Nutrition during exercise in the gym. Proper nutrition for sports

When playing sports, you spend more energy than a person who is far from sports. You need energy to work your muscles during workouts and so you don't feel weak afterward. To grow your muscles, you need building materials for them - proteins. Without enough protein, muscles will not be able to grow. During training, you lose a large amount of moisture - up to 1000 ml per workout. And water is necessary for all life processes in the body. Therefore you need more water.

Nutrition and the gym are directly related: active physical activity obliges you to change your diet in such a way as to satisfy the increased needs of the body. And the combination of proper nutrition and sports will make you strong, beautiful and healthy.

The basic nutrition rules for the gym are as follows:

meals should be fractional - 5-6 times a day in small portions;
the calorie content of your daily diet should exceed your energy expenditure - this is the only way you can create the energy reserve necessary for muscle formation;
protein consumption should be increased - muscles need building material;
you must consume a sufficient amount of complex carbohydrates - from them the body can draw energy for training;
drink enough water - at least 3 liters per day;
eat vegetables - they contain essential vitamins, amino acids, minerals and fiber;
Don't increase the amount of fat in your diet - you don't want to build up fat mass.

Nutrition for the gym should be composed as follows: you get 10-15% of your daily calorie intake from protein foods, about 25-30% from fats (and preference is given to unsaturated vegetable fats, which are found in nuts, grains, olive oil) , the rest is from carbohydrates. 95% of carbohydrates consumed should come from complex carbohydrates - grains, vegetables, cereals, legumes, potatoes, nuts, and only 5% from fast carbohydrates, which are found in sugars.

Proper nutrition and sports

Proper nutrition and exercise can provide you with a boost of energy throughout the day; with proper nutrition and exercise, your body will be strong and healthy. Your daily calorie intake is several times higher than the calorie intake for a person who is not involved in sports, and the more intense your physical activity, the more calories you need, so calorie restriction during training is unacceptable. Proper nutrition during training will allow you to maintain health and increase it - this is the most important goal of sports. But eating right for the gym isn't just about changing your diet—you need to follow a specific eating regimen that is directly related to your workouts.

Pre-workout nutrition

The pre-workout meal should be protein-carbohydrate, with a minimum fat content. Carbohydrates will provide your muscles with quick and powerful bursts of energy, and proteins will participate in metabolism and form strong and beautiful muscles.

Carbohydrates in muscles are present in the form of glycogens, and the more intense the workout, the more glycogens your muscles need. Proteins act as sources of amino acids for your working muscles. Immediately after training, protein synthesis in the muscles increases greatly, and as a result, muscle mass increases.

But it’s better to avoid fats - the presence of fat in your diet before training will slow down digestion, and if the food does not have time to be digested before training, you may experience unpleasant symptoms such as belching, gas, colic and nausea during training.

An example of proper nutrition before training is boiled or baked poultry, lean beef or fish with cereals, potatoes or coarse bread, or an omelet made from egg whites. Vegetables, soup, meat, cereals and other bulky foods should be eaten a couple of hours before training, and 30 minutes before it starts you can have a snack with low-fat cottage cheese. Eating an apple, pear or berries in combination with a protein shake half an hour before training will also contribute to muscle growth.

Proper nutrition during training allows you to drink strong natural coffee without cream half an hour before training or strong green tea - this will not only give you an energy boost during training, but will also trigger the production of enzymes that break down fat and use it as fuel. This way, you can burn excess fat during your workout and stay alert for the next 2 hours, which is very useful if you exercise in the morning.

Nutrition during training

Even if you are not trying to build muscle mass, do not neglect proper nutrition in the gym, namely, drink plenty of water. Sometimes girls deliberately do not drink not only during training, but also after it - they mistakenly believe that dehydration and losing extra pounds are the same thing. However, out of 500 grams lost during training, at least 400 grams is water, which the body needs for its normal functioning and is an indispensable participant in all chemical reactions in the body. No water - no chemical reactions, metabolism slows down, health worsens, the state becomes lethargic, and even the intestines suddenly begin to malfunction - constipation appears. Symptoms of dehydration are a feeling of thirst, dry lips and dry mouth, weakness, fatigue, headache and dizziness, irritability. If you notice them in yourself, drink water immediately. Proper nutrition during training involves replenishing fluid deficiency. Moreover, it is best to drink water during training in the following way: drink 1 glass right before the start of training, and then drink a few sips every 15-20 minutes.

During long or very intense workouts, it will be useful to drink carbohydrate sports drinks - do not be afraid to gain weight, during intense physical activity the body will not absorb more than 60 grams of carbohydrates, but they will give you the necessary energy and relieve fatigue after training. Instead of carbohydrate cocktails, you can drink fruit juices. But it is strictly forbidden to drink soda - it is sugar, chemicals and water, there will be no benefit from it, only harm.

