Going to a boarding school such as Milton limits an athlete's ability to eat the right food that will help improve overall health and athleticism. However, Forbes dining hall does have many options that give students the chance to either bulk up for a season, cut down for a season, or work on maintaining weight in the healthiest way possible. Refer to this guide for planning your meals in Forbes and learning what to keep in your room for snacks to stay as healthy as possible. In addition to this guide, websites with diets such as Testosterone Nation, Elite Fitness, and Bodybuilding.com all have lots of nutrition databases to know exactly what is in your food.
The first step to eating healthy is learning how to tell what's healthy and what's not. The basics of nutrition are simple. Calories are broken down into three categories: protein, fat, and carbohydrates. A gram of protein and a gram of carbs are both equal to four calories; a gram of fat is worth 9, and thus has more energy available for use. Typically, it's appropriate to break down your daily caloric intake into 40% carbs, 35% protein, and 25% fat, though there are specific diets that work carb and fat depletion. Whether your gaining muscle mass or improving your lean muscle mass to fat ratio, it's best to not go more than 3 hours without eating, so that your metabolism is always working.
There are, of course, foods that are harder to process than others. Lots of foods contain processed fats and high levels of sugar. The former is harder to burn through, and is thus stored in your body as extra energy. The latter, when not used immediately, is converted into fat and also stored. When putting fat in your diet, it's best to eat healthy, natural fats. Foods like avocados, nuts such as peanuts, cashews, and almonds, and natural oils such as olive oil or coconut oil are good to use for salad dressings and cooking to get some natural fat in your meal. Fruits are a great source of natural sugar, and many fruits are catabolic as well, which means that your body actually burns calories digesting them (studies show that apples, celery, and raspberries are some of the most catabolic foods one can eat). If you're working out every day, try and eat a 4:1 ratio of carbs:protein after you workout; the high amounts of carbs will help fuel your body as it uses the protein to repair your torn muscle fibers.
One of the hardest parts about attending boarding school is the food limitations. However, storing the right food in your dorm room--and avoiding the wrong foods--will help you stay healthy as an athlete. Filling your dorm room with foods such as carrots, celery, fruits, peanut butter, whey protein and casein protein, and even the right types of protein bars (Lean-Muscle and Met-RX are rated the best on multiple websites) can keep you from eating the wrong food just because you're hungry.
The essentials of gaining weight in the healthiest way are simple: stick to all-natural calorically dense foods, don't skip a workout, and don't let yourself get an empty stomach. Depending on when you lift, make the meal following your workout the biggest meal of the day. Always eat something big at breakfast because your body hasn't had food in over six hours. In addition, keep snacks such as protein bars, nuts, fruit, and protein powder in your bag. Don't let yourself go more than two and a half hours without getting some food in your stomach, even if it's just a handful of almonds and a banana. It'd be better if you're gaining weight for your in-between-meal snacks to be bigger, like turkey wraps or high-calorie protein bars from the bookstore. Below are some sample meals for breakfast, lunch, and dinner in Forbes. Also, try and drink two to three bottles of water a day.
Dinner can be hard but if it's after your post-school workout try and eat a lot of protein and carbs for the night and drink a couple of glasses of milk. Drink a protein powder shake and fill yourself up as much as you can. Right before bed, drink another smoothie of casein protein powder and water, rather than whey. Casein is slower acting and will process as you sleep.
Like gaining weight, the biggest part of losing weight appropriately while staying in shape is eating healthily. A lot of people think the best way to lose weight is to eat loss; the truth is, it's not about how much one eats, but what they do eat. Like gaining weight, don't let yourself go too long without eating food, because then your metabolism will slow down and prevent you from losing fat; instead, your body will start to burn muscle. In between meals, foods like apples and other fruits are enough to keep your stomach working but not so much that you'll be setting yourself back. Again, try and drink lots of water. Eliminate empty calories from your diet (candies from the book store, the fast-food from the snack bar, or drinks from the soda machines in Forbes).
When it comes down to it, gaining weight and losing weight are both about eating healthy, whether it means eating more healthily or eating less healthily. Be sure to think before you put food on your plate; it's a lot easier to plan your diet without having bad, unhealthy foods in front of you. For more information, speak with Coach Darling, Coach Holmes, or any of the trainers.
The following websites were used to research appropriate eating to gain weight and improve lean mass.