How Power Sports Athletes Eat

Power sports are weightlifting and power triathlon. From a sports point of view, bodybuilding is included in the same group, due to the peculiarities of training, although the diet of bodybuilders is different.

In the period between competitions , athletes can engage in intensive weight gain, mainly at the expense of muscles, in order to increase strength or move to the next weight category. And during performances, the main goal is to provide the muscles with the necessary micro- and macroelements to develop maximum efforts.

The diet of strength sports athletes has an increased calorie content, especially during weight gain — about 3500-4500 kcal for men weighing 70 kg and 3000-4000 kcal for women weighing 60 kg, of which 18-20% proteins, 31-32% fats and 49-50% carbohydrates.

However, as we already know, building an athlete's diet should be approached individually. The diet of bodybuilders requires especially careful calculations - sometimes so much so that the athlete must weigh each piece and check everything with the help of calorie tables and a calculator. And on the other hand, athletes when gaining mass, in particular if they take anabolic drugs (the vast majority of those who are professionally involved in bodybuilding), can eat everything in a row, paying attention only to the protein content - the more, the better. Of course, this practice provides rather dubious results, because at first the muscles become covered with a huge amount of fat, which then takes a long and difficult time to get rid of.

Therefore, the diet of power sports athletes should be approached with special care.

Athletes for some time write down all the food they ate and its calorie content in a special diary and count everything. After that, they achieve the desired result by changing the composition of the diet . After that, athletes will no longer need such accurate calculations, since the body's need for food has quite flexible limits. It will take from 2 weeks to a month to adjust an athlete's diet — whether for fat loss or weight gain.

The most important thing for strength sports athletes is protein in large quantities, since strength training requires rapid rebuilding of muscle tissue. To build muscle mass, the diet should contain about 2 g of protein per 1 kg of weight per day.

Carbohydrates should also make up a significant part of the diet as a source of energy. If the athlete 's diet contains little fat, it is necessary to compose the diet so that the ratio of proteins to carbohydrates is 1:2 to ensure good assimilation of the former. If the amount of fat is normal, then the ratio should be 4:3.

The amount of fat should make up 30% of the total caloric content of the diet , but most of it should be represented by unsaturated fats. After all, low-fat diets, widely advertised recently, do not always ensure effective burning of fat deposits.

When increasing the amount of proteins in the diet , it is necessary to increase the amount of water, which will ensure cleansing of the body from harmful metabolites.

Substances such as magnesium, zinc, calcium and potassium must be present in the diet in sufficient quantities, their lack leads to disorders and reduced performance.

A large number of calories also leads to a large amount of salt in the body - ready-made food usually contains more salt than is actually needed. Because enough attention should be paid to the salt balance and reduce the amount of sodium to prevent swelling. For bodybuilders, excess sodium is also harmful because it retains water, causing the muscles to flood with water. But its lack leads to an imbalance of electrolytes, which can cause malfunctions of the brain and heart.

In bodybuilding and strength sports, various sports nutritional supplements are used the most. The most popular of them for athletes of these sports are proteins and amino acids.

When consuming such supplements, it is important to follow the basic rule: sports nutrition should in no case replace regular food, but complement it.

It is necessary to take protein-carbohydrate and amino acid preparations strictly in accordance with the tasks of the athlete and the composition of his diet . You should also not get carried away with some amino acids.

This also applies to vitamins. Good vitamin complexes or multivitamins are necessary, but you should pay particular attention to their choice, and the main thing is to follow the dosage.

The effectiveness of creatine for strength sports has been proven by years of use. However, it is better to buy it separately, and not in the composition of protein mixtures, since its effectiveness is higher.

Supplements such as mineral salts and multivitamins, proteins, creatine monohydrate and amino acids (in moderate amounts) are recommended for strength sports athletes .