Lately, weight lifting is becoming more and more popular amongst women. And rightfully so, the benefits are unmatched!
If you’re looking to improve your health, your weight, or gain muscle, then weight lifting is the way to go.
However, lifting weights is only half the battle. The other half comes from your diet.
As a woman who lifts weights, it’s extremely important to make sure you’re eating the right foods. Not only that, but also that you’re eating enough food.
Why do so many woman under-eat?
In todays society, women are conditioned to eat as little as possible.
Because of this, many women do just that; eat as little as possible.
This is most common and most dangerous in women who are active.
Because we’re trained to think we shouldn’t or don’t need to eat too much food, we tend to undereat.
This under fuels our bodies and can lead to more problems and less results in the gym.
What are the dangers of not eating enough for women
1. Losing your period
One key indicator that you’re not eating enough is if you’ve lost your period. This in itself is extremely dangerous for women.
Your period is a natural process that your body should be going through every month. As much of a pain as it is, it’s actually extremely important for keeping us women healthy.
Losing your period means that your body doesn’t have enough energy to support itself.
So, it stops performing processes that it deems as “non-essential”.
It does this in order to be able to sustain more important processes. Things like keeping your lungs breathing and your heart beating.
2. Disrupted hormone levels
Not only that, but under eating also disrupts your hormones. Hormones play a pivotal role in your health.
They’re in charge of regulating tons of bodily functions and processes. All of which are essential for your body to maintain homeostasis (a stable internal environment).
Having imbalanced hormones can also increase your cortisol levels (the stress hormone) which can make you more stressed and even make it harder to lose fat!
3. More fragile bones
Finally, under eating can also lead to osteoporosis. This is when your bones lose their density, causing them to become more fragile and brittle.
Why eating enough is necessary for weight lifting progress
As someone who lifts weights, eating more food can actually help you lose more fat than if you were to eat less food.
You can eat a lot and lose fat while also gaining muscle in a process called body recomposition.
You’re probably asking yourself how’s this even possible?
It’s because once you start lifting weights, your body actually needs more calories and nutrients in order to sustain your muscle mass.
Because muscle needs more calories than fat, under eating will cause your body to first burn muscle before it burns fat.
A common reason women don’t see themselves getting stronger or see changes in their body is because they aren’t eating enough.
Under eating makes it nearly impossible to make any progress in the gym.
What constitutes a healthy weight-lifting diet
Focus on protein
Protein is extremely important for anyone trying to build muscle.
Proteins are made up of amino acids.
Amino acids are what you’re body uses to build and repair muscles that you tore while weight lifting.
When trying to build muscle, it’s recommended to eat anywhere from 0.8 to 1.2 grams of protein per goal pound of bodyweight. For example, if my goal weight is 130 pounds, then I’d want to eat 0.8 x 130 = 104 grams of protein per day.
Some of my favorite protein sources are eggs, Greek yogurt, cottage cheese, chicken, and beef.
Incorporate healthy fats
Healthy fats are a great source of long term energy while also helping to balance your hormones and help you feel fuller.
Healthy fats are essential for anybody, but are especially crucial for women who lift weights. This is because weight lifting puts your muscles, body, and joints under a lot of extra stress.
The extra stress put on your body is a good stress, especially if you’re resting enough.
It’s stress that challenges your body and helps it grow and improve. However, this additional stress can disrupt your body’s normal routine.
That’s why it’s so important to eat a balanced diet high in nutrients to help your body recover.
Eat lots of carbohydrates
Carbohydrates are extremely important for your body; they give you energy!
You need energy to lift weights, especially if you’re lifting heavy. And a lot of it too.
You don’t want to leave your body depleted of carbohydrates. Especially when you’re going into a workout.
I recommend incorporating carbs into every meal you eat. This will ensure that there are carbs flowing through your blood and ready for your body to use at any time.
Your body can use all these carbs to help build, grow, and repair your muscles.
Make sure you drink enough water
Water is extremely important when it comes to growing muscle and being healthy in the gym.
Your body needs water for so many everyday functions.
Yet still, so many of us don’t drink enough water. This is mainly because we don’t know how to increase our water intake.
I’ve noticed so many improvements since I started drinking more water. Both in my life and in my gym progress.
The main importance of water for someone who lifts weights is that it keeps your muscles hydrated.
Hydrated muscles feel better, perform better, and look better.
Since drinking more water I’ve had much better lifts. Less dizziness, more energy, I can lift heavier, and my muscles get less fatigued.
Not only that but my muscles also look much fuller and grow much quicker when they’re hydrated.
What you can do now
Weightlifting puts our bodies under a lot of extra physical stress. Stress that they’ll need to adapt to.
It’s essential that during this process we learn how to take care of our bodies.
We need to treat ourselves right, especially when we push ourselves so hard everyday in the gym.
This is why it’s so essential that we learn how to eat a balanced diet, high in both macro and micro nutrients.
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