3 Common Strength Nutrition Mistakes

If you struggle to feel motivated when going to the gym, feel sluggish, uninspired, or lack energy, and you aren't sure why, your nutrition might be to blame. I repeatedly see three major things when it comes to women who have an active lifestyle but aren't feeling as good as they expected. As Professor McGonagall from Harry Potter would say, when something happens, it's always these three.

Key Takeaways

Three Things To Watch Out For Nutrition Wise When You Are Training Hard Are:

1. Being too low carb 
2. Skipping meals
3. Only eating when you feel hungry

Learning and Unlearning

If you are engaging with medium or high-intensity activity, your body needs fuel and energy throughout the day. This means eating regularly, fueling yourself with the right types of foods, and listening to your body's hunger signals. 

We have been taught that carbs are the enemy and that skipping meals is okay if you don't feel hungry, which is just not the case. While these ‘rules’ may be well-intentioned, they are problematic and require a lot of learning and unlearning in this space.

The Three Things Standing in the Way of Your Results

The truth is, if you don’t take in enough energy, you will feel like shit. We need to use a combination of listening to our bodies but also logic to nourish ourselves and, in turn, see the results we are hoping for at the gym. 

If you are lifting weights and want to get stronger and build muscle, you have to have a strong base of nutrition. Carbs, regular meals, and eating to fuel your body are essential to helping you get the results you want in your muscle gain and also your energy levels.

Are you ready to embrace nutrition in order to improve your overall game? Share what goal you are working towards with me in the comments on the episode page.

In This Episode

• Some common problems that women who lift weights run into in terms of nutrition (4:10)
• Why being too low carb could actually be hurting your results in the gym (6:01)
• How to stop skipping meals for better overall health (13:30)
• The role of the Tokyo Olympics when recognizing pre-menopausal women athletes (17:35)
• Tips for avoiding the trap of only eating when you are hungry (21:20)

Quotes

“Dame Maggie Smith playing Professor McGonagall, and she says to Hermionie and Ron and Harry, ‘why is it that when something happens, it is always you three?’. It kind of brought up this sort of comical reel that I made but with a really serious message behind it.” (5:37)

“I’ve been in and around the strength training community for now over a decade. I have, myself, been lifting for over a decade and been coaching for many years now. And I see this happening with monotonous regularity. So, is it happening to everybody? Probably not. Is it happening to a big chunk of folks? From my experience, it is.” (8:17)

“I think what we are seeing is a lot of things converging at one time. Obviously, there is the recognition now and the desire to say hey, pre-menopausal women haven't been represented super well in a lot of this research.” (18:03)

“You don't have to be an elite athlete to have this challenge, and skipping meals sometimes, oftentimes, makes it more difficult to get in the amount of energy, and other things like protein, that someone who is lifting weights and interested in building muscle tissue really needs to provide in their daily intake in order to make that stuff happen.” (20:36)

“Does your body have fail-safes? Of course! Your body is miraculous and wonderful and has all sorts of clever ways to do things like access stored energy and this and that. But when this becomes a pattern over time, especially if you do have access to food, this is something to consider turning your attention toward.” (25:29)

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