Calories from food enable the body to function fully. Each person has individual needs and norms. Nutrition during stress and an active lifestyle is noticeably different from the menu of an office worker.
How many calories do you need during exercise?
In order to understand what nutrition should be, and achieve the desired figure, you need to calculate the approximate number of calories per day. Women who lead a sedentary lifestyle need 1200-1800 kcal per day to maintain their figure. If the main goal is to lose weight, then the diet should be 1200-1300 kcal. Falling below this threshold is hazardous to health.
Eating during exercise should be balanced, rather than high-calorie. With moderate physical activity, women can add 200-300 kcal. In this case, additional calories should be obtained from protein foods and complex carbohydrates. Those who want to lose weight and do not see results from training should reduce the calorie intake of the diet by 200-300 kcal. Remove sweet fruits, juice from packets, honey, fatty foods from the diet and the weight will begin to decrease.
The diet for athletes requires an increase in the diet of 200-500 kcal... The daily minimum for men is 1200-2000 kcal. With regular exercise, the calorie content should be increased to 2500-3000 kcal, depending on the intensity of the training. Bodybuilders and professional athletes can consume about 4,000 calories per day and still have a slim appearance. The thing is that they adhere to a special diet and daily regimen.
What should be the diet when playing sports?
In order for your workouts to be beneficial, you need to eat right. You can not carry out power loads for weight loss with a low-calorie diet. Fasting and severe dietary restrictions do not lead to weight loss, but greatly impair health. The calorie deficit ultimately affects the quality of the skin, hair, nails, performance, and the functions of the digestive system. Malnutrition will prevent you from exercising fruitfully, which makes exercise useless.
The diet for athletes is high in protein, slow carbs, and healthy fats.... Since protein is responsible for muscle growth, cell renewal and body tissue, it must be present in the athlete's diet every day. High-protein foods include: low-fat cottage cheese, meat, chicken, rabbit, fish, seafood, cheeses, almonds, dairy products, eggs.
Complex carbohydrates are an ideal source of energy. They are found in cereals, whole grain breads, fruits, vegetables, potatoes, pasta, and rice. It is recommended to eat a portion of carbohydrates with proteins 2-3 hours before training. This can be a plate of buckwheat porridge with chicken breast or oatmeal with nuts. If you feel hungry and powerless before training, it is recommended to eat small cookies, marmalade, candy. However, you should not get carried away with sweets, as they increase sugar levels and are reflected in weight.
Fats are limited in nutrition during exercise. It is desirable to use vegetable oils, fatty fish, nuts, seeds. It is not recommended to consume fatty foods in 2-3 hours, especially in combination with proteins.
Experts advise switching to fractional power supply during exercise. Frequent small meals are more beneficial to the digestive system than meals 1-2 times a day. The first breakfast accounts for 5% of the daily diet, the second breakfast takes 30%, the post-workout snack is 5%, another 30% is reserved for lunch, the second snack is 5%, and the dinner takes 25%. Fruits and vegetables - 10-15% of the daily diet.
During training, be sure to drink clean water. Always keep a bottle of water close at hand. It is enough to take a few small sips to quench your thirst and not create heaviness in the stomach.
Immediately after training, you need to replenish the energy reserve. For this, fruit, kefir, dry biscuits are suitable. After a couple of hours, you need to eat a protein dish combined with carbohydrates. Protein promotes the growth of muscle tissue, which replaces body fat. You can get a portion of amino acids from cottage cheese, meat, chicken, fish, nuts, eggs. It is best to use cereals and whole grain breads for post-workout carbs. Carbohydrates are needed to balance liver glycogen consumption.
Cabbage, peas, beans, bacon, lentils take a long time to digest, so it's better not to eat them on workout days. In addition, these foods can cause gas and bloating. It is better to use boiled, steamed, baked meat in the diet during exercise., liquid oatmeal, pureed vegetables.
If you need loads for weight loss, then reduce the daily calorie intake by 200-300 kcal, but do not forget to eat 5-6 times a day. Limit fat and cut out fast carbohydrates.
