Sports diet: rules, menu, effectiveness

When you need to lose weight without losing muscle and overall health, a sports diet comes to the rescue. It is recommended for healthy weight loss for men and women, and at the same time it is a good nutrition system for gaining muscle mass while “drying out” the fat layer. This article will tell you in detail about the benefits and subtleties of a sports diet.

Friends, hello everyone! Svetlana Morozova is with you. Fortunately, among the many meaningless and harmful diets on the Internet, you can find one suitable for those who regularly exercise and monitor their health. Well, or is going to take this path. And we’ll look at just such a diet today. You will learn how to eat during physical activity to lose weight and dry subcutaneous fat. Go!

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Essence and principle of operation

Basic principles of how a sports diet works:

1. Frequent meals. In recent studies, it has been found that the anabolic effect of food lasts 3-4 hours, not taking into account the fact that the high level of amino acids remains longer. Therefore, to build muscle mass, you need to eat often - 5-6 times a day. This frequency of meals prevents the digestive system from being overloaded, and thanks to this, the blood is constantly saturated with useful substances that nourish the muscles. If, for example, you consume the same amount of food in 3 approaches, then the beneficial substances will be supplied in excess quantities, and the body will process them into fat.
2. Limiting fast carbohydrates and fats. You should try to limit the consumption of foods that contain animal and other fats (for example, lard, fatty meat, offal, etc.). In order for muscle mass to grow and energy to be generated, the body uses carbohydrates. For this reason, most of the fat due to the large amount of nutrients will be stored in fat cells. Also, during a sports diet, it is worth limiting the consumption of fast carbohydrates (the most dangerous of them are sweets and sweet fruits, the least dangerous are baked goods). This is explained by the fact that fast carbohydrates are absorbed quickly. For this reason, blood sugar rises, and because of this, the body converts glucose into fat. It is allowed to consume fast carbohydrates after training, while muscles and other organs can quickly eliminate glucose. At the same time, the production of the anabolic hormone insulin also increases, and this is important when gaining muscle mass.
3. Drinking fluids. During muscle building, most of the metabolic reactions take place very intensely, so it is important to consume a lot of water. On average, you need to consume 3 liters of water per day (including that contained in foods). You should always drink water and avoid the possibility of dehydration.
4. Food distribution. During the diet, you should eat fractionally: often and in small portions. The last meal should include easily digestible foods: poultry, fish, dairy products, fruits, legumes. It is unacceptable to eat sweets and fatty foods for dinner.

In general, we can say that the principle of a sports diet is to reduce body weight correctly and without sad consequences, by reducing the number of calories consumed. Their number cannot exceed the number of calories expended by the body. As a result of following a sports diet, the body will be provided with the required amount of nutrients.

Secrets of sports nutrition

In the life of athletes, both professional and amateur, proper sports nutrition is very important. Not only athletic achievements depend on it, but also the state of health, the normal functioning of the body during training and in everyday life.

The secret of sports nutrition lies in strict adherence to ten basic rules:

• 1 – Various sources of protein. For complete protein synthesis of all necessary amino acids, the body needs protein, both animal and plant origin;
• 2 – Natural products. You need to prepare food yourself; it is better to buy food in markets;
• 3 – Only fresh vegetables and fruits. The fiber contained in fresh fruits and vegetables helps improve digestion;
• 4 – Proper preparation. Use only fresh food for cooking and eat cooked dishes immediately;
• 5 – Small portions of food. Small portions of food and frequent meals contribute to more complete absorption of nutrients. The process of catabolism - the breakdown of muscle protein - slows down;
• 6 – Chew thoroughly. The main condition for effective digestion is thorough chewing of food; for example, it increases the degree of protein absorption by 20-25%;
• 7 – Proper drinking. You need to drink 10-20 minutes before meals, 30-60 minutes after and during the day between meals. Any drinks with gas are strictly prohibited;
• 8 – Don’t eat before bed. The energy release from food will disrupt the depth of sleep, and carbohydrates will be transformed into fats;
• 9 – Follow your diet. It is important not only to eat food regularly and on time, but also to coordinate its intake with training;
• 10 – Supplements of vitamins and microelements. During active physical activity, microelements and vitamins supplied from food are not enough for full functioning.

