Is your Diet Holding You Back?

You may have be getting to the gym 3-4x a week, have the best program ever, but may not be getting the results that you want. What’s holding you back? Chances are, it’s your diet. No matter how good your workouts are, you won’t get anywhere without the proper diet.  f you’re not losing bodyfat, you feel tired during your workouts, or can’t add muscle, there’s a significant chance the culprit could be a diet that’s not right for your goals.

Your “diet” isn’t just the calories you consume, it’s also making sure you have the proper ratios of fat, protein, and carbohydrates to meet your body’s needs. Everybody’s diet will be different depending on their body, workouts, and training goals. Let’s look at the different macronutrients to understand why each of them are important  

Everyone knows protein is crucial to building and maintaining muscle mass which is important no matter whether your goals are body composition or performance related.  If you don’t eat enough protein, your body will start breaking down your muscle for energy which will leave you feeling and looking awful.

Fats are crucial to everything your body does. Fats help support metabolism, keep you full, absorb nutrients, and keep your joints and brain healthy. All our cells contain a lot of fat. They play an important role in all your body’s processes and aren’t the source of what makes you “fat”. The best fats are those that come from whole, unprocessed foods such as nuts, seeds, meats, eggs and avocado as opposed to those from refined, processed foods.

Carbohydrates are what your body uses easily for energy.  Seeing as that is the case,  your carbohydrate intake should reflect the amount of energy you expend. For most people, it makes sense to take in more carbs on a day you’re working out or if you have a physically demanding job.

You can see that all of these are important to helping your body look and perform the way you want it to. None of these are the enemy- they’re all integral, in the correct ratios, to helping you reach your goals. You need to eat for your body and your goals.  With that in mind, don’t just jump on the hottest new  diet you see floating around the internet- it’s not a one size fits all solution. So if you’re training hard, don’t let what you do outside the gym hold you back from reaching your goals!

-Coach Lily