Gaining extra pounds is quite easy, but getting rid of them is a difficult task. The safest and fastest way to an ideal figure is proper nutrition. Unlike regular diets, the lost weight will definitely not come back. Switching to a healthy diet is the key to long-term results. It is worth noting that the diet for PP is not only healthy, but also varied, which is especially important for women who love to eat delicious food.
Introduction
At the very beginning of our conversation about proper nutrition for women, we should, perhaps, talk about some features of the female body, and the ensuing consequences. For women, nutrition is more complicated than for the opposite sex, so before we move directly to the diet itself, it’s worth understanding the factors that influence its formation.
ADVICE. In our previous article, “Nutrition for Gaining Muscle,” we proposed three nutritional models for competent muscle building. Despite the fact that the rather high calorie content of the diet predetermined the target audience of the article was men, we reserved the right to give everyone the opportunity to independently decide, depending on the intensity of training and their goals, whether to use such a diet or not.
First of all, you need to understand that the female body is by nature prone to accumulating nutritional components. In other words, it is predisposed to the accumulation of all kinds of plastic substances, energy, fats and carbohydrates with the aim of subsequently transferring these nutritional components to its child in the event of pregnancy. Thus, if your body is initially configured to accumulate, then whether you want it or not, you will have to monitor your diet quite carefully.
Menstrual cycle
This physiological process also leaves its mark on your proper diet. As we already said in the section on training, the first two weeks after menstruation, the female body experiences a physiological recovery. A woman can eat more and train harder. After ovulation, the body goes into energy saving mode and tries to accumulate nutrients. He tries to convert the food he eats, including carbohydrates, into fat. This affects both the training process and diet. We have already talked about training, but as for nutrition, in the period after ovulation the amount of food and, accordingly, calories in your diet should be reduced.
ADVICE. You can learn more about the influence of the menstrual cycle on the training process in our article “Body building program for women - experienced level.” In it, we emphasized the point that the menstrual cycle should never be ignored. In this article, we also emphasize the fact that both your workouts and diet should be designed in compliance with the cyclical nature of this process.
Metabolism
The metabolic rate of women is significantly lower than that of men. To put it bluntly, a man can eat more food and not gain weight. This is primarily possible due to the presence of more muscles than women. But what does muscle have to do with it? The fact is that they consume a significant part of the energy of our body. In other words, having more muscle means you can expend more energy, or calories. At the same time, the more muscle you have, the more carbohydrates from your food will be used for energy rather than as body fat. The more efficient your muscles are, the more calories your body burns. Muscles are known to consume energy, including during rest. It turns out that an athletic girl, unlike one who doesn’t play sports, will burn calories even when she’s not training. Draw conclusions.
ADVICE. To develop a general understanding of the structure, purpose and functions of muscles, we recommend that you read the article “Structure of human muscles.” It shows in illustrated form the anatomy of a woman's (as well as a man's) muscles, and tables describe their functions. This will help you understand the names of the muscles, their location and purpose. And also with an understanding of what muscles you have to work on during training.
Products for beauty and youthful skin
The condition of the skin is the condition of our intestines. When the intestines work “like a clock,” then there are no rashes, redness or other “pleasant” things on the skin. To normalize your intestinal health, you need to include the following foods in your diet:
- Honey. It contains many vitamins and has antibacterial properties
- Vegetables: carrots, broccoli, cabbage. Carrots are high in vitamin A, and cabbage is high in vitamin C.
- Dairy products. They gently cleanse the intestines
- Oils and nuts are sources of vegetable fats
- Fruits. This is the main source of antioxidants after greens. These substances help the skin stay elastic longer
Also, the skin does not tolerate dehydration, bad habits such as smoking and drinking alcohol, or improper care.
There are different skin types: dry, oily, normal, problem and combination. Each skin type needs special care. You should not use products that are not intended for your skin type. This can cause even bigger problems.
