Back to Basis

Today’s post is intended to share a few principles we can gather from the scientific literature about how your training/nutrition habits can help you live an overall healthier lifestyle
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The first principle is quite obvious, regular exercise. A literature review on exercise and public health found that training as little as 2x per week significantly benefits the overall health and well-being of adults [1]. Other research supports this, regular exercise was found to reduce the risk of primary and secondary chronic diseases [2]. Next to this, regular exercise also benefits general movement and helps prevent joint pain [3]. So staying active (mostly via home-workouts currently) is beneficial!
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Next to training, let’s consider your nutrition. Maintaining a healthy body weight is considered essential for general health. So it’s recommended to prevent having a very high-calorie surplus or deficit to keep your body fat percentage around healthy levels [4]. If someone currently is obese or overweight, health benefits can be obtained by losing fat through a small-to-moderate caloric deficit [5].
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Next to calories, micronutrition is another component worth mentioning. A good general recommendation for most people is to have at least 400g of fruits and vegetables (combined) in a day [6]. Health benefits may be seen up to consuming 800g of fruits and vegetables in a day [7].
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Lastly, it’s well-established that psychology affects physiology. In one study, psychological stress negatively affected muscle recovery after training [8]. Sleep also has profound effects on immunity [9]. So having a daily form of relaxation and sleeping well is another important focus point.