How to take sports nutrition to lose weight

What is sports nutrition for weight loss

Nutritional supplements that differ in their composition and principle of action due to this, united only by purpose - this is what sports nutrition is. Depending on the components used to create them, they can:

• help improve endurance indicators;
• help the body tolerate power loads more easily;
• provoke muscle growth;
• speed up metabolism.

The only common feature of all sports nutrition is its focus: these nutritional supplements are designed for individuals exposed to physical activity. In the absence of training, they do not work or can give the opposite result, which often happens to those who use sports nutrition to burn fat without exercising either in the gym or at home.

Is it possible to lose weight on sports nutrition?

A number of drugs aimed at athletes have the ability to reduce the amount of fat mass, but “lose weight” and “reduce weight” in this case are not synonymous, because Most representatives of the sports nutrition category additionally have the function of increasing muscle volume. However, fat burners are indeed present among these drugs and represent a separate category that specifically helps to lose weight. Other sports nutrition options work differently: they suppress the feeling of hunger or accelerate the breakdown of incoming nutrients.

Myths and truth about sports nutrition

There are many misconceptions about supplements for athletes, based on which people who begin to engage in sports either avoid their use or abuse them, causing harm to the body:

1. The myth is that sports nutrition is based on chemicals that are harmful to health. Athletes need to know that these drugs consist entirely of natural food ingredients. They are absorbed by the body in the same way as simple food products.
2. The myth is that consuming sports nutrition will turn anyone into an athlete. Like any nutrition, supplements can be beneficial when used in moderation, or harmful when used in moderation and are stored as fat if there is a lack of physical activity. Such drugs help to lose weight and build muscle mass only with intense training. Read more about the benefits and harms of sports nutrition in our article.

To choose the right supplements for athletes who want to lose weight, you need to know their composition and effect, as well as correlate the required dose with your sports regimen.

Check out this comprehensive guide to sports nutrition for new athletes.

How does sports nutrition work for weight loss?

The operating principle of such products and supplements depends on the composition and focus: among sports nutrition you can find classic fat burners, appetite blockers, nutrient breakdown accelerators, etc. There are also options designed to replace meals without compromising your health: these are nutritional complexes with good calorie content, but without microelements that interfere with weight loss (for example, protein). Sports food for weight loss can be in the form of bars, mixtures for making soups and cocktails, and gels.

For burning fat

The key properties of these drugs, designed to reduce the amount of fat mass, are to accelerate metabolism, slow down the absorption of carbohydrates and reduce fluid levels. An additional quality that helps you lose weight is their ability to convert fat molecules into energy. Sports fat burners begin to do their work only during physical activity to which a person is exposed, so they are not effective without training.

Among these types of sports nutrition that help you lose weight are:

• thermogenics – warming substances;
• lipotropics – fat-breaking agents;
• calorie blockers.

L-carnitine

An alternative name for this supplement is levocarnitine. This is the main fat burner in sports nutrition, which is of interest to everyone who wants to lose weight safely. L-carnitine is a substance that is produced by the brain and kidneys, but sufficient amounts are produced only in people who eat a healthy diet that focuses on animal protein. If a person is aiming to lose weight with a strict diet, the doctor may prescribe additional L-carnitine capsules to make up for its deficiency.

This drug is not so much a sports nutrition as a nutritional supplement that:

• helps the body transport fatty acids to the breakdown zone;
• is needed so that a person can lose weight naturally, because... L-carnitine deficiency leads to obesity;
• converts fats into energy;
• helps reduce cholesterol levels;
• prevents the formation of new fat deposits.

Sports nutrition for girls for weight gain and weight loss

For a normal girl with an average weight, as a rule, there is no urgent need to take sports nutrition. When large muscle gains are not needed, the body can cope with the acquisition of the desired forms on its own.

As for the category of girls who want to lose or, conversely, gain weight? – Both of these effects can be achieved without sports nutrition, but provided that you eat properly during the day. With an active rhythm of life, not every girl can boast of following a food consumption regimen, but she still wants to achieve the desired shape. This is why sports pit for girls was developed.

Sports supplements for female representatives are divided into 2 categories:

• Sports nutrition for weight gain for girls. For example, if you want to improve the shape of your body, you can opt for protein. Daily consumption promotes better muscle growth and rapid recovery, and most importantly, without increasing fat mass;
• Sports nutrition for girls with the goal of losing weight comes to the aid of those who are actively involved in fitness, but cannot get rid of fat deposits. This group of additives helps to quickly obtain the desired relief shape.