Post-workout nutrition

In the first 20 minutes after training, the body needs proteins - if you don’t give them to it, it will begin to “eat” the muscles. If you give the body protein - a glass of kefir, a protein shake, cottage cheese - then all this protein will be used to restore muscles. Not a single calorie will go to fat, but your muscles will not hurt after training. You can eat an apple or drink a glass of fruit juice as a source of carbohydrates immediately after your workout. To replenish the carbohydrate deficiency, any carbohydrate food that does not contain fat is also suitable - potatoes, fruits, pasta, porridge.

But coffee, green tea, chocolate - anything that contains caffeine - should not be eaten within 2 hours after training. Caffeine affects insulin function and interferes with the removal of glycogen from muscles, as well as protein “repair” of muscles.

Diets VS sports: what to eat when doing fitness?

1. The most optimal way to eat when playing sports

The most optimal way to eat when playing sports is considered to be counting calories, proteins, fats and carbohydrates. This is the method that will help make your diet as balanced as possible. Previously, a detailed article was published on how to correctly count calories. It only remains to add that proteins, carbohydrates and fats should be in the following ratio: 30-40-30. For detailed calculations, you can use the dietaonline service, which will automatically calculate the KBZHU numbers in accordance with your input data: weight, age, lifestyle activity.

What is important to know:

Do not eat below the established caloric intake. Your diet should be nutritious so that during fitness activities the body does not try to burn muscle to generate energy. 1200 calorie meal ( and even more so below)- this is a direct way to kill your metabolism.
You should also not exceed the permissible daily calorie intake. If you regularly consume more calories than you burn during the day, then you will not lose weight even with active fitness.
Don't forget to count proteins, carbohydrates and fats. When playing sports, it is especially important to consume the right amount of protein to avoid losing muscle mass. Read also: how to calculate BZHU and why is it needed?

2. Acceptable Diet Options for Exercise

If counting calories seems too complicated for you to lose weight, then you can choose gentle diet options. For example, the Protasov diet, Dukan diet, minus 60 system. If you follow all the rules of these diets, they can lead you to good results. Although such nutrition systems during sports are not desirable, they are possible. If you cannot switch to proper nutrition on your own, such diets can help you with this.

What is important to know:

Avoid fitness activities on those days when you feel like you ate less than you should. For example, you missed a meal ( system minus 60), there were no necessary products at home ( shuffle, Dukan), had no appetite during the day.
It is not recommended to exercise with such dietary restrictions. intense training ( for example, Insanity) And long-term training ( longer than 45 minutes).
Do not exercise during this period Dukan's "attacks". During this period, you will be limited in carbohydrates, so you will not have enough energy during exercise.
If you are choosing between calculating KBJU and the above-mentioned diets, it is better to choose the first option. It's more efficient and safe way to lose weight.

3. Undesirable diets when playing sports

What diets are contraindicated for the body when playing sports? This is all strict diets with serious dietary restrictions. For example:

Mono-diets based on the consumption of any one product. These are the well-known ones: buckwheat, kefir, rice, oatmeal diets, etc. Such an unbalanced diet clearly deprives you of the norm of carbohydrates and proteins, which means that training will only be harmful to the body.
"Hunger Diets", in which you will eat less than 1200 kcal per day. For example, the popular Japanese diet. The reasons are the same as described above: lack of energy ( carbohydrates) the body will compensate through muscles. And the material for their construction ( with limited protein) it just won't happen.
"No-carbohydrate diets", in which it is proposed to exclude carbohydrate foods. To provide energy during fitness, you need carbohydrates. Without them, you will, at best, feel overwhelmed during your workouts. And at worst, you will faint. In this case, you should not expect any positive results.

If you still decide to go on a strict diet, then training for this period of time it's better to exclude it completely. Fitness is effective only with a competent and nutritious diet. If you want to lose weight and stay healthy, nutrition when playing sports should be:

optimal in terms of calories;
optimal according to BZHU;
without sudden jumps from “glutton” to fasting days and vice versa.

Proper nutrition for weight loss will allow you to achieve weight loss and fat burning without harm to the body. In order to achieve the desired result, you need to have complete information on how to lose weight with proper nutrition.

The main thing is to start

Starting to eat healthy can be overwhelming for people who are accustomed to eating unhealthy, high-calorie foods. But in order to lose weight, you need to step over yourself and adjust your diet. The following rules provided by a healthy nutrition system will help you start eating right.

