In this article, you will learn how to eat right so that the body quickly recovers and gains muscle mass after exercise: counting calories, carbohydrates, proteins and fats. Muscle mass does not come from the air or from eating vegetarian food. Athletes regularly create the perfect menu to shock others with their shape. Muscle development occurs only when a person maintains three basic rules: exercise regularly, find time to rest, and eat selectively. For the growth of your biceps and triceps to be effective, take a closer look at the last point.
A competent approach to nutrition
Let's point out important aspects right away. Sports nutrition will not allow you to build up the desired forms if it is not combined with regular exercise. Also, by themselves, and power loads will not give the desired volumes and mass without a balanced diet.
In order for the muscles to develop correctly and acquire the desired roundness on a monthly basis, it is necessary to understand how muscle tissue grows. Every bodybuilder knows that there are three basic steps to becoming more beautiful and more prominent:
- The body regularly receives the nutrients it needs. High quality protein fuels a grueling workout. They came up with a powdery whey protein concentrate for bodybuilders, for those who do not have the time and opportunity to get it from food.
- Muscles will grow when stimulated with strength training.
- You need to be able to rest and set aside time for healthy sleep. Stress and fatigue will negatively affect your overall physical condition.
You also have to learn to eat fractionally 5-6 times a day. Correcting your diet will allow excess calories to be processed into the necessary energy. It is important to get more from food than you can spend. This is the only way you can become a real athlete.
Learning to count calories
If you decide that you want to become the owner of a beautiful body, then you have to become a disciplined individual. Quality is especially important when formulating sports nutrition. Let us first decide how many calories a person needs per day. The average is 2,000 to 2,500 calories. In fact, these indicators should be strictly individual. It all depends on the type of figure and place of work. For example, a lawyer who only sits in one place will have to reduce his calorie intake, otherwise in a couple of months he will become the owner of a tummy. But a blacksmith swinging a hammer must consume at least 3000 calories.
The average daily calorie content of your diet can be calculated in a simple way. Write down everything you ate and drank during the day. The weight of the product and its calorie content are taken into account. After that, everything is summed up and divided by 7 days of the week. Now look at your physique. If you are a skinny guy, then you have to throw in 500-700 calories a day. If the belly is visible, and the chest begs for a bra, then nothing needs to be added. You will be wasting your reserves of subcutaneous fat, and the job is not easy. But the energy correction of the product is not enough. Not all calories are created equal. Fats contain more calories per gram of product than carbohydrates, but the quality of such a nutrient will be several times worse.
If you don't want to keep track of your calorie count, then we offer you a clear formula. It allows you to find out how many calories are needed to build muscle. For example, you weigh 80 kg, therefore, you will need 2800 calories for normal functioning. We learned this indicator from a simple formula: weight in kilograms multiplied by a factor of 35. How many calories do you need to add to make muscle grow? To do this, multiply the daily calorie intake (2800) by a factor of 1, 2. We get that a guy weighing 80 kg should eat 3360 calories in 12 hours.
Athlete nutrition: proteins, fats and carbohydrates
Modern society suffers from a lack of healthy proteins in its diet. To become a bodybuilder, you need to choose the right food. Food manufacturers offer foods packed with flavors and fats. Agree, you want to eat fried pork in oil with aromatic ketchup more than boiled chicken without salt. This is where most people have a problem.
The athlete's nutrition must contain an unshakable number of elements:
- Fat, not more than 20%
- Proteins, not less than 25%
- Carbohydrates, not less than 50%
Anyone who wants to have developed muscles hidden behind a layer of fat will have to give up fat. Let's take a closer look at each nutrient.
Protein
The most popular nutrient among bodybuilders is protein. Let us remember that there are two types of it - plant and animal. In sports nutrition, the second type of protein is recorded. Don't believe those who talk about how muscle can grow from eating cereals alone. For one kilogram of your own weight, you need to eat at least 2 grams of protein (100 g of chicken breast contains 20 g of protein, and 100 g of boiled eggs about 13 g). What foods contain enough different proteins? Vegetables are found in legumes, cereals, and nuts. Animal proteins are best obtained from fish, low-fat cottage cheese, beef and chicken breast. It is best to combine vegetable proteins with animal proteins. So the former are absorbed much faster. Sports supplement manufacturers offer athletes a protein shake to drink after a hard workout. Just keep in mind that you do not need to eat an additional portion of meat or rice after it.
