Find out what you really need to focus on in life to stay healthy and look good - your workout or your diet. More and more people are deciding to join the fitness community in order to improve their health and put their body in order. If you approach this issue correctly, then quickly enough you will be able to look at your reflection in the mirror with a feeling of complete satisfaction and not try to suck in your stomach.
However, often after one or two weeks of training, a person has practically nothing left of the previous impulse. Instead of getting a boost of vivacity after training, there is no energy left at all. That is why you can often hear the question - what is more important than sports or proper nutrition?
It should be said right away that it is not quite right. In fact, in order to lose weight, you only need to change your nutritional program and the body activates the lipolysis processes. However, you can wait for results in such a situation for a long time and a lot depends on the amount of excess weight. To speed up the process of losing weight, it is worth starting to play sports.
If experienced athletes already know almost everything about proper nutrition and the training process, then beginners often have a lot of questions. Actually, it is the beginners who are interested in what is more important than sports or proper nutrition. In fact, for the experienced athlete, any food is a set of nutrients. Without the presence of certain knowledge, it is quite difficult to immediately understand sports gastronomic science. Today we will help you with this and tell you about proper nutrition when playing sports.
How should you eat while exercising?
Immediately, we note that proper nutrition with low and high physical activity has certain differences. However, even if you are not engaged in fitness, you can easily use the principles of proper nutrition. However, this is a topic for a separate article, and now let's figure out how it is necessary to organize a diet for a person involved in fitness.
Calorie content of the daily diet
If you decide to get rid of excess weight, then it is absolutely impossible to significantly underestimate the calorie content of the nutrition program. If the body receives at least 1200 calories during the day, then serious troubles can arise. In addition, you will not lose weight. More precisely, the first time the weight will fall, but this will not last long.
There is such a concept in dietetics as basic metabolism. It determines the amount of energy that a person needs to maintain normal body performance. On average, this figure is in the range of 1.2-1.5 thousand calories.
It is not possible to give exact figures for a specific person, since the base metabolism depends on a large number of individual parameters. As soon as the body begins to receive less nutrients, it immediately turns on the economy mode, since it is sure that hunger has come. Unfortunately, the body doesn't care how you look. If a large energy deficit is created, then all processes slow down dramatically, including fat burning. Many people believe that the less you eat, the faster you will get rid of fat.
However, in practice this does not happen, because if the metabolism is disrupted, and with a strong energy deficit, the risks of this are very high, then it will be almost impossible to lose weight. You must supply enough calories to the body from the right foods and distribute calories wisely throughout the day. Once again, I would like to remind you that reducing the calorie content of the diet below the 1200 calorie mark can cause serious harm to the body.
You are probably wondering how to find this balance in the indicator of the energy value of the diet? An experimental method will help you here. Take as a starting point the diet that you are using at the moment. Eliminate all unhealthy foods from it.
After that, use the same foods for cooking, eating, thus, throughout the week. Weigh-in and evaluate your body in the mirror on Sunday. If there are no changes, then reduce the amount of carbohydrates by 50 grams. We will talk about the ratio of the main nutrients today.
Next week, your calorie intake will be slightly lower than the previous week. On Sunday, you again need to check the results obtained. If again there are no changes, again cut back on the amount of carbohydrates. Do this until about a kilo is lost in a week. It is this rate of weight loss that is considered normal and safe for the body. If you need to gain mass, then do the same, but the amount of carbohydrates should be increased until you get the first results.
Main Nutrient Ratio
The indicator of the energy value of the diet is an important parameter, but far from the only one. In addition to it, the quality composition of your program is of great importance for proper nutrition. Whether you want to gain weight or lose weight, a certain amount of protein compounds must be present in the diet.
You probably know the best sources of this nutrient and we will not dwell on this. The minimum requirement of the female body for protein compounds is from 90 to 100 grams, and for men - 130-200 grams. Again, it should be noted that these values are averages and a lot depends on your metabolism and physical activity. Moreover, in the concept of "physical activity" we mean not only your training, but also the energy consumption in everyday life.
