Introduction
In this article we want to talk about the difference between nutrition for on field performance, nutrition for health and nutrition for aesthetics, and how those three nutrition plans can look very, very different from one another. So let’s get into it. Obviously everybody wants all of those things everybody wants that shredded six-pack physique that also performs the highest level on the field while also setting themselves up to live to 100 years old. Obviously, that is the goal for everyone. However, what most people do not understand and what most people do not realize is that a lot of times these different nutrition goals can actually work against each other.
For example, if you are optimizing your diet, you are optimizing your nutrition plan for on field performance. Most likely, you are not going to be your leanest, most shredded physique, and many times you will be eating foods that really are not necessarily deemed as healthy. But the question is that, can you do all three of these things at once or not.
Nutrition For Aesthetics
Now completely switching gears and it is almost ironic. But when we are looking at nutrition for aesthetics, this can really be summed up by quantity. In our opinion, yes, it is definitely possible, but you just have to realize that it is more like balancing three separate nutrition goals rather than just eating healthy in general. So let’s put the time on the screen and let’s get started. Nutrition for health. Let’s start with the absolute core of nutrition.
Nutrition For Health
I think the best way to sum this category up is Quality over Quantity. In general you want to focus on the quality of your foods and where they are coming from instead of just the quantity of the food that you eat. In general you want to focus on nutrient dense whole foods, limit your empty processed foods. Consume a ton of plants. Eat the rainbow foods like just making sure that your plate has a lot of different colors in it. Naturally, not artificially, naturally, focus on high quality lean sources of protein such as animal products, dairy products or plant-based products. Drink mostly water and yes try to maintain that caloric balance so that you are not gaining weight or losing too much weight. So yes, when it comes to general health, there is a little bit about the quantity of foods that you eat to make sure that you are not gaining too much weight or losing too much weight. But the focus is on the quality of foods that you eat.
Check out our latest article on Paleo Diet and which foods to intake for best Protein and Weight loss
Nutrition For Aesthetics
Now completely switching gears and it is almost ironic. But when we are looking at nutrition for aesthetics, this can really be summed up by quantity. Over quality so you can already see how just nutrition for your general health and nutrition for aesthetics are kind of like at opposite ends of the spectrum. They are almost competing with each other when you are looking at a diet plan that is just focused on getting you to look as good as possible and really nothing else. That diet plan really only cares about your caloric balance, your calories in versus your calories out. And more specifically, it cares about your macro breakdown or your protein, your carbs and your fats. We have stressed this a 1000 times, but this math equation is so true.
- If you eat more calories than you burn, you are in a caloric surplus and you are going gain weight.
- If you eat less calories than you are burning each day, then you are going to be in a caloric deficit and that is going cause you to lose weight.
- If you are eating the same amount of calories that you are burning each day, then you are nucleic maintenance and you are going to maintain your weight.
You can eat candy, chocolate cake, Mcdonald’s, Wingstop, whatever you want, never touch a fruit and veggie. But as long as you are just consuming less than you are burning each day, you are going to be in a caloric deficit and you are still going to lose weight and complete contrast. If you eat all the foods, the quality foods that I talked about on the Nutrition for Health category, you can still gain weight if you are just eating too much of those foods, so losing weight. Gaining weight. Maintaining weight is just based upon your calories in vs your calories out.
Check out our latest article on Healthy Breakfast Ideas for Fitness and Energy
And then we can take this full topic of nutrition for aesthetics or nutrition for just looking good one step further and focus in on your macro breakdown or your protein, your carbs and your fats. A big focus when it comes to looking good is getting that ratio right according to your goals.
And if you get that ratio right of your protein, your fats in your carbs, you continue to resistance train. You continue to eat in that normal caloric balance that you want to be in. You can build the physique of your dreams, the shredded six pack physique, regardless of the quality of foods that you eat. Now, this is what many people really fail to realize. But if we’re strictly talking about building a physique and building this shredded ling physique that a lot of footballers want, your body cannot tell the difference between a protein from a Mcdonald’s cheeseburger and a protein from a chicken breast,
or they can not tell the difference between a carbohydrate from an apple or a carbohydrate from a piece of cake. When you are building muscle or cutting fat, your body really only cares about those simple math equations.
