Do you both love and dread your next set of 25 burpees? Welcome to the team. Here are the keys to a CrossFit diet that supports your next WOD.
CrossFit has made a big impression. More than a sport, it is like a wardrobe to Narnia: once you enter, you never want to leave. It draws you in.
It combines high-intensity training with varied functional movements using body weight and equipment such as bars, boxes, ropes, medicine balls and plates.
Lifting more, improving workouts, pushing limits, climbing ropes, clearing your mind or becoming more agile: CrossFitters have plenty of goals. Knowing what to eat helps you train at your best.
What should you eat for CrossFit?
CrossFit combines aerobic endurance, power, agility and strength. Improving its many physical and technical elements is easier with appropriate nutrition.
What can a good approach to CrossFit nutrition offer?
- Meeting energy demands for training volume and intensity.
- Supporting appropriate changes in body composition for performance.
- Supporting training adaptations
- Providing an appropriate pre-competition strategy
- Supporting recovery between events and after training.
- Helping manage gastrointestinal discomfort.
To approach food for CrossFit well, start by understanding what happens when you enter the box.
Don’t worry: this is not a biochemistry class. Here is a simple explanation.
- At lower intensities, aerobic metabolism supplies much of your energy using fuels including fat and carbohydrates.
- Short, powerful, explosive efforts rely heavily on the phosphagen system, an anaerobic pathway that uses muscle phosphocreatine.
- Sustained high-intensity work also relies strongly on anaerobic glycolysis, using glucose derived from sources including glycogen to supply energy quickly. These systems work together rather than switching on in isolation.
- During intense work, several processes contribute to muscle fatigue. Hydrogen-ion accumulation can lower muscle pH; lactate itself is not simply “lactic acid” that raises pH and causes fatigue.
Nutrition should support these energy demands during your WOD. So what is the best diet for CrossFit?
As always, nutrition should be personalised to your needs and circumstances. No magic diet fits every push-press enthusiast. How simple that would be—and how boring.
You need an eating plan adapted to you and your goals, whether improving your deadlift maximum or doing one more air squat when your quads already feel like jelly.
Want to perform better with the bar, win your next battle with the ropes, do one more skip or push-up? The INDYA sports nutritionists can tailor a plan to your needs, whether you do CrossFit or another sport. Meanwhile, here are 5 keys.
5 keys to CrossFit nutrition
Here are 5 tips for improving your CrossFit nutrition:
Learn to manage carbohydrates:
To perform well in high-intensity CrossFit, muscle glycogen matters. Adequate carbohydrate intake helps you begin with well-stocked stores.
Adjust carbohydrates meal by meal and day by day to the purpose and demands of each session.
Ensure adequate micronutrients:
CrossFit takes place indoors. If you also work indoors or get little sun exposure, pay attention to vitamin D and calcium, among other nutrients.
Vitamin D has hormone-like functions affecting immunity, muscle function and calcium absorption. Adequate calcium intake and vitamin D status both support bone health.
Oily fish, eggs and appropriately fortified foods can contribute vitamin D; mushrooms vary according to UV exposure, and unfortified oats are not a dependable source. For calcium, consider dairy, calcium-set tofu, pulses and suitable green vegetables. Check labels and your overall intake.
Avoid fad diets:
Paleo and the Zone diet are popular in CrossFit, but there are many more. A quick search opens a Pandora’s box.
Many fad diets emphasise protein, reduce carbohydrates, exclude processed food or target fat loss. Those aims may not match your needs, training, context, tastes, body composition, goals or experience.
Nutrition works when it meets individual needs, adapts over time and builds good habits. Personalise it to understand its influence on sports performance.
Before training, consider fat and fibre:
If you eat close to training without much digestion time, reducing fat and fibre may help: for example, save a large portion of nuts for later.
Choose easy-to-tolerate foods such as smooth porridge, white toast with jam or honey, banana or cereal purée. Wholemeal toast may be less comfortable immediately before a morning session because of its fibre content.
For a pre-workout meal, plain white rice may be easy to digest. Sauce and eggs can make it a larger, slower-digesting meal. Gas-producing foods such as pulses may be less suitable shortly beforehand, depending on timing and tolerance.
Do not underestimate post-workout recovery:
Training includes replacing what your body has used.
Exercise uses resources and stresses tissues. Nutrients and rest support recovery, when adaptation and improvement occur.
After training, include an appropriate quality protein source. It need not be a shake: soya, meat, eggs and other protein-rich foods can work, with nuts contributing too.
Many CrossFitters use BCAA supplements. With sufficient good-quality, digestible dietary protein, you generally already obtain these amino acids.
Your body also needs carbohydrates, including sugars when appropriate, from foods such as tubers and grains to replenish glycogen.
Include healthy fats too. Omega-3 sources such as salmon and some nuts contribute to normal inflammatory regulation.
A variety of vitamins and minerals also supports normal body function: for example, vitamin E from avocado or hazelnuts and carotenoids from sweet potatoes or apricots.
Want help designing a personalised diet? Discover our technology platform with an online nutritionist and keep improving with us.