Sports nutrition for weight gain

Gaining muscle mass, as a rule, is of interest to either very thin girls who, under normal conditions, cannot gain weight, or those who are satisfied with their weight, but have enough “appetizing shapes”. To solve these two problems, sports nutrition for weight gain for girls was developed.

The main ones are:

1. Gainers (protein-carbohydrate mixtures) are the most popular. Proteins are responsible for muscle growth, and carbohydrates are responsible for energy and rapid recovery of the body. According to trainers, for “skinny women” it is enough to take 100 g of the product on training days. But remember that increasing the dosage can have the opposite effect - an increase in not only muscle mass, but also fat mass.
2. Amino acids and protein are recommended for those who are afraid of gaining excess weight. Supplements in this group help increase muscle mass without fat deposits. In addition, your body will recover faster after exhausting workouts, and you will get the long-awaited relief in a short time. It is also recommended to consume no more than 100 g of protein per day.

There are many more varieties of sports pita for girls, but the ones described above are quite enough to get seductive forms.

Sports nutrition for weight loss

Compared to the first group of supplements, sports nutrition for girls for weight loss is in great demand. All such drugs are aimed at actively burning fat deposits. This is why girls with excess fat need to take these supplements. At the same time, experts recommend using exclusively light drugs that do not wear out the body too much.

1. Fat burners (caffeine, green tea extract, guarana, synephrine and others) are an excellent addition to the diet. Along with active training, it allows you to speed up the process of fat breakdown. In addition, there is suppression of appetite, decreased absorption of carbohydrates and fats, and improved performance in training.
2. L-carnitine is a light, safe and effective amino acid that is responsible for the rapid transformation of fat to the “site of elimination.” This supplement is best taken on an empty stomach in the morning, or before cardio exercise.

How to take sports nutrition for weight loss

All these means to help you lose weight will only work if you know 2 rules. Firstly, you need to follow a diet, i.e. forget about junk food (simple carbohydrates, carcinogens) and drink plenty of clean water. Secondly, you must exercise, otherwise you will not lose weight, and from some types of sports nutrition you may begin to gain weight. The remaining nuances are determined by which product you decide to use:

• To quickly lose weight, you need to take protein sports nutrition at night and instead of breakfast or lunch. You can use protein as a snack, but the portions should be small: 15 g each.
• Sports meal replacements are used primarily as snacks and cannot be an alternative to classic food.
• To lose weight, any sports nutrition must be taken according to medical instructions, without exceeding the dosage by a single gram, no matter how fast and intense you want to make this process.

Why extra pounds don't go away metabolism and personality

If the diet has been going on for months, all “harmful” foods are excluded, and the excess weight does not go away, then what is the reason? It all depends on the individual characteristics of the body, on the intensity and speed of metabolism - metabolism. In people who are overweight, these processes slow down, that is, nutrients are poorly absorbed, and in people who are underweight, metabolism accelerates.

But metabolic rate changes depending on age, general health and other reasons. The older a man is, the slower his metabolic processes are, and if he sticks to a low-calorie diet for a long time, this will aggravate the situation and slow down his metabolism even more.

And a change in its speed will negatively affect health, which is why it is so important to maintain it, and even when trying to lose weight, you need to balance it by correctly combining diets, physical activity and sports nutrition

Even throughout the day, your metabolic rate changes. During night sleep, it becomes slower, so those losing weight are better off resorting to sports nutrition than having a heavy dinner at night. After waking up in the morning, you need to “wake up” your body - activate metabolic processes, that is, take a portion of food. But to ensure that the initial metabolic rate does not decrease throughout the day, it is good to have snacks approximately every 3 hours. But instead of traditional food, it is better to use sports nutrition.

How to choose sports nutrition for weight loss

For persons who are overweight (this does not mean 2-3 kg, but more than 10 kg), recommendations on the selection and use of sports nutrition should be given by a doctor. Often, they are first advised to lose weight using a standard, proper diet with the introduction of complex preparations with L-carnitine and other microelements, and then add high loads and take sports nutrition in order to effectively lose weight. If you decide to choose such a remedy yourself, you need to familiarize yourself with the main categories of these drugs.