Those looking to gain weight should increase their calories with exercise. Eat more medium-fat cottage cheese, cheeses, nuts, and seeds.
To gain muscle mass during exercise, you need to add 30-60 g of protein to the main diet. Make sure that after a workout, food consists of protein and a portion of slow carbohydrates (buckwheat, oatmeal, brown rice).
Today, there are many different nutritional strategies for athletes with varying levels of physical activity, compiled by scientists. All main types
sports can be divided into the following five categories:
- performances at competitions;
- with prolonged physical activity;
- with constant, volumetric physical activity;
However, despite the existence of all kinds of rational nutrition methods for
athletes, they also have several general rules and recommendations for proper nutrition during physical activity.
Diet for girls and men from Sergey Yugai
Everyone who goes in for sports understands perfectly well that physical activity alone is not enough to have a beautiful and fit figure. It is imperative to adhere to proper nutrition when playing sports. In this article, we will tell you about the nutritional features for women and men who are active in the gym to look fit and attractive.
Basic nutritional rules for losing weight and playing sports
A healthy diet is the key to success in life, not only when a person is actively involved in sports. Nutritionists advise everyone to eat right in order to feel good and at the same time have a slim figure.
Sports and healthy eating are concepts that cannot exist separately from each other. And there are several main reasons for this:
- If you adhere to the canons of proper nutrition, you can significantly reduce the risk of injury and other health problems.
- If you eat only healthy food, the heart will work better, and the blood vessels will be cleaner, since harmful cholesterol will not settle in them.
- With proper nutrition and fitness, the skin looks much better, cleaner, more attractive, younger.
- If you eat right and at the same time do fitness, then a person will feel vigorous and energetic all day.
- If you eat right and exercise, you can maintain your ideal weight throughout life.
- The muscles become strong and resilient.
- The metabolism is accelerated.
We now list a few basic dietary rules that should be followed by both women and men who play sports:
- Consume as many calories as you can definitely burn during your workout. Here you need to maintain a balance so that beautiful muscle mass builds up. If this rule is neglected, then the body will take away the internal reserves of the body, which in turn will be depleted.
- Make sure you have natural protein in your diet, which is found in chicken, turkey, seafood, eggs and cottage cheese.
- Be sure to saturate your diet with complex carbohydrates, which will help the protein to be absorbed better. It should be cereals, durum pasta, coarse bread, as well as fresh vegetables and fruits.
- Cut back on your fat intake. Replace animal fats with vegetable fats. They should make up 15% of your daily diet so that you can feel normal and live a full life.
- Eat at least 6 times a day. However, it is very important to consume food 2 hours before you go to workout and 1 hour after your workout is over.
- Drink plenty of clean water throughout the day. The minimum amount of water should be 1.5-2 liters. You need to drink in small sips, even during training, so that dehydration does not occur, which is dangerous to health.
The female body is designed in such a way that metabolic processes in it occur 20% slower than in men. It is from this fact that every girl should make a start when she will compose food for herself both before and after playing sports.
We will list a few of the main features:
- The girl needs to eat 5 times a day. And in no case is it unacceptable to skip breakfast. If you feel hungry during the day, then the number of meals should be increased.
- You should always eat at the same time so that the body gets used to the individual diet.
- You can have dinner 2 hours before bedtime, as long as the dinner is light. Preference should be given to vegetables and cereals. Protein is not useful for women at night, it is best to exclude meat dishes.
- The maximum number of calories that a girl playing sports should consume per day should be 2,000.
- In no case should you eat sugary foods and alcoholic beverages, because all this will not allow the muscles to recover from stress during training.
- Potatoes and pasta, which men can afford as a side dish, must be replaced with vegetables. Moreover, these vegetables must be either baked, or boiled, or steamed.
- Avoid additional supplements often offered by sports nutrition manufacturers. They will only harm your health, although you can achieve the result much earlier. But do not sacrifice your health for the sake of dubious beauty.