Not on the quality of the foods. I definitely definitely would not recommend that because your general health is going to suffer, you are going to get sick all the time. You are going to feel like crap and your internal organs are probably going to fail within ten years. But if you just care about looking good, that is all you need to focus on. So nutrition for aesthetics is all about the quantity of foods that you consume, and more specifically, the quantity of your protein, fats, and carbs.
Nutrition For Performance
Nutrition for Performance. Basically, to quickly sum up nutrition for Performance, you all want to focus on two things, and That is nutrient timing and periodization. Nutrient timing is focusing on consuming the right foods at the right time by consuming some really fast adjusting carbs right before a training session.
Workout. Our game and periodization refers to manipulating your caloric intake or your nutrient intake, depending on whether you are in offseason, you are in season, or you are in pre season. One example of this would be increasing your carbohydrate intake during season when you are playing a ton of games, and then when you are an offseason.
Decreasing your carbohydrate intake or another example will just be increasing your total calories consumed during preseason. When you are doing double days, you are changing your nutrition based upon your season or your workouts or what you have now. Nutrition for on field performance can really work against your nutrition for general health in one main area and that is this idea of before a game before a workout, before a training session of consuming low fiber, easily digestible carbohydrates, and these could be any refined carbs like crackers, bread, souls.
Snacks To Avoid and Snacks To Consider
Gatorade sports drinks or even candy. Sometimes these food sources are never, ever going to be considered healthy for your general health in order to live to 100 years old, but they are fantastic foods to eat before a workout to ensure that your body has enough glycogen in order to have fuel for that training session or workout or game. That is why we have to create full posts, talking about sports strings like Gatorade and telling athletes when they can consume and when they should not consume those drinks. So we really hope that kind of clears up the difference between these three categories and how they really can work against each other at times now quickly. We want to talk about the overlap between all these three categories if you look at this category right here.
Nutrition for Performance and Aesthetics
We can completely imagine what this athlete would look like. This athlete really cares about how they perform on the field, but they also care about how they look. They fuel their bodies with the right foods before their tough workouts or games, and they recover with the right foods afterwards. But they also track how many calories they eat did a day and they really focus on that macro-nutrient breakdown to ensure they have the best body composition possible.
However their problem is that they might be focusing too much on the macronutrient side and they might stray away from the micronutrient the vitamins, the minerals, the grains, the quality of their foods. They still might not be eating the right foods in order to live to 100 years old now. This category.
Nutrition For Performance and Health
This athlete does a really good job to focus on their performance on the field and the quality of the foods that they’re eating. However, they really do not have a good grasp on how much food they are eating with their caloric balance equation. Or they really don’t know their macronutrient breakdown and because of this, they might not have their ideal physique for their sport. This is the athlete that is definitely in shape. They feel great on the inside and they perform great on the field, but they might just not have that that final thing to give them the perfect six pack or the perfect body you know that some players do have now in this category.
Nutrition For Aesthetics and Health
This athlete is completely consumed with how they look and the quality of foods that they eat. Unfortunately, they might not be consuming the right foods at the right time to give them the best performance on the field. They also might not tail their diet or their caloric intake based upon their season and that could lead to problems. Finally, we have this sweet spot. This athlete does a really good job of balancing all three aspects of nutrition.
This athlete focuses majority of their diet around quality food sources but they also monitor their caloric intake and they have a good understanding about macronutrient breakdowns in order to give them the best body composition possible. Finally, when it comes to tweaking their diet or their nutrition plan for performance on the field.
They do a great job, they eat the right foods at the right times to give them fuel and recover from their training session games or workouts. And they tweak their diet based upon whether they are in in-season, offseason or in preseason.
Remember it is very necessary to stay hydrated during workout, Check out our latest article on Importance of staying hydrated during Workout
Conclusion
All right guys. We are not even going to ask because we know we are over, but we hope you guys enjoyed this article and we really hope that it gave you a lot of insight into nutrition and it kind of cleared up some different nutritional goals in how these diets can look very different from each other.
FAQs
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