Whether you’re someone who is very
intensely involved in your workout sessions or you’re someone who
just wants to look like and athlete, learning to eat as an athlete
eats can help get you there.
Athletes understand the important of
following a good diet plan in terms of achieving their ideal body
weight and as such, choose foods that will help not hinder their
progress every day.
Because they have this higher level of
motivation to perform optimally, most of them don’t have some of
the motivational problems that other people suffer from when sticking
to their diet plan. For you, you’ll to reach deep down inside
yourself and summon that higher level of motivation so that you can
stick with the program over time.
Let’s have a quick peak at some of
the top things to keep in mind so that you can train like an athlete.
Eat For Fuel Not Emotion
The very first thing that athletes are
doing that you should be sure to do yourself is to eat for fuel, not
emotion. This means that you should never be eating purely for the
sake of eating when you aren’t even hungry.
An athlete knows that their body is
going to have variable hunger levels over time based on what they’re
doing for their workouts and will adjust their diet accordingly.
They don’t eat for any other reason than hunger or recovery so they
don’t have to worry about weight gain nearly as much.
Know Your Activity Level
The second principle that athletes
follow that you should make note of as well is that they understand
their activity level and how this relates to their diet plan. They
know that on days they are more active, they’re going to burn up a
very high amount of calories.
On days they’re less active, their
calorie burn just won’t be as high. Thus, they reduce their calorie
intake accordingly.
They don’t try and push through
intense workout sessions while starving themselves because they know
that performance will suffer and they may lose lean muscle mass.
You need to do the same. Movement
takes energy so you must supply this extra energy to your body.
Don’t Shun Carbs
Another must-do if you want to eat like
an athlete is to avoid shunning carbs entirely. Athletes understand
that carbohydrates are their body’s preferred source of fuel and as
such, they feed themselves the carbs they need.
As a result of
this, they don’t experience nearly the same degree of metabolic
slow-down that others do while dieting, enhancing their body weight
control.
You may not need as many carbs as an
Olympic athlete does, but you do still need healthy carbs in the
picture.
Get Enough Protein
Finally, the last thing that athletes
are doing that you should focus on doing yourself is getting enough
protein. Protein is going to be vital for repairing your muscles,
increasing your metabolism, and helping you see the most optimal
results total.
Add more protein to your diet and
you’ll instantly notice a difference in how you feel on a day to
day basis.
There you have some quick tips to help
you eat like an athlete. Which are you missing out on?
