Max’s Guide To Everything Vegetables For Your Health And Fitness
In my fitness career, I have continuously questioned why I do not eat more vegetables as well as I’ve been told I need to eat more vegetables. In this article, I will explore the truth behind this by looking at the importance of vegetables in weight-related fitness goals (weight loss and weight gain), the importance of micronutrients within the body, and the importance of vegetables in gut health and the microbiome. I want to preface this article by saying I HATE VEGETABLES! I'm not too fond of the taste of them, and I probably never will be. This is the guide to everything vegetables written by a guy who does not eat vegetables keep reading to learn everything you need to know about vegtables
So first and foremost, if you don't like vegetables, do not eat them! No one is forcing you to eat them. You are an adult (I'm assuming that if you are a child reading this, I apologize, you have to eat what your parents put in front of you). You can eat whatever you want, and the only person who has to live with it is you. If eating vegetables benefits your life somehow, shape or form and refuse to eat them, that's on you do not complain about it later because no one wants to hear it. You are the master of your destiny and all that jazz.
Vegetables can affect your weight-related fitness goals, which I will break down into three main categories; Losing weight, staying the same weight and gaining weight. Weight loss for this article's context will be defined as decreasing the number of lbs on the scale on an average week to week to avoid confusion with the temporary weight loss caused by loss of water in the body. When losing weight, the desired effect for most will be to lose body fat and improve how they look by looking leaner while the number on the scale decreases. Maintaining the same weight is when your weight in lbs stays the same week to week on average(or very close to maybe only fluctuating a few lbs up or down). The goal when maintaining weight is typically to make body composition changes through adequate protein and resistance training resulting in increased muscle mass and decreased fat mass at a close to the same rate as possible. Weight gain is an increased number of lbs on the scale on an average week to week. Ideally, when trying to achieve weight gain, you want to increase muscle mass on your body. While trying to gain as little body fat as possible, sometimes while not caring about the amount of body fat gained as long as much muscle is being built as possible. Vegetables will have a different role in each of these fitness-related goals.
Weight Loss
On average, vegetables are higher in fibre and lower in sugars, making them rated a higher number on the glycemic scale. The glycemic scale rates all carbohydrates on a scale of 1-14, 1 being the most sugary and 14 being the most fibrous. Sugar digests on average quicker than fibre mean the lower on the glycemic scale food is, the faster it will digest and keep you full as long. Fibre digests over a more extended period of time and keeps you fuller for longer. This effect is known as satiation, meaning filling. Vegetables being very filling will help with weight loss.
To achieve weight loss, you must be in a calorie deficit, consuming fewer calories per day/week than you burn. A huge hurdle most people run into while trying to lose weight is they get hungry, and the natural response of being hungry is to eat! I've found that the best way for you to combat this response is to fill your day with lots of satiating food, which is where vegetables come in. Another satiating food I suggest is a lot of protein, but this specific article is about vegetables and how they can help you. If your fitness goals include weight loss, I highly suggest you eat many vegetables, as many as you can(while still getting enough protein in. As a result, this will keep you fuller while still eating in a calorie deficit, making the weight loss process more manageable. A piece of practical advice I would give you if you are looking to lose weight is to pick your favourite vegetable and eat as much of it as possible. As a person who does not like the taste of vegetables, I don't commonly eat a ton of vegetables, but in the past, when I have had weight loss related goals for sports or to look good on the beach, I have integrated vegetables into my diet by mixing them into soups where they absorb the flavour, and this is a way I have made it bearable for myself to get in more vegetables and manage my hunger. I strongly suggest whether you love vegetables or hate them(like I do), if you are attempting to lose weight, you find a way to work in a good amount of them.
Now that we've covered weight loss, I think that vegetables have the greatest effect on; what about non- weight loss goals? Which brings me to attempting to do something I refer to as body recomposition.