Fat deposits
A woman's body converts carbohydrates into fat much easier than a man's body. In that exceptional situation when these carbohydrates are “underused”, that is, they are excess. And here we return to the muscles again. The more muscles you have, the more glycogen (energy reserves) that is stored in them. It turns out that a person with developed muscles can eat more food containing carbohydrates, and at the same time there will be a greater chance that these carbohydrates will be stored in glycogen rather than in fat reserves. It turns out that when a woman eats food rich in carbohydrates and at the same time does not exercise, she allows these carbohydrates to be quickly and efficiently converted into body fat.
At the same time, female muscles, working on the principle of storage, quite easily accumulate glycogen in the muscles. The most favorable conditions for its accumulation are high-volume training. In order for the food you eat to be used not for fat deposition, but for energy reserves in the muscles, you must train quite actively and intensively.
ADVICE. We talked about how to train actively and intensively in our series of three articles about training for women of various levels of training: beginner, advanced and experienced. There we consistently and methodically described for girls and women how to take their first steps in the gym, how many times a week to work out, where to start training, what exercises to do, in what number of approaches, repetitions and more.
Sports exercises after 50 years
Before starting sports exercises, women over 50 years of age should consult a doctor. Moreover, this should be a specialist with a medical education, and not a trainer in a fitness room. You should undergo a comprehensive examination and obtain an assessment of the general condition of the body.
The doctor, taking into account age, body weight, and the presence of certain diseases, will give the woman specific recommendations regarding sports training.
An illiterately selected complex will lead to the fact that the desired result cannot be achieved. Instead of a slim body, a woman will get joint pain. Activities such as jumping, step aerobics and running on asphalt should be abandoned immediately.
What do we choose?
There are no special workouts for women who have entered menopause. However, experts advise choosing bodyflex. These exercises combine breathing exercises and stretching. You can also do Pilates and water aerobics. This will strengthen the muscle frame, but will not load the joints. It is possible to perform strength exercises. We must not forget about cycling, running and walking in the fresh air.
Performing strength exercises will tighten your muscles, while the load should be minimal, but last for a long time. You can do strength exercises at any age, but the technique for performing them must be correct. Therefore, it is very good when there is third-party control of a professional trainer.
During strength training, hormones are produced in the body. They allow you to regulate the functioning of the body as a whole. In addition, such loads make it possible to strengthen not only muscles, but also bones, and are also an excellent prevention of osteoporosis.
Basic Rules:
- Aerobic exercises should alternate with strength training. If you do them separately, you will not be able to achieve the desired result.
- Training should be regular. This will make it easier to endure the symptoms of menopause.
- You definitely need to strengthen your back muscles. This guarantees beautiful posture and also prevents spinal diseases.
- Warm-up is a must at the beginning of any workout. During exercise, you need to monitor your blood pressure and monitor your pulse. A contrast shower in the mornings and evenings will strengthen the vascular wall.
- The loads should be long, but not too intense. This will normalize the circulation of oxygen in the body. Between workouts you should take a break of 1-2 days. The most suitable training schedule for women over 50 years of age: 2 strength training sessions for half an hour per week, 2 cardio workouts for 45 minutes per week.
- An excellent exercise machine for women over 50 is the ellipsoid. It does not put a compressive load on the joints and intervertebral discs, but uses all muscle groups. Blood begins to circulate efficiently throughout the body, which ensures its normal functioning.
- To get rid of joint pain, you can visit the hammam, but saunas and baths should be treated with caution due to the high temperature. In the hammam you can steam and warm up longer without fear for your well-being.
Nature of training
And one more burning question that is directly related to the training process. Often, again, girls’ erroneous perception of the gym leads them to the question of what is more effective: aerobics or fitness? Under this paragraph you will find a link to our article with a detailed answer to this question, but here I will only say that working with weights is most effective. Why are we writing about this in the nutrition section? The thing is that, unlike aerobics, after strength training, the metabolism accelerates for more than a day. While after aerobic training, it accelerates for only a few hours. In other words, after working out in the gym, you will continue to expend energy for another day. Thus, a girl who works out in the gym will burn fat for a whole day afterwards, while a girl who only goes to fitness will get a much weaker result.