Their essence is this:

Proper nutrition for weight loss is a diet consisting of a large amount of seasonal vegetables and fruits, greens, cereals, low-fat dairy products, fish, and seafood. When choosing meat, preference should be given to low-fat varieties.
A healthy diet means excluding foods that are harmful to the body. In order to create a diet for weight loss, you need to give up fatty, spicy, fried foods, sweets, canned food, carbonated and alcoholic drinks. It is also recommended to avoid eating meat and dairy products, which contain large amounts of fat. There is no need to completely eliminate fats. It is enough to replace them with vegetable ones, or those obtained from fish and seafood.

Healthy diet

A healthy diet plan for weight loss requires adherence to a regimen. The regimen is based on eating food at approximately the same time. This will activate the body's metabolic processes and lead to the breakdown of fat. The correct regimen is 5 meals a day, with time intervals between meals not exceeding 2.5 - 3.5 hours. For beginners, the diet must be strictly followed, and it looks like this:
1. Breakfast – 7.00. Consists of cereals, protein foods, vegetables or fruits.
2. Snack – 10.00. Cottage cheese or any fermented milk products, fruits, vegetables.
3. Lunch – 13.00. Light soup, meat or fish with vegetables.
4. Snack – 16.00.
5. Dinner – 19.00. Vegetable salad, cottage cheese dish, fish or meat, dairy products. By following a regimen, as well as a balanced diet that supplies the body with all the necessary substances, you can achieve quick and proper weight loss. In this case, the lost weight will not return.
Drinking clean water throughout the day activates metabolic processes in the body. To restore water balance, you need to drink about 2 liters of clean water per day.
In order to switch to proper nutrition for beginners, it is not enough to adjust the diet. It is necessary to change the system of preparing healthy foods. Therefore, it is necessary to avoid frying them and using large amounts of salt and spices.

This article is not about “sports nutrition”, i.e. anabolic drugs and various dietary supplements, information about which can be found on specialized resources, and the positive effect of which on the body raises certain doubts in our minds, namely how to properly eat regular food while playing sports.

The human body must receive a sufficient amount of carbohydrates and proteins every day, as well as some fats, vitamins, minerals and plenty of water. The effectiveness of sports activities is associated with a significant activation of protein synthesis in working muscles. The formation of the necessary protein structures that ensure specific muscle function is associated with increased gene activity and requires adequate protein nutrition. For people experiencing heavy physical activity, the diet should contain nonessential and essential amino acids in certain proportions. Unfortunately, our usual diet does not provide the body with a sufficient amount of easily digestible proteins, especially amino acids, in the required ratio. Therefore, with increased muscle activity, there is a need for additional protein nutrition or the use of special products of increased biological value (with optimal content of essential amino acids, vitamins, mineral salts, etc.).

The main function of proteins is to form and repair tissues and cells of the body. Carbohydrates are the main source of energy needed by the body during heavy physical activity. Fats are the second most important source of energy. During physical activity, more proteins, carbohydrates and fats are required than without them.

During high physical activity, it is advisable to use 5-6 meals a day. This type of nutrition is more physiological. The first breakfast is 5%, the second breakfast is 30%, additional nutrition after training is 5%, lunch is 30%, afternoon snack is 5%, dinner is 25% of daily calories. The amount 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 sports days, breakfast and lunch should be nutritious. In the afternoon, at approximately 2-hour intervals, you need to eat several times. This should be a high carbohydrate food, it will give you strength before starting classes. Drink plenty of water throughout the day, especially in the last hour before class starts.

Try to consume hard-to-digest foods as little as possible - cabbage, beans, lentils, beans, peas, pork and lamb lard. It is better to use such products less often than others and only after training sessions. An important point is the variety of food, as well as high-quality culinary processing of food. After this, ground, boiled, steamed meat, pureed legumes, and oatmeal in the form of jelly with milk are easier to digest. Frequent repetition of dishes and monotony of food are undesirable. Neutral soups must be alternated with sour ones. It is advisable to avoid identical side dishes. In hot climates, calorie content should be slightly reduced. In cold climates, it is necessary to increase protein intake, but the amount of fat consumed should be reduced.

Meals before starting classes

The body cannot digest large amounts of food during exercise, so it is unwise to eat right before exercise. But to play sports, you need a lot of energy. Carbohydrates are the best source of energy, so they should be included in breakfast or lunch 3 hours before the start of classes, or eaten in small portions no later than an hour before they start. Foods rich in carbohydrates include: oatmeal with skim milk, boiled potatoes, crispbread, crackers, toast, bread with jam or honey.