Weight Maintenance/Body Recomping
Body recomposition is when you would like to stay the same average weight or within a few pounds but increase your muscle mass and decrease your fat mass. In trying to achieve a body recomp, you will need to eat what is known as maintenance calories or consume the same amount of calories as you burn while following proper muscle building training principles. So knowing this, where do vegetables fit in? Well, that's going to depend on the person, whether you are a person who struggles to eat more or a person who works to eat less. If you are a person who struggles to eat more food, you will probably struggle to be in maintenance by never eating enough and losing weight instead of staying the same weight. In this case, I suggest eating fewer vegetables because they will be more filling, preventing you from eating enough to stay in maintenance calories. Instead, I recommend trading out some fibrous vegetables with more sugary/ simple carbohydrates like rice, bread, or even a little candy can help(don't go too crazy with it), which will help you get in more calories while feeling less full. Now, if you have the opposite issue and you're trying to be in maintenance and are either always hungry or gaining weight, I suggest more vegetables. They will help keep you fuller and in your maintenance calories. I have personally found when I've done body recomps before that, I struggle to eat enough to stay in my maintenance calories. I find that a less vegetable approach is better for me as I'm naturally not a super hungry, and like I've said before, I don't like the taste. I'm not going to keep eating something that I don't like. That's not a very sustainable approach to my health and fitness.
Weight Gain
The final weight-related fitness goal I am going to talk about is gaining weight. Some of you will think, oh, gaining weight? Why would that be a goal? Eating more is easy. Well, there's also going to be some of you as readers that are more like me and are going to go ugh this is so hard for me I can never eat enough (insert crying emoji here). Primarily, if you are looking to gain weight, you are trying to add lean muscle tissue to your body. It's probably more beneficial to gain weight slowly, but there are some cases where you might want to gain a lot of weight quickly. The easiest example that comes to mind is a young athlete trying to gain a lot of weight to fill out their bodies for their position in their sport like a defensive lineman in football. To gain weight, whether you are going for a slow approach or a fast one, you need to be in a calorie surplus; you need to consume more calories than you burn off in a day. So as mentioned before, vegetables are filling, which would mean in some cases, they can work against you when you are trying to gain weight. Now I'm not saying that you need to cut out vegetables to gain weight, but this is something you need to be aware of when trying to gain weight. If you enjoy vegetables a lot, you can continue to eat a lot of them. Still, you may want to consider adding cheese, butter or sauces to them to help increase the calorie value if you are struggling to gain weight or reducing down the number of vegetables you eat every slightly to make room for less filling carbohydrates. If you don't like vegetables and your goal is to gain weight, you probably don't need to eat many vegetables(or any at all). Forcing yourself to eat them when you don't like the taste will hinder your goals cause it will turn you off from food and increase how challenging it is to eat in a calorie surplus[CT8] . If you are anything like me, you probably struggle to eat enough calories to gain weight and are continually forcing yourself to eat. When you are forcing yourself to eat to gain weight, it's easier to do so with foods you enjoy than foods you hate.
Vitamins
Eating fewer vegetables or none may help with weight gain, but a question some of you may be asking is well, what adverse effects may that have on my health? Now that we've talked about vegetables and how they fit into weight-related fitness goals let's dive into some of the other areas that vegetables are commonly brought into the subject; the effects of micronutrients on our body and gut health.
Typically Being a healthy body fat percentage and a healthy weight will lead to having useful health markers. You've probably heard eat right and be active, and you will be beneficial. This typically refers to a lack of health risks associated with unhealthy markers and an unhealthy body fat percentage and overweight. Being healthy means being less vulnerable to health risks such as cardiovascular disease, cancer, poor cognitive performance and other diet-related diseases, and micronutrient deficiency. So what does micronutrient deficit mean, and how big of a role does-vegetables play into this?
