More on Nutrition

One question that seems to get asked a lot when people start a fitness program like P90X is do I have to follow the nutrition plan? I think it is more important to follow A plan, whatever plan it is, that gives you a balance of protein, carbohydrates and healthy fat, than it is to follow any one specific plan. Beachbody puts together nutrition plans based on sound scientific principles, but they keep most of the science behind the scenes. All you have to do is a few simple calculations that they walk you through to figure out how much you should be eating, then you just eat the right portions. The one beef I have with the P90x plan is that the first phase has you eating a lot of protein. If you google how much protein should I eat you will find a lot of articles out there, may of which conflict with each other, on how much you should consume. One thing I learned from the nutrition class I took last semester is that if you eat too much protein your body cannot use it and you essentially just pee it out. While people who are working out need more protein than a sedentary person, it is possible to overdo it. I do however love the second and third phases of the P90x food plan. I am most likely going to cycle those phases the rest of the way out. Personally I believe it is important to keep track of what you are eating. How detailed you get with it is up to you. It can be anything from just keeping a food journal to actually logging your meals into a program that tells you how much you ate and will actually give you a numerical breakdown each day. Personally I like the Diet Power software program. I have a link to it over on the left side. It is not the only one out there, but I find it the easiest to use. If you keep track of what you eat, you keep yourself accountable. You can see if you are really eating what you should be, of if you have cheated too much. You can also see how your body is responding to the food you eat. If you use one of the logging programs or internet sites you can also see if you are eating too much of hidden things like sodium which we get way too much of in our food that can derail your progress. Ultimately the more you know about how your body reacts to the foods you are putting into it, the better results you are going to get. So, do you need to follow the plan you will get with any workout program. No. Our bodies are all different and they way mine reacts to food is going to be different than how yours does, or how another person's does. You do however have to follow whatever plan works the best for you. Sometimes that requires eating less "starchy" carbs like bread and pasta, some can handle eating more of those kinds of foods. The key is to keep it balanced, with protein, carbohydrates, vegetables and healthy fat. No amount of exercise can make up for eating too much junk. If you want to get the ripped abs and look like the people in the infomercials you need to eat well. You will always see in the small print that the people followed a nutrition plan to get the results that they did. If you have any questions you can click the link for my Beachbody page and send me an e-mail, or post a comment on this page. I do moderate the comments to keep the spam out, so it may be a while before I see it. Stay fit everyone!