Page 25 - FITNESS STYLE 1 IN MARCH 2024

DO YOU EAT A LOT
OR EAT A LITTLE?

If your sport or physical activity requires
you to gain weight (mostly based on
muscle size) you must eat more calories
than usual, doing so until you reach
the required level. If, on the other hand,
you need to lose weight, your calorie
consumption will be lower than your
usual amount until you reach the
desired figure, ensuring that what you
lose is fat, and that you maintain the
muscle. I remind you that the food
ingested must always be of quality,
and the distribution of the immediate
principles must always be in accordance
with your purposes: generally, more
carbohydrates on the way up, less on the
way down; protein, in any case, enough;
and fat, never excessively restricted, both
on the way up and down.

FOOD INTENDED FOR HEALTH

OR ACHIEVING MAXIMUM
PHYSICAL FITNESS?

The main objective of food is to promote
health, avoiding the appearance of diseases
and disabilities, as well as overweight (in
our case, more referring to the percentage
of body fat than to the figure provided by
the scale). But food also has a fundamental
function in terms of practicing sports and
general physical performance (movements
related to your jobs and activities: walking,
running, climbing stairs, carrying weights
in our hands or on our back, lifting
loads from the ground). They’re all basic
tasks for life and for the prolongation
of youth. Hence the difference in the
consumption of immediate principles:
carbohydrates: immediate energy; protein
can be deposited in the muscles to give
them shape and size, and also, through
gluconeogenesis, is transformed into
energy; fat: through ketosis becomes an
energy source.

FITNESS STYLE 23