Karen’s Free Health and Fitness Tips

One thing I do not see here is the importance of water after and during the workout.
it is probably the most important thing given the posibility of dehydration that comes with exercise. However I have seen in an article that there is also a danger of drinking too much water.

These are some great tips to stay active and healthy. I try to exercise at least three times a week. I’ll try and incorporate some of the foods you suggested into my daily diet too.

eating right foods before exercise and tips when to eat before exercise. wow great tips. It’s good to know people like you sharing healthy tips.

This health tip is relevant much more so in sports. Good overall article.

“The ideal time for you to eat your pre workout meal is an hour before you start.”
I’d say shoot for 20-30 minutes. Most people take amino acid rich pre workout meals which would be more beneficial closer to the workout.

I found that if I eat 5 or 6 small low cal meals I function better throughout the day. I didn’t know though that I was suppose to eat after workout too. thanks

Everybody can follow this tips. Because the Exercise and eating habits are relevant of regular habits. I will try and to keep the tips. thanks.

Thanks for the great tips - its so important to strike a good balance between exercise and a healthy diet.

Good one, I think you should write a post on how to mentally prepare for the exercise every time, the challenge I face is laziness to actually do the exercise and stick to a regime. Especially on a working day, All I work out is in the weekends.

Hmm, ok I agree with everything but i think you made a bug with calorie data near beginining. I think it cant be a single meal of 4000-5000 calories, maybe that ment to be 400-500?

Except for that, a really useful post.

And i think best combination for a post-workout meal is FAST carbohydrates, like dextrose in powder with WHEY protein. This will take care of micro tears fast and allow muscles to start growing faster.

I always found that paying attention to how I feel after I eat is the biggest inspiration for me.

For example, when I eat pizza or burgers and fries I feel tired, bloated and depressed. If I eat grilled marinated chicken and fruit salad I feel energetic and full of energy.

Once I started paying attention to how I felt, I realized that I don’t want to feel tired all the time and used that as motivation to start eating better. It doesn’t always work because bad food tastes good, but if I can stop myself from eating bad just a few times it’s worth it!

I enjoy the blog, keep up the good work!

Thanks for the great tips for staying active and healthy.Good article!

In my experience resistance training is far better than cardio for weight loss. I always get disappointed when I look at my heart rate monitor and see that I’ve only burned the equivalent of a McDonalds cheeseburger after a half hour on the elliptical machine. With weights you can feel your body burning calories for hours afterward trying to repair the muscles and all that.

Thanks for the great post.

-James

I’m really glad to see cardio mentioned repeatedly in this article. Such an underrated factor of staying fit. Great piece, thanks!

Very good article. I bought a step counter a few weeks ago. I highly reccomend one. They make me want to keep beating my weekly record.

Eating and exercise go hand in hand. If you think that you can lose weight with only doing dieting/exercises then you are wrong. With the help of dieting you might lose water from your body (which makes you lighter) but can never tone your body without an exercise.

i really like this post. Great work

That’s the 1st time I’ve heard the advice not to eat immediately after a workout but to wait 30 mins first. Sounds like it makes sense. Thanks for the tip.

This is great info, and very true I think its so important to get that balance of healthy eating and exercise

i think you covered the most important points. make sure you eat some carbs before working out, and adjust how many you eat depending on what you are going to be doing. Also make sure to get some protein after the workout, to rebuild the muscle.

Great overview. Simple carbs I would advise post workout for weight training, with whey protein. Water is also vitally important to maintain hydration levels.

Andy
Fitness Uncovered

Remaining healthy is always such a task I just cant keep up with it. I normally go out and buy Vitamin C tablets as a supplement, is this a bad thing?

I remember when I started working out how hungry I used to get and wouldn’t eat thinking that it was making the work out pointless. Now I realize that they go hand and hand. Eat right and keep working out and I’ll be in even better shape.

Thanks for the great tips on exercises and dieting. Truly, many people find it very difficult to fix their diet, as they do not have the nutritional facts ad info. Hope a lot of people gets the idea what to eat along with their exercises.

Hydration wise, I usually start hydrating pre work out about two hours before I go. Constant hydration through the work out and continue moderate hydration after. Thoughts?

Wow this is great information, I will eat the right foods and see what result it has! thanks

‘If you plan to exercise at a high level of intensity, you will probably need your meal to be between 4,000 and 5,000 calories.’ do you mean 400-500 calories? 4000-5000 calories is one mighty meal!

Great artical on the importance of a good balanced diet. Fat helps the body absorb a,d, e and k so make sure you do not exclude fat from your diet.

Hi,

eating is a crucial thing while doing an exercise program. I think pasta and chicken is the best food. Thanks for the great post and tips.

