Nutrition Tips: Be the Best Exerciser

This is third in a series of five blogs, courtesy of Alicia Fogarty, a registered dietician at Carolinas Healthcare Systems.  Click here to view parts one and two .  Each week Alicia will discuss one tip that will help you fuel your exercise and improve your fitness routine.

Fuel during your exercise, but only if you need to. 

As a general rule of thumb, if you are doing exercise that increases your heart rate for more than 60 – 90 minutes or you are doing high intensity exercise, you will likely need some form of carbohydrate during that exercise session.

For those situations, sports drinks, gels, beans or some form of carbohydrate would work.  However, for those of you who exercise at a less intense pace, less than 60 minutes at a time, water is a sufficient beverage for hydration.  Sometimes people tend to add sports drinks or other forms of supplements to their diets when they start a new regimen not realizing they are adding additional, potentially unnecessary calories to their diet that may make it harder for them to lose weight – if that is their goal.

Check out next week’s blog for tips on the best way to hydrate!