Nutrition plays a very important role in the life of athletes. Therefore, knowing these simple secrets of sports nutrition will help you correctly create a diet and increase the effectiveness of any training.

Differences in sports nutrition for men and women

As you know, following a diet also requires physical exercise: the result of losing weight or gaining muscle mass in this case comes faster. However, it is equally important to consume sports nutrition, which helps you achieve what you want faster and more efficiently. Sports nutrition does not cause any harm to the body, as it belongs to the group of specialized food products.

There is practically no difference between sports nutrition for women and men, since its effect is the same on both sexes. The only difference is the dosage.

Almost all women go to the gym to lose weight and tone their bodies, and therefore, the dose of protein and other nutritional components will be less than for men who need the gym to gain weight. This is obvious, but it is necessary to know it.

Which sports nutrition for weight loss to choose

With all the diversity, sports nutrition for weight loss can be divided into two areas. The first is supplements to provide or adjust your diet. Secondly, these are drugs designed to increase the impact of the training process.

Sports nutrition to support diet and nutrition

Carbohydrate blockers

Carbohydrate blockers are actively used in losing excess weight. The main function of the drugs is to prevent our body from absorbing the carbohydrates we consume by neutralizing the enzyme activity in the digestive tract. Lipotropic and thermogenic fat burners go well with these supplements. The intake is carried out together with food and requires moderation, since the body still needs carbohydrates, although not in the quantities that we are used to consuming.

Drugs to reduce appetite

Of these products, we will name two that have a natural composition and proven effectiveness:

• 5-HTP (5 hydroxytryptophine) are drugs containing an intermediate metabolite of the good mood hormone serotonin. Taking the drug can not only improve your positive mood, but also significantly reduce your appetite. 5-HTP is a great way to support your diet by eliminating sugary snacks.
• Chromium Picolinate - in conditions of limited carbohydrate consumption, reduces cravings for sweets. Lowers glucose levels.

Protein

Despite the popularity of protein for gaining muscle mass, when losing weight you should also not lose sight of these sports supplements. We are primarily talking about additives that have a prolonged absorption period - casein and complex proteins. Taking protein can achieve two goals. First, suppress the feeling of hunger for a sufficiently long period. Thus, casein proteins can be absorbed slowly, over several hours, reducing your desire to snack to a minimum. Secondly, the body has to spend more calories digesting such protein, the process takes longer, which helps speed up metabolism.

Vitamin and mineral complexes

By switching to a calorie deficit mode and increased physical activity, we force all body systems to work at maximum capacity. Our metabolic processes are intense and they all require the presence of a large number of active and necessary elements such as vitamins, minerals and trace elements. In order to ensure our metabolism during a strict diet and eliminate health problems, special sports vitamin and mineral complexes have been developed. Sports vitamins have higher concentrations of components compared to pharmacy multivitamins, which can cover the need for physical activity.

The range of multivitamins is quite wide, including separate complexes for women and men. Since the goal is to lose weight and not undermine your own health, it is better not to neglect such drugs, because you probably don’t need to convince anyone of the benefits of vitamins.

Sports nutrition for fat burning

No matter how you adjust your diet, without additional burning of calories during active and exhausting workouts, we won’t see abs or a slender waist like our ears. Special supplements are designed to support our training process.

L-Carnitine

L-carnitine is perhaps the most common supplement for weight loss, because in addition to its effect on the fat burning process, it has many beneficial properties, including strengthening the immune system and supporting the cardiovascular system.

In our case, it is important that l-carnitine ensures the transport of lipids to the mitochondria in cells, where they are broken down and released energy. It is to speed up this transfer process for fat utilization that we are trying to increase the concentration of L-carnitine by taking it additionally.

buy L-carnitine

The maximum effect of L-carnitine on fat burning occurs when we drive our body into a state of carbohydrate and protein deficiency. At the same time, fat deposits become the main source of energy.

