Physical exercise with diet is the most effective method of getting rid of accumulated fat, which, unfortunately, does not always allow you to achieve the desired result. Often, athletes, in addition to training and diet, also need to take supplements specially designed for drying the body. They allow you to burn excess fat much faster. And if you correctly combine intensive training with such sports nutrition, you can ensure that more muscles are preserved.
Increasing lean muscle mass against the backdrop of the fat burning process requires proper nutrition, doing a lot of exercise, and taking special sports supplements that allow you to lose fat but maintain muscle mass. Too intense training can completely deplete the reserves of vitamins, nutrients and other compounds and substances important for the body and the drying process. A balanced and well-designed diet cannot completely cover the resulting deficit, since it involves a serious reduction in food. Special supplements are designed to compensate for the lack of vitamins and other substances.
In order for drying to bring maximum effect, you should clearly know which sports nutrition is considered the best. It is also necessary to take into account the fact that taking fat burners, which do not help in losing weight due to fat deposits, is not necessary and is not always safe. Therefore, the choice of additives must be approached with the utmost care.
What sports nutrition should I take while cutting?
Ten best sports supplements for cutting
These are not just safe, but also the most effective additives during the drying period. They accelerate the process of losing kilograms by burning fat, not mass, and help the athlete maintain his own health, which is especially important during periods of intense training while reducing calorie intake.
Multivitamins
Heavy loads during training and the desire to maintain muscle mass exhaust the body. It loses essential nutrients, which negatively affects health and overall well-being, which makes multivitamin and mineral complexes a must-have element of sports nutrition during cutting.
The introduction of multivitamins into the diet menu allows you to maintain the level of vital nutrients and elements required for both good health and effective training. It is recommended to take the complexes in the morning after or during breakfast.
Whey Protein
Increasing muscle mass is impossible without protein, which stimulates muscle growth. It is not always possible to replenish the reserves of this substance from food before or after exercise. However, with whey protein on hand, getting the required amount of protein is no longer a problem.
This whey-derived sports supplement contains all nine essential amino acids. Protein is important not only for muscle gain, but also for recovery after hard training. Consuming it throughout the day increases your metabolic rate and energy levels. This becomes the main reason for the loss of calories, along with which fat deposits also disappear.
A feature of milk protein is its rapid digestibility. Taking whey allows you to obtain amino acids in a short period of time, which stimulate muscles to actively grow. This is not the only effect of protein. An athlete who takes milk protein has a significant increase in performance.
The optimal daily intake of protein, according to the recommendations of nutritionists and experienced athletes, is about 2 g per kilogram of body weight. It is recommended to take the whey in the morning, before and after exercise, between individual meals, and also at night, if the athlete feels such a need. Take no more than one scoop of whey per serving of protein shake.
Don't limit yourself to just a protein supplement. Other sources of protein must be present in the daily diet.
Glutamine
It is an amino acid that stimulates the synthesis of growth hormone, reduces pain, and prevents catabolic processes.
It controls glycogen concentration, which allows for increased muscle growth efficiency. This amino acid has the ability to slow down the processes that lead to the destruction of muscle tissue during intense training, as well as increase strength and endurance. Taking a glutamine supplement during the drying period allows you to preserve muscle and burn much more fat. Numerous studies have confirmed the positive effect of including this amino acid in the diet. It helps strengthen the immune system, which is seriously challenged by both limited nutrition and intense physical activity.
Glutamine should definitely become part of a cutting athlete’s diet. It will support health, participate in muscle recovery, and increase plasma growth hormone. Thanks to its intake, fatigue does not occur after training. You can take a glutamine supplement twice or thrice a day, 5 g.
Creatine
In the human body, it is present in skeletal muscles and is a substance that stimulates the replenishment of energy reserves. Thanks to creatine, during high-intensity training, the production of growth hormone is stimulated, muscle efficiency increases, and the quality of recovery processes after exercise improves. This leads to significant progress in muscle growth. It is recommended to take creatine 2-5 g per day during the drying period.
Conjugated Linoleic Acid or CLA
It is a valuable source of beneficial fatty acids such as Omega-3. It has been experimentally proven that it is not only a good fat burner, but also helps preserve muscle tissue.
To get the maximum benefit from consuming CLA, you can take a daily dosage of 2-4 g, which is recommended to be taken two or three times. It is best to purchase this type of acid in the form of gel capsules, which are as convenient to use as possible.
BCAA - branched chain amino acids
They are sports complexes of isoleucine, valine, leucine, which are amino acids that play an important role in activating the processes of protein synthesis and metabolism. These supplements, taken before and after workouts, accelerate fat burning, relieve fatigue, improve recovery, and reduce muscle damage and pain.
