Basic nutrition and diet for strength training

Author: Timko Ilya - master of the whole project and fitness trainer.
2011-01-04

So, you train 2-3 times a week and eat 3-4 times a day. Now, I hope you understand that what you eat is just as important as how you train. This is the first point. The second point: remember, a diet has nothing to do with starvation. Whether you're trying to lose weight through training or gain mass, your diet must match the intensity of your workouts. Nutrition for athletes differs from "non-athletic" diets.

There are two main mistakes that beginners often make.

1. This is primarily characteristic of women. They start to train hard and hardly eat anything. They go to the gym to lose weight. Naturally, with strength training and physical activity, they develop a stronger appetite. This is a normal response of the body to increased energy expenditure. Girls panic at the realization that they are constantly feeling ravenous and start eating even less. As a result, the body does not recover after workouts. They experience constant fatigue, hunger-induced dizziness, poor mood, etc.

2. This is characteristic of men. They work hard, convinced that the end result of their efforts depends solely on the workouts. Outside of training, they eat whatever and whenever, claiming that they constantly have no time to focus on proper nutrition. Consequently, their systematic under-eating undermines all their efforts. Or they think that by buying a tub of protein, they can skip regular food altogether. They believe miracle powder will do all the work.

Many factors influence your diet. These include your age and gender, your weight, and your overall activity level. The presence or absence of certain health conditions, and so forth.

What is a diet, anyway? It is a tailored nutrition system that matches your goals. If you aim to build muscle, that is your goal. The methods to achieve it include a combination of workouts, diet, and more. Your diet as an athlete should be structured to help build muscle mass. If you want to lose weight, the diet and workouts should be arranged accordingly. Below, I will outline the basic principles that form the diet for athletes and diets in general.

1. You need to know how many calories you expend daily. It's impossible to calculate this precisely, but you should have an approximate idea. There are certain tables, but they are quite rough estimates. I’ll just say that a young man aged 20-30 years weighing around 80 kg, engaged in intellectual activities, expends about 2500 kcal per day. A girl of the same age weighing 60 kg expends roughly 1600 kcal. This is just an approximation.

2. You should know how many kcal you consume per day. How much of that comes from fats, proteins, and carbohydrates. This can be done. There are many tables on the caloric content of foods and their nutritional value. Here is a detailed caloric table of foods. There’s no need to count every day. Just create an approximate menu, calculate it once, and that should be sufficient.

3. If you want to gain mass, you should consume 5% - 10% more than you expend. If you expend 3000 kcal, then consume 3300 kcal. If you want to lose weight, then, correspondingly, eat 5% - 10% less than what you expend. If you want to maintain your weight, then consume approximately the same amount. These are general principles. As you can see, it’s straightforward. If you eat too much, you will gain weight faster, but most of that weight will be fat and water. Gaining 2-3 kg a month is excellent. An adult male's body cannot synthesize more than 2 kg of muscle in a month (exceptions being during puberty or when using anabolic steroids). It's also best to lose weight at the same "speed."

4. Try to eat often, but in small amounts. Ideally, 4-5 times a day. If your body occasionally experiences hunger, it will try to store "supplies for a rainy day" at every opportunity. Therefore, after every workout (regardless of whether you are losing or gaining mass), eat. Even if you train late in the evening. This will prevent the breakdown of your muscles.

The primary goal of strength training is to build muscle mass and increase strength. The main goal of the diet is to ensure that while increasing muscle mass, the increase in fat is minimal; or to remove fat while preserving muscle. Remember:

You cannot lose weight with only strength training!

Training in the gym does not have to be solely strength training.

Imagine that you can also do aerobics with weights and dumbbells. Look at kettlebell training. It’s pure aerobics! But that’s a topic for the section "The Effects of Training on the Body."

Keep in mind that the body synthesizes muscles much slower than fat tissue. Yet, it is much more eager to break down muscles than fat. So, do not rush to gain and lose weight. 2-3 kg a month in either direction is the ideal option.