People start gyming for different reasons, to some it is to keep them physically fit, while to some, it is to build up muscles in key parts of their body thereby giving them a physically attractive and confident shape. Some other persons to so to shade some body fats and calories especially around the belly.
Getting that body shape of one’s desire and choice can be very tasking and time consuming. To be honest, it can be very challenging a lot of times but at the same time very rewarding if you are consistent about it and as well maintain the routine. Although it may take a while for you to start seeing the desired results but it is still achievable. Therefore, you must be ready both physically and mentally to be able to achieve that sexy body goals. Let me also add that you must wear patience like a cloth, you must give your body time. You must also be ready to spend reasonable amount of money both on a well equipped gym house with professional coaches and on your diets while on the routine, if not, it may take longer than required for you to start getting significant results. Again you must also be ready to wholeheartedly accept the slogan “NO PAIN, NO GAIN” as mostly used in gym houses to boost the morale of people.
A lot of people get bias as to what to eat when on a fitness routine. Some don’t even care about what to eat or what not to eat. Honestly, that has to be ignorance, because if it isn’t, what else could it be? . As a professional in the area of food science and nutrition, I can categorically say that the results you get from gym and how fast you get it is largely dependent on your diet plan. It isn’t totally about the weight (in kilograms) of irons and steel you lift or other fitness routines available which you undertake, if you don’t eat the right kind of foods, results may be far from you. Another reason why you need to care about your diets is because gyming and other fitness routines generally is very straineous. During the processes, contractions and expansions happen with the muscles and tissues, even the joints. So, you must be on a good diet that would always rehabilitate the stressed and sometimes strained muscles, tissues and joints.
Below are the best ways to plan your diets when on a gym routines for best results and reasonable time frame.
1. Energy giving foods; I’m sure you might be wondering why I mentioned energy giving foods first contrary to proteins which you hear most often from people who have been in the gym routines before you or probably from unprofessional coaches. Well, that’s just ignorance, when you are planning to hit the gym, the first thing your body needs is energy, this applies most especially to the men who is on the muscles Building routine. High amount of energy is needed for you to be able to lift those hefty gym equipments. When you do so, energy stored in the muscles in the form of Adenosine triphosphate (ATP) is used up and must be replaced through foods. You should know that your body system requires atleast 2000Kcal of energy per day. This implies that if you are on a muscle Building routine, you need more energy. You should be able to get atleast 14 pounce per kg of your body weight from energy food sources.
The implications of not having energy adequate is that if you concentrate on proteins, your body system will have no option that to start converting the proteins to energy to be able to keep up with the stress, and this will deplete the muscles you are working so hard to build. Even if you aren’t Building up muscles, but want to burn excess calories and fats in your body, you still need minimum level of energy to be able to withstand the straineous routines. Therefore, before hitting the gym, always ensure to take energy meals like rice, oat meal, potatoes +veggies meals, plantains, bread + tea, pap, bananas + nuts like groundnuts or cashew nuts. When you eat any of this before getting to the gym, the energy value will certainly take you through the days gym routine, be it in the morning or in the evening. Note that it is also possible for you to hit the gym in the morning without have to eat, it all depends on your body system, if you can withstand it, it’s fine, you could take the energy foods after, but if you can’t, it is advisable that take reasonable amount of energy foods as I listed above.
2. Proteins; The protein diet sources should come from eggs, milk, chicken, lean meats, beans, soy meals, fishes, and seafoods. For better results, these proteins are best to be taken in the nights as dinner an evening gym routine. but it can also be taken in the afternoon or morning, the best way to go is to rotate the meals with the days of the week.
There are several functions that the proteins will perform in your body system as you go about the gym routines, it will keep your body system always refreshed. It is an elementary knowledge that one of the key functions of proteins are body building and repair of worn out tissues. So, the proteins will help to replace are replenish worn out tissues resulting from the straineous gym routines. In your protein meals, always ensure that the proteins from the plant sources and that of animals supplement each other and vice versa. This is to ensure that you derive all the essential amino acids needed by the body system for the functions above from both of them. If you consume proteinous foods from plant sources only, then your protein needs will be incomplete. For instance, it is not enough for you eat let’s say, porridge beans without fish or meats or seafoods and assume that you have eaten proteinous food.
