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Whitekirk Leisure Club Health and Fitness Advice


Eat For Good Health

Diet is one of the fascinating areas of health and fitness, when it is mentioned most people think of weight loss. However diet is vital if you are trying to lose weight, gain weight or perform to the highest level- for each of these it is vital to have a balanced diet.

For example calories might be the buzz word when it comes to losing weight, however it is important to make sure your diet is balanced and contains all the nutrients you need for good health. You can still lose weight by eating nothing but chocolate, crisps and biscuits providing you stick to your calorie quota. But you’ll never find a nutrition expert recommending this.

An unbalanced diet is likely to lack in essential nutrients in the long term leading to nutritional deficiencies. Secondly, filing up on foods high in fat, salt or sugar can lead to different health problems. Also when losing weight, it is almost impossible to keep to your calorie allowance if you’re only eating high-calorie foods.

Filling up on low calorie foods, means you’ll be able to eat more with the result that you’re not constantly feeling unsatisfied. For example six chocolates contain around 300 calories, a lot of fat and sugar, few nutrients and can be eaten in just 6 mouthfuls! For 300 calories you could have grilled skinless chicken breast, a large salad with fat-free dressing, slice wholemeal bread with low fat spread and a satsuma. That’s a lot more food and it will take you a lot more time to eat!

A healthy diet is a diet for life not just for a week or 2. It is of little use if you can make healthy changes for only short periods of time and become bored with them. Controlling diet is not about a fixed regime. The aim is to give you the understanding to take full control yourself. It is not always easy to make changes , but once you have made them, sticking to them is easier than you might think.