ADVICE. The answer to the question “What is more effective, training in the gym or training in fitness classes?” was discussed in detail by us in the article “Myths about strength training for women.” In addition to this question, in that article we looked at as many as 10 popular myths about the gym that exist among women. The article is strongly recommended for literally all girls and women to read, as a manifesto for establishing justice in relation to their unreasonably distorted perception of the gym in general, and strength training in particular.
Well, in the last few paragraphs you were once again able to see that playing sports and having a beautiful figure is good not only from an aesthetic point of view, but also from the point of view of accelerating metabolism and burning fat. If you work out in the gym, lift weights, you stimulate your muscles to grow, your metabolism speeds up, and your fat decreases. Ultimately, you get the desired result and gain a toned figure. Everything is simple and quite interconnected, but how can you competently build your diet against this background? Let's figure it out.
The healthiest food
The most useful foods for a healthy diet include:
- red fish is rich in Omega-3. This substance fights triglycerides, which enter our body along with fatty foods, helps not only in maintaining a woman’s beauty, but also the health of her cardiovascular system;
Research shows that people who eat enough seafood are less likely to suffer from cardiovascular disease. Since the fat contained in sea fish reduces the amount of triglycerides in the blood.
- spinach is rich in vitamins B and C. Good for the immune system and bone tissue;
- oatmeal is an ideal option for breakfast, contains slow carbohydrates, manganese, phosphorus and silicon;
- banana is an excellent source of potassium, which is good for the cardiovascular system;
- white chicken and rabbit meat contain essential amino acids and are the most useful option for obtaining protein;
- Grapefruit is similar in effect to lemon, but has a more pleasant taste. It promotes fat burning and removes toxins.
Balance point
Now let's talk about your goals. What is your goal? Maintain, lose or gain weight? I'm sure ninety percent will answer that they want to lose weight. How can you achieve this?
Not so long ago, in the article “Principles of Proper Nutrition,” we talked about the fact that depending on your goals (gaining, maintaining, losing weight), the key factor is the calorie content of your diet? So, in order to start moving in the direction of weight loss, you first need to work on reducing the caloric content of your diet. To do this, you need to take a certain diet as a basis.
What is required of you? In order to create a healthy diet, you will need to take the nutrition model suggested below and stick to it for a certain time. At the same time, you will step on the scale and record your weight once a week.
On Sunday, before the start of the work week, you go to the supermarket and buy the necessary products. On Monday morning, step on the scale and write down the corresponding numbers in your (training) diary. Strictly adhere to this diet for a week. A week later, on Monday morning, you look at your previous entries and make the following conclusions: if your weight has increased during the week, you need to slightly reduce your calories. You make appropriate adjustments to your diet, buy food for the week again, and repeat the steps described above until you reach the so-called balance point.
The balance point is, in other words, the caloric content of your diet at which you do not gain or lose weight. Each person has his own. It can only be calculated experimentally, strictly adhering to a certain diet. Knowing your balance point, you can easily adjust your weight, both in the direction of gain and in the direction of decrease. Only experimentation will help you find the balance point. There are clearly no other ways.
Building a diet for women
The main recommendations for creating your proper diet will be: eat more boiled foods, remove all harmful foods (fatty, fried, floury, sweet). Eat more fruits, lots of vegetables, and lots of fiber. We will take the following diet as the initial one (see table). We will eat five times a day. Three main meals, two snacks and water in between meals.
Comments on the diet.
Breakfast . This meal will be your main meal, from which you will extract the most carbohydrates for the coming day. Oatmeal is best suited for this purpose. You will need to fill it with water (boiling water, or you can heat it in the microwave). If you want to add milk to the porridge, remember that this will increase its calorie content.
Snack . This could be a cereal bar that is low in calories but still has healthy grains. Or fruits or berries with low calorie content (apple, pear, orange, tangerine, pomegranate, grapefruit, kiwi, melon, strawberry, cherry, raspberry, currant), in addition to higher calorie ones (banana, avocado). As for the sandwich, the best option would be this combination of its ingredients: take black bread (Borodinsky, whole grain), boiled chicken (cut the skinless fillet into slices), and vegetables (put lettuce and tomato rings on the bread). Such a snack is fully consistent with the principles of proper nutrition because, firstly, it is healthy, since bread contains fiber, chicken contains protein, and vegetables contain healthy vitamins, minerals and trace elements. Secondly, its calorie content is significantly lower than if you cut off white bread, spread it with mayonnaise and put a fried cutlet on top.
