Throughout the years, women have put a major focus on the need to have the “best body” that they can, be it the curves of the era of Marilyn Monroe, the “stick figure” thin look of Twiggy in the 1960’s, the sought after thigh gaps of the 1980’s supermodels or the “strong is the new skinny” look of today, brought about by the influence of the weightlifting and CrossFit culture. American culture has reached a point where women are working to have muscular arms, they are embracing thicker, stronger thighs and bottoms that can squat hundreds of pounds, even if they have trouble buying jeans meant for their new proportions. While this shift towards strength instead of skinny seems to be sign of a bright future for the body image mentality, many do not understand how to let go of the tricks of the diet trade and are unwilling or unknowing of the need to alter their macronutrient intake to better support their new activities.
Women, nutrition and weightlifting
Women have not typically been a major sample of the population of weight lifters. Majority of the bodybuilding, power lifting and olympic lifting culture has surrounded around men. In high school athletic programs there are strength coaches and weight rooms available for the male athletes, but very rarely will you see teenage female athletes in the weight room as opposed to the track. “...men tend to receive more supervision and instruction in their weight training than women. Sports training programs often devote significant time, staff, and resources to men’s strength training programs, but women may not have the same access to these resources, not to mention the disparity seen in private gyms and fitness centers. The lower participation by women in strength training may also reduce their opportunities for education in proper technique, safety, and training methods.” (Journal of Pure Power, 2010) The higher level of supervision and training that men experience is not only evident in their training abilities, but also in their understanding of the needed nutritional balance.
A number of “fad diets” have led to massive confusion and have led many women to adopt the simple calories in, calories out method of dieting. While it basically makes sense to balance calorie intake with calorie output, or to eat fewer calories than one uses, this simple plan fails to lay out where calories should be coming from for optimum performance, also, many fail to make accurate calculations of the number of calories that they actually use throughout the day and try to get by on twelve hundred calories a day, creating massive deficits that may actually halt their weight loss abilities. “Many women athletes restrict energy intake, specifically fat consumption, in order to modify body composition, but this nutritional practice is often counter‐productive. Compared to men, women appear to be less reliant on glycogen during exercise and less responsive to carbohydrate mediated glycogen synthesis during recovery. Female strength athletes may require more protein than their sedentary and endurance training counterparts to attain positive nitrogen balance and promote protein synthesis. Therefore, women strength athletes should put less emphasis on a very high carbohydrate intake and more emphasis on quality protein and fat consumption in the context of energy balance to enhance adaptations to training and improve general health.” (Volek, Forsythe, Kraemer, 2006)
The problem that many have with the quality protein that is called for is that a higher intake of a range of quality proteins for an optimum intake of amino acids will generally lead to a higher intake of cholesterol and fats as well. Eggs have been vilified over the years for their high cholesterol content, but have remained a staple of the bodybuilder’s diet. It’s recently been shown that dietary cholesterol does not affect blood cholesterol the way it had previously been thought, they provide a perfect ratio of amino acids, are a great source of a number of vitamins and minerals, and overall are a great way to start the day. (Gunnars, 2014) If women who participate in strength training limit themselves to chicken breasts, fat free cottage cheese and tilapia for protein, they risk not providing their bodies with necessary nutrients for making strength gains and may put themselves at a greater chance for injury and dietary burnout from increased boredom with their food choices.
Besides the restrictive nature of a number of the diets that many women follow when they begin an exercise routine, which may have led them to adopting a strength training program, diets have a track record of failure because many look at them as a temporary fix, a temporary way of eating in order to reach a goal. Once someone loses ten pounds or gets their first glimpse of muscle tone they may decide to reward themselves with a break from their diet, causing a backslide into old habits. This is why it is important to not only focus on eating for performance, but eating for life. Learning to eat a diet of rich nutrition sources should not be a short term fix, if properly educated, women have the opportunity to learn how to eat for a life of strength and mobility. A diet with whole, natural, nutritious sources of amino acids, vitamins and minerals can reduce the risk of many health problems that women may experience, such as osteoporosis (strength training also assists with reducing osteoporosis risk).
In the end, it is important for today’s women to not look at the shift towards strong instead of skinny as the most recent fad. As many in the fitness industry say, “you can’t out train a bad diet” and a diet that isn’t balanced in high quality fats, carbohydrates and proteins won’t provide the necessary nutrients to replenish and repair the body. Women need to be open to eating more protein and more fat, while getting their carbohydrates from unprocessed sources for optimal nutrition while strength training.
References
Gunnars, K. (2014, May 6). 10 proven health benefits of eggs. . Retrieved May 30, 2014, from http://authoritynutrition.com/10-proven-health-benefits-of-eggs/
Volek, J. S., Forsythe, C. E., & Kraemer, W. J. (2006, July 1). Nutritional aspects of women strength athletes. . Retrieved May 26, 2014, from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2564387/
Weight lifters in the emergency room: On sex differences in weightlifting injuries. (2010). Journal of Pure Power, 5(1), 73-75.
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