Most often, people go in for sports two or three times during the week. If you add up all the energy costs, then their sum will not be as large as you think. Another thing is if you go to work and home on foot, do not use the elevator, etc. In such a situation, energy consumption increases dramatically. Foods containing protein compounds can be consumed throughout the day, and dinner should be made completely protein.
When in the previous section we talked about calculating the energy value for weight loss, it was not without reason that we talked about manipulating only one carbohydrate. The other two nutrients (fats and protein compounds) should be constant for you.
This is due to the fact that carbohydrates are the cheapest and fastest "fuel" for the body. For example, the brain uses only glucose as energy, which in turn is synthesized from carbohydrates. However, this nutrient can be different. There are fast (simple) and complex (slow) carbohydrates. They differ in processing speed and you need to focus on slow ones.
They are processed by the digestive system for a long time, and thus do not provoke a sharp release of insulin. Let us remind you that it is this hormone that is “guilty” of fat accumulation. Remove sugar from your diet by replacing it with honey, which, however, should be consumed in moderation.
Do not listen to those who advocate the complete elimination of fat from the diet. In no case should this be done. Moreover, fats can also be of two types - saturated and unsaturated. The first are considered useful, and they are found mainly in plant products. The only exception is marine fish, which are a strong source of nutrients such as omega-3s.
Although saturated fats are usually called harmful, it is from them that the body synthesizes sex hormones and other substances it needs. This suggests that both types of fats should be present in your diet, but priority should be given to unsaturated fats. By the way, saturated fats are found in animal products such as red meat. The average rate of fat per day for a person is from 30 to 40 grams.
Water
Don't be surprised that we have isolated water separately. Often, people consume little liquid, which negatively affects the functioning of the body. We all know that our body is about 80 percent water. It is necessary for the course of all biochemical processes, toxins are dissolved in it, and then disposed of, without water, cellular metabolism slows down.
During training, in the pauses between sets, you need to take one or two sips to eliminate the possibility of dehydration. Otherwise, the effectiveness of the training will decrease. At the same time, drinking a lot of water during the lesson is also not worth it, so as not to cause a feeling of discomfort. Let us tell you a little secret of professional bodybuilders.
Believe me, they know almost everything about proper nutrition and can even compete with nutritionists in this matter. It's no secret that all athletes use sports nutrition. You may not need it. However, if you decide, after reading an article on a profile web resource, to try such an additive as BCAA, then dilute a portion before starting the training and gradually drink this cocktail. As a result, you can suppress catabolic processes and prevent dehydration. Remember to drink enough water throughout the day - two to three liters.
How to eat right before and after fitness?
Knowing the answer to the question of what is more important sports or proper nutrition, it is necessary to get acquainted with the rules for organizing meals before and after classes. This is important enough and you should not ignore the recommendations that we will now give you. Your body needs energy to fully complete your workout program. Thus, before starting the training, you need to eat, but do it an hour or an hour and a half before class.
At this point, complex carbohydrates should be in your diet, which will provide you with the necessary energy storage. You've probably heard of the "protein-carbohydrate window" before. Today, more and more often disputes arise about this concept, and often athletes say that there is no window. We will not discuss this topic now, but will only inform you that after the training you should drink a portion of whey protein or the same BCAA.
This is necessary in order to suppress the catabolic reactions triggered during training, and at the same time activate the anabolic ones. The faster your body begins to repair microdamage to muscle tissue, the faster you can prepare for a new activity. A full meal should take place about an hour and a half after the end of the session.
It should also be said that food should be taken five or six times a day. In addition to the three main meals, two snacks must be organized. While losing weight, many fitness and healthy lifestyle fans use protein blends at this time, namely casein. This type of sports nutrition is characterized by a low indicator of energy value, and also perfectly saturates. Vegetables and fruits can also be an excellent choice. They will supply trace elements and plant fibers to the body.
How to combine sports and proper nutrition, see the following video:
