Sport and nutrition are two of the most important components of a healthy lifestyle. However, these are not two independent aspects, but rather two areas of life that strongly influence each other.
Therefore, a suitable diet is extremely important for your daily sporting activities. In particular, breakfast plays a key role.
In this article, you will learn what the optimal sports breakfast looks like and how you can tailor it to your individual needs.
Protein-rich sports breakfast range from Verival – discover it now
What makes a healthy breakfast?
A healthy breakfast should provide plenty of energy, supply you with all the nutrients you need and, on top of that, taste good. This may sound like a lot at first, but in the end it is not that difficult. However, it is important to note that the word healthy should always be considered in context.
For example, a low-calorie breakfast may be healthy for a person with a mainly sedentary lifestyle. However, for a person who is active in sports, this may be quite different. Because if you do regular exercise, your body has slightly different needs. For example, it may need more protein if you do intense strength training.
A healthy breakfast should therefore always be tailored individually. However, certain principles are transferable to almost all population groups. It makes sense to include complex carbohydrates in your breakfast, which, in combination with healthy fibre, provide plenty of long-lasting energy. The fat sources, on the other hand, should primarily consist of unsaturated fatty acids. In addition, a healthy breakfast includes plenty of proteins, minerals and vitamins.
Let's take a closer look at the nutritional needs of physically active people and which nutrients are particularly important for you and for achieving your sporting goals.
Muscle building and improved performance thanks to a healthy protein breakfast
If sport is more than just a pastime for you and you have set yourself high sporting goals, an adequate sports breakfast is essential. For example, if your goal is to improve your performance, you will need not only intensive training but also a high-protein and energy-rich diet.
Whether you want to perform better on the tennis court or are preparing for a marathon, the additional nutrients you need will have some similarities. You should make sure you consume plenty of energy in the form of complex carbohydrates and healthy fats at breakfast time.
However, you want to avoid a sharp rise in blood sugar, as this would only give you a short-lived energy boost. What you need is a breakfast that will keep you energised throughout your workout and beyond.
Your sports breakfast should include the following nutrients
And this is precisely where fibre comes into play. These digestive components of food ensure a reduced blood sugar increase and thus an optimal energy supply. Foods rich in fibre, such as chia seeds, can be easily integrated into your breakfast, for example in the form of overnight oats.
However, since your body not only needs energy but also nutrients for new muscle tissue, your breakfast should not be without proteins. A delicious protein porridge, for example, provides you with complex carbohydrates, a healthy amount of fibre and plenty of plant-based proteins.
Our breakfast sports range offers everything an athlete's heart desires, from high-energy porridges to high-fibre mueslis and high-protein green protein waffles. Our sports products are characterised by their high proportion of vegetable proteins, which can be optimally utilised by your body due to their high biological value.
And if you're in a hurry, you can always fall back on the high-protein strawberry-blackberry breakfast shake, which provides you with plenty of energy and amino acids for peak athletic performance.
Losing weight with a low-carb diet – how to do it
However, if your goal is to lose weight, a healthy breakfast looks a little different. In particular, if you want to eat a low-carb diet, it's important to start with breakfast.
While you need plenty of energy to achieve peak athletic performance, you should save a certain amount of calories when targeting weight loss. Some people find it easier to reduce the amount of fat they consume, while others prefer to ban carbohydrates from their plates.
You can lose weight with either approach, but we'd like to take a closer look at the low-carb diet because it changes your breakfast more. To make your breakfast lower in carbohydrates, you should first identify the sources of carbohydrates.
These are mostly grain products because they consist largely of carbohydrates. Low-carb foods, on the other hand, are mainly vegetables, legumes and water-rich fruits.
These foods are suitable for a low-carb diet.
So, for example, you could opt for grain-free products that contain no grain at all. Energy is provided by lower-carbohydrate legumes such as nuts or seeds, e.g. chia seeds. The big advantage is that, in addition to containing fewer carbohydrates, legumes usually contain even more fibre and are also optimal sources of protein.
Our Verival Grain Free Sport Protein Muesli Almond-Fig, for example, has 70 per cent fewer carbohydrates than conventional mueslis because it contains no grains. Instead, the seeds and nuts it contains provide you with plenty of healthy fatty acids, digestive fibres and a good portion of plant-based proteins.
Discover low-carb breakfasts from Verival
Take a look at our Verival Sport Range to discover even more low-carb breakfast products, such as our Lower Carb Granola with the delicious raspberry-almond-coconut flavour.