BCAAs provide the body with energy for a full workout and replenish nutrients lost during intense training. The optimal daily intake is 5-10 g. The complexes are taken in the intervals between main meals, as well as before and after training. When choosing a complex, you should take into account that different BCAA's have different amino acid ratios.
Green tea extract
It is a source of powerful antioxidants such as catechins, which lead to a reduction in cholesterol levels and the risk of cancer. They play an important role in maintaining normal bowel function. Along with these positive properties, it promotes weight loss, being one of the most effective fat burners.
The caffeine present in its composition increases the metabolic rate, which is especially valuable during the drying period. The main thing when choosing a product is to pay attention to how much catechin it contains. The concentration of epigallocatechin gallate in most produced extracts is about 50%. It also contains substances that suppress appetite.
Caffeine and some other components that make up the extract are strong diuretics, and therefore require sufficient water intake when taking this product. You can take 1 pill daily before and after meals, but not on an empty stomach. To get the maximum benefit from the extract, you can include supplements or food containing quercetin and fish oil in sports nutrition during drying.
Fish fat
Rich in Omega-3 fatty acids, which reduce the concentration of LDL (bad cholesterol) and have a positive effect on mental function. This product resists inflammatory processes and uses fat accumulations as a source of energy during the period of drying the body.
Strength training often leads to inflammation, which necessitates the inclusion of fish oil in sports nutrition. You should choose exactly the product that contains EPA (eicosapentaenoic acid) and DHA (docosahexaenoic acid) in a 2:1 ratio. Fish oil with this composition is most effective. In order to lose weight, you need to consume 3-4 grams of the product daily, dividing this norm into 2 or 3 doses. It is best to combine the use of fish oil and meals.
Nitric oxide donors
Thanks to nitric oxide (NO), the production of your own growth hormone is stimulated, strength indicators increase, and blood circulation is stimulated. Its combined use with BCAA and glutamine makes it possible to carry out intense training. A similar effect was established during an experiment that lasted only three months.
Donors take it on an empty stomach. The dosage depends on body weight. People whose weight exceeds 100 kg should take double the norm, that is, two scoops, and the rest - one. The total duration of the course of taking NO is a month, and after the second week the initial dosage is doubled.
Joint Strengthening Supplements
The heavy weight that athletes lift can lead to joint pain. Both fish oil and specially designed supplements can reduce this negative manifestation. Therefore, sports nutrition should include chondroitin, methylsulfonylmethane, glucosamine, and other substances that strengthen joints.
Types of protein
There are several types of protein, differing in the sources of raw materials used. The most popular in sports nutrition are:
- Whey protein. The most common type of sports protein due to its rapid digestibility. It is absorbed into the gastrointestinal tract within 20-30 minutes after administration, quickly replenishing the lack of amino acids in the muscles.
- Caseinates are a group of proteins obtained from milk by ultrafiltration. In terms of speed of digestibility, it is classified as a slow protein. Absorbed in the gastrointestinal tract for 6-8 hours.
- Egg white is a popular supplement among professional athletes. It has high bioavailability, is quickly absorbed in the body and is suitable for people with lactose intolerance.
- Soy protein is the most popular plant protein. Slow protein, breaks down within 4 hours. Additionally, soy protein may cause problems with weight gain and testosterone levels in men.
- Pea protein is a fast, plant-based protein. Contains a large amount of amino acids arginine and glutamine, compared to others. Free of phytates, it does not cause the digestive problems associated with legumes. Hypoallergenic.
- Hemp protein is a plant protein with an average absorption period. It is also hypoallergenic and has a high degree of digestibility.
Plant proteins are inferior in amino acid composition to whey and casein proteins, and even more so to egg proteins. They are recommended to be consumed in the form of a mixture, for example, hemp and pea, to obtain a complete set of amino acids with high digestibility.
Sports proteins can also be classified according to the processing method and degree of purification. The following types are distinguished:
- Whey protein concentrate is the most popular component in sports nutrition. Contains up to 90% protein, lactose and minerals.
- Whey protein isolates contain about 90-95% protein with minimal amounts of fat, lactose and nutrients.
- Hydrolyzate is whey protein that has been treated with acid or enzymes, causing its structure to be partially destroyed. Due to this, the absorption rate is approximately 10% higher than that of whey protein concentrate. Rarely used in the production of sports nutrition, since the effectiveness does not justify its high cost.
Sports nutrition during the drying period
Each of the supplements listed above has been scientifically proven to be safe and highly effective fat burners. They are a supplement, not a replacement, for dietary nutrition. The diet during the drying period requires no less close attention and involves cutting carbohydrates in half.
You cannot completely give up carbohydrate foods. This will lead to increased production of ketone bodies, which release energy from fat deposits. Consequently, if carbohydrates do not enter the body along with food, the athlete will experience a loss of strength against the background of a source of replenishment of energy reserves.