There are two “golden” periods when our body actively utilizes stored fats:

• From the 20th minute of aerobic training and for some time after it, provided, of course, that you did not have a heavy snack before exercise;
• From the moment of waking up in the morning until breakfast, when the reserves received from the evening are used up due to metabolism, of course, only if you follow the advice - give dinner to the enemy.

It is for these reasons that you should take L-carnitine immediately after getting up in the morning, and before cardio training. In all other cases, it is difficult to expect effectiveness from this sports drug.

In what form should you choose carnitine - tablets, powder or drink? It's more a matter of convenience. It is much more important to use the correct dosage. Most manufacturers indicate a range from 0.5 to 2 g. In the sports community, opinions shift upward in the range from 1.5 to 3 g, while there is a practice of taking up to 10 g of the substance in the pre-competition period.

For weight loss purposes, it is worth buying L-carnitine. It is available at affordable prices in sports nutrition stores and is considered a safe supplement. It goes well with both medications and other sports nutrition. Contraindications include only individual intolerance.

Thus, the substance L-carnitine is healthy and effective for weight loss purposes and is therefore often included in other sports supplements. Its lipotropic properties are used to enhance the effectiveness of fat burners, which will be discussed below.

Fat burners

Moving on to the description of such a category of sports nutrition as fat burners, it should be noted that these are more advanced drugs that require more serious treatment compared to l-carnitine.

Fat burners can not only start the weight loss process, but also ensure the “drying” process. Losing weight differs from cutting weight. For the first, it is to reduce overall body weight, for the second, to ensure only the burning of the fat layer with maximum preservation of muscle mass.

Most fat burners are not mono-drugs and contain several components - up to several dozen.

The composition of the supplements is composed of so-called matrices, each of which can consist of several components and has its own mechanism of action aimed at fat burning:

• increased metabolism;
• appetite suppression;
• suppression of absorption of carbohydrates or fats;
• blocking the processes of lipid deposition in adipose tissue;
• liquid output.

The main function of fat burners is to activate the conversion of fat molecules into energy.

buy fat burners

It is customary to divide drugs according to the principle of action into lipotropics and thermogens. Moreover, given that the composition includes many substances, it is more correct to talk about lipotropic and thermogenic components of fat burners.

We actually described the mechanism of lipotropic action: it ensures the transport of lipids for utilization and conversion into energy. L-carnitine is the main lipotropic used.

Another equally popular type of fat burner is thermogenics or thermogenics.

The biology of the body is designed in such a way that fats are stored and stored in adipocyte cells. In order to use fats, they first need to be extracted from these adipocyte stores and only then transported with the blood for processing. In general, lipid extraction occurs with the help of active substances: hormones (cortisol) or other chemical mediators - catecholamines (adrenaline or norepinephrine).

Thermogens duplicate the action of catecholamines by interacting with certain receptors, provoking the release of fatty acids into the bloodstream. A side effect of this lipid activation is the generation of additional thermal energy. This generally determined the name of the drugs. Additionally, each thermogenic has an activating effect on the central nervous system and helps suppress appetite.

The process of fat burning when using thermogenics seems to go in cycles: the thermogen releases lipids - heat is produced - heat provokes the need for calories - calories are covered by fat deposits. And the process, by and large, will be interrupted only if the active substances are used up or the body receives a new source of energy (for example, carbohydrates or proteins). This confirms that thermogens are capable of providing fat burning not only during active training, but also outside the training process. But don’t forget that 100% returns can only be achieved during intense aerobic exercise.

Thermogenic fat burners have excellent reviews when used during “drying”. Relief training and low-carb diets give excellent results, which are not so pronounced on the scale, but very noticeable in the mirror.

The most common substances included in fat burners include: synephrine, caffeine, green tea, golden root and pepper extracts, chromium picolinate, yohimbine, guggulsterones.

