Why You Must "Eat Right"
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Whenever you are to embark on a weight loss or muscle building program, you always see that part of the requirements is that you must "eat right".
For example, many people just think that to build muscles, all you need to do is just work out at the gym and the muscles will grow.
The truth is, "working out at the gym" is only half the equation. What happens at the gym is that you are stressing your muscles to tell them "Look, I have to lift this amount of weight, and I need to be able to do it with less effort". So you trigger the muscles to adapt and hence, to grow.
However, to grow, the body needs nutrients. How do us humans get nutrients? From eating food. In the muscle building example, you need to eat the foods that will promote muscle growth, that means protein-rich foods like meat and dairy products.
If your goal is weight-loss, chances are you have been eating too much "junk food", which have all collected as "fats", and hence you're overweight. "Eating right" in this case means to eat proper food, like meat, vegetables and fruits - not potato chips and ice cream.
For weight loss, there isn't really any short-cuts you can take. You need to eat right, and workout to burn off the excess fats. If you continue to eat junk food, working out alone will probably not achieve any significant weight loss, if any.
As an aside - for my own "weight loss effort", I didn't even go on any "detoxification" process. All I did was to change my diet, and started working out. The pounds just shed by themselves. Granted, the speed of the pounds shedding may not be fantastic, but they still do come off.
Similarly, if your goal is to build muscles and you do not "eat right", then your muscles are deprived of the right nutrients to grow, and hence they won't grow. Your workouts in the gym are thus, wasted hours.
Remember my mantra here on this blog - "Don't go on a diet. Change your diet completely!"
For example, many people just think that to build muscles, all you need to do is just work out at the gym and the muscles will grow.
The truth is, "working out at the gym" is only half the equation. What happens at the gym is that you are stressing your muscles to tell them "Look, I have to lift this amount of weight, and I need to be able to do it with less effort". So you trigger the muscles to adapt and hence, to grow.
However, to grow, the body needs nutrients. How do us humans get nutrients? From eating food. In the muscle building example, you need to eat the foods that will promote muscle growth, that means protein-rich foods like meat and dairy products.
If your goal is weight-loss, chances are you have been eating too much "junk food", which have all collected as "fats", and hence you're overweight. "Eating right" in this case means to eat proper food, like meat, vegetables and fruits - not potato chips and ice cream.
For weight loss, there isn't really any short-cuts you can take. You need to eat right, and workout to burn off the excess fats. If you continue to eat junk food, working out alone will probably not achieve any significant weight loss, if any.
As an aside - for my own "weight loss effort", I didn't even go on any "detoxification" process. All I did was to change my diet, and started working out. The pounds just shed by themselves. Granted, the speed of the pounds shedding may not be fantastic, but they still do come off.
Similarly, if your goal is to build muscles and you do not "eat right", then your muscles are deprived of the right nutrients to grow, and hence they won't grow. Your workouts in the gym are thus, wasted hours.
Remember my mantra here on this blog - "Don't go on a diet. Change your diet completely!"
Labels: diet
