Andrea 
The carbs you need to train!.
Now I want to make a simple parenthesis on the use of carbohydrates because the problem is that I see with the new fighters their lack of willingness to eat carbohydrates.
For some reason, people have this idea that eating carbs leads to putting on fat or other people believe that replacing carbs with protein to focus on building muscle.
The simple fact of the matter is that everyone needs this element whether you like it or not you should not exclude them from your diet.
Contents
The importance of carbohydrates to fight
If you study the food pyramid, you will see that carbohydrates are the largest, most important layer of food at the bottom.
The reason you need carbohydrates is for energy.
Even if you’re not a fighter and don’t fight, you’ll still need carbs to survive.
There’s no way to do it.
If you do combat sports you need to increase your carbohydrate intake or else your body will starve to death which means you will not have energy to sustain the workouts.
Carbohydrates
Carbohydrates provide energy to our body to carry out all daily activities and support biological functions.
They are divided into simple and complex,based on their chemical structure.
Where to find carbohydrates?.
They are most commonly found in bread, pasta, vegetables, fruits, beans.
Essentially there are two types of carbohydrates:
- Simple carbohydrates (“sugars”) include monosaccharides, such as glucose, fructose (“fruit sugar”) and galactose (constituent of lactose in milk and milk derivatives), and disaccharides, such as sucrose “table sugar” (glucose + fructose), maltose (glucose + glucose) and lactose (galactose + glucose).
Simple sugars are naturally present in foods, but we can also find them in refined form, used as such (sucrose) or incorporated into foods and drinks (sucrose, glucose syrup with variable fructose content), to increase their pleasantness.
These sugars are absorbed quickly by the body: they do not require metabolic activities, as they do not need to be degraded; In other words, they provide “ready energy”.
- Complex carbohydrates are formed by multiple units of monosaccharides and require more demanding digestive work to be transformed into glucose; Because of this, they are absorbed more slowly.
They are essentially represented by starch, present above all in cereals, dried legumes and potatoes, and dietary fiber, which we find in vegetables, fruit and fresh legumes, with the function of facilitating intestinal transit and achieving a sense of satiety.
In addition, starch regulates the absorption of certain nutrients, contributing to the control of blood sugar and cholesterolemia.
Why do YOU have to choose complex carbohydrates?.
Because they help control glucose, cholesterol and triglycerides levels in the blood. In addition, they are useful for losing weight,because complex carbohydrates have the property of increasing the sense of satiety.
Carbohydrates must be present in our daily diet. The FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization) and the WHO (World Health Organization) recommend ingesting 50-60% of total energy from carbohydrates, but only 10% from simple sugars, aligning perfectly with the scheme of the “new food pyramid“.
Complex carbohydrates: whole grains vs refined grains
Why choose whole foods?
Complex carbohydrates are divided into:
- whole grains (whole wheat, rye, barley, spelt, kamut, oats, brown rice, wild, corn)
- (most cookies, cakes, flour 00, semoly pasta, bread, white rice).
Refining is a food transformation process (desired by industrial logic, as products based on 00 flour are preserved much longer), capable of eliminating substances or parts of food.
For example, flour eliminates the germ and the outer part of the grain.
At the same time, however, some important nutrients are being used, first of all, the dietary fiber, which is used to control the “peaks” of glycemics, responsible for “reactive hypoglycemia”: this typically occurs after meals, often two or three hours after their end, thus raising even more blood sugar and exceeding the daily sugar requirement.
That’s why whole foodsare to be preferred.
Carbohydrates make you fat: a prejudice to be eliminated
I know you’re a fighter you’re always on a diet, but can I really eat pasta?
Absolutely yes: the important thing is that the amount of pasta does not exceed the daily caloric needs and that fatty condiments are not abused.
But no toppings!!
Our Mediterranean diet better than others allows you to control body weight and preserve health, and provides a share of carbohydrates (simple and complex) equal to 50-55% of the daily requirement, but I recommend 40%.
Of this, more than 80% must be represented by complex carbohydrates but since you are a fighter as I told you you have to adjust complex carbohydrates according to the training you do and you have to exclude simple carbohydrates.
It means that of the 40% daily carbohydrates must be 100% complex, translated –> NO SUGAR.
example:
Carbohydrates VS Fat
Carbohydrates are not always the same.
Good carbs give you energy, bad carbohydrates give you FREE!
If you are consuming carbohydrates and do not work and do not have a high metabolism, you will create fat.
If it is sports and training, carbohydrates will be permanently used.
Professional fighters consume about 7,000 calories a day and burn them easily!
Carbohydrate metabolism is not the same for everyone, each of us inherits from our parents its own characteristics,just think of the color of the eyes, the hair, the oval of the face.
These characteristics are written in our DNA and the DNA of each of us is unique.
However, we also inherit characteristics that are not seen: for example, the way we metabolize carbohydrates, fats, lactose intolerance, etc.
Get to know you
Ok but how do I know these features?
Just a saliva sample.
You get it right, science helps you.
Today with the most advanced research techniques you can analyze DNA, or rather some points on DNA, that affect the way you metabolize nutrients: in doing so, you can make a personalized nutritional plan, avoiding foods that hurt you or geese your body tolerates less.
A food plan that considers how you are today, but also your predispositions.
When do you have to eat carbs?. Not at night at midnight with a nice spaghetti!!
Most important times of the day to consume carbohydrates:
- When you wake up – breakfast is the most important meal of the day! Make it big, eat a lot, and then eat less during the day so you don’t get heavy from food and have a state of “food coma” and feel lazy during the day.
- Before a workout – it is definitely energy before a workout, so be sure to eat before starting training 2 hours before.
- After a workout – your body will starve after a workout and will immediately start the “rest mode”, when it starts to take nutrients to start putting your body together and rebuild your body and muscles to become better than before.
I kept the article as simple as possible. Carbohydrate intake depends on how seriously you work out each day. My advice slowly adjusts and if you continue to feel hungry, eat more. If you feel weighed down, eat less.
Attention!! If you eat pasta it doesn’t mean endless toppings!!
As for people who want to ask me for an opinion on VS carbohydrate protein, I tell them right away that this is not a bodybuilder diet.
This is a diet for a FIGHTER. The point is, you’re going to have to eat like a fighter if you want to be a fighter.
A fighter’s diet has different complexities than a bodybuilder where weight gain is an “advantage” before the unloading period to dry while a fighter must stay in his weight without putting excess fat or fluids and having a predominant lean mass percentage.
Both face complex diets and feedings but with different goals and somehow it is more complex for a fighter where even workloads are less controllable because of the variety of training types he faces every day.
Experience and listen to your body!.
Andrea