In a special category of thermogenics, it is worth highlighting fat burners based on the herb ephedra. The active component here exhibits the same thermogenic effects and at the same time stimulates the release of adrenaline and norepinephrine. But at the same time it has a strong stimulating effect on the central nervous system, which is compared in strength to the effect of amphetamine.

Medicines containing ephedra have more contraindications and side effects. It is worth buying a fat burner with ephedra if you are an experienced athlete.

Most fat-burning products containing ephedra are marketed as “ECA,” which means they contain ephedra, caffeine, and aspirin.

When taking fat burners, you must remember that without an appropriate diet and regular exercise, the benefits of their use will be minimal!

Diet goal

Regardless of what a person wants from following a sports diet - to lose weight or gain muscle mass, a large part of success is due to diet.
That is why it is worth following all the rules and conditions so that the desired result comes faster. As a rule, the goal of a sports diet is to enable a person to adjust his diet, cleanse his body, and put his body in order.

Often, girls require weight loss from this diet, and men require weight gain. Therefore, nutrition for both will be slightly different.

The fat burning effect can be achieved by:

1. Increased calorie expenditure (due to intense training).
2. Reducing the amount of calories you take in (by dieting).
3. Physical exercise.

Weight gain is carried out by:

1. Including high-calorie foods in the diet.
2. Special physical training.

Permitted and prohibited products

To lose weight you can eat:

• lean sources of animal proteins (lean meats, egg whites, fish);
• unsweetened dairy products;
• green vegetables, tomatoes, celery, herbs;
• vegetable oil;
• porridge;
• low-fat cheese;

What not to eat when losing weight:

• products containing sugar;
• flour and bakery products;
• fast food products;
• offal;
• alcohol;

In order to gain muscle mass, it is important to consume the following foods:

• slow carbohydrates (buckwheat, rice);
• faster carbohydrates (pasta, oatmeal, potatoes, dried fruits, honey);
• meat and fish;
• dairy products;
• cottage cheese;
• eggs;
• cottage cheese;

What to avoid when gaining weight:

• fast carbohydrates (sweets, sweet fruits);
• alcohol;
• fatty and spicy foods;

Sample menu

To lose weight, you should pay attention to the sample menu.

1. For the first breakfast, you are allowed to eat an apple, a banana or a glass of low-fat kefir.
2. For second breakfast, you can prepare some carrot and cabbage salad; 100g lean meat, 2 egg omelette.
3. For lunch you can eat borscht without meat , cabbage salad, 100g of veal, a glass of fruit juice.
4. For an afternoon snack, it is permissible to eat an orange, an apple or a glass of juice.
5. For dinner you can prepare 150g of steamed meat or fish with vegetables or 200g of oatmeal with vegetable salad.

To gain muscle mass, it is recommended to eat as follows.

1. For breakfast: 1 banana , 2-3 boiled eggs, 100g of oatmeal with water.
2. For second breakfast you can eat 350g of yogurt, 1 banana, 40g of any nuts.
3. For lunch, it is recommended to eat 100g of brown rice, 150g of turkey, and a little avocado.
4. Before training (an hour), eat 3 slices of rye bread, 1 banana for your protein requirement.
5. Immediately after training, eat a gainer.
6. 2 hours after training , eat 200g chicken breast, 100g rice and 100g broccoli.
7. For dinner , eat 150g of cottage cheese.

Sports diet for weight loss

A sports diet for weight loss is a specially formulated diet for athletes to lose weight. Proper sports nutrition for weight loss is necessary in certain sports in order to get into the desired weight category or as a preparatory period before “cutting” in fitness, bodybuilding, etc.

A sports diet for weight loss has the greatest effect when combined with strength exercises 2-3 times a week. Proper fractional sports nutrition, enriched with fiber, protein, complex carbohydrates and a complex of vitamins and minerals, switches the body to fat burning mode, promotes the restoration of muscle tissue, and speeds up metabolism.