Carbohydrates
The carbohydrate content should be twice that of protein. If they are not enough, then apathy and weakness will appear. This is unacceptable when it comes to power loads. For 1 kg of your own weight, you will have to eat at least 4 grams of carbohydrates. Carbohydrates are also divided into two types: fast and slow. The former are consumed an hour before training, and the latter at least 2 hours. Fast (simple) carbohydrates are allowed after intense exercise in the gym.
It is preferable to choose complex carbohydrates, they are found in cereals. But the simple ones are concentrated in sweets and fruits. Now you understand why athletes choose slower nutrients. Fruits should also be in the diet of your sports nutrition, we must not forget about the source of useful vitamins.
Avoid foods high in sugar too. Those with a sweet tooth have a tough time in the first months of their sports regimen. But you must admit that you will get more pleasure from contemplating your own relief figure, and not from dinner with a cake washed down with sparkling sweet water.
Fats
During sports nutrition, you need to understand that there are healthy and unhealthy fats. The athlete's diet includes nuts, oily fish and a moderate amount of vegetable oil. It is from these products that the bulk of the fat is taken. You need to eat up to 1 gram of fat per 1 kilogram of your own weight. But pizzas and pork hamburgers will have to be left to friends who do not want to be beautiful and healthy.
Fractional nutrition
Forget about eating three meals a day. You cannot refuse breakfast and have a snack on the run from a stall cheburek. Building muscle requires nutritional discipline. You need to eat at least 5 times a day. Food intake is carried out every 3 hours. Fractional nutrition improves the body's metabolism. The synthesis process is also gaining momentum, therefore, the muscle begins to grow. Protein absorption is also tricky. The more often you eat, the more of this substance is absorbed in the body.
To make it easier to navigate in doses. Cook as many foods each morning as needed to consume your desired calorie intake. After that, divide all food into 5-8 parts and set aside in small containers. Eat a cooked portion every three hours, and you will get results! Remember, you cannot skip meals, the only way you will get your missing muscle mass.
Starting the day with carbohydrates
It is important to be able to correctly distribute meals according to nutritional components. At the beginning of the day, a person needs carbohydrates, so they should prevail. If we eat a lot of carbohydrates before bed, then they will insidiously be deposited in the subcutaneous fat. During the day they will be used up.
Protein is responsible for repairing muscle damage. Therefore, it is best to leave this process overnight. Eat protein-rich foods before bed and you will find yourself waking up refreshed and refreshed in the morning. But for breakfast, you need to eat most of the carbohydrates. Carbohydrates are also needed after workouts, and they can be taken from protein supplements, which are available in a wide range in sports stores.
To get into the right rhythm, you need to gradually approach sports nutrition. Otherwise, you will be nervous and stressed. For starters, skip mayonnaise, bread, sodas, pastries, and fast food. Do not buy smoked meats and sausages next week. Drink casein protein at night, and after an intense workout, consume a protein-carbohydrate shake.
An example of sports nutrition for the day
To gain muscle mass, you can take this menu for your diet. After a while, you will be able to shape your own nutrition. Prepare the required amount of food: any meat (0.5 kg), vegetables and fruits (0.3 kg), cottage cheese (0.4 kg), porridge (0.3 kg), 4 × 5 eggs. and water 1.5 liters.
Now these products need to be divided into 6 equal portions, taking into account the energy value:
- More carbohydrates and some protein. Better to drink a special mixture.
- We eat complex carbohydrates in the form of cereals and protein with fish or poultry meat.
- We focus on the protein.
- This meal should be taken before exercise. You need carbohydrates and proteins. After training, we drink a protein shake.
- Mostly protein foods.
- Only protein, excluding fats and carbohydrates.
The formation of muscle mass is a process that requires a special approach. You can not give slack and forget about sports nutrition. Only with fractional nutrition will your body become supple and relief.