If you have started to actively engage in sports, then in order for it to bring you tangible and desired results, you need to carefully monitor your diet... After all, if you eat not the most useful and "correct" foods in large quantities, then even the most intense loads will not help you to find the shape of your dreams and an elastic toned body.
First, determine for yourself, how many calories per day you need to consume for your complexion, and in what ratio should there be fats, proteins and carbohydrates in this diet. In addition, it is important to consider other equally important points that you can learn about from this article.
How many calories you need to consume per day
If your goal is to lose weight, then it is not at all necessary to reduce the daily calorie intake as much as possible. More precisely, it is categorically impossible to do this. Any severe restrictions on food and a decrease in the total daily calorie intake less than 1200 kcal per day entails the likelihood of serious failures in the main. Since it is 1200-1500 calories on average that a person needs per day to maintain basic metabolism... This energy is spent on the work of the cardiovascular system, maintaining body temperature, and so on.
If the body receives fewer calories, then it automatically "turns on" the mode energy saving, as he believes that there has been a "famine". All processes slow down, and your progress in losing weight is also inhibited.
Thus, thinking that the less we eat, the faster we will lose weight is serious. error, fraught with metabolic disorders in the future. That is, it will be even more difficult for you to lose weight.
In fact, you need to consume enough calories per day, you just need to take them from the "right" products and distribute them correctly throughout the day.
Carbohydrates are also important during intense sports activities, as they provide us with the necessary energy... But it is important to consume precisely the complex carbohydrates found in cereals, whole grain breads, pasta, and vegetables. Complex carbohydrates are ideal for breakfast. And simple, fast carbohydrates, which are saturated with sweets, rich pastries, honey, should be excluded as much as possible.
Fats cannot be completely excluded from the diet, since many of them control important metabolic processes in the human body. Preference should be given to high-quality vegetable unrefined oils, nuts, red fish, but even here you should know when to stop. The average maximum amount of healthy fats per day is 30-40 grams.
Why is it important to drink plenty of water?
If you strive for a toned harmonious figure, regularly go in for sports, then it is especially important for you to consume the required amount water(namely water, not coffee, tea or juice). Dehydration not only can reduce the effectiveness of your workout, but also significantly harm your health. Water can be drunk both before and after training. If you are very thirsty during sports, you should also drink water.
Water prevents dehydration of the body, helps it replenish energy, protects the cardiovascular system, improves the functioning of the digestive tract, helps your skin look younger, cleanses the body of toxins.
On average, a person needs to consume 2-3 liters of water per day. But there is an important the rule: try not to drink twenty minutes before meals and one hour after meals.
Nutrition before and after exercise
On an empty stomach, you can practice only in the morning, after waking up. If you exercise in the afternoon, then you should definitely eat before exercising. It is best to eat in 1-1.5 hours before training. It is good if these are foods containing complex carbohydrates - thanks to this, you will receive a supply of energy during exercise.
After exercise, the so-called "Protein-carbohydrate window"... If you want to build muscle mass, you can eat any protein product(for example, cottage cheese), or a drink. A full meal is best organized about 1.5 hours after the end of the workout.
Is always quench your thirst during exercise to prevent dehydration.
- Stick five to six meals a day, that is, eat about every 3 hours in small portions. During the day, you should have three full meals - breakfast, lunch and dinner and 2-3 light snacks (cottage cheese, low-fat yogurt, kefir, fruits, vegetables).
- The portion should be about the size of your Palm.
- On breakfast complex carbohydrates, or a combination of carbohydrates and proteins are best suited.
- On dinner product combinations such as potatoes or pasta with meat or fish are excluded. The best combination of protein and vegetables in this meal is the optimal balanced composition to continue the day, especially if you have a workout in the gym in the afternoon.
- Dinner it is best to make it completely protein, or combine protein with vegetables. Protein nutrition helps muscles recover from exercise.
- In no case don't starve on training days, this can lead to dangerous consequences for the body.
- Try to do not eat in a hurry- it's easier to overeat or grab forbidden foods on the go. Serve the table, put a portion on a plate, do not eat from a common dish - this is more difficult to control the portion size.
- Eat as little as possible salt.
