Many people are not particularly fond of breakfast. Learn why a bodybuilder's breakfast needs to be complete and how to design your morning menu. The cool attitude of a large number of people to breakfast is easy enough to explain by a simple reluctance to eat in the morning. However, experienced athletes know that a bodybuilder's breakfast should be hearty. Today we will talk about why this is important, as well as look at the principles of building a morning diet and discuss the most popular myths associated with breakfast.
Why is breakfast so important?
The reason that people often pay insufficient attention to breakfast lies in the subconscious. Also, people tend to go with the flow, and not try to independently understand various issues. After all, if later it turns out that you did something not quite the way you should, then your pride may seriously suffer.
More often than not, breakfast knowledge is limited to what mom prepares. It is women in families who are most often responsible for feeding their relatives. It doesn't really matter that a person grows up and begins to cook food on their own, because the stereotype is already in the subconscious. For ordinary people, this situation is possible and acceptable, but not for bodybuilders.
If we talk about the specific reasons for most people neglecting breakfast, then the following can be noted:
- There are no people nearby who can tell you how to do the right thing;
- The stereotype has been postponed since childhood, and it is sometimes very difficult to eradicate it;
- There is no desire or time to cook a full breakfast;
- Physically not hungry;
- There is a lack of knowledge about the benefits of a full breakfast.
Popular breakfast myths
Breakfast contributes to weight gain
Of course, most often women think so, counting each gained or lost kilogram. The opinion is very popular that if you skip breakfast, you can get rid of a couple of kilograms of excess weight. For this reason, breakfast often consists of yogurt or half an apple at best. However, this is a misconception.
During sleep, all processes in the body proceed slowly, and after eating any food they accelerate. It is also important to remember that the body contains a large amount of cortisol after stimulation, which breaks down muscles if it is not quickly reduced.
When a person skips breakfast, the body, having not received nutrition, starts protective processes. Considering that hunger can be expected in the near future, the active storage of the remaining calories in the form of fat reserves begins.
Skipping breakfast, you can "come off" during lunch
This myth is a direct consequence of the previous one. Most people believe that by skipping breakfast until the hunger is worse, they will be able to hold out until lunch and make up for the missed meal there. This almost always ends with an enhanced lunch portion and late dinners.
If you don't feel like eating, then the body does not need it
A very popular opinion and fundamentally wrong. When the desire to eat is absent, it should be awakened. A full breakfast is better than late meals, because it is in the morning that metabolic processes in the body are programmed. The speed with which they will flow is laid down by the bodybuilder's breakfast.
Breakfast should be plentiful
This statement is partly true, but one should rush from one extreme to another. In the morning, the body needs to be provided with a sufficient amount of food, and not overwhelm it with work. Also, after eating heavy food, the body begins to fall asleep. The reason for this lies in the assimilation of protein compounds and the need to remove their metabolites from the body.
Healthy breakfast principles
In order for a bodybuilder's breakfast to be correct, several principles must be followed:
- To awaken the body, you should drink two glasses of lukewarm water half an hour before the start of a meal;
- To increase your appetite, you can add 15 to 20 milliliters of Eleutherococcus to the water;
- Be physically active in the morning by doing squats or push-ups;
- Take a cool shower and rub yourself well with a towel;
The preparatory stage has been completed and now it is necessary to find out which foods are best for athletes to eat in the morning. In this regard, it should be noted that the calorie content of breakfast should be high. Now let's look at the rules for making up the morning diet.
Rule 1
Most of the daily calorie intake should come from breakfast. On average, this indicator of the morning diet should be 25 to 30 percent of the total.
Rule 2
In the morning, you need to consume a lot of protein compounds, calcium and vitamin D. Thanks to this combination, the maximum amount of subcutaneous fat will be used to digest food.
Rule 3
Don't forget about carbohydrates. The ratio of fast to slow carbs should be 30:70 percent. Don't be afraid to put on extra weight due to the high amount of carbohydrates consumed in the morning. Breakfast takes place after the "carbohydrate window" and all nutrients will be used as intended and not converted to fat.
Rule 4
Fiber and fats should be present in the morning diet. Thanks to plant fibers, intestinal function is normalized and the synthesis of new muscle tissues is accelerated. Fats will be used by the body as an energy source.
Rule 5
It is necessary to correctly combine products for a bodybuilder breakfast to be as effective as possible. So, for example, you should refuse those breakfast cereals that should be poured with hot water or milk. Nowadays, you can often find various fitness breakfasts on store shelves, which most often are not. When purchasing them, pay attention to the sugar content in 100 grams of the product. This figure should be in the range from 15 to 20 grams.
In conclusion, I would like to cite the morning menu of Jay Cutler and Ronnie Coleman as an example.
Jay's breakfast
- 200 grams of beef (fried);
- Two eggs (fried);
- 150 grams of oatmeal with blueberries;
- Coffee.
Ronnie's breakfast
- 250 grams of meat steak;
- 80 grams of white rice;
- Broccoli.
For more information on how to design a breakfast menu for bodybuilders, see this video:
