What Makes Fitness Nutrition Different?

We all have different nutritional needs. Okay, we are all human and must eat. We must eat healthy foods. But just how much of each particular type of food can differ from person to person. Everything from food sensitivities to activity levels an genetics can dictate the perfect diet for an individual. One thing that plays a big role in proper nutrition is your fitness level. Fitness nutrition is different than the regular nutrition of someone who is satisfied with a sedentary lifestyle.

If you don’t like working out and have determined that this dislike is more important than your health, you may decide to be comfortable with a sedentary lifestyle. Although I wouldn’t recommend it, many people choose this lifestyle both consciously and out of comfort. In order to maintain a healthy weight while sitting on the couch all day you will have to adjust your diet, consuming fewer calories. This is definitely not fitness nutrition; this is weight maintenance for people burning very few calories per day.

Maybe you consider yourself active. You get a lot done during the day and are constantly busy. You may burn more than the person on the couch we talked about above, but you still don’t need the extra nutrient boosts found in a fitness nutrition diet.

Fitness nutrition is for people really working to get the most out of their body. These are the folks you see running in your neighborhood, hitting the gym, and just looking fabulous in a bathing suit. This includes bodybuilders, fitness professionals, and definitely P90X participators. These people tend to burn some serious calories on a daily basis. Even on their days off they are burning more than others simply due to their body composition (muscle burns more calories).

These folks may supplement with whey protein and workout recovery formulas. They are likely to eat more protein to encourage muscle repair and growth and they are far less likely to be snacking on refined carbohydrates. Some people who practice fitness nutrition eat far more than the average person. They eat as if they are fueling a machine and it is exactly this concept that keeps them on track.

Using food for fuel, fitness nutrition focuses on how the body reacts to each piece of nutrition that passes your lips. High quality “clean” foods are a staple and empty calories are a thing of the past when you get serious about fitness nutrition.