Apr

13

Breakfast - The Most Important (Bodybuilding) Meal Of The Day

Filed Under Eating And Diet | 

Breakfast, the most important meal of the day - you’ve heard it before but what does it really mean? Here let me put it this way…

Tim is a race car driver, it’s a fine cold morning, he pulls out onto the track, nice shiny V8 engine rumbling under the hood. He lines up at the start line the lights… Red… Yellow… Green - GO! He floors the accelerator the car leaps forward stutters and shudders to a halt. Out of gas.

At the end of the race Tim is intereviewed “But it was too early in the morning, I did not feel like getting up 15 minutes earlier and putting the fuel in” is the lame excuse. How stupid is this guy?

Yet time and again we see people skipping breakfast and doing this to their body. Everyday is a race against time to get everything done - you’ve heard the term the rat race.

To have any chance to compete effectively we need a full tank of gas, running on empty is not good for your car or for your body…

As a bodybuilder trying to gain muscle mass then this is even more pointed. After an 8 hour sleep your body is low on blood sugars, low on amino acids and with few energy reserves. You body is screaming out for carbs and protein, it is in a catabolic stage of starvation. Your body is starting to canabalise itself for energy.

This is where the original meaning of breaking the fast - breakfast comes in.

Breakfast is needed to bring you out of this catabolic phase. Give your body some food to eat, otherwise first thing it will feed on is your muscles.

What To Eat For Breakfast?

Eat a good healthy meal of low fat, natural carbohydrates and a good source of complete proteins. Keep away from manufactured sugary cereals, even the ones marketed as healthy.

As a bodybuilder my personal preference for years has been unsweeted, unflavoured oatmeal, fresh fruit and eggs. Perfect. Sometimes I substitute the eggs for a whey protein drink.

If I am dieting and trying to cut body fat, then for breakfast I will either eat a beef steak or scrambled eggs before I go for my low intensity cardio, this gives my body some energy without raising blood sugar levels (and thus keeping me in the fat burning zone). After I return I will eat my ideal bodybuilder breakfast of oats and eggs.

Make your first meal of the day, breakfast, your biggest.

This make eating for the rest of the day easier as you are just continually topping up a full tank, rather than trying to catch up all day on your foods. If you keep your body’s energy levels full then you will have more energy in general life, you will feel happier and your body will be in an anabolic state - meaning it is growing and recovering with maximum speed.

And because you are not hungry you are not tempted to grab a ’snack’. The western ’snack’ is a poor excuse to put some sugary goop into your body because you are hungry. Believe me on this that is the worst thing you can do for your body.

For breakfast avoid sugary foods or drinks, no coco pops, no rice krispies, no soda drink, grab a fresh juice instead.

Natural unprocessed fresh foods are the best fuel for your body, just make the habit of planning your breakfast each day for the next month and see what difference it makes… you’ll be surprised.

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