Food For Fitness

Physical Activity: is moving your body and making your large muscles (like the ones in your legs and arms) do work, which in turn burns up kilojoules. This means that activities such as gardening, digging, building, lifting and carrying heavy loads and even scrubbing floors, are all examples of physical activity.

Exercise: is physical activity with the intention to get fit or stay fit. Whether it be cycling, rollerblading, playing golf, ballroom dancing, jogging, walking or an aerobics class, it can all help!

There are two types of exercise; aerobic and strength. Aerobic excercise can be activities such as brisk walking, bike riding, jogging, swimming and aerobics. Aerobic exercise kicks the body's metabolism into gear and makes your heart and lungs deliver oxygen to your muscles more efficiently.

What is Glycogen?

When you start out on a walk, bike ride or any other form of aerobic activity, the body finds it easier to recieve energy from glycogen stores. Glycogen is found within your muscles and liver and is one way your body stores energy (in the form of glucose energy).

The other way of storing energy is via body fat stores. However during exercise, the best type of fuel is glucose fuel rather than fat fuel so it is important to keep your glycogen stores well stocked.

You can do this by eating plenty of carboyhdrate foods.

What are Carbohydrates?

Carbohydrates are the best fuel for an active body and come in two forms, complex and simple.

Complex Carboydrates: These are the starches and fibre found in foods such as: breads, rice, pasta, breakfast cereals, fruits and the starchy vegetables such as potatoes. When you eat these high carboydrate foods you are getting vitamins, minerals and fibre as well as energy.

Simple Carbohydrates: These are sugars found in soft drinks, sweets and sweet biscuits. They are easy to digest and quickly absorbed, giving you a quick energy boost, but they have very few other nutrients.