Being healthy

How to be healthy!

Many people around the world want to be healthy but one mistake is that they either eat too healthy and don't consider about working out or it maybe the total opposite. You have to balance your calorie input with your calorie output. By this I mean that you should balance what you intake in your diet with the amount of exercise that you do. This will prevent you from loosing too much weight or putting too much weight on.

What nutrients should you intake?

There are 7 nutrients that you should consume to have a healthy lifestyle.

As you can see from the diagram above, these are 7 food groups. The 7 nutrients are:

• Carbohydrates
• Proteins
• Fats
• Fibre
• Water
• Minerals
• Vitamins

These nutrients come into 2 categories, these categories are macronutrients and micronutrients. Macronutrients are nutrients that we have to intake a large amount whereas micronutrient we must intake but we should consume a less amount of these.

Macronutrients

As I have stated earlier on in this post, macronutrients are the nutrients that we need to consume more of in your diet. By consuming these in your diet, this will allow you to have a balanced and healthy diet. The macronutrients are: carbohydrates, proteins and fats. The image below shows how much you of each macronutrient you should consume in your diet a day to have a balanced and healthy diet.

Referring to the pie chart above, you can see that carbohydrates is the largest percentage (55-65%) consumed in your diet daily. This is because carbohydrates is the first source of energy when you exercise. It is released before proteins and fats when you start exercising. Carbohydrates like pasta are filling therefore you don't need to have a large proportion on your plate unless you train in your sport (such as swimming) most for so many hours with breaks in between each training session that day. Many people like to carbo load. Carbo loading is when they consume carbohydrates in their diet like a week or 2 days before a big sporting event. This gives them energy every day to train preparing them for the upcoming event. By carbo loading 2 days before the event, it will allow them to store the energy in their body for the big day. You should at consume carbohydrates in your diet at least 24 hours before exercising for a long period of time.

 

You should also consume 25-30% of fats in your diet. This is because it is the second source of energy that is released during exercise and it keeps you going during the middle of your sport because it is like a fuel (providing you with energy until the middle of exercise). There are 2 types of fats which are saturated fats and unsaturated fats. Unsaturated fats are the good fats whereas saturated fats are the bad fats which increase your cholesterol levels in your blood. This can then lead to your veins and arteries. You should consume some fats in your diet to make it a balanced diet but you shouldn't consume too much saturated fats compared to unsaturated fats.

 

Lastly, you should intake 10-15% of proteins in your diet. The best time to eat proteins is after exercising and training. This is because they repair the muscle tears that are caused during exercise but also it allows the adaptations to occur. By this, I mean that it make your muscles become bigger and stronger during your rest period. You will see adaptations occurring after your rest days where you don't do any training. However, as proteins are the third source of energy, you should consume proteins before exercising for a long period of time. This is because they allow you keep going as it provides you with energy until the end of an event.

 

Fibre and water are also macronutrients but you don't need to intake as much of them as we do of carbohydrates, proteins and fats. Fibre prevents you from becoming constipated as it clears your bowel system. Water is needed in your diet to keep you hydrated and it replenishes the water that is lost through exercising by sweating. Your body consists of 70-75% of water.

 

 

Water also carries essential vitamins and minerals around the body. It also helps to reduce the amount of waste products such as lactic acid that is being produced during exercise.

 

Micronutrients

Micronutrients are the nutrients that we need consume less of in your diet. It isn't essential to consume loads of these in your diet every day.

The micronutrients are: vitamins and minerals.

 

 

You need to consume vitamins in your diet to have a healthy diet. You need to intake vitamins in your diet because it helps organisms to do their job properly. There are 4 vitamins that are vital to have in your diet. These vitamins are: A, B, C and D. You need vitamin A for good vision because it makes our eyes healthy so that we have good eye sight so that you are able to see in light and dark. We need vitamin B for the production of energy and it also helps to reduce your stress levels. This allows you to produce energy easily so that you don't get tired out quickly during exercise. It will also help to reduce your stress levels so that your stress levels are average so they aren't too high or too low causing different symptoms from occurring to your body. You also need vitamin C in your diet because it helps you to have healthy skin. This helps with different problems such as spots and having dry and unmoisturised skin. The last vitamin you need in your diet is vitamin D. This is because it helps to keep your teeth and bones strong and healthy. Vitamin D reduces the risk of getting osteoporosis in the future because it absorbs calcium in your bones.

It is vital that you consume minerals in your diet because it helps with the delivery of oxygen to different parts of the body. This is because it helps with the formation of red blood cells so that they can take the oxygen around the body from your bloodstream. It is important that you consume some minerals in your diet so that you have a balanced and healthy diet. Iron and calcium are examples of minerals that are needed in your diet. Iron is responsible for haemoglobin as it helps to deliver oxygen from your lungs to other parts of the body. If you have too little haemoglobin in your body, it causes anaemia. This is because your body lacks in the amount of iron. Calcium is an essential mineral needed in your body. This is because it helps keeping teeth and bones strong and healthy. This also prevents you from getting osteoporosis in the future. You need to intake minerals to stop you from becoming fatigue during exercise and sport. By consuming calcium in your diet, it helps you to continue with exercise for a long period of time as the red blood cells are delivering the blood around the body to the different muscles. Minerals also help to keep the bones healthy during training and competition.

Vitamins are minerals are micronutrients because we need to have this nutrient in our diet but we don't need as much of them as we need of the macronutrients. 

I hope that you enjoyed reading this post, I will be making a series of posts on how to stay healthy. Stay tune for the next episode of being healthy. Please feel free to give me feedback on this post.

Natasha