Eating clean: The diet of a female weightlifter

AT FIVE feet tall, 48 kilograms and 29 years, Morghan King is an international competitive weightlifter who can “clean-and-jerk” more than double her body weight. Impressed? You should be.

AT FIVE feet tall, 48 kilograms and 29 years of age, Morghan King is an international competitive weightlifter.

Since getting into the sport in 2012, the Seattle, Washington native not only won her first ever competition, but has gone on to compete for Team USA at the World Championships twice. Her best “snatch” lift is 83 kilograms, and she can “clean-and-jerk” more than double her body weight. Impressed? You should be.

Morghan completing a clean-and-jerk.

In MUNCHIES’ latest episode of FUEL, King gave us a little insight into the kinds of foods that make a champion. Initially, in order to drop down to her competition weight of 48 kilograms, King went on a 1200 calorie diet for two-and-a-half weeks. Now, her diet is much more measured, with food consumed every two to three hours.

“People are starting to realise that diet really does impact your training,” she says.

“Our lifting sessions are two and a half hours and nine sessions a week. If you don’t eat relatively smart, you just feel so crappy, it really catches up to you.”

King’s breakfast consists of a big bowl of chicken, chicken and jalapeño sausage, sweet potatoes, capsicum, baby kale, spinach, eggs and salsa.

“It’s really important to know what’s in your food, and breakfast is a big deal for me. I love breakfast, I love cooking it, I would probably eat it every meal if I could.”

Breakfast.

During training, King has “a shake during practise and some sort of protein bar, something with fat and protein to keep you full for a while.

“My protein shake is just a More Muscle so it has BCAAs in it just as an extra to help you recover. I always take Progenex Force pre-workout, it also has creatine and a little bit of whey protein in it, just to help you sustain so your muscles don’t get as fatigued during training … We eat right after practise so this is just something in the middle to keep you full.”

As for the rest of the day, “keeping it simple is kind of my fuel,” says King. “Eating really clean, eating vegetables, eating meat and some sort of complex carbohydrate is easy. It takes the stress of eating out.

“I think [eating clean] is the easiest way for somebody to be successful in weightlifting. Nutrition is a huge deal and it hinders performance when you don’t eat properly. Just like in training, what you put in is what you get out. If you don’t take care of your body, it’s going to eventually break down.”

For more from the FUEL series and to see Morghan’s interview in full, head to the MUNCHIES website.