It’s common to hear that exercise is “good for you,” but why is it good?
Our nutritional needs change with who we are and what we do. For college-aged students, healthcare providers encourage physical activity (PA) to reduce risks for conditions like depression and type two diabetes.
Regardless of your energy expenditures — walking, running, weightlifting or existing — it’s vital to understand your body’s needs and how to support yourself. Even if you’re uninterested in flexing muscles, flexing your nutrition knowledge is a practice for exponential gains.
How Exercise Intensity Shapes Your Energy Needs
Whether resting or running, you’re always using energy. At rest, your cells need energy (calories) to function. Muscle and fat cells, as well as neurons, require a basal amount of energy.
Endurance athletes like marathoners can burn 2000-3000 kcal per day over their basal metabolism due to training intensity (kcal are colloquially calories). In general, energy needs increase with exercise intensity and length. Instead of your GPA, calculate your estimated energy requirement and consume adequate calories. A 15-minute walk through campus requires less energy than a panicked 15-minute dash, but both are equally deserving of adequate energy.
There are recommended levels of PA based on intensity and duration: in order to get the health benefits of PA, we should strive to be “active” or “very active.” Active adults spend ≥60 minutes/day engaging in moderate exercise or <60 minutes/day for more intense exercise. Very active adults engage in intense exercise for ≥1.25 hours. If your heart rate increases and you can still have a conversation, you are doing moderate exercise, and if it’s hard to have a conversation, you’re likely doing intense exercise. Depending on intensity, exercises raise your heart rate 50-85 percent above rest (100-170 bpm).
Exercise helps our muscles help us: whether you’re trying to strengthen your heart or gluteal region, it’s important to reduce natural muscle loss that occurs with age. Healthy habits around exercise may start with small changes, but they have profound health impacts.
Who you are on the inside matters too: body composition and individual factors determine energy needs. A higher weight means higher energy needs: consider muscle’s energy needs and you’ll understand the meaning of inflation. Guidelines are helpful, but energy needs should be determined on an individual basis.
Challenges: Healthy & Unhealthy Weight Changes
Changing body weight composition influences activity performance. Daily activities rely on different muscle-to-fat ratios, commonly understood as different weights. Weight represents your entire mass and it’s important to understand what components of your body are changing.
Weight management should never come at the cost of one’s health or safety. Healthy weight loss increases activity (worth 200-500 kcal per day), minimizes behaviors that increase weight (e.g. consumption of ultra-processed foods like energy drinks) and occurs at about 0.5-2 pounds per week. Restrictive diets affect performance and long-term health, so understand what is being lost and how to maintain enough energy to function well.
In sports like wrestling and boxing, athletes are more likely to participate in unhealthy weight loss practices to compete in lower weight classes. Emphasis on weight loss can lead to dangerous practices like severe energy intake restriction, dehydrating or harmful caloric purging via vomiting, diuretics and laxatives. Side effects of weight control behaviors put an athlete’s overall health at risk and include disordered eating, mental health disorders, playing while injured or ultimately leaving a sport.
For female athletes specifically, low energy intake combined with exercise can lead to the female athlete triad. Low energy availability, menstrual irregularities and hormonal imbalances (resulting in weakened bone) are side effects of this condition.
For female and male athletes, Relative Energy Deficiency in Sports is an increasingly common term to reference impaired metabolism, immunity and overall health.
Like healthy weight loss, healthy weight gain should also happen gradually. Slowly increasing portion sizes and integrating more nutritious snacks from each food group can help increase calorie intake by about 300-1000 kcal per day (check out MyPlate). With these practices, steady weight gain of about 0.5-1 pounds per week is possible.
There’s no value in risking your health for severe weight changes. Prioritize your body’s energy and nutrient needs throughout healthy weight management practices, while balancing energy intake, nutrient needs, rest and PA. Listen to your body!
Physical and mental health are also part of nutrition. Using professional services (e.g. 5C Nutrition Services) can help you find balance with food, exercise and mental health.
Like your course schedule, your nutritional needs require balance. The body’s main energy source is carbohydrates (45-60 percent), but calories should also come from fat (20-35 percent) and protein (10-35 percent) sources (listed ranges include recommendations for athletes).
Most food sources contain all macronutrients, but some sources like nutrient-dense foods (e.g. whole grains, fruits and vegetables) provide energy and stabilize blood sugars because they have a mix of nutrients like fiber (a type of carb).
Long-lasting energy and muscle maintenance relies on sources of healthy fats like avocados, nuts and plant oils. Unfortunately for your taste buds (but fortunately for your heart), this means limiting consumption of saturated and trans fats since they raise blood cholesterol levels and increase heart disease risk. Similarly, muscle recovery and stable blood sugar rely on sources of protein like legumes, lean meats, fish and eggs. Foods like well-seasoned tacos with a balance of all nutrient classes are best!
Micronutrients and antioxidants are equally important, so make sure to eat food high in B vitamins, iron, vitamins D, E and C, calcium, potassium, beta-carotene and selenium since they help with key body functions such as energy metabolism and bone and immune health. Don’t just fill your plate — fill it with essential vitamins, minerals and antioxidants!
Always remember, balance is key! Whether you’re maintaining or changing weight, listen to your body and be conscious of what you put into it. Your PA and nutritional practices directly affect your overall function.
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