Recommended sports nutrition menu for fat burning:

• I breakfast – 1 glass of 2.5% fat kefir, or 2 medium sweet and sour apples, or 1 banana. This breakfast is quick and easy to digest. For better absorption of nutrients and vitamins, tea or coffee should be drunk half an hour after meals;
• II breakfast to choose from:

— Carrot-cabbage salad – 200 g, any lean meat 100 g, 2 chicken egg whites. An omelet of meat and proteins is prepared in a frying pan without oil. Allowed black bread - 30 g, a cup of tea with honey and lemon;

— Boiled brown rice – 100 g, 2 egg whites, chicken meat – 100 g, bake in the oven. Season the seaweed salad with olive oil. A cup of coffee without sugar;

— Vegetable salad – 100 g. Chicken breast sandwich – 100 g, 20 g cheese, 5 g butter, black bread 30 g. Coffee or tea;

• Sports diet lunch to choose from:

— Lenten borscht without meat, bell pepper salad with white cabbage, 100 g of boiled veal, 30 g of black bread, freshly squeezed fruit juice 100 ml;

— Stew of stewed vegetables (200 g) with meat (100 g), 30 g of black bread, 1-2 dried apricots. Coffee or tea;

— Vegetable solyanka – 250 ml, low-fat steamed fish – 150 g, white cabbage salad with lemon juice and olive oil;

• Snacks between meals to satisfy hunger and supplement the diet with vitamins - an apple or orange, or half a glass of freshly squeezed fruit juice;
• Dinner to choose from:

— Oatmeal cooked in water (200 g), salad from any vegetables (100 g);

— Fish or lean meat (150 g) is steamed with broccoli and herbs.

Once a week, the sports diet requires fasting days: kefir days or mineral water days. If it’s difficult, then fasting days on vegetable salads with lemon juice without adding oil or apple salads are allowed.

When using sports nutrition to burn fat, you need to drink 2-3 liters of clean water daily, limit your salt intake and take an additional complex of minerals and vitamins.

This sports diet is classified as “strict”; permission from your doctor is required to use it.

Recipes

1. Omelette. For 4-6 egg whites, add 1 small spoon of olive oil, tomatoes, pre-boiled and lightly fried mushrooms. Fry the omelette until done.
2. Lazy cottage cheese makers. Mix 100g of low-fat cottage cheese with 4 egg whites, ground cinnamon, and powdered stevia. Heat olive oil in a frying pan, pour the curd mixture onto it and fry the curds.
3. Grilled fish. Chop the onion, mix it with lemon juice and chopped herbs (dill, rosemary). Marinate any white fish fillet in this mixture. It needs to be cooked on the grill. Another option is baking in the oven (about 20 minutes).
4. Beef stew. Chop the onion and fry in olive oil with chopped bell pepper. Next, dilute 2 large tablespoons of vinegar in a glass of water. Cut the meat into strips and pour in the marinade. An hour after cooling the meat, drain the marinade, put the vegetables in the cauldron, add meat and water to them (to cover the food). Simmer until done.

Advantages and disadvantages

Obviously, the big advantage of this diet is its balance. Thanks to the right combination of carbohydrates, proteins and fats, there is no feeling of hunger or overeating. In addition, efficiency increases, energy and lightness increase. If you combine diet with exercise, the results will come soon.

Excess weight goes away, muscle mass increases, and the body takes on beautiful shape.

We can say that the sports diet has no negative aspects. It is important to remember that dieting is not allowed while pregnant and while breastfeeding. If you have any doubts, you should definitely consult with your doctor and trainer.

The greatest results from a sports diet can only be seen when combined with sports activity 2-3 times a week. If you follow all the rules, fat will be burned quickly and will not return.

So, visible results can be seen after 1.5-2 months. During this period, the body tightens, loses weight, and the body is cleansed of harmful components and gains only useful substances.

Diet and sports for weight loss, which is better and faster

Nowadays, the most common misconception that can appear on the way to an ideal figure is the perception of sports and diet not as one whole, but as different ways to achieve your goal: either not to eat, or to eat everything and exercise.