The biggest use for micronutrients in the body is immunity function, the body's ability to fight off disease. It is shown that when your body is supplied with adequate amounts of vitamins A, C, D, E, B2, B6, B12, Folic Acid, Iron, selenium and zinc that the body will have the best immune function and the best ability to fight off disease. So you may be asking, "but Max, you said you don't eat vegetables?" which is very true; this is something that crosses my mind quite frequently is what long term damage my habits could be causing to my health. The answer is, I do not know. I take a multivitamin to supplement these important vitamins within my body, which I suggest to everyone whether you are eating a fair amount of vegetables anyway because getting an adequate amount through nutrition alone can be challenging. Only time will tell if personally, this is negatively affecting my health, but I am doing my due diligence to be aware of this. I do force myself to eat some vegetables(despite not liking them), take a multivitamin and maintain a healthy body fat percentage to limit my risk of disease as much as possible. The tricky thing about the condition is that you could spend your entire life doing everything to minimize the risks and still develop a disease of some kind. To me, this doesn't mean you shouldn't be doing what you need to do to minimize the risk of illness, but you should find a way that makes sense to you. To me, eating little vegetables, taking a multivitamin and being active is what works. People who like vegetables but don't enjoy exercising as much healthy might look more like eating tons of vegetables and working out once or twice a week. Both examples can be healthy individuals and minimize their risk while also enjoying what their doing.
I believe that mental health is an incredibly important variable of health beyond just physical health and disease prevention. With food, many people believe that for eating to be healthy, it needs to be very restrictive and have to eat a lot of foods you don't enjoy. I don't believe this at all I think to be the healthiest you can be, you also have to be mentally healthy and need to find a way of eating that allows you to be physically fit while still enjoying what you eat. Balance is they to this, and a credit will look very different for you than it does for me, which is why having a nutrition coach who can help you find what works for you can be an effective way to find balance if you are struggling with it. In closing, Vegetables are an essential part of providing you with the micronutrients you need for disease prevention. You should probably take a multivitamin to make up the imbalances in your diet, and don't forget about mental health when considering creating a balanced nutritional lifestyle for yourself.
Gut Health
First and foremost, we need to take a look and try to define what we consider to be a healthy gut with gut health. So I'm going to describe it as the absence of any bowel-related disease caused by microbiome within the gut. Though we still lack a lot of understanding of what affects the gut's microbiome and how those changes can affect us. It has been documented that obesity, diabetes, liver disease, cancer and neurodegenerative disease can affect the gut microbiome. So what do we look for to indicate an unhealthy gut? Typically, an indicator of whether your gut is healthy will be your bowel movements. I'm not a doctor, and I firmly consider that if you are interested in whether you have healthy bowel movements or not that you consult with your physician. General suggestions with your bowel movements, however, would be if your bowel movements are too hard, soft or irregular that you should consult with your doctor about looking into your gut and bowel health.
Now even know research is limited, most people note that the absence of fibre in their diet can lead to some bowel health difficulties. If you have consulted with your doctor and are trying to improve your gut health, adding more vegetables into your diet may be a great start. I can't speak on which vegetables may help and which may not but experiment for yourself, and I would say start with the ones you enjoy and see yourself consistently eating in the long term. I've never had any problems with my gut or bowel health despite my lack of vegetables consumed, so this is something I've never had to deal with personally. In general it is recommended to have twenty grams or more of dietary fibre. Fibre doesn’t just come from vegetables but I do suggest to maintain healthy bowel movements and gut health you shoot for around this amount daily.
In closing, it's safe to say that vegetables have an essential effect on our health and fitness. It is shown that reaching a healthy body weight and body composition will drastically reduce your risk of disease and that If you have not achieved that, consider making that your first goal for improving your health. However, there will still be essential vitamins in vegetables that you want to reduce health risks further. Therefore, you should still try to get a healthy intake of vegetables, even if you are a healthy weight and body composition. Suppose you are like me and don't like vegetables but want to minimize health detriments caused by a lack of vegetable intake. In that case, it may be a good idea to supplement and use a multivitamin(I prefer the flintstone chewable, and yes, I'm a child, I understand that). Vegetables may also play an essential role in gut health. Still, more research needs to be done, so if this is something you worry about, consult your doctor and consider increasing your vegetable intake. Hopefully, this provides you with all the information you need about vegetables to reach your health and fitness goals! For more great articles like this one subscribe to my email list to be the fist notified about newly released articles.
Citations
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