By Gabe Sanders PhD, NSCA-CSCS
Exercise is one of the best things you can do for your health.
Regular physical activity can improve cardiovascular fitness, maintain muscle, help control body weight, and improve mental well-being. However, exercise is only one piece of the puzzle. For optimal health, consider a 3-pronged approach: exercise, nutrition, and sleep.
These three behaviors work together. Exercise helps us burn calories, maintain muscle, improve cardiovascular health, and regulate blood sugar. A healthy diet provides the nutrients and energy needed to fuel activity and recover afterward. Sleep gives the body and brain time to recover, while supporting metabolism, appetite regulation, and our ability to exercise the next day.
Health is more than one behavior
Research continues to demonstrate the importance of looking at health as more than one behavior. A large meta-analysis involving more than 2.8 million people found that lifestyle behaviors including regular physical activity, healthy eating, sleep, and maintaining a healthy body weight were associated with greater survival. Additionally, another manuscript found that poorer sleep characteristics were associated with less weight loss and, in some cases, lower odds of meeting physical activity recommendations during a weight-loss intervention.
This is why consistently optimizing all three can be so powerful. Exercising regularly while eating poorly may make improving body composition more difficult. Eating well and exercising but consistently sleeping five hours per night may interfere with recovery and your ability to stay active.
You do not have to be perfect every day.
Instead, focus on consistency. Move your body, fuel it with nutritious foods, and prioritize quality sleep. When exercise, nutrition, and sleep work together, your 3-pronged approach can help improve body composition and well-being while supporting long-term health and reducing your risk for chronic disease.
Article’s Sources
Creasy, S. A., Ostendorf, D. M., Blankenship, J. M., Grau, L., Arbet, J., Bessesen, D. H., Melanson, E. L., & Catenacci, V. A. (2022). Effect of sleep on weight loss and adherence to diet and physical activity recommendations during an 18-month behavioral weight loss intervention. International Journal of Obesity, 46(8), 1510–1517.
Fernández-Ballesteros, R., Valeriano-Lorenzo, E., Sánchez-Izquierdo, M., & Botella, J. (2022). Behavioral lifestyles and survival: a meta-analysis. Frontiers in Psychology, 12, 786491.
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