Evening all, Started back in the gym yesterday after having a break as my mrs had a child, its been a year and a half and i need to get back into fighting fit shape, i have probs put on a stone maybe abit more, What i want to know is, i got to be carefull what i eat now, im being told by so many people to svoid carbs (ie i cant have my bread with my scrambled egg in the morning) Do all those who train at amature level avoid carbs? or do you allow yourself to have a certain amount, baring in mind im training every other day, to start off im doing only an hour, i will increase it too 2 hours eventually, im doing cardio and weights and obviously bag work etc. what i want to know is should i cut out carbs all together or can i still have some in my daily intake? Cheers G
You definately should not be cutting carbs out altogether, you need carbs to fuel your training, but just make sure you are eating quality carbs (low GI) like brown rice, wholewheat stuff, oats,any carb that hasnt been processed too much basically, for example dont be eating too much white bread or white pasta. You also want to make sure you are getting adequate protein so your body can repair itself after a hard session, and also make sure you get enough good fats down you, stuff like virgin olive oil, coconut oil, fat from nuts and seeds and fish especially. But carb wise, you just need to eat enough to fuel yourself, eat low Glycemic index carbs but just dont overdo it, you'll want to avoid typical junk food like pizzas burgers etc which have a lot of high GI carbs and not much nutritional value at all. Finding how much carbohydrate your body needs to train effectively is a very individual thing and might take you a while to find the right balance, personally I have about 60g of carbs for lunch and dinner which is equal to about 250g of new potato or 80g of brown rice (uncooked), and about 35g of carbs (about 55g of ooats, dry) an hour or so before training. The only time you really need high GI carbs (fast digesting carbs, pure sugar for example) is immediately after training to restore your glycogen levels, but personally I think a piece of fruit or two is enough. I would go out on a limb and say that the sport of boxing would be pretty much impossible without carbs, basically boxing is largely an anerobic sport which means it uses glycogen (carbs convert to glycogen) as its primary fuel source. So any boxer on a low carb diet would just feel extremely weak and tire easily. The only thing with carbs is that its extremely easy to go overboard with them
It's almost impossible to cut them out altogether. I wouldn't worry about it too much, and just make sure you strongly limit your intake of refined carbs like white bread, white rice, and all types of sugar. In general, the more steps it takes to make a food product, the worse it is for you. Try to eat well 90% of the time, and the odd slice of cheesecake won't make a lick of difference.
Cheers for your reply guys, Yeah i only really have carbs at lunch time and thats pasta with chicken, i assume this is alrite to do? baring in mind thats the only bit of carbs i intake during the whole day? G
Yeah thats fine, but you'll also want to get some carbs in for dinner otherwise you'll go to the gym the next day and you'll have hardly any glycogen in your body and you'll have no energy essentially, the carbs you had at lunch time will have filled your glycogen stores a tiny bit but it wont be enough.
ok mate cheers for that buddy! any other advice you can give me? i got a fight penciled in for april, and need to get fighting fit for before april 10th, i need to take a stone off to get back to fighting weight G:good
Instead of aiming for 2 hour training sessions how about just making the one hour session more intense? Good luck with your fight in April man, you have plenty of time to get into fighting shape!
true but if hes going real intense for 2 hours he'll burn himself out in no time. Its more likely that he'll be pacing himself in those 2 hours and imo, an intense 1 hour workout would be more beneficial than a low/mid intensity 2 hour session
There's nothing wrong with carbs, it just depends where you get them from. As someone said earlier, the longer it takes to get from the farm to your plate the worse they are for you. There's nothing wrong with eating oatmeal for breakfast or having pasta with dinner, I certainly don't believe in the no carbs after 4pm rule that some people espouse. Very simply, carbs are great (in balance) stay away from the white stuff (bread, pasta, rice) and don't drink your carbs.
Great advice man, stay away from drinks like lucozade or the like, if you like your fizzy drinks then stick with the diet stuff. Even some fruit juices are stupidly high in sugar.
Most fruit juices are I'm afraid. Fruit is great, but in my opinion, not in juice or smoothie form. Why not just eat it? Again, the more steps it takes to prepare something and refine it, the worse it is. I can't eat 2 bowls of fruit in one sitting, but I can easily drink 2 bowls worth of either juice or smoothies..