ADVICE. As for protein, it can also be consumed in between meals, both to saturate the body with proteins and to reduce appetite between main meals. This option, by the way, is best suited for lovers of sweets. The protein, although sweet, contains carbohydrates in the form of polydextrose, which does not stimulate insulin secretion and fat synthesis. And in order to make sure that protein, like other sports supplements, is completely harmless, has nothing to do with so-called “chemistry” and is made from ordinary food products, we recommend that you study the article “What is sports nutrition.”
Dinner . You can use any kind of soup, borscht or beetroot soup. There are hundreds of varieties. Cook with plenty of vegetables: zucchini, carrots, onions, cabbage, peppers, beets, tomatoes, etc. Use chicken, beef, and fish in recipes. Feel free to add salt and pepper. You can eat this lunch with black bread in any form. But of course it’s better to forget about adding sour cream and mayonnaise.
Dinner . This will be your final meal of the day. The amount of porridge will be minimal, literally a couple of tablespoons. The main emphasis should be on protein foods and vegetables. For dinner, you can boil eggs and meat for porridge. You can make a salad from vegetables.
ADVICE. All the most important aspects regarding the need for water consumption were described by us in the article “The Role of Water in Diet and Exercise.” From it you can learn not only what importance it has for your daily diet, but also what role it plays in your training process. There is also a table of daily water consumption, in accordance with your level of physical activity.
Correction of diet for women
The table above is your entire basic diet of proper nutrition. This is what you will use as a starting point when determining your equilibrium point. To transport food with you, there are special food containers or a food thermos. As we have already said, the presence of carbohydrates plays a significant role in a woman’s diet, so they should be given special attention. In the above diet, carbohydrates are mostly found in oatmeal for breakfast, fruit, and porridge for dinner. Their content in soup or borscht, vegetables and sandwiches made from black bread with meat is much less. Therefore, it is necessary to reduce or increase the amount of carbohydrates from their main sources.
Start with 100 grams of oatmeal, two apples (one for each snack), and 50 grams of porridge (rice, buckwheat, millet). If you gain weight following the above plan, cut carbs first from your evening meal. Reduce them to 30 grams. Are you gaining weight? Reduce to 20 grams or remove altogether. Leave only meat, eggs, vegetables and bran bread for dinner. Are you dialing? Leave one apple, divide it into two parts. Eat one with your first snack, the other with your second. Still recruiting? Replace apples in your snacks with sandwiches like “fiber/protein/vitamins”, that is, brown bread, lettuce, chicken fillet. If you have eliminated all carbohydrates except breakfast and continue to gain weight with this diet, you may need to reconsider the intensity of your workouts or consult a doctor about metabolic disorders. It is impossible to cut back on the already small amount of carbohydrates from breakfast, since the first meal is a replenishment of energy reserves for the day. Without taking carbohydrates in the morning, you will feel sluggish and tired all day. Remember, oatmeal is a must in the morning. There is also a third option, in which someone is not honest with himself and secretly eats too much, and then complains that the proper diet does not work. But we hope that this is not the case for you.
Baked vegetables with a delicate sauce
Do you love vegetables, but are you tired of eating them raw or steamed? Try this recipe. For it, prepare the following components:
- Zucchini – 300 grams.
- Onion – 1 piece.
- Tomato – 1 piece.
- Carrots – 1 piece.
- Salt, spices - to taste.
- Dill - to taste.
- Cheese – 50 grams.
- Eggs – 2 pieces.
- Skim milk – 100 grams.
Cooking steps:
- Peel the zucchini from the skin (if it is hard and thick), cut into half rings.
- We also chop tomatoes, carrots, and onions into half rings.
- Grease the baking dish and lay out the vegetables. Pepper, lightly salt and place in the oven for 15 minutes (200 degrees).
- We take out the mold, fill it with a mixture of milk, eggs and black pepper, sprinkle with grated cheese and put it back in the oven for another 5-7 minutes until fully cooked.
