So what is a healthy diet and what is the right sort of exercise.

Modern Diets

One of the biggest issues with regards to the modern diet is excessive consumption of carbohydrates namely sugars, soft drinks, bread, pasta, potatoes and rice and this leads to carbohydrate intolerance. When your body takes in excess carbohydrate it naturally produces excess insulin, which then converts carbohydrates and stores it in and on the body in the form of fat.

Another factor in the modern diet is aversion to fat. This has come from decades of bad advice, which has encouraged low fat eating. Good FATS are absolutely ESSENTIAL for good health and we need to have them plentiful in our diets.

So in very simple terms most of us need to start eating more good fats and less carbohydrates and processed foods.

Exercise

Now we come to exercise the first thing we need to understand is that there is a difference between being fit and being healthy. Many athletes I see in clinic are continually striving to increase their fitness but often at the expense of their overall health.  This is often the situation that people find themselves in when they sign up to a gym for a new fitness regime only to hurt themselves and give up, all because they are doing the wrong sort of exercise at the wrong time.

Secondly we need to understand how our bodies produce energy. The 2 systems are, the aerobic system, which is responsible for endurance and long-term effort and the anaerobic system, which is responsible for sprinting or short burst of power. 

What differs in these 2 systems is the aerobic systems ability to burn fat to produce energy. If the aerobic system is not working well you will not be able to burn fat and you will store this fat on your hips, thighs but also around your organs and maybe even in your blood vessels. Not only will your store this excess fat you will also have to rely on the anerobic system to give you energy. The anerobic system cannot burn fat and relies on glucose a form of sugar to produce energy.

So for good health (fitness) what we actually need is our aerobic system to be working extremely well. The good news is that this is pretty easy to do. All you need is somewhere to walk. About 40 minutes plus, 6 days a week will give most people a good level of aerobic fitness without injury. And if you are starting out on a new fitness regime it is imperative that you build your aerobic fitness before you do any other sort of physical exercise.

Whilst this may sound too simple for many athletes an application of the knowledge about aerobic function can give them a training program that will stop them from getting injured and can ultimately improve their performance without negatively impacting on their health.

Diet & Exercise link

Diet and exercise are closely linked we consume food in order to give us the ability to function (exercise) and with the body The 2 different ways of producing energy anaerobic the one which relies on using glucose as fuel and aerobic which uses fat will only work well if the you are eating the correct balance of food in your diet.

So for most people changing from a diet with a large amount of carbohydrates and low amount of fat to the exact opposite a higher fat / lower processed carb diet will be very helpful and  building a level of base fitness before starting harder exercise  is also essential to guard against injury and to build resiliency.