Bodybuilding Winter Nutrition Tips

Take the opportunity to try new foods that have specific winter-targeted benefits.

By Eric Falstrault

Is winter the "bulking up" season or have you just gained fat over the holidays and thrown in the towel on staying lean? Bulking up during the winter isn't the trend anymore. The new breed of bodybuilders are getting better educated about ongoing research on gaining lean muscle mass adequately without pro-inflammatory fat gains.   

I tend to believe that most people would benefit from letting go of the hard diet and just taking it easy for a couple of weeks; it does the adrenals some good. But most people will train harder prior to and during the holidays to compensate from the higher calorie intake, thus beating up the adrenals. My take would be to not see the winter season as a bulk up phase, but a chillax phase. Without considering reserving a permanent parking space at McDonald's, stick with the basics. This it might be the best time to try out some new food. 

1. Restore your immune system

For those of you who live in cold weather areas, flu season is a fact of life. Holidays are the perfect storm to share flu-causing microbes. On top of that, the constant eating most people do during holiday season impairs their digestive systems and increases the chance of catching a cold. The immune system is mainly built up in your gut. Great health is the reflection of a healthy gut.

The best immune system builder is a good probiotic. Instead of most common yogurt that is often full of sugar, I would go towards goat milk or Greek yogurt enriched with probiotics. Glutamine taken as a supplement will go a long way. One of the best tricks I use to beat the hell out of a cold is to take 5 grams every hour when I feel a cold coming along. Glutamine will repair the gut. When bacteria enters the gut, the incubation period could be up to five days until it grows strong and invades the rest of the body to cause dreaded flu symptoms. Repairing the gut in the process will bring the gut’s homeostasis back up to par and help beat the symptoms in half the time.