Adaptation of diet for women
Remember also that you don’t need to make sudden changes. The body always needs to be prepared. If you haven’t previously monitored your diet, you don’t need to take everything and categorically cross it out on one day. This will be a lot of stress for the body, the digestive system, and even from a psychological point of view; it will be extremely difficult to completely switch to a different diet. Treat your body with respect. Start changing your diet little by little.
First, remove all harmful foods from it for a week. From the second week, if you ate once or twice a day and densely, break these portions to three and distribute them so that most of your carbohydrate intake occurs in the first half of the day. After another week, add a couple of snacks to your already three meals a day in the form of the same sandwiches made from black bread with meat. Start drinking water every day. In the fourth week, completely review your diet; it should already be in complete order, scheduled in time and laid out in containers. Thus, over the course of a month, you will smoothly move from randomly eating whatever and whenever you have to, to a fairly clear and orderly diet. There can be no compromises here. If you want, you do it; if you don’t want, you look for excuses.
How to start right
The hardest part about following healthy eating principles is getting started. Experienced nutritionists give the following recommendations:
- Set yourself up correctly. Even if the process moves by leaps and bounds, still enjoy it. Very small results will be followed by more significant ones. If at first it is difficult to give up certain foods, do it gradually, reducing the amount you eat.
- Don't have any illusions - be realistic. No one has ever lost 20-30 kilograms in a month. Don't demand the impossible from your body. The results are gradual, but they are effective and long-lasting.
- Don't be afraid to ask your family and friends for help. Lack of willpower is the main problem of women on the path to weight loss. Surely, there will be a relative or friend who with great pleasure will join you in the fight against extra pounds. Even if no one wants to completely switch to PP, the spouse is unlikely to refuse to spend at least one of the evenings eating a healthy salad.
- Change your menu gradually every day. You should absolutely not suddenly switch to healthy foods. The transition should be smooth. This way the body will not experience stress.
Take the advice of experts, and you will quickly understand how fun and enjoyable it is to eat healthy.
Afterword
As for the diet in a situation where you want to gain weight, then in this case you need to understand that while working with the initial diet, you will already have to find your balance point and freely operate with the amount of food eaten at which you will have control over your weight. Heavier workouts will require more significant energy expenditure from you, and this will have a corresponding impact on your diet, making changes to which will no longer be something new or unexpected for you. You either increase your calorie intake and begin to gain weight, or decrease it and your weight decreases.
Again, if your goal is to gain muscle mass, read the article “Nutrition for gaining muscle mass,” but remember that the structural and functioning features of the female body will require you not only to accept, but to adapt the given diet to suit yourself. As for this article, a set of muscle mass can be built, as mentioned above, starting from the balance point. For women, this approach is more acceptable. In any case, the final choice is yours. Your body is in your hands.
By the way, the model itself of constructing a diet, starting from the point of balance, can well be used by men.
Women's needs: how are they different from men's?
Women and men are different in body structure and weight, have certain functions and sexual characteristics. The main purpose of a woman is childbearing. The fair half needs more vitamins and minerals. Let's give a few specific examples.
1. Due to frequent hormonal changes (pregnancy, the beginning and end of the menstrual cycle), the fair sex is more susceptible to diseases associated with weakened bones. Therefore, the need for calcium intake is higher, especially after 50 years. The situation is similar with iron and folic acid. The need for them increases during pregnancy.
2. Men are protectors: they are taller, bigger and stronger! For this reason, they require more energy resources, especially in the presence of high physical activity.
3. Women have less muscle mass, metabolism is slower, and therefore approximately 15% less calories are required. However, a deficiency of vitamins and other vital substances can result in the following sad consequences:
- decreased protective functions of the immune system;
- lack of normal functioning of the reproductive system;
- the appearance of depressive moods;
- deterioration of general health;
- poor condition of teeth, skin, nails, hair.
These negative changes do not occur suddenly; they increase gradually as the need for scarce substances increases. But it can be very difficult to put everything back together again. It will take time to restore the functioning of all organs and systems. Therefore, a woman should approach the issue of organizing her diet very seriously.
