Nutrition for the Gym Goer

Many gym-goers purchase fitness memberships for the express purpose of losing weight. Most of us want to lose fat and literally get our body into beautiful shapes. And we also want to lose weight without losing our health. We know that exercise burn calories. The more calories we burn, the more fat we lose. This is, of course, correct, but there is a catch!

For example, can we burn calories and still not lose weight? This is quite possible! Imagine what would happen if you continue to take in more calories than you burn. You cannot lose weight under these circumstances.

Weight loss, therefore, becomes a matter of balancing how much you exercise and how much you eat. You must burn more calories than you consume. You may burn calories, but if you eat more, you have a problem. This brings us down to the question of what we should eat and how much we should eat. How much exercise? How much food? Fitness specialist Janaka Samarasinha addressed these issues at his presentation this Saturday.

In terms of how much you eat, a distinction was made between macronutrients and micronutrients. Macronutrients are essentially the masses of carbohydrates (rice), protein (fish) and fat you eat. The micronutrients are those vitamins and minerals you get from greens and vegetables. How much you eat, and the timing of mealtimes was a topic of discussion. Some people wanting to lose weight skip meals after exercise. This is not a good practice. Proper post-workout meals are an essential feature of working towards creating a calorific deficit in any weight loss program.

Janaka addressed nutritional strategies not only for everyday weight management. He also touched on nutritional strategies for athletes.

Of special interest to the audience was intermittent fasting. Ramazan comes to mind as an excellent intermittent fasting nutritional strategy for people wanting to lose weight.

We started our Ramazan Weight Monitoring Program this year. We intend to continue researching the question into the future. That is, do you lose or gain weight during Ramazan? There was a consensus that taking your last meal (haaru) around 2 am is the best way to fit Ramazan as an intermittent fasting weight loss program. The 8 hours we get to eat must then be used to fit our meals. Meals should be balanced and properly timed.  Such a diet program can make a difference. The right foods!

Watching what you eat while continuing to exercise during the evenings and night could help you lose weight during Ramazan. We take more sweets during Ramazan. This appears to be the nutritional side of the problem. A lot of people also take a break from the gym during Ramazan. Bad idea!

Janaka’s presentation attracted Club members, our Academy Alumni, and interested associates. We hope to welcome more fitness professionals inn our presentations in the future.

We scheduled this presentation to coincide with our new initiative to address the nutritional requirement of members. To this end, we have recently introduced the services of a medical professional. We now offer appropriate diet advice based on client requirements. Please call us for more information. Our Front Desk is staffed from 5.30 am till 10.00 pm daily except Fridays.  We will be happy to talk about nutrition and exercise as a healthy weight loss option.

Janaka will be giving another presentation about the FITT Principle this Saturday, 14th September at MFC.