Proper Nutritional intake for women bodybuilders
Proper nutrition plays a very important role in our life. The importance of proper nutrition gets compounded in case you are recovering from a treatment or if you are planning to rebuild your muscles through bodybuilding. For a strong and well toned body, you need to eat the right kinds of foods which can supply your body with loads of vitamins and minerals.
Since bodybuilding boosts the muscular activity in our bodies, you will need to pump your body with more vitamins and minerals to meet the increased energy needs. You may also need to use dietary supplements to avoid developing vitamin, mineral, or proteins deficiencies, which can seriously hamper muscle growth and development and therefore delay or prevent the desired results.
Maintaining the right water balance is a very vital aspect of body building. When you workout, you tend to sweat heavily, losing water as well as electrolytes in this process. Therefore, you must drink adequate water to replenish the lost water from your body and to maintain your body in a state of perfect electrolytic balance. Additionally, drinking adequate amount of water at regular intervals also helps to flush out the wastes and toxins, which if allowed to build up in the body, can cause aches and make you feel fatigued.
In order to be able to build strong muscles, bodybuilders must aim at consuming more number of calories than what your body expends each day. Try to make every meal well-balanced and include the right proportion of proteins, carbohydrates, fat, vitamins, minerals, and water in your diet. Usually, a mixture of proteins and carbohydrates taken immediately after a workout is optimum in meeting the high energy demands of the body and also to supply your muscles with adequate proteins and amino acids for repair and replenishment.
Ideally, you should include a lot of include fruits, vegetables and whole grains in all your meals. Your diet should include more carbohydrates like, such as Baked potatoes, Whole grain cereals, Sweet potatoes, Spinach, Rice, Zucchini. You can use flax seed and olive oil (which are high quality polyunsaturated and monounsaturated oils respectively) to maintain your cholesterol levels. You must include healthy sources of fat such as tuna, salmon, flax, and walnuts, which contain significant levels of omega-3 essential fatty acids in your diet. It is advisable for body builders to increase their protein intake to at least 2 gm/kg of their body weight. Therefore, you should go for high quality protein sources such as lean meats, fish, poultry, nuts, seeds and legumes.
If you want to build your muscles, then you must not only increase the quantity and quality of your meals, but also the frequency with which you eat. You must eat at least 6 times a day, and provide a gap of 2 to 3 hours between each meal. You must aim at increasing your dietary intake by 500 calories more than the pre-bodybuilding diet.
Iron is a constituent of hemoglobin pigment, present in the red blood cells of our body. Low iron content in the body often manifests itself in the form of chills, fatigue and poor muscular endurance. Iron deficiency can make bodybuilding extremely tiresome and difficult since the iron deficient blood is unable to carry sufficient amount of oxygen to the muscle, thereby adversely affecting their movement. To prevent this, you must take an Iron rich diet (lean red meat, plantain or lentils) or use Iron supplements to make up for the gap. However, it is advisable to start using Iron supplements only after consulting your doctor.
The most important nutrient for women body builders is calcium, which is very important to maintain the bone density. Pregnancy, childbirth, and lactation can lead to depletion of calcium from the body of women. Therefore, female bodybuilders who have gone through this phase of their life must focus on taking calcium rich diets like beans, cabbage, tofu, green leafy vegetables and most importantly, one large glass of milk everyday.
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