Nutrition after sports activities

If you've worked hard physically but haven't eaten for 5 hours, your blood glucose levels drop so much that exercise becomes too much. Even if there are no obvious painful sensations, it still negatively affects endurance and the ability to concentrate during exercise. Try to eat within two hours of finishing your class. If exercise suppresses your appetite, snack on something high in carbohydrates as soon as possible. Here are a few dishes that are ideal for this: oatmeal cookies, fruit cake, pasta with vegetables, fish or chicken, baked potatoes with low-fat seasoning, boiled rice and sweet corn salad, fruit salad with oatmeal, vegetable stew.

Carbohydrates are digested at different rates, so your blood sugar may rise slowly or quickly.

Starch contained in potatoes, bread and rice releases its energy slowly, and simple carbohydrates contained in jam, honey, fruits, and juices quickly.

"High-energy" foods (raisins, bananas, honey, jam, glucose, candy, chocolate, sweet cookies, as well as rice, bread, sweet corn, potatoes, beans) are best consumed before exercise; moderate-rate foods (pasta, oats, sweet potatoes, oatmeal, grapes, orange, oatmeal cookies) that increase sugar levels - immediately after exercise; and “low-speed” (milk, yogurt, ice cream, apples, plums, grapefruit, dates, figs and legumes) even later.

Vitamin preparations

Among pharmacological means of restoring performance during increased physical activity, vitamins occupy a special place. Their loss during work or chronic lack of food lead not only to decreased performance, but also to various painful conditions.

To meet the body's needs for vitamins, in addition to vegetables and fruits, they additionally take ready-made multivitamin preparations.

1. Aerovit. Increases physical performance, accelerates the body's recovery after heavy physical exertion. Dosage: 1 tablet 1 time per day for 3-4 weeks.

2. Decamevit. Strengthens the protective functions of the body, accelerates the course of recovery processes, and prevents the aging process of the body. Dosage: 1 tablet 2 times a day for 2-3 weeks.

3. Undevit. Used for recovery after heavy physical exertion. Dosage: 2 tablets 2 times a day for 10 days, then 1 tablet 2 times a day for the next 20 days

4. Glutamevit. Accelerates recovery processes during periods of heavy loads, increases physical performance. Dosage: 1 tablet 3 times a day for 2-3 weeks.

5. Tetravit. Accelerates recovery after heavy loads. Dosage: 1 tablet 2-3 times a day.

6. Vitamin B-g (calcium pangamate) - increases the body's resistance to hypoxia, increases the synthesis of glycogen in the muscles, liver and myocardium, and creatine phosphate - in the muscles and myocardium. It is used to speed up recovery during periods of heavy physical exertion, in cases of myocardial overstrain, and pain in the liver.

7. Vitamin E (tocopherol acetate) - has an antihypoxic effect, regulates oxidative processes and promotes the accumulation of ATP in muscles, increases physical performance during anaerobic work. It is used for heavy physical activity of an anaerobic and speed-strength nature.

8. Vitamin C (ascorbic acid) - deficiency of this vitamin manifests itself in increased fatigue and a decrease in the body's resistance to colds. Long-term deficiency of ascorbic acid leads to scurvy. Deficiency usually occurs in late winter and early spring. Vitamin C is an effective stimulator of oxidative processes, increases endurance, and accelerates the recovery of physical performance. Included in all multivitamin complexes, nutritional mixtures for use during training and endurance competitions and rapid recovery of the body.

Everyone wants to have a beautiful, toned body to their delight and the envy of others. With the onset of spring, the vast majority of women and men, standing in front of the mirror, critically evaluate their figure.

And the most dissatisfied immediately run to exercise, so that they can later appear in front of everyone with ideal body contours. However, not always, exhausting yourself with physical exercises in the gym, you achieve your goal.

The reason lies in the wrong approach to the problem. A beautiful body is not only about exercise, but also about proper nutrition when playing sports.

10 basic principles of eating

Products for a healthy diet

Sports activities require increased attention to the preparation of your daily menu. Include in your diet:

a variety of fruits and vegetables;
cereals: brown rice, buckwheat and oatmeal;
legumes: beans, peas, beans, lentils;
pasta;
vegetable types of oils: flax seed, coconut, olive;
soy products;
all kinds of nuts.

After grueling workouts, it is useful to consume a soy protein shake. You can prepare it yourself.

Ingredients:

soy milk – 200 ml;
soybeans with sprouts – 100 grams;
½ ripe banana;
100 grams of berries (strawberries, raspberries, blueberries are great).

Combine all ingredients and beat using a blender or mixer. The cocktail is ready. Drink to your health and get a good dose of proteins and carbohydrates, which are so necessary for the recovery of the body after exercise.

Sudden physical activity and changes in the usual diet are always stressful for the body. You should gradually change your lifestyle and not overload yourself physically beyond the permissible limit. You should be careful about your health if you have any diseases. Therefore, do not forget to consult your doctor before radically changing your life.