What are you eating, when are you eating, how much are you eating? A few necessary questions you need to ask yourself. All of these questions must be rectified by a few more. How do I answer this?
The amount of each food group you need will depend on, The type of sport, the amount of training and the time you spend in the activity or exercise.
To help you perform better, avoid exercising on an empty stomach. Everyone is different, so you will need to learn how soon before training you can consume food before it negatively effects your energy level, mood or body movements. Also how much food you are able to consume.
CARBOHYDRATES
Carbohydrates are a diet staple. They are important for providing energy during exercise. Carbohydrates are stored in the body in the form of glycogen, mostly in the muscles and liver. Carbohydrates must not be seen as being evil. Depending on your goals. This can be the difference between feeling great or really bad during and after training.
What matters most is the total amount of carbohydrates you eat each day. A little more than half of your calories should come from carbohydrates. Choosing the right ones are the important part here.
After exercise, you need to eat carbohydrates to build the glycogen storage back up in your muscles. Even more important is how badly your muscle need carbohydrates to help transport protein to the muscle for optimum muscle recovery and tissue repair.
PROTEIN
Protein is important for muscle growth and to repair body tissues. Protein can also be used by the body for energy, but only after glycogen or carbohydrate stores have been used up.
Just as we need to consume the right balance of protein it’s also important to consume the right balance and varied protein sources. ( rule of thumb leaner is better )
FAT
Do not be scared. Fat is filling, full of heart healthy goodness to keep your organs working, skin, nails and hair growing. Best of all you need to consume it to burn it. The Key is as above mentioned with carbohydrate and protein sources, balance.
VITAMINS AND MINERALS
Fat soluble and water soluble are 2 very different types of vitamins and minerals but both essential to overall health and well-being. Before we go into more detail you need fats and water take note. Without these two essentials the transportation's of vitamins and minerals will not be able to take its course fast enough and may hinder the body’s natural energy systems and natural levels of homeostasis. Take note to the difference in the 2. 1 Water soluble (Vitamin C and all of the B vitamins): Water soluble vitamins are vitamins that our bodies do not store. These vitamins dissolve in water when they are ingested, then go in to the blood stream. 2 Fat Soluble (Vitamins A, D, E and K): Fat soluble vitamins are those that are normally stored in the body. When these vitamins are ingested, they dissolve in fat.
BALANCE
As you lose your balance on a pistol, handstand walk, jerk , overhead squat, so you lose balance with your eating habits. How do we fix this? Practice, trial and error. What you put in you will get out. The more time, effort and discipline you apply to this venture the closer you will be to understanding the very unique and special demands your body requires. No matter how technical nutrition becomes at the end of the day it’s still all about calorie intake vs calorie expenditure. Your body will guide you and show you how much it wants and needs but first you need to fuel it with natural wholesome foods. What those wholesome alternative are I will discuss on the next post.
Strive to move better.
Hey Jaco. You said a little more than half of our calories should be carbs. Is this also true for a "casual Crossfitter" ie someone like me coming 3x a week but not doing multiple daily sessions? What about fat and protein %? Do you split it down the middle or should it be different?
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ReplyDeleteHi mstolasz, very good question. As above mentioned w.r.t what training you do, the intensity and also duration. Some "casual CrossFitters" do more then just 45 min a day. If you do more exercise at high intensity I would charge those glycogen stores with quality carbohydrates. But if the 45 min is the only form of exercise you do stick to the balanced meals with low gi low sugar carbohydrates. My personal opinion w.r.t fat and protein percentage, stick to portion sizes. Most meats have large amounts of quality fats, most quality fats have some sort of protein content. Play around with the 45 to 50 % between the 2. More of the one might be better. Trial and error. Hope that answers the question
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