I do have some concern on whether I should eat or should not eat before exercise. In my previous years, I always have a cup of drink, not more than 150 calories 1 hr before aerobic, and it is still ok for me to perform in the class. In the recent year, I do not take any food 4 hours before my yoga class and it is still ok. Learn something here, thanks for the sharing.

I find that the best time for me to eat in regards to working out tends to be afterwards. I know that this varies from person to person, though.
I always tell my clients to make sure they’ve at least eaten something at least within a half hour of our workout sessions.

Thank you very much for sharing a great piece of information.There is nothing important than exercise which can keep our body in good condition and also keep the whole bodily matter balanced, but exercise should be done safely and properly otherwise the result can be opposite.

All the tips are really very great.

Nice post. If you are willing to put forth the effort and eat healthy then you can definitely lose weight. That is the problem with most people though. They aren’t willing to work for their weight loss and want the solution handed to them.

Interesting.

With a meal both before and after a workout, preparing meals sounds almost as important as the work out itself.

To think I’ve been doing the meal side all wrong Finish work, exercise, have dinner an hour or so later or exercise before sleeping.

Blue
Laser Modules For Raves!!!

I always prefer a cardio workout. But I have a hard time balancing the proper eating with the proper exercise.

Dressing the mind with thoughts on water:

Water is important as mentioned above: Our body is large percentage of water and we all know if we were to become 100% dehydrated there would be little left of us, we would be dried up and deflated. This lets us know that water is the foundation/base of our body organ. A well hydrated body means an efficient organ, as it is well inflated and it’s highways leave plenty of room for transportation.

But why, fellow experts, is there a danger in being over hydrated?

Love this great tips, thanks karen.

Wow! These are some great tips! I hope you don’t mind, but I bookmarked this page for use in the future. Thanks!

Hi There,

Thanks for the articles.

I have question regarding one of your point in your article where you have mentioned ” The ideal time for you to eat your pre workout meal is an hour before you start ”

In practicing yoga normally we are being taught that there should be minimum 2 hours gap if doing low intensity yoga workout and atleast 3 hours gap if doing intense yoga workout.

I am little unclear about the point where you have suggested one hour time before workout. Any idea or sugesstion would be great please.

Great article.I did not know you could eat as near as an hor before though.I play soccer and sometimes I used to eat an hour before and then I felt too heavy to do exercise.Is it cause jogging and doing gym are different kinds of exercises?
please explain

I got a question, I never like eating before I work out because no matter what I eat I feel it in my stomach while I am working out especially while I’m doing cardio. Is their any shake or supplement that you could recommend before working out? I tend to do about 20-30 minutes of cardio before 30 minutes of weights.

Health and fitness go hand in hand. Unlike many suggest there is no secret to fitness. Balance is the key. Stay active and eat healthy. Great post

We discovered last year that the minerals and nutrients we ate were a mere fraction of what we could have taken in because of the way we cooked the food. Boiling and steaming in open containers were stripping out the very minerals and vitamins we tried to eat.

Thank you for the good article. We are what we eat and our health relies on getting it from our food, not a pill.

Thanks for the article. I have recently started working out again and am trying to find the right balance of food and exercise.

I find that eating lots of greens and drinking plenty of water to help alkalize my body has been beneficial. The more alkalized you are the better your body seems to recover and handle a heavy workout.

Thanks

With just exercise, one just can’t build good body, for that one needs to understand the importance of nutritious food. In the same way, eating nutritious food can’t change your body, one needs to exercise also. So they both are two sides of one coin. Both are equally important. One needs to strike a balance between them.

I prefer interval training instead of cardio. It’s much more effective.

I agree with KarloE. It is a great post with lots of good tips but the only thing wrong is the little bug of 4000-5000 calories that need to eaten before an intense workout.

Hmm 5000 calories before a high intensity workout? That’s a bit much don’t you think? =)

But with my infinite wisdom I’m pretty sure you meant 400-500. Anyways, useful info, keep it up.

Tho I myself only intake protein before my workouts, resistance or not> Since through gluconeogenesis your body will convert the adequate amount of carbs that you need. My clients have seen great results through this method.

My 2 cents. Great blog, eye pleasing too just like mine *wink*

Going for regular body check is as important as exercising. We always wait till our body starts to malfunction before we finally decided to go for a checkup. Instead, we should strike a balance between exercising and check up to get the best results.

As an above poster has mentioned, the importance of water was not touched on. If you take water out of the mix while exercising, you are putting yourself in risk of becoming dehydrated and sick. Not a fun experience.

Like someone else said the best food habit is 6 small but nutritive meals a day is best for health.