Effective fat burners

Today, the range of drugs of this type is huge, but the key point remains their natural origin. Due to them, fat-burning sports nutrition for weight loss is the same for men and women, and girls do not need to choose separate complexes for themselves. According to doctors, maximum effectiveness is ensured by:

• guarana;
• caffeine;
• naringin;
• tyramine;
• dopamine

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Amino acids bcaa

Losing weight with this type of sports nutrition will not be as obvious as with the fat burners mentioned above - mainly BCAAs work on muscle growth and have an anti-catabolic effect. Unlike other amino acids, they are not formed in the body independently. The BCAA content is as follows:

• isoleucine;
• leucine;
• valine

BCAA is rarely used as a sports nutrition to lose weight, since the effect of these amino acids on body fat has not been scientifically proven. Experts also argue about increasing strength indicators and even increasing muscle mass. The only advantage of BCAA is the increase in results from taking other types of sports nutrition, so they are used as an additional element, and not the main one.

Protein for weight loss and muscle gain

According to statistics, the most popular sports nutrition for losing weight quickly is protein. This is the only supplement that helps achieve everything from muscle growth and endurance to an anti-catabolic effect. The protein contains protein mixtures necessary for muscle tissue and more. The number of functions they perform in the body of a person who has decided to lose weight is very large, so if you have a specific goal, you need to choose a separate type of protein nutrition:

• For those who want to lose weight, it is advisable to use whey protein or casein: the latter belongs to the group of slow proteins that are absorbed within 8 hours. Some experts mention soy protein, but the effectiveness of this type of sports nutrition is disputed.
• Whey protein is also used for muscle growth, but more actively than for weight loss. Meat protein is also called a natural and effective option.

Taking l-carnitine

According to doctors, you should use sports nutrition to lose weight only in combination with physical activity, but L-carnitine is an exception: it is allowed to be taken even by people who are not familiar with sports. Dosage regimens vary depending on this factor:

• For athletes and those who attend fitness (and other aerobic exercise), doctors advise using up to 1200 mg of L-carnitine per day to lose weight. The indicated amount is divided into 2 parts: 600 mg is divided into 3 doses, each of which is before meals. The remaining 600 mg must be taken before physical activity (half an hour before), preferably from an ampoule rather than a capsule.
• If there is no sports in your life, but you are trying different sports supplements for weight loss, the dosage of L-carnitine will be lower: no more than 6 capsules per day, 2 before each meal. Increasing the dosage to effectively lose weight is only allowed for overweight people - they can drink up to 12 capsules.

Vitamin-mineral complex

The safest, but at the same time the least effective, are products that are complexes of vitamins and essential microelements for the body, designed to replenish the need for them during strict diets. These are not effective sports fat burners, but nutritional supplements that help the body function properly so that weight stagnation does not occur. For women and men, such drugs must be selected separately.

Which product to choose for an athlete

When choosing drugs, it is necessary to correlate them with the goals and desired results. Conditionally desired effects can be divided into several groups:

• drying, that is, radical loss of fat so that the muscle relief is clearly visible;
• weight loss, that is, burning fat while maintaining muscle mass;
• building muscle mass.

Recommendations for taking medications, depending on certain purposes, are presented in the summary table below.

For drying the body

Drying the body is, as a rule, a short-term process of intensive weight loss, during which muscle mass is built up and the subcutaneous fat layer is removed as much as possible. This process begins two weeks before the competition so that the muscles have maximum volume and visible relief.

Recommendations for sports nutrition during cutting are given in the table below.

To lose weight

For high-quality weight loss, a certain set of drugs is recommended that will enhance the effect of training. Their list is presented in the table.

For muscle building

As muscle mass increases, the body's need for protein and other nutrients increases. Supplements that can fill this deficiency are listed in the table below.

Which fat burners are better for men, and which ones are better for girls and women?

The bodies of women, girls and men have different nutritional needs, and accordingly, the choice of fat burners for them is different. Recommendations for sports nutrition for women and men are presented in the table below.

Because men and women have different metabolic rates, as well as different rates of muscle growth, the effects of training and taking fat loss supplements will be achieved at different times.

Pros and cons of sports nutrition for weight loss

The key positive aspect of taking such drugs is that a person can lose weight without losing body quality - all types of sports nutrition, even if they have a fat-burning effect, do not have a negative effect on muscle tissue. In comparison with pharmaceutical “fat burners”, which are mainly laxatives, they hit fat deposits directly and do not upset digestion, but are also not safe.

Doctors call their main disadvantages a large number of side effects:

• L-carnitine stimulates appetite, because provokes an acceleration of metabolic processes, so a person aiming to lose weight has to take up to 6 meals and be sure to include complex carbohydrates in the diet.
• Frequent intake of protein sports nutrition can contribute to the development of pathogenic microflora in the intestines and impair liver function, causing constipation.