But a diet is not a hunger strike, but a properly selected diet. And if the goal is effective and safe weight loss, then the diet should go along with physical exercise.

Just today we will look at what diets there are when playing sports, as well as how to properly combine sports and a diet for weight loss.

Is it possible to lose weight without dieting and sports?

But let's start with whether it is possible to eliminate sports or diet altogether in order to achieve the coveted slimness. It’s not possible to give up physical exercise completely, but there are some nuances when it comes to eating food.

The problem is that after all sorts of newfangled diets, a person often breaks down, and the lost extra pounds can return, even in a larger size.

What needs to be done to lose weight and maintain the result, without continuing to be on a strict diet?

Here are a few rules on how to lose weight without dieting or sports:

• do not skip breakfast, because the morning meal is important not only because at this time we consume most of the energy, but also by eating breakfast every day, you prevent gastritis, heart disease, diabetes, ulcers and vegetative-vascular diseases;
• eating cereal flakes is an excellent substitute for baked goods;
• control what you drink;
• reduce portion size and eat little, but often;
• eat more protein foods and low-calorie foods;
• walk more.

What is the best diet to follow when playing sports?

The diet when playing sports is aimed at ensuring that the body receives all the proteins and carbohydrates it needs.

At the same time, fats are excluded from the diet, which remain in the body for a long time and are not consumed as energy. When playing sports, you cannot limit yourself in the amount of food you consume.

Otherwise, the body will not be able to expend enough energy for daily workouts.

Advice!

It is best to eat 2 hours before training. Lean beef, any poultry, eggs and fish are recommended. Half an hour before training, you can eat a little cottage cheese or porridge.

After training, you should eat within the first 20 minutes. During this period, all proteins and carbohydrates are absorbed by the body immediately and are used to restore strength and strengthen muscles. But you should not eat fats, as they will be deposited as fat.

Immediately after training, you can drink juice (cranberry or grape), eat lean chicken (breast is best) or a piece of fish. Under no circumstances should you drink drinks or eat foods containing caffeine (black tea, coffee, chocolate).

The most important thing when playing sports is to drink properly. And not when you want, but take a few sips every 10-15 minutes. The fact is that at this time the body intensively spends energy, so the sensitivity of the receptors decreases.

Diet or exercise for weight loss – which is more effective?

If your goal is to lose weight, then a diet will be more effective here, because it is easier not to eat 500 extra calories than to burn them by spending a couple of hours in the gym. Of course, we are not talking about living only on water or kefir.

Just give up, for example, a piece of bread at lunch - it will be the same as 19 minutes of intense work on the exercise machine. The hardest part is not just losing those extra pounds, but not letting the weight come back.

And here, for effective weight loss, diet and sports will be equivalent.

And finally, here are the rules of a protein-carbohydrate diet, which, together with exercise, will help you always be in shape:

• For breakfast, eat protein foods: eggs, fish and seafood, chicken, hard cheeses, cottage cheese;
• do not eat more than 150 g of protein at a time;
• add citrus fruits, nuts and whole grains to protein;
• Once a day you can allow yourself a carbohydrate side dish, but it is better to exchange the same potatoes for beans, broccoli or whole grain pasta.

Diet and sports - all means are good for losing weight

Reviews

Olga: “I have been on many famous diets, and I want to say that I saw the greatest effectiveness only from sports. After losing weight, your body feels so light, your skin becomes elastic. Your mood improves. I have adjusted my diet and now I only buy healthy foods. ”

Alexey: “I’ve wanted to take care of myself for a long time, but somehow I didn’t have enough time. Having seen an article about a sports diet, I became interested and started going to the gym. Now I follow a healthy diet and only eat healthy habits. I managed to gain 4kg in a month. ”

Vladislav: “I go to training and combine it with a sports diet. I would like to note that only muscle mass grows. The fat is gone. Now the body is elastic and resilient. The skin is tightened (there used to be a stomach). I’m glad that my six-pack abs and sculpted calves are now visible. I will continue to work on the same program along with a sports diet. ”