In terms of exercising, I would say normal people need to do free hand and resistance training whereas people with need of high fitness shall go for weights.

Also Yoga is a great way to keepfit and slim.

Thanks

4,000 to 5,000 calories???? Is that for real? *in shock*

A very good and detailed step-by-step eating and exercise tips here. Thanks for the recommendations and I’ll surely try it out!

This is a great article. I try to consume a good amount of protein and carbs prior to working out as I’ve noticed it giving me more energy and stamina to engage myself in a more strenuous workout. I eat about 4-5 smaller meals a day to try to equally distribute my energy intake so that I also remain more full longer. This helps me control my eating habits. I try to eat as healthy as I can, because it makes me feel better about myself. When I eat junk foods, I feel sluggish, slow, and drained of energy.

fitness

If anybody has the correct balance between food and exercise it is possible to eat unhealthy but could possibly lead to long term damage.

Everything in moderation, is the simple answer.

A recent study showed that it doesn’t matter what kind of diet you’re on. They’re all the same - low-carb, high-carb, low-fat, high-fat, low-protein, high-protein. All that matters is the amount of calories consumed and burned. As long as that balance is maintained, you’ll be on your way to lose weight. Don’t waste time and energy deciding what kind of diet you should be on. Do the right thing and eat right - and don’t forget to exercise (at least 30 mins walking daily is good enough)

Reference: http://health.okguru.com/2009/02/28/the-best-diet-all-but-protein-is-important/

Great advice, I’d like to also mention that eating foods that have fat can cause stomach problems. It’s also important to note that eating a pre and post workout meal increases your energy level from before your workout all the way to a few hours past your workout.

It’s very important yet few people actually do it.

You can run your car on an empty tank you body work the same way. How you look depends much more on what you eat, than your exercise.

It’s certainly important to consider nutrition in regard to exercise, but far too many people make universal recommendations and fail to acknowledge the individuality we all have. Some people do well on high carb diets while others to well on high protein and fat diets. While exercise can influence this to a minor degree, it’s more important to focus on a person’s individual needs rather than the type of exercise they’re doing.

For more information, read this article on Metabolic Typing:

http://naturalbias.com/metabolic-typing-the-last-diet-youll-ever-need

Great tips- now if we can only follow them!

Hey Karen that’s an excellent article. I find that having a bit of healthy fat before a workout helps me a lot. It usually stops me from feeling hungry during the workout and slows down

And yeah like someone mentioned 4000 cals is a little to much, hehe. more like 400-500.

These are great tips and a great post. Thank you!

I just came across this article as I had a recent incident with a friend that I am working out with. She’s trying to lose weight and no matter how hard I try to tell her that eating is vitally important to metabolism, especially when exercising, she is trying to restrict her diet so much, it’s working against her.

In fact the incident happened when she got very light headed on the treadmill and finally I had to tell her she needed to start eating appropriately or I wouldn’t train with her any further.

With that said, I just wanted to let you know I’m printing your article and giving this to her so she further understands even more how important nutrition really is. Thanks for the great advice.

eating before exercise is necessary, but I often nausea. So I usually just drink a lot before exercise, and eat lots of bananas during exercise .

Exercises are most important. People need to change their life and start to doing exercises at least 30 minuts everyday. Need to stop look and take their kids to fast food restaurants.

A great thing to remain fit and free from all types of diseases is doing Yoga and Pranayams regularly. Yogas make your internal body parts highly resistive to diseases. Even people suffering from various diseases can perform yoga to get rid from the diseases.You can do simple easy exercises to get rid from joint pains, stomach problems, common cold problems and more.Various website can be found in the net about yoga.Books are also available. I recommend to follow some real good tutorials in net or books or go to some yoga school to learn it if you are totally new at it.

I love the way you elaborate all the healthy tips and suggestions here. This is certainly a good post to read along. Especially for those health conscious out there.

That 4000 - 5000 bit… they’re meant to be hundreds, right? There’s no way anyone should be eating a 5000 calorie meal before a workout unless you’re Arnie.

And eating after your workout - eat within 30 minutes, don’t wait any longer.

Yes very rightly said that what we eat and our eating habits have a direct relation with the exercise we do to keep ourselves fit and healthy.
Nicely put up article.

Every body is not created equal. Some of us have faster metabolisms than others which is why some can begin a workout 30-45 min after eating a meal while others might have to wait anywhere from 1-2 hours to digest before they can start to exercise. You really have to be in tune with your own body and see what works for you.

These are great tips, thanks for you very informative blog.

