This is a question that often get's floated around, the whole issue of dieting. Why is it so important? Why should you make such a big change to your life just because you've chosen to begin a sport? After all, a diet is a big part of someones life. When you think of how long it takes you to prepare and consume your food, let's say you have 3 daily meals, we're talking an average of 2-4 hours of your life being taken up each day (unless you're a microwave meal addict).
My reason being for why sports influenced people will have a stronger desire for a good diet is due to it being an essential asset for their progression. Whatever work they do, a diet with nutritional needs suited to their sport is necessary in order to progress.
Without proper nourishment their body will only progress as far as their sedentary based diet will allow. If the person is lucky enough to already have a higher than average calorie diet, their views may not alter as they've already been eating well enough in the first place.
They're interested because they have to be. If you get told getting a better diet will make you better at your sport, you'll be more inclined to get one. Whatever your sport is, Bodybuilding needs good dieting to support hyper trophy and prevent catabolism when cutting down, Marathon runners need diets with high carbohydrate based foods in order to have good endurance, Powerlifters need to be precise in order to not gain too much weight in the off season but still make progressive strength gains, and every athlete needs their own. Rugby players aren't powerful from eating mars bars all day and world class Tennis Players don't have diets consisting of 2 litres of coca cola per day.
They need to eat right, they need to eat sports specific if they want to be the best.
Sedentary people or those with little concern for exercise however, merely only need to eat in order to survive. Their needs are only to have a balanced diet suited to reducing their chances of any kind of sickness or disease and at a push allow them to feel more alert throughout the day. As such, people don't care because for the majority, they do not need to.
What do you want to do? Eat to survive or actually get somewhere?
Written by Nathan Smith, Sports Supplement advisor at FactorySupplements.co.uk
