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Nutrients Trump Exercise
- Ninety-eight percent of Americans are not living a “Healthy Lifestyle.” Is there hope?
- Hand-to-mouth exercise is as important as pumping iron
- Exercise is only half of the weight loss equation
- Nutrient-rich foods are the No. 1 factor
Only 2.7% of all adults have four healthy lifestyle characteristics, says the Mayo Clinic: being sufficiently active, eating a healthy diet, being a nonsmoker, and having a healthy body fat percentage.
There’s an understandable first impulse when Americans want to make a healthy lifestyle change: Exercise like mad. But aren’t they forgetting something?
Proper nutrition is just as or more important to a healthy turnaround as physical activity. Nutrients not only fuel muscle movement and support every single cell in the human body, they also maximize the benefits of all that exertion.
Research has shown that despite all the good exercise does — from boosting cardiovascular health to improving mood — physical activity by itself is not a predictor of weight loss. Science has also demonstrated how muscle performance diminishes when the body has insufficient access to nutrients.
Clearly the two work together. But a problem often arises in which a shift toward healthy living comes with an abrupt move toward vigorous exercise and no accompanying change in dietary habits.
Exercise physiologist and dietitians agree the best approach is to focus on ensuring appropriate intake of nutrients first. This can lead a personal health transition in a way that won’t overwhelm the patient, and it’s easily preferable to a vigorous exercise regime that is unsupported by proper nutrition.
Get the Most out of Exercise
Leslie Bonci, sports dietitian for the Kansas City Chiefs football team, said muscles require fuel to perform optimally, and patients should watch what they eat and drink — plus when and in what quantities — to get the most out of exercise.
She emphasized, too, that muscle protein synthesis happens not just during resistance training, but with adequate macronutrients — protein, carbohydrates and fat-containing foods — and most important with the right intake of essential nutrients, which power all metabolic activity.
“The hand-to-mouth exercise is as important as pumping iron, running or shooting hoops,” said Bonci, a registered dietitian nutritionist.
Nutrition is also critical to losing weight — more so even than exercise.
An international study done by researchers at Loyola University Chicago tracked participants’ physical activity levels using waist-mounted accelerometers. They found exercise did not correlate to weight loss.
What’s more, weight gain was found to be greater among people who met guidelines for physical activity, leading researchers to suggest exercise may sometimes increase appetites and lower activity in other parts of the day.
The study’s lead author, Loyola assistant professor Lara Dugas, concluded people don’t pay enough attention to portion size — that the problem of weight gain is on the “intake side” of the equation.
It appears to be much more complex than just counting calories, however.
Muscle Function Depends on Nutrients
A seminal study published in 1986 by researchers at the University of Toronto’s department of medicine and Toronto General Hospital shed light on muscle function’s dependence on nutrients.
The team of researchers used precise jolts of electricity to stimulate human and rat muscle tissue at various frequencies, and measured for levels of sodium, potassium, calcium and other electrolytes essential in muscular contraction. . Participants were selected largely based on their varying degrees of nutrition.
The authors ultimately suggested lowering food intake — like during restrictive dieting — depresses muscle glycolytic enzyme activity, these means less glucose is available to the working muscle during contraction.. It turns out nutrition really does fuel the body.
Registered dietitian nutritionist Kelsea Cregut said poor nutrition and bad eating habits really do keep people from reaching their health goals. On the other hand, a proper diet can increase energy, aid weight loss and increase muscle synthesis, she said. Cregut advises combining a nutrient-rich diet with exercise.
“What should you be eating?” she asked rhetorically. “Focus on a variety of fruits, vegetables, proteins and whole grains.” All nutrient-rich foods are the No. 1 factor in weight control and achieving fitness goals.
