What diet do you have to follow when exercising? It is the 100 dollar question among athletes.
Exercise and nutrition are such popular topics that everyone believes to be an expert when providing advice. However, while some facts are correct, most do not work for everyone or do not work at all. For this reason, before following a diet or putting into practice any tips, it is recommended to advice with nutrition experts in order to avoid possible risks.
One of the biggest problems is not understanding how our body works and accepting anyone’s help. The key to maintaining a balanced diet when it comes to sports is to know the needs of your body. It important to know how food will affect your body before deciding what to consume before, during or after exercise.
Sara Lopez, a sport fan and marketing Manager in Trendhim – a Danish fashion company of men accessories such as: lapel pins or men leather bracelets – tells us five myths constantly repeated in sports.
1. Protein After Exercising
If we think about what to eat after a gym session the first thing that comes to our mind is a strong person drinking a protein shake.
This practice is not the one recommended, beyond the needs of each person.
It has been proven that taking a small amount of essential proteins before training, the body is able to raise the amino acid levels up to two hours after the exercise, so we should not obsess with taking them just after practice.
2. Drinking water with sugar reduces muscle pain
One of the most popular and widespread homemade remedies used to reduce muscle pain, is mixing water with sugar. The goal of this magical treatment is to break down the lactic acid crystals formed in our muscles.
However, despite the myths, muscle pain does not disappear with a magical homemade remedy. It has always been believed that the cause of muscle pain was the lactic acid produced by our muscles when exercising. And studies have shown that these crystals do not exist after training. Thus, this treatment is useless.
The way to get rid of muscle pain is not drinking water with sugar, but exercising more often.
3. Exercise increases the appetite
Rather the opposite. Doing sports increases our sensitivity to leptin, a hormone released by fat cells, which tells our body that it is time to stop eating. It not only increases our sensitivity to leptin but also the amount of amylin in our blood, which reduces appetite.
4. Any energy drink serves
When choosing an energy drink you have to take into account its characteristics, in order to determine if this will be more or less effective.
When choosing the perfect energy drink, we have to take into account the nutritional label. It allows us to identify what each drink contains. Some have more carbohydrates, others more proteins, others more vitamins or minerals.
5. I can eat everything
Sport does not allow to eat everything. If you practice sport, but do not maintain a balanced diet, you are wasting your time.
Generally one of the main needs when it comes to exercising, if you want to be effective, is to maintain a good diet.
If you take care of your diet you will contribute to the well-being of your organism, but if you eat like crazy, exercising will be useless.
