Nutrition is a metabolic regulator in the body. Have you heard about this? Quantity and quality of food depend on your physical and mental tone, the level of hormones in the blood and even the level of intelligence. Proper nutrition in bodybuilding is even more important because you need food that will grow your muscles. So let`s consider the bodybuilding food list.
A healthy body with increased muscles cannot be obtained by doing only physical exercises. If you want to achieve the bodybuilder, you have to lead an appropriate lifestyle, which includes daily workouts and of course, proper nutrition. The right diet of a beginner athlete is a difficult task that requires a lot of money because quality products have never been cheap. Read below, and you will know about bodybuilding food and rules of proper nutrition.
Food list for bodybuilding
Training in the gym will be effective only when combined with proper nutrition. The primary goal of a beginner bodybuilder is to build lean muscle mass, and not to lose weight. During the first month and a half of training, you should completely abandon some prohibited products including:
- carbonated drinks;
- semi-finished products;
- white flour products;
- smoked meat;
- confectionery;
- fatty food;
- sausages;
- jams;
- pickles.
READ ALSO: Best fruits for weight loss in Nigeria
Most of the products listed are simple carbohydrates. They are the worst enemies of the athlete, and any person indeed. They are quickly processed in the body, turning into body fat. The second part of the described products retains water in the body, due to the excessive content of salt and chemical additives.
You must eat protein foods. Protein should be the basis of your diet. It promotes muscle building. Here are protein foods that must always be present in the menu:
- chicken eggs;
- veal;
- chicken fillet;
- seafood;
- white fish;
- salmon;
- legumes;
- cottage cheese.
It is important! The bodybuilder’s daily diet should include half of the protein, another 30% of carbohydrate, and 20% of fat. Carbohydrates should be complex, for example:
- cereals, best buckwheat, and oatmeal, but rice and semolina should be excluded;
- pasta from durum wheat;
- greenery;
- zucchini;
- tomatoes;
- cucumbers;
- wholemeal bran bread;
- apples.
It is better to give preference to vegetable oils, for example, olive, flax or sunflower. Their sources can also be nuts, some varieties of fish.
Accustom yourself to fractional nutrition. It is better to eat more often but in smaller portions. During the day you should eat at least 5- 6 meals. It is mistaken that eating after six in the evening is forbidden. Such a restriction will only impede the gain of muscle mass. You need to drink a protein shake or eat a pack of cottage cheese an hour before going to bed.
Carbohydrate foods should be concentrated in the first half of the day. The second one must be saturated with proteins.
Water is the second fundamental component of bodybuilding nutrition after carbohydrates. Dehydrated muscles will not grow. It happens that the state of dehydration is hidden and does not manifest itself.
Drink 3 cups of water and watch yourself. If within one and a half hours you do not want to go to the toilet, you have hidden dehydration. It is usually a symptom of the disease, so you need to go to the doctor.
A bodybuilder should drink at least 3.5 litres of fluid per day. Such a quantity of water will provide water for muscle tissues. If you feel thirsty, then drink in excess. If usually to quench your thirst, you take one glass of water, now drink two glasses.
All dishes can be cooked:
- on the grill;
- in the oven;
- on the steam or boil.
Give up the habit of eating fried food. The dish is not inferior in taste if it is cooked on the grill or baked in the oven, but the fat content in it is significantly reduced.
Bodybuilder's day menu
A standard meal plan including breakfast in the morning, lunch and dinner in the afternoon, is not for a bodybuilder. The break between meals will be too long in this case. You will have plenty of time to get hungry, and this is a sign that your body began to receive energy from its additional sources.
Firstly, your body begins to produce the hormone cortisol, and it “burns” your muscles to support the body’s decreasing energy.
Secondly, the body begins to use pre-stored carbohydrates in the liver and muscles. It is bad. You lose muscle mass, which you build up with much efforts, and reduce glycogen stores. Availability of these reserves determines the intensity of your regular workout — the more glycogen accumulated by your liver and muscles, the more intense and longer your training will be.
You need to eat 6 times a day but in small portions. The interval between meals should be minimal. During all this time the body needs glucose, which penetrates the blood through the intestinal walls. Sugar stores remain intact, and there is no need for cortisol secretion.
READ ALSO: Benefits of cloves for weight loss and cellulite treatment
It is better to ask for the help of a specialist in drawing up the right menu of a bodybuilder. But if there is no such possibility for several reasons, we offer an approximate diet for the day.
First breakfast:
- buckwheat porridge 100 g;
- three boiled eggs;
- an apple.
Second breakfast:
- veal 200 g;
- oatmeal 100 g;
- vegetables 300 - 400 g
Afternoon snack:
First dinner:
- durum macaroni 100 g;
- fish 200 g;
- vegetables 200 g.
Evening snack:
Second dinner, before going bed:
- low-fat cottage cheese 200 g or casein protein.
Sports supplements as additional nutrition
Sports nutrition will be useful along with a well-formed bodybuilding diet. The market is large for such additives, that offers lure for beginner bodybuilders. They demonstrate the mega results from their use. Indeed, there are bars, pills, cocktails, powders. How can you choose the really necessary supplement that will not only empties your wallet?
Protein is a major supplement that promotes muscle gain. General advice on taking is 3–4 times in one portion, in an amount of 20–30 g. The maximum allowable single portion is 40 g. But it is still better to ask a doctor, who determines the required amount of protein for you.
Gainer is also a protein, but with the addition of a small amount of carbohydrates. It is believed that such a compound allows better digestion of the protein. Gainer will help replenish energy reserves, after an intense workout and, at the same time, it stimulates muscle growth.
You should include vitamin and mineral in sports nutrition. As a rule, vitamins that come with food are not enough. It is considered that one of the main elements for gaining muscle mass is retinol. It accelerates metabolic processes and helps the absorption of protein. Vitamin A is also responsible for the development and growth of cells, improves vision, and reproductive function. As a rule, retinol is included in every vitamin complex for bodybuilders.
Vitamin B1 or thiamine is responsible for the redox processes in the body. If this vitamin is not enough, it leads to poor digestibility of products and entails a loss of muscle mass. You should also not forget about amino acids. They are also important for bodybuilders.
Cardioprotectors will not be redundant for the bodybuilder, especially in the hot season. Taking them before a workout will increase endurance and help maintain a healthy cardiovascular system.
Chondroprotectors will strengthen the locomotor system. Workouts gradually destroy the cartilage tissue, so it needs additional “nourishment,” which is the chondroprotectors.
Nutritional supplements can significantly improve your results. But you should remember their ration, combined with a correctly composed diet and workouts. Of course, it is not necessary to expect a miracle from them, since concentrated protein is derived from ordinary products. Therefore, you always have the choice to use it in powder form or the form of hard food, but to get them from natural products. The main thing is that the amount of each element entering the body is correct, but not in what form it will get there.
![Cardioprotectors and chondroprotectors]( "Cardioprotectors and chondroprotectors")
Having decided to take your own body seriously, do not forget that results can be achieved only with hard, daily work. Bodybuilder`s nutrition is an integral part of training. There is no sense in exhausting yourself with physical exercise and deviating from the generally accepted rules of nutrition. You reduce your efforts to zero.. After a month a certain routine, it will seem to you as a natural process. The desire to eat fast food will disappear looking at how your body is changing.
READ ALSO: Side effects of hip enlargement creams
Source: Legit.ng
