While you may be clued up on the necessary exercises to meet your fitness goals, it’s not always so simple. Your diet is crucial when it comes to working out, as it plays an important role in achieving optimum results.
Proteins and carbohydrates are vital nutrients, whether your aim be to lose weight or build muscle.
I spoke with the fitness guys at Breaking Muscle who have highlighted the best foods to eat to help you to see results quickly.
Greek yoghurt
Due to being high in protein, Greek yoghurt is essential for your diet. With low fat, calories, and even sugar, it helps to promote weight loss while simultaneously building muscle.
As well as this, it contains probiotics to improve your immune and digestive health to contribute to a healthy gut biome. Add a handful of almonds to the yoghurt for an even more effective snack, as one ounce has six grams of protein.
Brown rice
Containing fibre, complex carbohydrates, proteins, and antioxidants, brown rice is an excellent food for exercise – and with healthy fat, it supplies your body with long-term energy during workouts.
Plus, the high fibre causes your body to feel more full, thus reducing your intake of calories to help with weight loss. Pair with kidney or black beans for an increased intake of protein to contribute to lower body weight and lean muscle gain.
Oatmeal
Oatmeal is great for boosting endurance and strength for your workouts. Not only does it provide complex carbohydrates and protein to aid your workout progress, but it is rich in fibre too.
Plus, you can add in extras for more flavour like berries which contains inflammation-fighting antioxidants that help your body to heal after exercise.
Sweet potatoes
Another great source of complex carbohydrates is sweet potatoes, which contribute to a full stomach due to being high in fibre and water to reduce your calorie intake.
Not to mention, they contain vitamin A, potassium, and riboflavin to name a few, which all aid the muscle-building process. A flavourful pairing for sweet potatoes is red peppers which are filled with anti-inflammatory antioxidants to ease any pain after a workout.
Eggs
Eggs are very high in protein and are fantastic for building muscle – and they can even help with weight loss too due to the high protein and the healthy fat to make you feel fuller.
To help muscle gain and weight loss, poached or boiled eggs are the healthiest way to consume them as they retain most of their nutrients and don’t require adding more calories from extras such as oil. Serve your eggs with whole grain bread for a high intake of protein and fibre.
A spokesperson from Breaking Muscle commented: “It can often take time to become familiar with the right workouts for your fitness goals, and to add to that, it can be challenging finding where to start when it comes to the best foods to eat.
Thankfully, there are plenty of foods packed with important nutrients that fit different fitness goals, whether that’s to increase muscle mass, lose weight, or both.
It’s essential that those who are into exercise understand that meals and snacks don’t need to be anything complicated, and something as simple as oatmeal and bananas for breakfast won’t take a chunk of time out of a busy day.”