Why is nutrition vital when exercising?

A proper nutrition is necessary if the benefits of exercising are to be achieved and should go hand in hand. During an exercise, the metabolism (catabolism in this case) increases and that burn up a lot of calories. This means that there is depletion of our energy levels and thus must be replaced by correct nutrition.

When you exercise, there is increase in the breakdown of carbohydrates and fats. They need to be replaced and in cases where the essence is to build the muscles, will require that, adequate amino acid sources are ingested to allow the new rate of muscle building triggered off by the exercise.

The body demands increase extremely and will take adequate amount of energy from carbohydrates to power the level of metabolism going on. Proteinous foods will supply the amino acids needed for muscle building. All these including micronutrients like B vitamins and chromium, antioxidants such as vitamins E and C, and minerals such as magnesium and calcium will be needed in more quantities. The level of metabolism releases even more free radicals and as such, increase mop up action will be needed by anti-oxidants.

You will need to drink much more water than you frequently do. During exercising, you loss fluid extremely from sweat and insensible loses due to increase respiration, and so you are dehydrated. This can lead to heat stroke, hypovolemic shock, renal stone formation etc. So you will need much more water to cool off the exothermic reaction that is taking place in your body.

There is almost an increase in every single chemical reaction in the body. Just as everything else is working overtime, so are the heart muscles. You will need to supply the heart with adequate vitamins like C and B, oxygen and other nutrients to make sure that the electrical activities in the heart continue to meet up the new stress. More sodium and potassium ions influx and efflux occurs and nutritional intake should be such that can meet up with these activities. Depletion of these ions could cause heart block.

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