- To draw up a competent diet, you can refer to nutritionist or a sports coach to help you consider your level of physical activity.
List of the most useful and prohibited foods for an athlete
If you want to build muscle or lose weight through sports and a variety of physical exercises, then by all means in your diet must be present:
- Buckwheat
- Oatmeal (NOT Instant Oatmeal)
- Boiled chicken breast or other lean meat (turkey, rabbit, beef)
- Cottage cheese with a fat content of 5% or less
- Kefir 1%
- Milk with a fat content of 2.5% or less
- Natural yoghurt (you can make it yourself based on yoghurt starter culture)
- Assorted vegetables
- Greens
- Fruit (best consumed in the morning)
- Vegetable oils
- Nuts and seeds
There is an opinion: the main thing that should differ in the diet during physical activity is a huge amount of proteins. The rest is as necessary. An army of nutritionists has been fighting against this point of view for decades. But the fact remains: protein shakes and supplements in sports nutrition stores are traditionally the most popular products. So what should be the proper nutrition during intense physical activity?
Protein and Carbohydrates: The Right Ratio
Indeed, proteins are necessary at increased loads. It is the activation of proteins that gives the necessary muscle growth. But this does not mean at all that the amount of protein should significantly overlap the amount of carbohydrates in the diet.
For people not burdened with physical activity, nature has provided for such a ratio of proteins, fats and carbohydrates in the diet: 1: 1: 4. This means that one part of protein must account for one part of fat and four parts of carbohydrates.
At increased loads, the proportions may shift - up to a maximum of 1: 1: 2. That is, the amount of carbohydrates should, in any case, be at least 2 times higher than the amount of proteins, no matter what sport you do. Otherwise, sooner or later your disoriented body will start to rebel. And that's why.
Carbohydrates are the main source of energy for the body, proteins are the building blocks of muscles. When we do not have enough carbohydrates, the body simply does not have the strength to deliver the building material to the cells. Therefore, carbohydrates should never be neglected. The same goes for fats. Fat is the second most important source of energy after carbohydrates. Therefore, a small amount of fat in the diet of a physically active person should always be present. We give preference to polyunsaturated fatty acids found in nuts, fish, vegetable oils.
Rational nutrition in numbers
Most modern nutritionists say that with increased physical activity, it is advisable to eat 5-6 times a day. Such nutrition is the most physiological. In this case, the first breakfast should be 5% of the daily calorie content, the second breakfast - 30%, additional food after training - 5%, lunch - 30%, afternoon tea - 5%, dinner - 25%. The volume of food should not be too large: for 70 kg of body weight, from 3 to 3.5 kg of food per day. Fruits and vegetables should make up 10-15% of the diet. On class days, breakfast and lunch should be nutritious. It should be a food high in carbohydrates, it will give strength before starting work (such foods as oatmeal with skim milk, boiled potatoes, crispbreads, crackers, toast, bread with jam or honey are rich in carbohydrates). Drink water throughout the day, especially in the last hour before class.
What to eat before training?
The last meal should be no later than an hour before class. The body cannot digest large amounts of food during exercise, so it is unwise to eat right before exercise.
An important condition is the variety of your menu, as well as high-quality culinary processing of products.
The easiest to digest are boiled, steamed meat, mashed legumes, oatmeal, and cereals. It is advisable to avoid the same side dishes. In the hot season, the calorie content should be slightly reduced. In the fall and winter, you need to increase your protein intake and reduce the amount of fat you eat. Try to eat foods that are difficult to digest as little as possible: cabbage, beans, lentils, peas, beans, bacon.
After classes
If you do not eat for 5 hours after intense exercise, your blood glucose levels drop to dangerously low levels. Therefore, try to eat within two hours after class ends. Here are a few dishes that are perfect for this: oatmeal cookies, fruitcake, pasta with vegetables, fish or chicken, baked potatoes with low-fat seasoning, boiled rice and sweet corn salad, fruit salad with oatmeal, vegetable stew.