Thermogenic Supplements

Such fat burners, as part of sports nutrition for men and women, speed up the metabolic process, increase energy expenditure by the body, which leads to further fat burning.

They contain three components: ephedra alkaloids, caffeine and aspirin.

Before taking them, you should consult an experienced therapist to rule out any complications.

Yohimbine

Yohimbine is a plant alkaloid used by bodybuilders for weight loss. It has a pronounced ability to break down lipids and affects the central nervous system (CNS) - it elevates mood and stimulates the production of adrenaline, which provokes its release.

As a result, there is a craving for physical activity. The permissible dose is 10 – 20 mg.

Thermogenic

This fat burner accelerates metabolism, affects the central nervous system and suppresses appetite. To obtain the desired result, you must take this drug correctly.

Recommended to take in the morning and before training. It is not advisable to take before bed because it may cause insomnia.

You should not take it for more than a month or in large doses, it can be harmful.

Protein

Eating exclusively protein foods leads to a complex process of nutrient breakdown, and the body loses additional energy equivalent to 30 calories.

Also, with such a diet, the body cannot fully extract all the caloric content of food, which naturally leads to a decrease in calorie absorption.

This sports nutrition element is one of the most convenient fat burners that can be used at home and even right in the gym. Read also the instructions for making a protein shake at home.

Vitamin-mineral complex

In pursuit of a slim figure, do not forget about replenishing the body with vitamins and minerals.

They contribute to the normal course of the weight loss process, also burn fat and help maintain muscle tissue.

When playing sports, you should take special vitamin and mineral complexes.

Fat blocker

A blocker is a chemical drug aimed at suppressing the process of fat breakdown.

In this case, fatty acids are not digested or absorbed by the intestines.

Side effects can only be observed if there is an individual intolerance to the drug.

To summarize, I would like to highlight some nuances. Sports nutrition, which is carried out along with physical activity, must contain a balanced diet, in which energy expenditure is significantly greater than consumed.

An energy deficit of 15–20% can reduce weight at a smooth pace.

If you burn fat, muscle and bone tissue may suffer. For this reason, it is necessary to introduce regular physical exercises, which should be selected according to individual indicators, taking into account the condition, and most importantly, the health of the person.

Which sports nutrition is best for burning fat and whether it is needed at all is up to you to decide. Everything should be approached thoroughly, relying on the recommendations of a specialist and taking into account consumer reviews.

The main thing is to know moderation in everything and stop in time so as not to lead the body to exhaustion, but to have an attractive appearance - without extra pounds and with toned muscles. And the most important thing is to have health, which is much more valuable.

This video clearly explains proper nutrition for burning fat:

Fat burners are fat killers!

Of course, fat burners have made the life of an athlete in pursuit of a lean, sculpted body easier. But this is not a panacea or a magic pill that will make your fat burn without YOUR effort. Burners speed up and simplify this process, but do not do everything for you.

How do fat burners work?

• Has a thermogenic effect (increases the body's energy consumption);
• Increase the production of stress hormones that break down fat;
• They affect the functioning of the thyroid gland, increasing the secretion of hormones T2 and T3, which also promote the breakdown of fat (a rather rare type of fat burner);
• They have a stimulating effect on the central nervous system, giving you increased performance, allowing you to train longer and more intensely, expending more calories, which can be difficult due to a strict diet.

After watching this video, you will make your fat burner work 100%:

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Sports nutrition for weight loss for women has its own characteristics. You can even find specialized women's fat burners (they are a little gentler and include ingredients to support women's health). But overall, this is a universal supplement that is suitable for both sexes. The main thing is to use it correctly!

Related reading: Sports nutrition for weight loss for women.

Creatine

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Creatine is another very popular supplement among athletes. The effectiveness of creatine has been proven in all sports, be it strength training or aerobic training.

Creatine is found in our muscles and is involved in many energy processes. Creatine is a completely natural and safe supplement that increases strength, endurance and stimulates muscle growth.

Creatine has one more property. The creatine molecule “pulls” water into the muscle cell, causing the muscle to fill up and temporarily increase in volume. It looks beautiful, which is why creatine is often added to sports nutrition to increase the pump effect.

In addition to sports merits, the supplement has a huge list of positive effects on the body:

— supports the health of the cardiovascular system; - relieves acute inflammation, for example, with arthritis; - has a positive effect on the central nervous system.