For female athletes and fitness gurus, it may not actually be in your best interest to heed the popular advice about diet, energy, and even supplemental needs as they pertain to your level of fitness. The needs of women are not the same as they are for men when it comes to gauging what your body needs as far as diet and exercise. To anticipate and address your needs as a female fitness guru, make sure the information you seek directly applies to you as a woman, not just an active person.
Common Pitfalls
Women exercise to live healthy lives, decrease their risk of certain diseases, and also to boost their self-confidence. But another reason that a lot of women become active is to lose weight. Active women who adapt low calorie diets to lose weight need to be aware that if their caloric intake is too low they are putting themselves at risk. They can have vitamin and nutrient deficiencies, stress fractures, low energy levels, and a disruption of their menstrual cycles. Healthy female fitness should include adequate energy intake. This varies from person to person. Make sure your meals are timed around your workouts and allow yourself enough time to eat a meal or snack before you hit the gym. The key to optimal fitness as a female is appropriate energy intake.
A common myth that women often fall prey to in regards to strength training is the notion that using added weight for resistance exercises will cause a substantial gain in muscle mass. Many people believe that using lighter weights with fewer repetitions is the best way to tone up the female body without bulking up. This is not true. The truth is that in order to increase your overall strength you’re better off gradually increasing the weight you’re using for your exercises. As long as you’re mixing strength training and cardiovascular exercises you won’t bulk up unless you increase your caloric intake.
Carbohydrates
Many women use sports drinks, gels, bars, powders, etc. to supplement their workouts. While these products can be a very convenient way to meet your energy needs before and after a workout, women still need to pay attention to the content of the products they’re using. Recent trends in female fitness information seem to send the general message that ramping up your protein consumption is more conducive to becoming leaner and consuming carbohydrates is bad, but your body needs carbohydrates before and after exercise more so than it needs protein in that period of time. Consuming enough carbohydrates before or after exercise will improve your body’s ability to recover from exercise, and to perform in the future.
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