- Ciara, 28, submitted her average daily food intake for consideration. BI Nutrition Clinic.
- A nutritionist said eating more food, especially carbohydrates, would help her.
- If you would like to have an expert review your eating habits, Please fill out this form.
Ciara, 28, shared her eating habits with Business Insider’s Nutrition Clinic. There, qualified nutritionists and registered dietitians provide dietary advice to readers.
She said her goal is to lose fat and gain muscle.
Ciara does five CrossFit sessions and five cardio classes a week. She takes Sundays off, she said.
Sports nutritionist and personal trainer Rebecca Ward told BI that Ciara uses up so much energy that even if she wants to lose weight, she doesn’t have enough to replenish her energy and help her body recover. He said he needed to eat.
“It would be more beneficial for her to do light training on one of those days rather than having just one rest day a week,” Ward said.
Ward added that building muscle requires plenty of rest and recovery time between workouts.
“If she can nourish herself well through better, more optimal food choices, it’s definitely achievable,” she said, referring to gaining muscle and losing fat.
Although strength training is essential for building muscle, exercise is not a prerequisite for losing fat. More movement can lead to a calorie deficit, but research shows that formal exercise only accounts for about 5-10% of your total daily calorie expenditure.
Exercising too much without fully recovering can stress your body, hinder your progress, and be a symptom of an unhealthy relationship with exercise.
“When we overexert, we believe that ‘I need to sweat every day to burn calories’ or ‘I need to train cardio to lose weight’ for the wrong reasons. “In fact, our bodies often benefit from a combination of exercise regimens,” personal trainer Hayley Madigan previously told BI. Ta.
Ciara eats a high protein diet
Ciara doesn’t eat until 3 p.m., when she’s half done with a high-protein cooked meal of rice and meat.
After my workout, I eat an egg white omelet with mushrooms, onions, and cauliflower rice. Or salmon, broccoli, and cauliflower rice.
Later in the day, I’ll have one serving of protein pancakes, two bags of protein chips, and if I’m still hungry, a protein shake or bar.
Ciara estimates she consumes 1,200 to 1,300 calories and 110 to 120 grams of protein per day.
Ciara goes on a big fasting period the evening before by not eating until 3pm. Although some people feel better during intermittent fasting, it is not suitable for everyone and is not necessary for fat loss.
Registered dietitian Jaclyn London previously told BI that she recommends eating breakfast because it forms part of a healthy relationship with food and also ‘prepares’ you for the next day. He said he was there.
Eat enough carbohydrates for fuel and recovery
Ward said it was great that Ciara was eating lots of protein to maintain muscle mass, but that it would be difficult to build muscle with such a low overall dietary intake.
“Her diet is very low in calories, considering the energy expended by exercising 10 times a week,” she says. “It would be difficult for Ciara to recover from her workouts and replenish herself with optimal energy.”
While it’s true that a calorie deficit is necessary to lose fat, reducing your intake too much can lead to negative effects such as slowed metabolism, fatigue, brain fog, muscle loss, and decreased menstrual cycles. there is.
“I’m interested to see how well she performs during training designed to achieve her goal of increasing muscle mass,” Ward said. “She will benefit from having more carbohydrates in her diet to optimize training performance and achieve higher intensity and volume.”
Ward recommends that Ciara eat more carbohydrates with each meal and snack. Perhaps start by eating more fruit each day so you get some fiber as well.
Carbohydrates not only provide energy for your workout, but they also help replenish your glycogen stores after exercise, aiding recovery.
Don’t forget healthy fats
Ciara’s diet is also low in fat.
“Fat is essential for optimal health, not only is it the fuel for low-intensity exercise, but it’s also very important for recovery,” Ward said. “So adding a little oil, avocado, nuts, and seeds will help her recover from her workouts and increase her energy from absorbing fat-soluble vitamins.”
Consider fat loss and muscle gain phases separately
It’s not impossible to lose fat and gain muscle at the same time, but it’s more effective to do it in separate cycles.
This means eating on maintenance calories or a slight surplus of calories to promote muscle growth for several months, and then going into a slight calorie deficit to reduce body fat.
“It’s possible to lose fat and gain muscle at the same time, but it’s definitely suboptimal and it’s definitely better to do it in stages – a maintenance phase and a fat loss phase,” Ward said. Ta. “Exercise becomes more enjoyable when you have maintenance calories.”
