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Female Bodybuilding - How to Eat Right
Having a good workout program is only part of the equation. If you don't eat right, you are probably wasting your precious time. In fact, your muscles may even become weaker over time due to overuse!
When you workout intensely, your muscles become sore the next. The reason why your muscles are sore is because you place heavy demands on it. You are telling your muscles that you need them to grow strong.
Every time such demands is placed on the muscles, the muscles first weakens under the weight, until you find that you can't even lift any repetition of the dumbbell. That's good.
But here comes the more important part.
You have successfully torn up your muscles - good job. Now is the time to allow it to grow.
That's VERY important, so I'll say it again.
Now is the time to allow it to grow.
In order for your muscles to grow, you must do three things.
1) Get plenty of rest.
2) Get enough hydration.
3) Get enough protein.
Usually, after a good workout, you won't have problems falling into a deep sleep throughout the night. That's because you are SO SO tired!
That's a good thing. When you sleep well, you give you muscles time to grow. On day 1, the muscles feel really really sore. The sore parts are the muscles that you have worked on most.
They are also usually your weakest muscles. So it's good that the soreness reveals the weaker parts of your body.
When you muscles are sore, don't work out. Let your muscles rest.
Instead, pay attention to what you are eating.
You are working out and expending all that energy. You must do something to replenish that energy!
If you want your muscles to grow, you must nourish them with proteins. Soy protein powder will be a good choice. Proteins is the main mineral for muscle growth.
Take a look at your normal diet. Does it contain mostly protein, or mostly carbohydrate and fats? I bet it's the latter.
Take a look at any meal - fast food, eating out at the restaurant, etc. Most meals contain WAY too much calories.
If you want to lose weight and look good, you want to avoid having a high calorie diet.
A high protein and high calorie diet won't work. You will build muscle mass. But your muscle will be covered under all that excess fat.
A high protein, low carb diet isn't recommended as well. That is because carbohydrates provide a lot of energy - energy that you need to maintain your exercise regime. So don't forget your grains.
A high protein, mid carb, and non fat diet is what you are looking for. Notice that I say non fat, not low fat.
Many food products in the market place have labels that say low fat. That is a marketing gimmick. It's low fat, but the fat content is still way above what most people need. What you want is NON fat.
The stricter the standards you set for yourself, the faster you will achieve your goals.
Here is a list of high protein food that you can consider consuming:
* Lean meat.
* Milk.
* Eggs (1 yolk, the rest all whites)
* Soya products.
* Tofu (bean curd).
* Fish. (Excellent protein source)
Always remember to maintain a balanced diet. Don't just eat protein rich food and forget about your vegetables and grains. Grains contain important carbohydrates and vegetables contain fibre and minerals that is good for the body.
How much protein do you need to eat per day?
On average, about 1g of protein for 1 pound of weight.
Soon, you must start to be conscious about what you eat. You don't have to be so conscious that you stop dining out with friends, but you do need to be aware of what you are feeding your body.
The occasional cheat meal usually doesn't hurt as long as it's taken in moderation.
Remember, everything in moderation. Go high only on proteins.
In addition, it's not just about what you eat. It's about how you eat as well.
Most people eat just 3 big meals a day - breakfast, lunch and dinner. Do you know how many meals professional bodybuilders eat a day?
They eat 8 small meals a day.
Why?
That is because they are preventing the body from going into starvation mode. If you starve yourself, you are training the body to store fat.
The body stores fat because it thinks it needs to conserve energy. It's only natural because otherwise it will starve. So don't starve the body.
Take smaller meals, more frequently each day. If you are just taking 3 meals a day, try to spread that out to 4 meals, then 5 meals a day, and eventually 6 meals.
That way, you are training the body to burn fat any time it needs to, cause the body has all the food it needs.
The wrong way to lose weight to go adopt a DIET AND BINGE approach. Okay, at first it's all diet, no binging allowed.
But when you go on a strict diet, you eat less and less. The body becomes weaker and weaker. Initially, you lose weight because you are losing both muscles and fats.
Your metabolism gets slower because it starts to conserve what little energy it has left. That's why dieters usually find it harder and harder to lose weight as they continue their diet.
Their metabolism is slowing, so they are fighting an uphill battle.
Then when the body finally can't take it anymore, the binging starts. That's how dieters put on more weight than they lost. Now, their body can't cope with the calories intake because of the low metabolism!
When you build muscle, your metabolism helps to burn off calories naturally. You find that even if you eat more, it's not easy to gain back that weight.
The best part is, your body continues to burn calories at a faster rate even when you are NOT working out. The experts call this your REST metabolism.
When you increase your metabolism, your REST metabolism increases as well. And that helps to burn fat.
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