Healthy Diets For Inactive Lifestyles

Leading an inactive lifestyle can lead to weight gain and may increase your risk of certain diseases. Exercise has a positive effect on body composition, cardiovascular health, calorie burning and metabolism. It may also reduce your risk or minimize the symptoms of Type 2 diabetes. Finding a way to incorporate moderate activity as a regular part of your life is the best way to stay healthy; however, if you are unable to increase your activity levels, then diet may help you minimize the effects of inactivity.

Low-Calorie Diets

Eating a low-calorie diet can help you to maintain a healthy body composition. Body composition is the ratio of body fat to lean body mass. Muscles, bones and organs make up your lean body mass. A healthy body composition is one of the five components of physical fitness. People with a high body fat percentage are at higher risk for health problems like heart disease, high blood pressure and Type 2 diabetes, the American Heart Association notes. Inactivity may lead to obesity, which is a major risk for heart disease. You can minimize your risk by losing weight with a low calorie diet.

Low-Fat Diets

Low-fat diets may minimize your increased risk of cardiovascular disease resulting from inactivity. For best results, eat a diet that contains lean proteins and minimizes saturated and trans fats and oils. Eating a high-fat diet can increase overall cholesterol and high-density lipoproteins. Unhealthy blood lipid profiles are a major cause of atherosclerosis and high blood pressure. While exercise can also help reduce these risks, if you are inactive you will better be able to manage them with a low-fat diet.

Low-Carbohydrate Diets

Low-carbohydrate diets may help with weight control. They may also decrease your risk of Type 2 diabetes and heart disease, suggests Dr. Michael Eades. Low-carbohydrate diets are typically high in fat; however, limiting carbohydrate intake minimizes the amount of insulin that is released into your bloodstream. Controlling insulin levels helps to prevent and manage Type 2 diabetes. Maintaining control over insulin may also help to keep your body from storing food in your fat cells because insulin is a storage hormone that is responsible for escorting fat into fat cells. In the absence of insulin, your body uses stored fat as its primary fuel source. Low-carbohydrate diets are also high in protein. They are protein-sparing diets that help you to maintain the lean body mass you already have. If you are inactive, a low-carbohydrate diet may keep you from losing muscle mass to atrophy.