Hello Fitnation, I
hope everyone is doing great? It’s been a while I posted on this blog due to
the high volume of commitments I had within the past few weeks.
In this post, I will
like to discuss nutrition and how it affects weight loss.
Often times you hear people say that they are on a “slimming fast” in other words they are
starving themselves to lose weight.
People that indulge in such exercises are those who want to go from
being an ‘orobo’ to being ‘ lekpa’ over night.
They do not understand how the human body works and are just wasting
their time. I say this because the moment they start eating, their bodies add fat and they
become overweight again. Many people struggle with this circle and after a while
they give up trying altogether.
If you belong to this
group of people, I intend to change your mentality for good. Like I always say; "being fit is not a destination you arrive at, it is a lifestyle".
Here is a fact you must know about nutrition
and the human body; our bodies need calories (energy) to function; it is the
fuel of the human body and these calories are gotten from food items we consume
every day. Same way you refill your
vehicle tank is the same way you must add nutrients to your body everyday for
it to function properly. At the end of each day, your body stores up the unused
nutrients in order to use them up later. Every time you use up more calories
than you consumed and your body is in need of more calories, your body gets the
deficit calories from the ones stored up. The problem is most times we consume more food
than our body requires, and so our body just keeps storing these excess
nutrients away as fat and sugar.
Anyone trying to lose
weight must be mindful of what they put into their mouth, because everything
you chew contains nutrients of some sort that either helps or mars your weight
loss journey.
Let’s look at the
roles that different food nutrients play in our body:
Fat is important
to the body because more than half of the energy needed is gotten from fat and the
body loves to store fat because it easily releases needed energy fast. If there is a deficit of fat the body has to
dissolve and use up the fat cells (where excess fats are stored) to produce
energy. However excess fat causes one to be overweight.
Carbohydrate also
provides calories for the body to work with, it is the first nutrient to be
digested by the body and the body stores away excess carbohydrate as sugar or glucose;
however the body cannot store sugar or glucose for more than 3 days, so it has
to convert excess carbohydrate to fats for long term use.
Protein is important
for tissue repairs; building muscles, enzymes and hormones. The body does not store excess protein, it
excretes unused protein. However if there is a deficit of carbohydrate or fat,
Protein can also be used by the body to produce energy.
Minerals are needed
for growth. These minerals are inorganic and not made up of living things. Our
body needs different amounts of various minerals. Minerals can be gotten from various sources and are mostly taken as food supplements.
Vitamins are needed by the body to stay
healthy. Each of them does a different job. For example the body needs Vitamin
C to fight off infections. A deficit in Vitamins can lead to ailments or
diseases. Vitamins are gotten from fruits and vegetables.
Water is the most important of all nutrients,
it does not add to the body calories or energy level but water has many
functions in our body. It helps break down food. It also cools the body down
when it becomes too hot and the body carries away waste products in a watery
solution. Our body needs about 2 –3 liters of water a day.
We get it not only from the
water and liquids we drink but also from fruits, vegetables and foods in liquid form.
Having discussed the
different nutrition classes available, in my next post we’ll talk about local
food items that are effective for weight loss and how a balanced meal plan for
weight loss should look like.
Cheers to the Fit
life.