In a case where animal proteins source are unavailable or unaffordable, you do not have to worry, there is a way out in order to ensure that you derive all the essential amino acids from plant protein sources and still achieve the same results. This you can do by complementing the plant proteins. in this case, one or amino acids that is lacking in one of the plant protein sources could be present in the other and vice versa. So, you could just combine the two of them and get your complete proteins. For instance, you can prepare a legume and cereal meal together and eat. Example: beans and corn porridge or pap and moi-moi. (A special kind of soy bean meal). The beans supplies the amino acid lysine which is lacking in maize (corn) while the maize(corn) supplies methionine lacking in beans to the meal.
3. Fats: The fat sources should come from Avocado, fatty fishes, nuts, soy, curd liver oil, etc. Fat plays a lot of roles roles in the body system and as such should be part of your gym diet plan. But then, you will have to regulate it. This is fatty foods give even higher amount of calories than carbohydrates. So, I recommend that you rotate your pre-gym meals between fatty meals and carbohydrate meals. Or you can even do a combination of this meals in a reasonable proportion sometimes. For instance, you can take few slice of bread and use avocado as spread.
The oil from the fish is reach in Omega-3 Fatty acids which is also vital in your body system as you go about the gym routines. The fats assist in cushioning the delicate organs of the body, it is also one of the key components of the fluids around the bones, joints and muscles so it provides a lot of cushioning effects during the straineous gym routines.
Moreso, it facilitates the absorption of fat soluble vitamins. So you see how important it is in your diet plan? Like I said earlier, it is ideal that you rotate the fat meals with carb meals within each week either before gym or after gym or as dinner.
4. Yoghurt parfaits; This is composed of yoghurt, cucumber, pineapple, banana, cashew nuts, or groundnuts, green or red apples or both, cinnamon nuts, strawberries and watermelon. This is an amazingly rich meal that should be part of your diet plan as you go on the fitness and body building journey. It is very ideal for an after-gym meal because it provides this rejuvenating effects on your entire body system, keeping you very refreshed. It can be a replacement for carbohydrate meals often times because it can provide enough calories that your body needs to complete a whole gym session. This combination is also very rich in vitamins and minerals needed by your body. Therefore it is ideal for you to incorporate it your weekly diet plan and be sure to get amazing results at reasonable time frame.
5. Probiotic yoghurts. Wether you are hitting the gym purposefully for weight loss or for muscles and other body parts development, you must include probiotic yoghurt in your gym diet plan. Reason is because both the protein and carbohydrate content of the milk which is the base ingredients for it product has been broken down into simpler and easily absorbable components through the fermentation process that it undergoes. And this point, for the sake of clarity, I will give the definition of probiotic yoghurt in its simplest term so that you will know how it differs from other types of yoghurts.
¶ Probiotic yoghurt. This is a specialty kind of yogurt that usually still contains live beneficial microorganisms, specifically bacteria after the Production. The bacteria is deliberately added to milk to cause the fermentation,leading to the breakdown of milk sugar (lactose) into lactic acid and the clogging of proteins whey and caseins. In other types of yogurts, the bacteria that is responsible for the fermentation are killed at the final stage of the Production processes by sterilization. Such yoghurts are often refered to as commercial yoghurts.
The live microorganisms in the yoghurt attacks and depletes the body fats when consumed, thereby leading to excessive fats loss in the body. It also reacts with, and breakdown the lactose-based carbohydrate components from the energy giving food meals. So, it is ideal to take a cup of probiotic yoghurt 15-20minutes after you have taken your energy source meals prior to a particular gym session. If you are on a weight loss routine, you can always take it in the morning before heading to the gym, that could replace the breakfast meal. This is for those that like to take eat before going for morning gym sessions. If you don’t like to eat, you can take the yoghurt during or after the session.
The probiotic yoghurt also perform incredible role in muscles expansion processes. So, to achieve that muscle goals faster, probiotic yoghurt mostly definitely should be part of your diet plan.
