Why do we even need to talk about CrossFit nutrition when nutrition is being discussed everywhere anyway? Because the nutritional requirements of a Crossfit diet are different from those for bodybuilding, weightlifting, or powerlifting!
In Crossfit, we do a workout with extremely high intensity and increasingly a lot of volume.
Therefore, a low-carb diet is not suitable for Crossfit. Several studies investigated the effects of a low-carb diet on high-intensity training – However, no evidence shows that low-carb diets are beneficial for endurance athletes and for building muscles. And the article from Rudy Mawer (MSc, CISSN) on Healthline also suggests the same thing.
We know it’s tempting because the low carbs are quick to see results in the beginning while losing weight. But in the long run, many different problems arise.
Possible Side effects with low carb diets:
Low Energy
You feel tired and don’t have any fuel for your workout. simply cutting carbs out of your diet, may cause severe mood swings and will ultimately affect your WODs.
Body composition.
If you lost weight well at the beginning, suddenly nothing happens anymore. Low carb diets are popular but not a good option to go for in the long run.
Injuries.
Increasingly, one also sees injuries that are related to low-carb diets. low-carb conditions put some athletes in large caloric deficits. Without enough energy in the form of calories, the body can no longer focus on repairing the damage caused by exercise. As a result, with low-carb diet injuries are common.
The point is CrossFit nutrition is the be-all and end-all, because they have to recover from hard training and need enough fuel for long and hard training sessions.
Do this exercise to increase stamina, coordination and focus
Calories And The Right CrossFit Nutrient Distribution
Calories have the greatest influence on your training success and your body composition (muscle building or fat loss). The body works according to an “energy in vs. energy out” principle and we measure energy in calories (kilos). Even though the body is not a “closed microsystem” and energy consumption can differ from day-to-day, we base this system on calories.
Because our body needs work so hard to build muscle, we create a calorie surplus for it. So that’s the first difference to fat loss: We don’t eat less, but more than our body needs. A good guideline to start with is around 300 excess calories per day. We distribute the macronutrients as follows:
- 2 G of protein per kilogram of body weight
- 1.5 G fat per kilogram of body weight
- The remaining calories should be carbohydrates.
The Right Foods To Build Muscle
For muscle building, we prefer to use foods like those used for fat loss. However, when it comes to protein sources, we can also use slightly “greasier” variants such as ground meat, organic whole milk, and cheese. The use of fatty protein sources makes sense especially if we have problems meeting our increased daily calorie requirement. The distribution of the macronutrients should still be considered.
Good sources of protein for building muscle are:
- Meat
- chicken
- Eggs
- Beans
- Whole milk
Good sources of carbohydrates for building muscle are:
- Rice
- Potatoes
- Sweet potatoes
- Oatmeal
- Beans
- Corn
- Sweet Pumpkin
- All types of fruit
- Dried fruits
Good fats for building muscle are:
- Pasture Butter
- Ghee
- Extra Virgin Olive Oil
- Coconut Oil
- Nuts and Seeds
Good vegetables for building muscle: Any vegetables! Cabbage and green vegetables are particularly good choices.
Supplements: Not A Must, But Helpful In CrossFit Nutrition
If the diet is well adjusted, it may also be useful for CrossFitter to use supplements. This is not a must for building high-quality muscle mass, but it can help in training. Protein shakes are also a great way to get the calories you need.
Supplements for building muscle:
- Creatine
- Vitamin D
- Whey Protein
- Magnesium
- Fish oil
Creatine
Creatine is a no-brainer: it is the best-researched supplement and, in addition to various athletic and cognitive benefits.
Vitamin D
A Vitamin that most people around the world have too little of. It is heavily involved in muscle building and other important metabolic processes, e.g. the formation of testosterone.
Whey Protein
It helps to meet protein requirements, tastes good, and provides the body with protein very quickly.
Magnesium and Fish Oil
They belong in the same category. The former is useful for a good night’s sleep, while the latter helps to balance the fat balance (omega-3 vs. omega-6, unsaturated vs. saturated).
Get The Daily Calories You Need
Building muscle sounds like a lot of fun at the beginning: Finally, eat as much as you want! But, You will very quickly realize that gaining weight can be as hard as losing weight. Eating at CrossFit is unfortunately not that easy. After all, you move a lot during training. But when you’re not exercising, CrossFitter should eat what they can.
Many find it difficult to get the number of calories needed to build muscle every day. Lack of hunger and a constant feeling of fullness is a problem, especially at the beginning. And not all are blessed with such a healthy appetite.
The good news: the stomach adapts and the feeling of hunger should return after a week or two. If you still find it difficult, it often helps to hire online nutrition coaching for a certain time. Your CrossFit nutrition coach will help you implement your plans and will be at your side with advice and action in difficult times.
But even after that, it can be problematic to produce the daily calorie surplus. Sometimes there is no time to prepare the food, sometimes there is not enough time to consume all the food. The problem is at least partially avoided if, in addition to the main meals, the snacks are high-calorie liquid food.
If there are no digestibility issues, organic whole milk is a great way to get a large number of calories and high-quality nutrients quickly and easily. As this article suggests from Becky bell (Ms, RD) on Healthline.
One liter of whole milk has 640 kilocalories with 33 grams of protein, 48 grams of carbohydrates, and 37 grams of fat – an almost optimal nutrient ratio for building muscle. If that’s not enough, you can of course add one or two spoonfuls of protein powder and a banana or oatmeal and get to 1,000 kilocalories in no time.
Importance of Drinking and Sleeping
In addition to training, nutrition, and supplements, two other factors are extremely important for building muscle – but which are often overlooked or forgotten.
On the one hand, there is a fluid intake, i.e. drinking. (Showering is also not bad with the many training units.) In general, you should drink a lot of water. As you increase your food intake, you should definitely increase the amount of fluids you consume every day. Plus coffee, protein shakes, etc. A few liters of liquid come together every day.
We also know that the body grows when it is resting. And the body grows even better during the time we sleep. Then somatropin (STH, also known as Human Growth Hormone or HGH), the hormone that is responsible for cell growth in the body, is released in increased quantities.
So if you want to grow, you should sleep a lot. At least nine hours of high-quality sleep per night is ideal.