The diet of footballers is extremely crucial for your performance.
It can be the sole determiner between playing at your best and crashing within the first 15 minutes of the match.
Football players must use an effective nutrition program in order to perform at their best.
As a player, you must fuel up efficiently for each training, workout, and match.
And NO, your diet plan does not need to consist of only chicken and rice.
Remember, you’re a footballer not a bodybuilder.
You’re also not a robot, and you’re allowed to enjoy your life…
So what if I were to tell you that you can ENJOY your diet whilst having an effective footballer’s diet plan.
The key to your nutrition is about balance.
And that goes for everything.
You probably think fruit is amazing right?
Well, it is.
But having too much fruit isn’t healthy either.
Having too much of anything isn’t healthy.
Which is why the first thing you need to do for your diet, is to adjust your mindset.
There is no ‘unhealthy’ foods, there are only unhealthy diets.
So take that into your next food shop and you’ll do just fine.
All of us have desires and craves here and there, and here’s where you decisions count the most.
You really want a chocolate bar? Not an issue, there’s no need to fight this urge. But try and make a better decision, would a Cadburys chocolate bar or a protein bar be a better option in this situation?
You really want ice cream? The same story, Ben and Jerry’s or a low calorie-high protein ice cream?
I hope by now you’re starting to get the image of what a healthy footballer’s nutrition can actually look like.
So the next time someone tells you that they live off chicken and rice, think about how balanced and ENJOYABLE your diet is.
As a footballer, should you worry about counting calories?
Well, it depends.
If you do actively want to change your body weight or % of body fat you have, then yes this would probably be harder to accomplish without counting calories.
Note how I said ‘harder’, and not impossible.
You most definitely can change your body weight without counting calorie intake, but counting will just ease the process.
But for the sake of your mental health, let’s imagine a scenario where you don’t want to track every single gram of food and drink you have - how do we approach this?
Well by the time you have found your balanced diet by making good decisions when you don’t ignore your wants and needs.
You’ll probably find you have a pretty consistent diet, something that works for YOU.
So if your body weight has stayed the same for a long time, what do you think you need to do to lose weight?
It’s easy, just remove a couple calories a day. Lower the amounts for a few foods per day.
And with consistency, you’ll lose weight.
What about gaining weight?
It’s the opposite, add a small amount.
Remember to tailor your diet around match-day, that should be your priority as a footballer.
A footballers diet usually has more carbohydrates than the average person, simply because that’s where we get a majority of our energy.
This is why we use the phrase ‘carbing up’ for matches. This usually starts a day or two before match day, where you slightly increase the amount of carbs you eat in order to fuel up for match day.
The most important thing about your nutrition as a footballer is that it is tailored for YOU.
There’s no point in following some random person’s diet you find online.
If you want a diet plan created for you, make sure it is created for YOU.
Here at JNM, we’ve been fortunate enough to work with over 5000 athletes - helping them with their diets and training.
Click here if you want to learn more about custom nutrition programs