Food and fitness—It’s difficult to get results with one or the other. When it comes to exercise, you can try to exercise while you eat whatever you want, or you can try eating nutritiously without exercise, but you likely won’t be getting much healthier and you won’t get the results you are seeking. Establish good habits for both food and fitness and you will be on your way to a much healthier and energetic you.
Realize exercise and your diet are inextricably linked. You can’t lose weight consistently with one and not the other—period. Working out intensely doesn’t mean you can eat whatever you want. Too often people overestimate calories burned and underestimate calories consumed. The powerful combination of eating nutritiously and exercising is the formula that leads to results. It takes a deficit of 3,500 calories to lose one pound. Regularly burn more than you consume and you will be on your way to weight loss.
Choose your food wisely. What you eat affects how your body moves. Fuel your workouts with healthy carbohydrates and choose quality lean protein post workout. On a daily basis, choose whole grains that are minimally processed, protein-rich foods like fish, chicken, nuts, beans and low-fat dairy and load-up on fruits and veggies. Remember that healthy eating and consuming whole, unprocessed foods is not something you do for a limited time; it’s a lifestyle.
Make your fitness count. Do a combination of cardio and strength training. While cardio is essential to increase your heart rate up and burn calories, you also need to build and maintain your muscles, especially when muscle mass diminishes with each decade of life. Muscles are very efficient at burning calories and can reduce your body fat. More muscle also boosts your metabolism so you burn more calories throughout the day and while at rest. There are multiple ways to build your muscles, so find one you like: free weights, strength machines, resistance tools and exercises, or use the weight of your own body—squats, lunges, push-ups, planks and pull-ups.
Your success will depend on the choices you make each day on the two Fs—food and fitness. Make sure you choose both!
Fit Tips are provided by Life Fitness, the leader in designing and manufacturing high-quality exercise equipment for fitness facilities and homes worldwide. For more information on Fit Tips and other fitness advice and expertise visit www.lifefitness.com or follow us on Twitter at www.twitter.com/lifefitness or join our Facebook fan page at www.facebook.com/lifefitness.
Lifescape Attachable TV 
Treadmills 
Lifecycle Exercise Bikes 
Elliptical Cross-Trainers 
Summit Trainers 
Stairclimbers 