6. Smoothies; This is another wonderful diet you should include in your plan. Smoothies provide your body with vitamins and minerals like Calcium, potassium, magnesium, iron, zinc, etc. You can always take smoothies before, during or after the day’s gym session which may be in the morning, afternoon or evening. Although a lot of gym houses run mostly morning and evening sections. For those on a weight loss routine and ladies, smoothies is another diet that you can often use as an alternative for energy sources as you will get less calories from it unlike the carbohydrate foods. Smoothies can be made with fruits and vegetables such as combination of Avocado, banana, carrots, watermelon, cucumbers and pineapple. You can also use other fruits and vegetables of your choice but there shouldn’t be much citrus fruits in it because such fruits are cheap sources of simple sugars.
7. Veggies: This should also be part of your diet plan especially if you are on a weight loss routine. So be sure to incorporate it in your weekly diet plan so as to help you to have more varieties which will enable you to skip carbs intake atleast 3 times within a week for faster results. Veggies provides minimal amount of calories but provides enough fibre, vitamins and minerals needed by your body system to be able to overcome fatigue and general body weakness and shortness of breath that often result from the straineous gym routines.
7. Water: The role of water generally in the body system can not be overemphasized. Therefore, as you go about your gym routines, more water is needed to keep your system hydrated seeing as a lot of it lost through sweat during the straineous exercises. Taken enough water will always keep your body temperature balanced. Aside this, you should also know know that water is the major transport medium of nutrients to different parts of your body. So, you must endeavor to always take clean water.
Foods to avoid or regulate while on gym routines.
As I stated at the beginning of this article, what you eat, how you it and when you eat them is a major determinant of how fast you will achieve your body goals. Aside this, it is also necessary that your health into consideration. The following are the foods that you have to avoid or regulate while on a gym routine especially if your goal is centred on body weight loss.
a. You must avoid or strictly regulate foods high in simple sugars such as cakes, chocolate candies, fruit drinks, carbonated drinks, Loli pops, etc. All these foods when frequently consumed are great sources of ready-to-be-absorbed calories which are cheap sources of fast weight gain. So if you are on a weight loss routine and you constantly consume these, worst still, in a significant quantity, then you will be a thousand miles away from achieving your goals. It is also possible that this kind of habit would tremendously increase your blood sugar levels, thereby predisposing you to type-2 Diabetes.
b. Avoid or strictly regulate intake of deep-fried foods. Most of such foods are high in trans fat and as such poses high risk to your heart health according to several researches. Another reason is that the straineous nature of gym routines mounts much pressure on the heart especially during the sessions. The blood pumps at higher rate which is the reason your heart beat quadruples at that moments unlike like when you haven’t started a gym session. Therefore, if you don’t regulate the consumption of deeply fried foods, they could further put more pressure on your heart. this phenomenon is better refered to high blood pressure and this could lead to heart diseases. If you ever had any case or symptoms of a heart disease, the ideal thing to do is to totally avoid such foods .
C. Regulate alcohol intakes; Alcoholic drinks like lager beers, stouts, Gins, Rum, and whiskey is not needed when you are on a gym routine. So, you must regulate how you take it if you are the type that consumes alcohol, if you don’t consume alcohol, that’s great. A lot of men say that the reason they like to take some alcohol before hitting the gym is because it gives them the morale to lift higher mass(in kilograms) of gym equipments and by so doing, they build up muscles faster. People that smoke most often give the same reason. This is absolutely a bad habit and I strongly discourage it because such habit further put more pressure on your heart which is likely to negatively affect your heart on the long run.
D. Avoid heavily caffeinated drinks. The truth is that you do not need artificial stimulants to boost your performance or achieve your body goals faster. When you have a good diet plan for your gym routines as I have listed above and maintain it strictly, your body system will most definitely have sufficient amount of all the essential nutrients needed to achieve your body goals at reasonable time frame. While caffeinated drinks and other stimulants has the ability to boost your performance during gym sessions, it will be detrimental to your health at the long run so what’s then the need?
In summary, achieving your body goals while on a gym routine is largely dependent on your diet plan and your steadfastness, so be sure to plan your weekly diet with the meals I have listed above and be sure to achieve that your desired body shape and size within a reasonable time. Of course you should not forget that consistency in following up you routines is very necessary.
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