I first learned about micro tears in an article on what causes muscle pain the day after exercise or an injury. I’d always wondered why it hurt worse the next day instead of immediately after the injury or tough workout. Your post about needing extra protein after your muscles have been injured is beneficial information - thanks!

Really good tips. Being aware of importance of exercises of various nature, we do learn them scientifically. But what to have before and after exercise and how much to have are the things which are generally overlooked.
Thanks again for the tips.

Thanks for this great post. I’ve forund some new ideas how to keep balance in diet and exercises.

The hard part from exercise for me is to start it…

there are few more ways..say you can use elliptical trainers as well to loose excess fat

Nice informative post.
I am going to obey the rules mentioned in this article.

Thanks

exercise is one of the best way to have a healthy body. And of course eating healthy foods is a plus. thanks for this wonderful tips.

Totally agree - its so crucial to make a good balance between exercise and a healthy diet.

I found interest in the note about “not eating within 30-minutes of your workout.” With all the different information circulating out there about pre & post workout replenishment, especially the importance of protein, I had never been told about waiting 30-mins AFTER a workout. It makes total sense however (ie. diverting too much blood to your stomach and away from muscles). Thanks for this article!

Very, very informative article.
I tend to drink approx 2 litres of water throughout the day to keep my hydrated.
Plenty of fresh fat burning fruit also helps

Thanks
John

Try any of the “Superfoods” and I think that helps any exercise regimen. It’s usually powder that you can mix into something else.

Karole E is right. its supposed to be 400-500 calories. Not 4000-5000 calories. other than this everything is very informative. thanks for sharing it. helps a lot.

Hey. Great site and I think this porst is very good. It is exactly what I have been telling people too. Water and protein are vital, but an even mix of all nutrients is the only way to stay fit. Too many people concentrate on what not to eat instead of when and how much of everything they need to eat.

Eating an hour within a workout is optimal, which funny enough correlates to what my mother told me as a kid about not swimming until an hour after you’ve eaten.

Regarding post workout supplements glutamine is really good.

You make some great points here. Finding the proper balance between food and exercise will definitely help your perform your best when working out.

Thanks for putting this tips all one one page. I’ve been familiar with most of it from before, but it’s convenient to have it all here. Didn’t know about wanting after resistance exercise though.

i agree that staying healthy entails striking a balance between exercise and eating… whether it’s loosing weight or staying in shape…

Everybody can follow this tips. Because the Exercise and eating habits are relevant of regular habits. I will try and to keep the tips. thanks.

Yes quite agree what ever we eat we have to burn our calories, many of spreading rumors about eating that don’t eat of much calories blaw blaw e.t.c. but as you said if we make exercise as routine task and maintain regular exercise timings than it become more easy.

QUOTE: “you should always make it a point to eat a balanced mix of protein and carbohydrates…” This is very true and should be applied at all cost.

Thanks for these tips! I hadn’t heard of the one about not eating 30mins after resistance workouts yet. I guess it makes sense, though. I usually have a shake right after my workout, but I’ll try holding out on that a bit, from now on.

Eating the right kinds of foods and balancing it with exercise is a good pair in order to achieve a healthy lifestyle. Right food intake is essential in order to meet the body’s daily requirements. These would keep us alert and active, as well keep us away from getting ill and allow us to perform our tasks.

Great tips, like everything else relating to this subject you just gotta stick at it.

5000 calorie meal? That’s more then 3 bigMac’s meal. Seems to be way over the top.

Great article!

You definitely have to consume something after an intense workout. It’s such an important meal that I think a lot of people forget about.

Take into account your body type and metabolism when determining calories also. Skinny guys or ectomorphs need a lot more food to build muscle for example. apart form that spot on.

Diet and workout plan is directly related with each other. If you neglect either nutrition or exercise then you wont be able to maintain good health.

Thanks for this post. You’ve put together some really useful information here. Drink lots of water, the body needs it.

I don’t think anyone touched on portion sizes. I don’t think eating an hour before an intense leg workout is a good idea. Try it sometime. This is especially true if the meal is high in protein as this slows digestion. Everyone needs to discover appropriate meal timing for themselves; just like exercise it is highly individual.

Great information Karen. My husband loved it. Thank you

Eating after a workout is always important. I don’t believe in any products but I do have a small protein shake post workout along with a healthy low carb meal.

Good suggestions. I find that eating six small meals a day, combining protein and a good carb, like an apple, has been very beneficial to my weight loss and muscle building.

You know, I faced a similar problem last year and it was virtually impossible to get a way to solve it. In any case, thanks for helping us.

Great post! The Nutrition is very important to build muscle. The nutrition is important as the muscle training itself. You wont gain lots of muscle with bad nutrition. I think most beginners don’t care about that. Greetings from Germany.