Weight Loss for Beginner Athletes: How to Achieve a Healthy Weight

Maintaining a healthy weight is essential for athletes looking to boost their sport-specific skills and performance. A sufficient level of lean body mass allows individuals to move with speed, agility, and endurance. Unfortunately, many athletes — especially female athletes and those in weight-sensitive sports like combat and bodybuilding — are prone to unhealthy and unsustainable weight loss practices. In an effort to acquire the optimal body composition for their sport, they turn to restrictive diets and excessive exercise. By slimming down too much and too rapidly, you can compromise your strength and even put yourself at greater risk for injury. If you’re a beginner athlete, it’s important that you get off on the right foot and approach weight management healthily. You can try these science-backed strategies to lose weight, sacrificing your performance and overall health in the process.

Do strength training

When you’re trying to lose weight, there’s the risk of losing some muscle — something that can negatively affect your strength, metabolic rate, and aerobic capacity. The good news is that strength training allows you to shed excess fat while also maintaining lean body mass, making it a significant component of athletic training regardless of which sport you play. As opposed to doing cardio alone, regular strength training sessions promote greater weight loss and muscle growth. Beginners can start their strength training routine with brisk walks and dumbbell exercises before moving on to weekly sessions of circuit training and weight lifting.

At Blended we think that strength training is so important for our overall health and longevity of life. Our Stamina classes are a great place for people who are new to fitness or who want to get back into a fitness to get started. It is a welcoming environment where people of all fitness levels can be motivated in a group class setting. Additionally our Ground Zero classes provide a great place for people to focus on strength training using a barbell. In those classes you will see a great mid of powerlifting and olympic lifting in a CrossFit-like group class setting.

Follow a customized diet

In addition to strength training, eating a sufficient amount of protein can enhance the preservation of fat-free muscle mass by keeping you fuller on fewer calories. Since the amount of protein you’ll have to consume depends on your current and desired body weight and your overall lifestyle, you can look into weight loss programs that provide a customized diet fit for your athletic and nutritional needs. Tailored meal plans also guide you toward finding the right portion sizes that help you feel satiated while still meeting your particular weight and performance goals. Lastly, joining a community of individuals who are also on their weight loss journey can help motivate you by sharing dieting tips, fitness resources, and healthy recipes with one another.

At Blended we utilize our Optimal Nutrition Guidelines to help our members learn about the hierarchy of nutrition, meal timing, supplementation, macronutrients, caloric intake, and the InBody scan.

Time your pre- and post-workout nutrition

Aside from the composition and nutritional value of your diet, timing your meals and snacks around your workouts also ensures you have adequate energy for optimizing your performance. Nutrient timing is hence based on bolstering your glycogen stores by eating complex carbohydrates, usually through a meal 4-6 hours before a workout. Consuming a combination of protein and carbs within 30 minutes after an intense workout also promotes glycogen resynthesis for muscle synthesis, proper refueling, and post-training recovery. Lastly, remember to stay hydrated as you spread your protein intake with large meals and light snacks throughout the day.

Practice intuitive eating

Sport equally involves physical and mental strength, so it is crucial to keep your willpower and stress levels in check throughout your weight loss journey. Mindfulness increases your awareness of your internal and external environment, and one way to practice it is through intuitive eating habits. Rather than being rigid and restrictive with your diet and exercise plan, try to be more flexible with your food intake by introducing day-to-day variations to your training load and demands. It also helps to pay closer attention to your internal cues for fullness and hunger, so that you avoid both undernourishment and overeating during your training.

Always remember that weight loss is rarely a linear and straightforward journey. Learning to cope with setbacks during changes in your body weight and composition can also equip you with the adaptive mindset you need not just for losing weight, but for progressing as an athlete.