Sustainability is a buzzword commonly associated with fuels and energy. Getting the human body into shape and keeping it that way is also a matter of sustainability, fuels and energy. Diet, exercise and activity choice are all about how to fuel the body, how to use its energy and how sustainable habits in relation to these can create long-term balance.
Many of us have started a grandiose health kick involving extreme diet changes and workout tortures with the ultimate goal having some kind of Olympian-supermodel body. Maybe we got a little way toward this goal or even almost achieved it, only to find the effort to keep up the regime exhausting or boring, before slipping back into old habits and, eventually, the same shape we started in. Had realistic, gradual changes been made that introduced healthy newhabits into our lifestyle, we may have found a more satisfactory and lasting result.
There are of course times when extremes, though undesirable, are a necessary choice. Special events like holidays or weddings, preparing for sporting events and so on can find us with little time to achieve big changes. Constantly choosing seesawing energy habits can have bad long-term effects though.
The use of diet to change body composition, shape and performance involves altering types and amounts of nutrients. There’s an endless range of diets available – some are fads, some are realistic. Yo-yo dieting, or weight cycling, is an example of excessive diet restriction that is unsustainable and upsets metabolic balance. With such deprivation in nutrition, the dieter may see loss of muscle and fat during the initial weight loss. After completing the diet, the body’s famine response may lead to return gains of fat and alter the body’s fat-to-muscle ratio.
Literally, the person is fatter than before. This famine response, or starvation mode, is the body’s defense against the starvation it is experiencing. Through changes to thyroid function and fat-directing enzymes, it becomes ultra efficient at making the most of energy it does get, mainly by protecting fat stores and using muscle tissue as fuel. With less muscle, the metabolism drops, the body needs less energy to tick over, weight loss slows down and the body stores up those layers of fat when the deprivation ceases.
A history of loss and gain is associated with greater amounts of fat stored abdominally (the dreaded paunch), which if you’re not worried about looks, is connected with heart disease and diabetes later in life. Yo-yo dieting has a definite effect on food preferences, usually increasing cravings for fatty foods. And finally, people who repeatedly lose and gain weight have been shown to have a weakened immune system.
Other quick-fix fad diets such as Atkins have been shown to achieve results but are very difficult to maintain and have been linked to health problems. In short, don’t diet – develop an eating plan that includes all the food groups and essential nutrients in the right amounts. That’s sustainable.
In terms of exercise and burning energy, many factors assist in finding activities that won’t lead to seesawing energy habits. Current health, experience with your chosen activity and training in general, time away from exercise and the actual goal all need to be addressed. External factors such as cost and time also require thought.
The workout market is littered with classes and products offering express results. These fast foods of fitness fill a gap, but usually don’t foster sustainability. Military style run-till-you-heave boot camps and boxing groups are not good choices for most people as they can lead to injury, drop-out and seesawing weight and fitness levels. Health practitioners have reported a surge in injuries caused by these classes, from stress fractures to spine damage. Unfortunately, certain weight-loss television shows still glorify this outdated pain-for-gain approach, in part for dramatic effect and quick results.
I suggest matching quality with quantity when choosing exercise. Definitely ‘just do it’, but also take time to research what’s best for you. Look for options offering qualified instruction, skill progression for motivation and exertion levels that match your needs and abilities – not your fantasies.
Ups and downs in health and fitness can have negative psychological effects, such as lower self-esteem, depression and feelings of failure. It’s important to ask yourself whether you will still be doing this in one year. Sustainable ways to fuel and move the body can ensure nutrition and exercise plans that leave you feeling balanced and fit harmoniously into your lifestyle.
