Diet Guide for CrossFit Training

Food is the key in any sport including Crossfit. If you have little in a tank it is hard to recover and perform you best in the next workout. For those of you ready to take your fitness to the next level this post will be very useful.

Here the saying ‘we are what we eat’ has never been more relevant.

As you know for any sportsman, nutrition is a fundamental part of his preparation.

These are the keys we want you to know to follow correct nutrition if you practice Crossfit,

Food in Crossfit

Let’s start by talking about the key to food in Crossfit, not the diet. We already know what Crossfit is and we are clear that one of the qualities required of athletes is resistance.

To lift weights, swim, face to face with the assault bike, or paddle you need a diet rich in carbohydrates and proteins because they give muscles energy. Carbohydrates are the gasoline that will give your body more agility when it comes to performing the exercises. Eat bananas, carrots or potatoes, and you will help your body recover muscle glycogen.

Including carbohydrates during the season of competitions or more intense training is essential. Intense training can reduce an athlete’s glycogen reserves by 50 to 70%.

“I train hard and that’s why I want it” This is not a correct mindset because food and performance go hand in hand. When we train, depending on the physical conditioning, the muscle cells take glucose from the blood, then stored glycogen, and then the fat. If we are not well fed, glycogen is depleted very quickly and fatigue arrives. With fatigue, we will never be able to perform 100% or do a good workout. Eliminating foods like cereals or potatoes from the diet is a mistake because if we do not have glycogen circulating, the body gets tired much sooner, and fatigue starts.

Why are proteins key to food in Crossfit?

Proteins are responsible for repairing tissues and producing hormones such as insulin. The result is that muscle mass recovers better and the body’s response to recover from the activity also improves. It is so intense that micro-wounds are produced in the tissues that must be helped to repair to continue performing the exercises and maintain a good general physical condition.

Supplements for Crossfit, Athletes who perform Crossfit regularly need supplementation to maintain the exercise at such a high level. It is a help that is given to your body to help you recover from exercise and be ready the next day to give everything back. Taking supplementation should go hand in hand with a good diet; otherwise, you’re just working against yourself.

The supplements should be a complement to improve performance but never as substitutes for an adequate diet. We already talked about some supplements, but we will quickly remember some of the most important:

Beta-alanine: it is an amino acid that helps improve muscular endurance. It improves athletic performance and physical endurance of the athlete, so it has become as indispensable for many athletes in and out of the world of Crossfit. In addition, it also increases energy and helps increase muscle mass.

Creatine: it is an acid that we can find inside the human body itself. It is one of the essentials in Crossfit as it increases muscular endurance, decreases the feeling of fatigue and increases strength. Creatine can help you lift more weight.

Whey protein: helps recover after exercise and is a simple way to increase protein intake. Whey protein helps the muscle to recover, but also to grow. Reduces muscle pain and is an ideal fuel for the body after training.

HMB: helps increase muscle mass and lose fat at the same time. It is a natural compound that improves performance and helps recover after exercise. It is a complement that is making room between the athletes with a firm step.

Key diets for food in Crossfit

If a good diet is not enough and you want to make a diet as such, among Crossfit athletes are 2 diets that are more successful: The Paleo diet and Zone diet. We discuss them here with a brief review to know what they are and most importantly: what are their benefits.

Paleo Diet: Consists of eating lots of vegetables and fruits. Meat, fish, and eggs. As you can see, the Paleo diet consists of going back to the past and eating food in the least processed way possible. The good thing about this diet is that you will not have to count calories.

Zone diet: This diet is as follows: 40% carbohydrate, 30% protein, and 30% fat. It is divided into blocks, depending on your weight and height and the good thing is that it is not as restrictive as the paleo diet. With this diet, sugar levels are controlled a lot since all refined ones are limited and the sugar contained in fruits is ingested, for example. To do it well, you have to be very strict, and it is complicated to carry it out for a long time because it does not allow you to eat pasta, rice or dairy products.

A healthy diet will not only improve your performance, but it will improve your health. Avoid processed foods such as pastries, alcohol, and tobacco and you will see the results.