Vitamins
Do not forget that with increased loads, your diet, more than ever, needs to be fortified with vitamins. Where you will get them - from vitamin preparations or natural products - is not so important. The main thing is that they are. The most important for us are:
- Vitamin E (tocopherol acetate) - promotes efficient absorption of oxygen by cells, regulates oxidative processes and promotes the accumulation of ATP in muscles, increases physical performance during anaerobic work. It is used for high physical exertion of anaerobic and speed-power orientation.
- Vitamin C (ascorbic acid) - the deficiency of this vitamin manifests itself in increased fatigue, a decrease in the body's resistance to colds. Deficiency is usually seen in late winter and early spring. Vitamin C is an effective stimulant of oxidative processes, increases endurance, accelerates the recovery of physical performance. It is part of all multivitamin complexes, nutritional mixtures for use during training and endurance competitions.
- B vitamins increase the body's resistance to hypoxia, increase the synthesis of glycogen in muscles, liver and myocardium, and in muscles - contribute to the production of creatine phosphate. They are necessary to accelerate recovery during periods of high physical exertion, with symptoms of myocardial overstrain, pain in the liver.
You shouldn't forget about other vitamins and microelements either. It is very important that your body receives them in the right proportions at the right time. For this, it is advisable to consult a good specialist. It is inappropriate to be shy and stingy here. Especially when your beauty, health, fitness and good mood are at stake.
Every person actively involved in sports knows that the more intense the training, the faster the body wears out. And in order to avoid this, the health did not deteriorate with each subsequent training, but on the contrary it became stronger and stronger.
stronger, an athlete undergoing high training loads needs to eat right. Nutrition during physical activity should be as balanced as possible: an athlete, along with food, must necessarily receive all the necessary vitamins, as well as proteins, fats and carbohydrates with fiber.
Today, there are many different nutritional strategies for athletes with varying levels of physical activity, compiled by scientists. All main types
sports can be divided into the following five categories:
- performances at competitions;
- with prolonged physical activity;
- with constant, volumetric physical activity;
However, despite the existence of all kinds of rational nutrition methods for
athletes, they also have several general rules and recommendations for proper nutrition during physical activity.
1. If the duration of your workout is more than 45 minutes, it is recommended to drink a special mineral-carbohydrate drink one hour before the start, consisting of lemon juice, honey, as well as minerals and vitamins.
2. At the end of physical activity, it is imperative to replenish energy reserves. To do this, you can eat oatmeal cookies, grapes, or an orange. With intense loads, it is recommended to switch to a six-meal diet. At the same time, 10% of the total diet should be vegetables and fruits.
3. It is known that at high sports loads, the protein, which is so necessary for the body, is consumed too quickly. Therefore, it must be restored in a timely manner. In addition, it is simply necessary for every athlete to increase muscle mass and is used as a building material for the whole body. In one workout, an athlete loses about 15 grams of protein, therefore, in case of insufficient intake of it with food, the body will begin to wear out very quickly.
4. Observe the water regime. Our body, regardless of any circumstances, must necessarily receive a sufficient amount of clean water. Thirst begins to manifest itself already with a loss of 1% of the fluid. With a loss of 3%, endurance indicators decrease, but with 5%, a person's transition into a state of apathy becomes possible. With large, intense loads and temperatures of 27 ° C and above, the body loses a little more than 2 liters of water per hour. And these losses must be replenished in a timely manner.
5. Before the upcoming serious workout, be sure to drink half a liter of water an hour before the start.
6. In case of deterioration or complete loss of appetite, you should introduce foods rich in carbohydrates into your diet.
7. Be sure to follow the diet. Eat always at the same specific time, or at least try to do so. If you want to eat before training, eat, but you need to do it at least a few hours before the start: it should have time to digest and absorb.
8. Replace heavy carbohydrates for the body with fructose and easily digestible carbohydrates (fruits, juices, honey, jam).
9. Eat as little salty food as possible.
10. A few days before the start of the competition or return to sports activities after a break, the body should be given a good rest and provided with high quality food rich in carbohydrates. During this period, it is important to drink as much liquid as possible and take light walks in the fresh air.