Image courtesy of digitalart / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
As most of Studio2’s blog readers already know, exercise is a necessary component of a healthy lifestyle but it certainly isn’t the only one. What you eat can have as big of an impact on your body as your physical activity. In fact, not eating well can easily hamper your progress in the Pilates Studio, particularly when fat loss is one of your goals.
To illustrate the point, let’s do a quick comparison on the calories burned during a Pilates workout and the calories you might consume when eating less than optimal foods. Let me pause here to say that fat loss is not only about calories in and calories out. What foods those calories are in is just as important – a topic I’ll be writing a lot about in the coming weeks. Even so, this is still a useful illustration of the importance of thinking about your diet.
During an hour of Pilates, you will burn anywhere from 200 to 500 calories depending on your bodyweight and the intensity of training. Now compare that amount of calories to those in some well-loved junk foods:
- Big Mac Burger: ~500 calories
- Standard size pizza: ~500-1,000 calories (depending on toppings)
- Slice of chocolate cake: ~200-300 calories
Hopefully these examples illustrate the unfortunate reality that you can’t out-train a bad diet!
Because of the importance of diet on your physical health, Di has asked me to write a series of posts on nutrition for Studio2Pilates’ students and other readers. These posts are going to cover an array of different topics including:
- Eating for fat loss
- What foods are fattening and why
- What foods are actually healthy
- Reviews of some of the more popular diets out there already
- Recipes that you can try at home
Before my first post on any of these topics, I think it’s only fair to let Studio2’s readers know that I do not have a degree in nutrition or dietetics and the content of these posts is going to be a product of a lot of independent research, as well as a fair bit of personal experimentation. Basically, I’m going to do my best to summarise what has worked well for me and for other people out there, but I can’t claim to be a qualified nutrition expert.
While some nutritional recommendations are hard to argue with (don’t eat 5 chocolate bars a day, make sure you eat lots of vegetables etc.), others you may want to challenge and read more about on your own. You should also make changes to your diet gradually and make sure to consult a health professional before making any extreme changes – particularly if you have any conditions that may be affected by your diet.
Please look out for posts on the topics mentioned above on the Studio2Pilates blog and facebook page over the next few weeks. If there are any specific questions or topics that you would like covered, feel free to make suggestions on the facebook page or in the comments section of the blog.
S2FC
