The title to this article is an understatement.  It should almost read how weightlifting supports your diet.

Your body is a very complex organic machine that, just like any other machine, needs a source of energy to function.  Your body is designed to be able to work very efficiently and only fails to do so when we disallow it to function properly through poor health choices.

The primary area that us North Americans make our poorest health choices is in our diets.  Your diet will be approximately 80% of the reason you reach your physical goals.  Whether it is good cardiovascular health, digestive health or immune health it will be diet that is your primary resource.

If your goal is to build muscle or burn fat your diet is your primary resource.

We cannot stress this enough.  Diet, diet, diet.

Although the specific details of your diet would need to be modified to perfectly fit your goals, there are very important benefits that your diet will provide no matter what your goals are.

In other words there are some very good general truths about diet that are important for you to know and understand.  Your diet is the foundation to all of your physical goals.

Here we just want to briefly touch on some of the major benefits.

First, and obviously, your diet will provide you with the necessary energy that your body needs to be able to meet the demands that you put on it.  It is your foundation for both strength and endurance.

Making poor food choices is like putting compromised gas in your car.  It is simply not going to function as well if it has to deal with contaminants in the engine.

Providing your body with excessive carbohydrates and fats to the exclusion of fruits and vegetables will deprive your body of what it needs to perform.

Failing to eat enough lean protein will deprive your muscles of what they need to recover and grow.  In fact, the key element in overall health will be the food choices that you make.

If your goal is to burn fat, contrary to what you might think, not eating is very bad for your health and can actually produce the opposite effect that you desire.

You can deplete muscle tissue and even do irreparable damage to your organs including your heart.  Contrary to what you might think you can actually increase the amount of food you are eating and actually boost your fat burning.

Increasing lean protein, reducing carbohydrates and getting plenty of fruits and vegetables divided up into 5 or 6 smaller meals throughout your day will actually boost your metabolism and cause you to burn more fat than if you deprive your body of the energy it needs to maintain proper health.

Wouldn’t you rather eat more food, more often, to skyrocket your metabolism to burn fat rather than starve yourself?

Lastly, you cannot build muscle if you don’t eat right.

When you weight train you make small tears in your muscle’s fibers.  During the recovery from your workout is when these small tears repair themselves and increase the size of that muscle.

It is your bodies way of meeting the new demand that you have placed on it in your training.  If you fail to provide your body with the proper nutrients that it needs to recover from your training, how beneficial do you think your efforts will be?

Your body needs a good balance of protein, carbohydrates and fats to work efficiently and recover properly.  Getting these from the most nutrient rich sources is the best decision you will make for any of your physical goals

So, in the order of their priority, eat right and train hard.  The benefits will last a lifetime and the results will blow you away.

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