People join the gym for two main reasons first to lose weight and the other is to gain weight.
When you are a beginner many people come to and tell take this supplement or take that you listen to them as you see their bodies and get influenced and take a supplement. But when you start gyming you should concentrate on natural food sources rather than a supplement. You have to understand the word supplement it means when you are not able to fulfil your diet then take them. But for a beginner, your diet should mainly be food.
When you start all you want to lose that weight or gain weight and want to become muscular as early as possible. This is not possible as the process of losing weight and gaining weight takes time and effort. You should not go for shortcuts and take any kind of supplement without researching about it. With any kind of supplement, it still takes time to achieve your goals.
To achieve your dream the body you need to concentrate on three things on a daily basis
1 Diet- You can do all kinds of exercise but you still can’t achieve what you are striving for if you don’t have a proper diet. You will have to concentrate on the diet more than any things as 70% of your results depend on diet. That’s, why many people quote muscles, are made in the kitchen. For growth and maintenance of your body, you need to concentrate on two components macronutrients and micronutrients.
Macro nutrients are required by your body in large quantities they are further divided into three sub-category
protein- To build muscles protein is the most important thing. Whether your losing weight or gaining weight you need to include protein in your diet. When you are in a gaining phase you need protein for building muscles it can be calculated with your weight multiplying by 2.5 for eg if you weight around 80 kg your body required 200 grams of minium protein on a daily basis.
Protein also should the main macronutrients when you want to lose weight as more the muscles you build in the body more calories you will burn while exercising and as well as resting. You should not follow any fad diets which tell to limit your protein intake. Best natural protein sources eggs, chicken, dairy, lentils, legumes, cottage cheese, tofu, soya , fish, chia seeds, flaxseeds and there are many more.
Carbohydrates- Carbs are the macronutrients on which our body mainly depend on providing our energy so when on a gaining phase you should consume a large amount of carbs as you need lots of energy to lift weights. When on cutting the phase you have to understand which carbs you need to eliminate from your diet carbs like potato, white rice, bread, and many other grains you should avoid it.
Fats- There are healthy fats you should also take regularly. Fats like; Olive oil, nuts, fish oils, peanut butter, cinnamon, and avocado are all healthy fat and are not going to make you fat. You should eliminate all the unhealthy fats from your diet as they both are not required for a healthy body.
Micronutrients- then come to your micronutrients these are your vitamins and minerals. You should only consume these when prescribed by a doctor because without conducting proper test you cannot determine what deficiency you have.
2 Exercise- your intensity of workout depends on weather you will achieve goals or not. You should follow anyone or any youtube guru for exercise as they do not share full knowledge and they are not certified. Your gym must be having certified trainers you should ask then for exercise because a certified and experienced trainer would provide you exercise routine and will correct your form. As the form is extremely important for exercise at the gym.
3 Rest – people think they have started exercising and are eating a proper diet but they not resting enough. You might end up injuring yourself if you are not having proper rest. As a beginner, you don’t understand your body fully how much you need to rest to recover from muscle soreness.
Here are some basics if you can understand what works well in the gym wether you are a beginner, amateur or pro
1. Know your maintenance level- Your maintenance level depends upon your height and weight. It means how much calories you should consume to maintain the current body and when for eg you want to gain weight you have to consume more calories from the maintenance levels and f you want to reduce your need to cut on calories.
2. Number of meals and their timings- Try to break your diet into 5–6 meals which will help you to boost your metabolism and keep your body in an anabolic state for a prolonged period. Important meals of the day are your morning meal, pre workout meal and the most important one “post-workout meal”.
3 counting calories- counting calories help you understand what to eat and what to avoid. 1gm of carb = 4 calories || 1gm of protein = 4 calories || 1 gm of fat = 9 calories. So when you want to lose weight you have to limit the fats from your diet. When you are on gaining phase you should include all three macronutrients.
Foods you should be focusing and managing your diet according to them
This list of food can be eaten on diet plans both in weight loss and in gaining phase.
Meats- chicken, salmon, tuna and eggs
Dairy- milk, cottage cheese, yogurt, cheese
Grains- multi grain breads, bajra, oats, quinnoua
Fruits- orange, banana, pineapple, apple, papaya,blueberries, cranberry
vegetables- broccoli, capsicum, lettuce, kale, sweet potato, tomatoes, cucumber
Dals- all kind of dals
Food you should avoid
Alcohol– it has hidden calories in them and most of the case people consume more food with alcohol
Sports drinks- they are loaded with sugar and calories. They are marketing gimmicks,
Packed foods- To have a healthy life you need to avoid packaged foods as they are high on preservatives, more on calories should try to eat organic vegetables.