Hints to achieving a high energy diet to build muscle mass:
Examples of good pre-event meals:
- Be organised. Have some dedication to your eating, plan exactly what and how much you should be eating.
- Have snacks on hand at every eating opportunity, portable snacks include muesli or breakfast bars, fresh fruit, fruit bars.
- Increase the number of times you eat, rather than the size of your meals. Plan to eat 5-6 meals/snacks per day.
- Avoid excess fibre intake, by using white bread and cereal foods.
- Add sugar and sugary foods to meals to increase its energy value, like adding jam or honey to toast. Don't always buy the 'no-added sugar' juices and canned fruit.
- Enjoy high-energy drinks for extra carbohydrates. Fruit juices, sports drinks, soft drinks and cordial will all add extra fuel. Smoothies are packed with fuel and other nutrients, blend up milk, fruit, yoghurt, ice-cream, skim milk powder.
Speedy recovery
- Breakfast cereal + low-fat milk + fresh/canned fruit
- Muffins or crumpets + jam/honey
- Pancakes + syrup
- Toast + baked beans or spaghetti
- Rolls or sandwiches with banana filling
- Fruit salad + low-fat yoghurt
- Pasta + tomato based sauce
- Baked potato + low-fat filling
- Sports bars or cereal bars + sports drink
- Fruit smoothie (low-fat milk + fruit + low-fat yoghurt/ice cream)
The body is most receptive to fluid, carbohydrate and other recovery nutrients straight after activity. However recovery may be a challenge, having to juggle eating and drinking with other commitments after a session such as warm down activities.
The focus of recovery is to get you well prepared for your next training session or competitive event. The aims are to:
The best fuel to use is carbohydrate foods, as these foods will replace the glycogen stores depleted during the activity. Recovery will be most effective during the first few hours after the exercise. This is even more important when you have another event in less than eight hours.
- replace muscle and liver glycogen stores
- replace fluid and electrolytes lost in sweat
- repair the damage caused by the exercise
Strategies for speedy recovery
- Rehydrate quickly after a long workout
- Carbohydrate snacks that provide protein may help repair tissue
- Juice, sports drinks and cordial provide carbohydrate as well as fluid for recovery, they may be useful if appetite is poor
- Not all gyms or training venues provide suitable foods and drinks, so plan ahead and bring your own supplies
- If the next session is less than 8 hours away, have a snack within 30-60 minutes
- An intake of 50-100g of carbohydrate is adequate to start the refueling process.
The first diet is if you train in the mornings:
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And for training in the afternoon/eveningsSpoiler:
This is also interesting reading on the subject (if you've got time! ):
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