People who train their bodybuilding very hard are very concerned about catabolism . If it occurs, they can lose muscle mass and all the work of months and months of training would be useless. Faced with this situation, many athletes lose interest and become unmotivated. Next we are going to explain how to avoid catabolism, what it is and everything you need to know .
What is catabolism?
Muscle catabolism is the loss of muscle mass and takes place when the body begins to nourish itself with the tissues and begins a process of muscle destruction . When the body does this it is because the body is lacking in nutrients, probably due to a poor and incomplete diet.
The body needs nutrients and these are obtained through a healthy and balanced diet. If the diet is inadequate or incomplete, when the body is subjected to excessive physical activity it will obtain energy from another place, the muscle mass. Therefore, it is important to know what to eat and how many calories the body needs based on daily exercise to avoid catabolism .
Catabolism can also occur if there is a lack of rest and intense physical exercise. The body, during sleep, repairs itself and creates tissues, but if this time is insufficient, this repair and creation of tissues will not be able to be carried out, so there will be a process of muscle destruction. By not sleeping properly we mean that the mattress is not comfortable and we wake up continuously, the room is too noisy or bright … Or also when psychological factors intervene, such as stress, which can make us not sleep well.
Symptoms of catabolism
If you are wondering now how to know if you suffer from catabolism or not, we are going to list the different symptoms that could appear:
- Loss of muscle It is the most common symptom.
- Fatigue and loss of desire to train.
- Difficulty to sleep.
- The muscle becomes flaccid and there is no progress in training.
How to avoid catabolism?
Thus, explained in a quick and simple way, to avoid catabolism it is necessary to eat an adequate diet, rest the necessary times and have a correct and regular exercise routine .
As we have said before, one of the main causes of catabolism is poor diet. You have to eat a diet that includes fruits, vegetables, legumes, fish … In other words, a varied and balanced diet that does not lack minerals and vitamins.
To calculate the number of calories that are needed daily, it will be necessary that the exercise routine is regular and appropriate to the physical condition and the realistic goal that you want to achieve . That is, there is no use practicing intense exercise one day but spending several days doing nothing afterwards. The practice of exercise has to be regular if you want to get results.
And, finally, it is necessary that the rest be of quality . The ideal is to sleep about 8 hours a day so that the body charges energy, can replenish nutrients and has enough strength to endure one more routine of physical exercise. Sleeping too much can be just as bad as sleeping too little.
Tips to fight catabolism
Here are some tips to avoid catabolism and maintain muscle mass. Although, as always, we advise you to consult with a personal trainer or a nutritionist with any questions. They can also monitor and control you much more personally, locate the problem and give you a solution.
Lifestyle: food and rest
We have insisted a lot on the importance of having a balanced and varied diet, but we recommend that you especially include the following foods: textured soybeans and legumes , to obtain proteins of vegetable origin; and eggs, meat and fish , to obtain those of animal origin.
We also once again emphasize the importance of rest, because you have to sleep 8 hours, but 8 hours of quality. The mattress must be adequate and provide the comfort that the body needs and the room must provide the necessary tranquility and security for the body to relax during the night.
And to fight stress, it is best to sleep away from any technological device that emits sounds or lights up every time you enter a message or notify anything. In addition to waking us up, these types of devices are associated with work and obligations, so the head does not disconnect.
Protein shakes
Consuming slow-assimilating protein shakes, such as casein shakes , can be very beneficial to the body and can help you avoid catabolism. We have used casein as an example because it has been shown to have an interesting anti-catabolic effect and combat the feeling of hunger .
If before going to sleep you take a shake that contains between 20 and 30 g of protein, you will reduce muscle catabolism and increase the growth of lean muscle mass in your hours of sleep.
We also recommend having a protein shake after training. However, in this case it will have to be fast absorbing, like leucine , which you can consume before, during and after training .
The shakes are supplements and should never be taken as a meal replacement. The meals, in addition, will have to be varied and balanced. It is also important to keep a schedule to avoid imbalances in the body.
And, to give you an idea, throughout the day an athlete has to consume between 1.2 and 1.8 g of protein per kg of body mass to achieve muscle mass or hypertrophy. For example, a 70 kg person would have to consume approximately 112 g of protein daily. And, very importantly, consuming more protein is not synonymous with more muscle, it is synonymous with long-term health problems and going to the bathroom more.
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Rule out diseases
In some cases it is advisable to go to the doctor to rule out possible diseases that trigger muscle wasting or destruction. In addition to age and lifestyle, there are some diseases that settle in bones, nerves or muscles that could cause catabolism.
If despite eating a healthy, balanced and varied diet, sleeping the necessary hours and having a regular training routine there are symptoms that indicate that there is loss of muscle mass for no apparent reason, we recommend that you go to a specialist doctor.
Give importance to physical exercise
You have to have a very well structured physical exercise program for it to be effective. Avoid resting the muscle for more than 10 days or it will lose strength and mass , unless there is an injury or some problem that prevents training temporarily.
For physical exercise to give the expected results, you must choose the intensity of training very well to avoid overexertion. Rest times must also be respected. If one or both of these fail, instead of gaining muscle mass, you will end up with stagnation.
The ideal would be to train about three times a week and limit cardiovascular training to 30 minutes and increase muscle tone and endurance. And with heavy training, the ideal is to do between 5 and 8 repetitions per set using a weight that is suitable for that number.
With all this we want to make it clear that avoiding catabolism is totally possible, as well as combating it. You just have to lead an orderly and healthy life.
