What Is Included in Sports Nutrition and How to Eat Properly

Sports Nutrition and Conventional Nutrition: What Is the Difference

If you talk to professional athletes, all as one will tell you that proper nutrition is already half the success. Foods contain a large number of substances that allow you to build muscle. During training, on the contrary, they are broken down to become larger and stronger later on.

Intensive exercise is always a waste of a huge amount of energy resources of the body, which must be replenished.

Before you start to develop a diet for training, you need to decide on the type of exercise. Different goals require different approaches to nutrition. It’s connected first of all with the ratio of macronutrients – proteins, fats and carbohydrates in the products that you will use in your diet.

For example, you will need more protein if you are working out to increase your muscle mass.

Products used in sports nutrition should perform only three functions:

• Contain all the necessary vitamins and trace elements for the full functioning of the body.
• Normalize metabolic processes.
• Work with body weight.

If you have chosen a fitness regimen, you can start calculating the GI content. Foods should be chosen so that the athlete gets enough energy for the workout.

The World Health Organization recommends an approximate GI ratio of 1-1-4, but of course it may be different.

According to the WHO, athletes should follow some rules about food intake:

• Athletes should consume about 400 g of fruits and vegetables daily. Root vegetables with high starch content, such as potatoes or yams, are especially useful. And it’s better to eat them an hour before the main meal because the body absorbs them well and digests them quickly.
• You should also avoid fried foods. It contains omega-acids, which turn into toxins at high temperatures.
• Minimize sugar and salt intake: add no more than one tenth of your daily allowance to your food. Try to avoid such snacks, even when you play on a 22Bet login website or go out with your friends.
• Coffee should also be avoided. Caffeine, contrary to popular belief, does not give you strength for a long time. You will feel the short-term effect, but in a short time you will become even more tired. It’s much better to replace coffee with green tea. Caffeine leads to dehydration, which has a bad effect on training.
• It’s better not to eat before going to bed – allow the food to digest for at least three hours.

Nutrients and Products

If we elaborate on the proportions of major macronutrients in foods, it looks something like this:

• Protein – about 33%.
• Fats – about 15%;.
• Carbs – about 50%.

Of course, besides the direction of exercise, a person’s diet may be influenced by gender, age, health, and general physical condition.

Protein

If you want to exercise hard and reach new heights, you will need to work a lot on your muscles. And what are muscles made of? That’s right. Protein.

Protein is made up of many elements that are actively involved in strengthening and stimulating the growth of muscle tissue. That is why this macronutrient occupies such an important role in the diet of any athlete.

Protein is divided into fast and slow digestible, and both types are a must in the diet. For example, fast proteins can be obtained from eggs, and slow proteins can be obtained from soy and wheat.

The WHO recommends a daily intake of 10 to 25 g of protein per 10 kg of body weight. The average man weighing about 70 kg will need about 140 g of protein, and a woman weighing 55 kg about 100 g.

If your main goal is to gain muscle mass, you are advised to increase your daily protein intake with special high-protein diets.

Carbs

You have probably heard the words “metabolism,” “calories,” or “energy.” Carbs have something to do with all of these terms.

Chemically speaking, carbohydrates are sugars, which are the body’s main source of energy. They also help the body to rest and recover from exercise.

In a balanced diet, both types of carbs should be present. The daily rate per kilogram of body weight is 1-2 grams. For a man weighing 75 kg, the norm will be about 100 grams of carbs per day.

They are recommended to eat in the first half of the day, before lunch. This is due to the fact that complex carbs in the decomposition contribute to the production of glucose, which in turn gives the body energy. One of the best sources of complex carbohydrates is starch.

If you eat complex carbs for breakfast, you should have enough energy for the whole day. For the same reason, breakfast is the most important meal that should never be skipped.

Fats

With proteins and carbs, everything is clear: the first ones help muscles, the second ones give energy. But the function of fats is not entirely clear.

In fact, fats or lipids are actively used in cardio workouts – monotonous exercises to improve heart and lung function. They also help control body temperature and support the function of many organs.

Fats come in plant and animal types. Both types should be eaten in about equal proportions, and you should have about 1-2 grams of lipids per kilogram of weight.

One of the easiest ways to “pump up” your heart is to run. But who wants to do it outside when you can comfortably exercise at home on your own treadmill.

What Happens if You Don’t Eat Healthy

Not many people think about proper nutrition. Large amounts of spices, huge portions, fatty and fried foods can all lead to serious consequences and damage your health.

• Heart disease. Consuming large amounts of fatty foods leads to thrombosis and subsequent ischemia (stroke, heart attack).
• Cancer. Oil-fried foods contain large amounts of carcinogens, which stimulate the development of cancer in the body. Cancer is the second leading cause of death, with more than 10 million deaths each year.
• Salt and spices. They drain fluid from the body, damage the kidneys, cause joint problems and increase the risk of hypertension.
• Trans fats. This category includes, for example, margarine, which is often used as an analog of butter. Trans fats reduce immunity and reproductive function.

Tips for Aspiring Athletes

• Make up your own diet. Popular Internet diets are definitely not suitable for serious sports activities. “Authoritative” bloggers with unique diets that “allow you to gain 100 kg of muscle in two months” are also best avoided. Try to put together a diet yourself by studying the necessary literature. Or consult a professional nutritionist who specializes in sports nutrition.
• Use calorie calculators. You can find them on the Internet. They can help you figure out how much you need to eat based on your goals.
• Avoid junk food, sweets, salty foods, and try to eat only natural foods.
• Remember: dark is better than light. In any case, this advice applies to cereals. Brown rice is much healthier than white rice, and buckwheat is better than pearl barley.
• Use sports supplements with caution. It’s better to consult a nutritionist or your fitness trainer before using them.

Correctly chosen diet will help you to achieve significant success in sports. Unfortunately, you will have to give up many of the usual food joys, but in exchange you will find new tasty foods that you definitely would not have paid attention to before.