If you decide to change and become the way you see yourself in your own dreams, you will have to try. An integrated approach is needed: training without a diet will not help, as well as proper nutrition without sports. Let’s briefly analyze the most popular areas of “body building”.
Key Recommendations
- You need to eat fractionally, at least 5 meals a day.
- Before 16:00, 60% of the daily diet should be eaten.
- The last meal should be made with protein in order to give the body amino acids for recovery during sleep.
- The diet should have enough fiber: bran, vegetables.
- It is preferable to boil and steam foods, exclude frying and smoking.
- Eating should be done 2 hours before the start of the workout.
- If the workout is in the morning, then before it you should definitely have breakfast with something light: banana, smoothie, cottage cheese with berries.
- If training is at lunchtime, then you need to eat protein foods, fresh vegetables or complex carbohydrates after sports.
- In the evening after a workout, you can not go to bed hungry. For dinner, there can be fish, cottage cheese, kefir, tofu.
- It all depends on the goal
Since we all strive for different results, it would be logical to use different types of nutrition, different menus, different calorie levels and different distribution of BJU during the day. While it seems complicated, but let’s just break down all these points by goal.
For those who want to lose weight
You will not only have to work hard in the gym, choosing the best program for weight loss, but also limit yourself to your favorite dishes.
For a healthy person who previously ate regular food and did not control his diet, a menu with a total calorie content of 1400 calories is suitable, which at first will allow you to get all the necessary substances for comfortable and effective workouts.
It all depends on your initial average caloric intake and intensity of physical activity. There is an easy way to find the right number: 4-7 days, count the calorie content of your diet; Don’t limit yourself, but don’t overeat either. Then calculate your average daily calories. If it greatly exceeds 1400 calories per day, then start with this figure.
Drink more water. Your body will lose fat, and with it, remove harmful substances. Help him, speed up the metabolism and at the same time restore the water-salt balance after training.
Speaking about the menu, we recommend preparing food for the whole day in advance, this will allow you to control its main meals and snacks in terms of calories, time, and portion size.
Sample menu for losing weight (1200 calories):
Breakfast: oatmeal with berries. 50-70 grams of dry cereals, 50-100 grams of any berries, water or milk.
Second breakfast: pear charlotte (100-150 grams) or any 2-3 fruits, except for bananas.
Lunch: pilaf with chicken (250-300 grams), fresh vegetable salad (150-200 grams).
Afternoon snack: fresh vegetable salad (150-200 grams) or julienne with a minimum of sauce.
Dinner: chicken cutlets (200 grams) with fresh vegetables, vegetable salad (100-150 grams), egg pancake with chicken or 200 grams of fish.
According to a study by The New England Journal of Medicine, with a decrease in calorie content, it does not matter how BJU is distributed within the diet and throughout the day, weight loss will still occur. But if you eat foods that are high in carbohydrates and fats, neglecting proteins, you will not be able to quickly get in shape.
Those who model the figure
You will need more protein and proper distribution of other nutrients needed by the body throughout the day. Protein products should prevail in the diet, enter fats into the diet no more than 0.5–1 gram per kilogram of your weight. Carbohydrates are counted according to the residual principle (1 gram of carbohydrates = 4 calories) to get the desired calorie content.
The average calorie content for modeling an already slender body, giving it shape is 1800-2000 calories, depending on gender, lifestyle, and age.
Sample menu for training (2000 calories):
Breakfast: pastries with enough carbohydrates (pancakes, pancakes, cheesecakes) and scrambled eggs with cheese or scrambled eggs and oatmeal pancakes.
Second breakfast: easily digestible proteins (chicken, fish, seafood) with cereals (buckwheat, rice, pearl barley) and herbs. Fresh salad or fruit.
Lunch: Chicken Kiev and potato muffins or burritos with yogurt sauce, turkey/chicken and vegetables.
Snack: Teriyaki chicken with udon or buckwheat with mushrooms and chicken cutlet.
Dinner: syrniki with banana and nuts or cottage cheese casserole with candied fruits.
Remember that you need to keep track of the amount of protein – at least 1.5-2.5 grams per kilogram of body weight, but do not exceed 3 grams. Choose lean protein sources: chicken breast, fish, cottage cheese, egg whites, beef.