millenial Nutritionist team are dietetic professionals trained and certified to help individuals lose weight long term in a healthy moderate way. The Millennial Nutritionist team will help change your life in a positive way and choose the foods you want and need to get you to your calorie deficit, which we provide for you. We help you achieve your goals and get you where you want to be, long term!
To start your sustainable weight loss journey today, check out our calorie-tracking tutorial below. The first step of weight loss is being aware of how you eat and our calorie-tracking method can get you there!