It is best to get carbohydrates during the drying period from vegetables. Along with them, the diet should include lean protein and fat. The sources of the first are chicken eggs and breasts, whitefish, salmon, tuna and turkey, and the second are nuts, olive oil, and nuts.
How to drink cocktails correctly: why the pattern and regularity of consumption is important
The first thing you need to do to lose weight is to consult a nutritionist. A well-designed diet means that, along with taking protein, a man will consume 20% fewer calories per day than he burns. Without professional help, it is quite difficult to calculate the daily requirement. The mechanism here is also very simple:
- If you consume fewer calories than you need, weight will fall
- If you follow the norm or exceed it, your body weight will increase
Almost any diet for losing weight includes several snacks between main meals. Usually two. It is at this time that a man should drink protein shakes. This will help keep your daily caloric intake unchanged. But the amount of protein obtained will increase significantly. This is what we need to achieve.
Experienced athletes claim that a protein shake can successfully replace any meal. Physiologically, it doesn’t matter at all to the body exactly how it received the protein. But it’s simply more convenient to use protein during snacks; for example, an hour after such a breakfast or lunch, you will feel hungry again.
Protein powders taken for weight loss are recommended to be mixed with warm water or skim milk. What the thickness of the cocktail will be does not matter. In order to understand how much protein you need to consume, you need to carry out simple calculations. If, for example, a man’s weight is 100 kg, then he needs to consume 2*100 = 200 grams of protein per day. According to nutritional statistics, an adult man who adheres to the principles of proper nutrition receives 1 * 100 = 100 grams of protein per day with food. That is, he will receive 100 grams of protein naturally and 100 grams is not enough for him to reach the optimal norm. These missing 100 grams need to be supplemented with protein shakes. But since there is no protein that contains 100% protein, you need to take not 100 grams of powder, but at least 120 grams.
Now this volume should be divided into two servings, 60 grams for each snack. And according to this scheme, it should be taken all the time until the set goals are achieved. It’s great if the time of the second snack coincides with the end of training.
Avoiding sodium and sugar
The diet during periods of drying involves reducing sugars to a minimum. When purchasing this or that product, you must carefully study the composition. The permissible sugar content limit is no more than 5 g per serving.
Sodium intake must be reduced to 2000 mg or less per day. Its high concentrations lead to fluid retention, which provokes a decrease in the rate of fat burning. Sodium in large quantities can increase blood pressure.
Protein for drying
MULTI PROTEIN is a complex protein consisting of fast and slow proteins. Contains 4 types of protein, which have different periods of nutrient release. One of the best proteins for drying the body, as it contains more than 75% protein with a minimum amount of carbohydrates and sugar. To provide muscle mass with the necessary amino acids, drink a cocktail 1-1.5 before training and immediately after it. If necessary, a serving of protein can replace or supplement a meal or snack.
General recommendations for nutrition during the drying period
It is quite difficult, but possible, to get rid of fat deposits and build muscle at the same time. The main thing is to adhere to a proper low-carbohydrate diet, supplementing your diet with sports supplements, since without these two factors, progress will be minimal. If sports nutrition and cutting supplements are chosen correctly, the result will exceed all expectations. The body responds much better to intense training when following a diet and taking supplements. You can eat at intervals of more than two hours, but in a systematic manner. Sports nutrition designed for the drying period will help you cope with the latter.
You can only gain muscle mass when you consume calories. Incoming protein from food and supplements should be sufficient to cover the daily requirement of 2 to 4 g per kilogram of body weight. You should always keep snacks rich in this macronutrient on hand. Protein shakes play a significant role. Drinking this drink in the morning and before bed helps prevent catabolic processes that lead to muscles losing their volume, density, strength and clear outlines. Supplements for drying the body allow you to preserve and build muscles, eliminate excess fat, and replenish energy reserves. They are proven by research to be highly effective for all athletes. There are exceptions when the body reacts slightly differently.
To find the best supplement, you should try different brands and combinations. The main thing is to adhere to the recommended dosage and fully follow the instructions from the manufacturer of a particular product.
Igor March 8, 2017
What is the difference between drying and losing weight?
In simple terms, losing weight is losing body weight. In most cases, this is a downward change in the indicators on the scales, a decrease in the volume of the waist, hips and chest. Drying is about gaining muscle mass and creating a beautiful relief on the body.
Many people are concerned about the question of whether drying is possible without losing weight. If you are overweight, then when losing weight there is a risk of losing muscle, not fat. To avoid this effect, special additives are needed. They will preserve muscle and promote its growth, while simultaneously reducing the percentage of body fat. But performance directly depends on the intensity, type and frequency of training. You will have to work hard, literally squeezing all the juices out of yourself in order to get and maintain beautiful muscle definition.