Diet taboos for fitness men

Ignoring the random copying of the diet plan during the training period, using high calories without a bottom line during the muscle-building period, over-skimming fat and cutting off carbs during the fat-loss period, using supplements to completely replace meals, and blindly believing in the fallacy of "eating whatever you want before and after training".

Last year I met a programmer brother who had just practiced for 2 months. He directly copied the off-season diet of Olympiad athletes, 20 egg whites and 2 pounds of beef a day. After half a month of eating, he had diarrhea for 10 days. He had a gout attack and his feet were so swollen that he couldn't wear shoes and went to the hospital. He never considered that his weight is twice that of his, and his weekly training time is more than five times that of his. His diet plan is to match the rhythm of professional competition preparation. You, an ordinary person who trains for one hour three times a week, why are you joining in the fun? Nowadays, there are many diet schools on the Internet. High-carb and low-fat, low-carb and high-fat, and paleo diets each have their own audiences. There is no absolute right or wrong, only whether it is suitable for you. You don’t even know your own basal metabolism and how much you consume every day. If you dare to copy other people’s recipes, you are just looking for trouble for yourself.

As soon as many people hear that building muscle requires a calorie surplus, they just let themselves go. They eat fried chicken, burgers, and milk tea three times a day, euphemistically calling it "increasing muscle mass." To be fair here, there is indeed a traditional practice of "dirty muscle building" in the bodybuilding circle. Professional players will appropriately relax their dietary boundaries during the off-season to ensure sufficient calories for muscle growth. However, they have enough training intensity and metabolic level to brush off the increased body fat in subsequent preparations. Moreover, their "dirty" diet is based on the premise of ensuring that the daily protein intake is up to standard, and they do not rely solely on junk food to make up for it. A junior student I coached before, who is 175cm tall and 130kg, practiced muscle building for 3 months, and his weight increased to 150. His body fat soared from 18% to 28%, and his muscle mass only increased by 2kg. In the end, he lost fat for half a year before returning to his original body fat rate. What do you think of this picture? Of course, if you just want to eat happily and don't care about your body fat percentage, that's absolutely fine. But if you want to pursue the goal of "building muscle and minimizing fat gain," don't touch this pitfall.

If you say that people who gain muscle can’t keep their mouth shut, then many people who lose fat are being too harsh on themselves. I met a buddy who had been practicing for a year before. He lost fat for 3 months and completely cut off carbs. He only ate chicken breasts, broccoli, and boiled eggs every day. At first, he fell off the scale very fast. Later, he couldn't even bench press 40kg. He tossed and turned at night until he couldn't fall asleep at 2 or 3 o'clock. He went to check six sex hormones. The testosterone level dropped to the lower limit of the normal value for adult men. The doctor said that if he continued doing this, it would affect his fertility. It has to be said objectively here that ketogenic and low-carb diets are indeed effective for some people to lose fat, and some studies have even proven that they are good for blood sugar control, but that is based on the premise that you can strictly control the proportion of fat intake, replenish trace elements in a timely manner, and regularly monitor body indicators. 90% of ordinary bodybuilders cannot do this at all, and end up messing up their endocrine system. Most of the weight lost is muscle, and they can rebound faster than anyone else.

Speaking of food, one of the hardest hit areas is supplements. Many novices have just joined the gym and haven’t even bought two personal training classes. They bought a cabinet full of protein powder, creatine, nitrogen pumps, and branched-chain amino acids, thinking that they can grow muscles by drinking them, and the meals don’t even taste good. I had a former colleague who drank 4 scoops of protein powder every day and had a salad for lunch. Last month, his uric acid level soared to 680 during his physical examination. He had gout and lay at home for a week, unable to walk. The core of supplements is "supplementation", which is used when you don't eat enough nutrients such as protein and carbohydrates in your normal diet. For example, you have to work overtime today and don't have time to cook. It's totally fine to make a spoonful of protein powder to top it off. However, if you use supplements to replace meals every time, additional additives and high purine will cause extra burden on the liver and kidneys, so you really can't do it. Of course, different people have different acceptance of supplements. For example, if someone is lactose intolerant and gets diarrhea after drinking ordinary protein powder, they can just switch to whey isolate or simply eat more chicken and beef. There is no need to force it on them.

The last pitfall that many people fall into is getting stuck on what to eat before and after training. I met a buddy in the gym before. He ate two rice dumplings and a glass of iced American before training. During the deadlift training, he vomited directly in the strength area. Some people went downstairs after training to buy a sundae and fried chicken, saying that "you can eat anything during the post-training window and you won't gain weight." There has been controversy about the post-workout window period for many years. The old-school fitness theory does say that 45 minutes after exercise is a golden window to replenish carbohydrates and protein in time. However, the latest research has long confirmed that as long as your total daily intake and nutritional ratio meet the standards, this window can be extended to 4-6 hours.

I have been practicing for almost 6 years and have never completely given up on anything. I also drink ice-cold Coke after practicing in the summer, and eat hot pot and barbecue with friends on weekends. My body fat remains at 14-16% all year round, and my muscle mass steadily increases every year. In fact, there is nothing that you absolutely cannot eat. The so-called dietary taboos are never about making a long list of fastings to make yourself an outlier, but rather don’t create your body in order to get quick results. After all, the ultimate goal of fitness is to live a good life, right?