If you’re dieting to lose weight but you aren’t exercising you may still see results, but they won’t be nearly as good or as fast as they could be if you were also working out.
You lose weight when your body uses more energy than it takes in so taking in less energy – in the form of calories and carbohydrates – will eventually do some good but increasing the amount of energy your body uses by exercising can really speed things up.
The diet that you choose can change your experience exercising, however, as your body needs things like proteins and carbohydrates to work while a lot of diets cut out those nutrients. So, what is life like when you exercise on the Paleo Diet?
The Paleo Diet is better on an exercising body than a lot of diets out there, but there are also some areas where it falls short.
What Is The Paleo Diet?
The Paleo Diet is built on the premise that processed and artificial foods are the problem. By removing processed foods rather than fats or carbs, the Paleo Diet lets you get all of the essential nutrients that other diets would have you go without, while encouraging you to skip unhealthy foods that other diets might allow.
The Paleo Diet doesn’t restrict carbohydrates, which can come from healthy sources like fruits and vegetables but does restrict foods that have lots of carbohydrates and little else. These foods, often called “Energy rich and nutrient poor” foods, including sodas and many processed baked goods.
The Paleo Diet And Carbs
The body prefers to break down carbohydrates for energy, though it can also break down fats and proteins if it has to. While you want to decrease the amount of carbohydrates that you eat and increase the amount of exercising you do, cutting out carbohydrates completely can really mess with your body chemistry by forcing your body to break down chemicals that it normally wouldn’t.
For example, some low carb diets leave you eating virtually nothing but meat, which means that your body burns all of that extra protein for energy. When your body breaks down proteins it leaves behind acid as a byproduct, meaning that exercising on a low carb diet can change your body’s acidity level leaving you feeling sick.
GO PALEO: 30 Day Step-by-Step ProgramThe Paleo Diet And Protein
While low carb diets can have you eating little other than meat, low-fat diets can drastically reduce the amount of red meat and even nuts and seeds that you’re eating.
All of these foods can be a high source of unhealthy fats, especially if you aren’t careful enough about buying lean meat or if the nuts and seeds that you buy are over seasoned or prepared in unhealthy ways, but it is also a great source of protein as well as iron and other vitamins and minerals.
As mentioned above, your body would rather not break down proteins for fuel, they’re still important for exercise because your body needs them to build and repair muscle. If you are exercising on a diet that doesn’t allow you to get enough protein, it can be hard to grow larger muscles or for your muscles to recover after an exercise.
The Paleo Diet, however, encourages you to eat meat from a variety of sources, as well as nuts and seeds, meaning that you’ll have enough protein and minerals to build muscle and recover quickly after your workouts.
The Paleo Diet And Calcium
One place where the Paleo Diet doesn’t do so well in the exercise nutrients department is calcium. Calcium is usually thought of as a mineral that makes bones stronger. While it has many other roles that people don’t often think about, like making your muscles work by conveying nerve impulses, it does contribute to strong bones.
Because your muscles exert force on your bones to make your body move when you work out, you need the right nutrients for healthy bones as well as healthy muscles when you exercise, and that means calcium.
Some of the most readily available sources of calcium are dairy products like milk and cheese, which aren’t allowed in the Paleo Diet. There are other places to get calcium, but they aren’t places that people normally think to look. Dark green leafy vegetables are often a pretty good source of calcium and some even have some protein, so as long as you keep your vegetable options open this shouldn’t really be a problem when you exercise on the Paleo Diet.
The 30 Day Paleo Diet Plan
In the end, the Paleo Diet restricts carbohydrates, but it’s not a low carb diet at heart. The idea of low carb diets is merely to reduce carbs, while the idea of the Paleo Diet is to return your diet to that of humans prior to the agricultural revolution.
This 30 Day Guide to Paleo is a fool-proof meal plan and guidebook for anyone that wishes to give the Paleo Diet an honest try for 30 days. Adopting a new way of eating can be challenging, but this vastly simplified guide provides instant access to over 180 delicious, easy-to-make Paleo recipes!
