A basic piece of advice in this confusion of sports performance, weight loss, body image, proper fuelling and endurance training

⭐️Let me give you 1 main point to focus on, not only for people who need to understand if they are ready to embark on endurance sports with the right body-mind attitude for the first time but also to re-evaluate the mindset and purpose before each session for those people who might get lost in the confusion about nutritional information, body image etc etc related to sport: 

Define what you want from the physical activity you are about to start and be very honest with yourself.

you’ll find out that there are only 2 possible answers, you’ll either want to :

A)lose weight/shape up 

B) improve physical performance/fitness 

If you find yourself stuck into answer A, I strongly suggest you to re-evaluate your sport choice and talk with a professional to seek advice because the majority of people who embark on an endurance journey hoping that the strenuous physical activity will help them lose weight, increase the risk of developing ED, injuries, RED’s and so on.

It is very common to see people deciding to run a marathon hoping that training will magically help to shed excessive weight but they end up either weighing more because they restrict themselves and the body tends to retain liquids and extra fat to compensate and repair the muscles or they end up with serious ED problems because the body doesn’t receive enough nutrients because of malnutrition. 

If you decide to run a marathon and need to lose weight, I strongly suggest you to focus on body fat loss before embarking on a strenuous training plan. Your body’s joints will thank you and your mind will be in a much better place to succeed and improve your cardiovascular system. 

Running a marathon, doing triathlon or any other endurance event are life changing experiences based on cardiovascular fitness, specific body skills and pain threshold that people build up during training but aesthetics are not related to this.

If you find yourself into answer B, you have the athlete’s mindset and you know you need fuel to perform at your best and be healthy, therefore don’t train on an empty stomach unless it’s a part of a well monitored training block where specific nutritional strategies are applied (by a professional). 

There is a massive difference between people who train for performance purposes and people who move/are active to be healthy and shed a few pounds to look better on the beach. 

There is a time and space for both mentalities but you can’t have both of them in a single individual at the same time because one of them would always overcome the other meaning that the individual won’t succeed at any of them.

Hence why, it’s a good idea to assess what you really want or gain from the physical activity you do.

Being honest with what we really want  is the first step to success and happiness.

If you get confused, it’s ok, just reassess and evaluate your goals ⭐️