Get cooking! Preparing and cooking your own meals will give you control over what you eat and is a great life-long skill.Avoid or limit alcohol as it can dehydrate the body and impair recovery.Avoid too many processed foods that are high in fat, sugar and salt e.g.Include a wide variety of fruits and vegetables across meals and snacks for a good range of vitamins and minerals.milk, lean meat, eggs, beans, lentils, yogurt, cheese, fish) at each mealtime to ensure hard-working muscles have a constant supply of protein throughout the day. Include complex carbohydrate in meals and snacks to help ensure energy stores are well-fuelled.Check your measurement against the figures below, which are provided for men and women.
Carrying too much weight around your weight around your waistcan increase your risk of heart disease, type 2 diabetes and stroke. Position a measuring tape around your waist and measure waist size (circumference) at the halfway point between your lowest rib and the top of your hipbone. It is less accurate for those that are heavier due to a high muscle mass – therefore an elite rugby player with a higher body weight, due to additional muscle, could be inaccurately classified as ‘obese’ using the BMI scale. BMI does not differentiate between muscle mass and fat mass but is a suitable tool for estimating body fatness among the general population. It should be noted that most BMI charts are specific for adults and separate versions are tailored to unique populations, such as children. To easily calculate your BMI, you can use Safefood’s BMI calculator, or the HSE’s BMI chart. As shown in the chart below, a BMI between 18.5 and 24.9 kg/m2 is normal. It involves dividing your weight (in kilograms) by the square of your height (in meters) i.e. This is a simple calculation which tells us if we are a suitable weight for our height. However, there are some simple techniques such as body mass index or waist circumference measurement, which can easily be performed at home and they provide a crude indicator of body composition: Body Mass Index (BMI) Unless you are a high-performance athlete or visit a sports laboratory, most of us don’t have access to the tools which can accurately measure body composition. Female athletes need to be particularly careful as women need more fat than men for good health. it is important to remember that fat has several essential roles in the body and if it drops too low, the health effects can be detrimental. This provides a greater ‘power-to-weight’ ratio, which means they have a greater capacity to move quickly against various types of resistance forces such as gravity, water, wind or a competitor.Ĭarrying excess body fat can have negative effects on health, performance or self-esteem. Many athletes may want to maintain their body weight but alter its composition through increasing muscle mass in combination with decreasing fat mass. Heavier individuals with a high muscle mass can have an advantage when strength is needed for bursts of power such as pushing, throwing or sprinting. Others may want to gain weight, specifically lean tissue. For example, those who are light with a lower percentage of body fat typically have an advantage in endurance activity such as long-distance running, as it helps to delay fatigue and dehydration. Specific body composition goals to enhance performance will depend on the type of exercise we are involved in. For those that are more interested in the appearance of their physique, increased muscle can provide tone and shape but more importantly, a lean body mass can have a positive impact on our metabolic health. Muscle weighs more than fat and having a high proportion of muscle provides strength and power advantages. The amounts of fat and muscle in the human body are particularly important for those involved in sport, as our body composition can influence both our body weight and performance.
Diet along with exercise, it can play an important role in optimising percentage body fat, muscle mass and body weight. However, it is important to remember that our body composition is largely driven by genetics. Many of us may strive to alter our body composition to impact our sports performance or improve our health.
0 kommentar(er)
