7-Day Sports Nutrition Diet Plan for Indian Athletes

Most Indian gym-goers make the same mistake: they buy a protein supplement on day one, before sorting out their actual food. The supplement is 10% of the equation. What you eat for breakfast, lunch, and dinner — the timing, the composition, the total protein across the day — is the other 90%. This plan fixes the foundation first.

Indian food is actually excellent for sports nutrition when used correctly. Sattu is one of the best natural pre-workout foods in the world — 25g protein per 100g, complex carbohydrates, iron, and it costs 40 rupees. Rajma and rice is a complete amino acid profile. Curd is a slow-digesting casein protein, ideal before sleep. Banana + black coffee is a proven pre-workout combination backed by research. None of this requires a supplement store.

The plan is structured for an active male at approximately 70 kg training 5 days per week, targeting 1.8g protein per kg body weight (~126g protein/day) at around 2,400 calories. The principles — protein at every meal, carb timing around training, post-workout nutrition within 45 minutes — apply and can be scaled to any body weight or training frequency.

Most sports nutrition content online is written for Western diets with chicken breast, sweet potato, and protein shakes as the food vocabulary. This plan is built entirely around foods available at a standard Indian kirana and vegetable shop. The pre-workout, post-workout, and inter-meal nutrition is timed around a standard morning training session but the notes include how to shift timings for evening trainers.

The plan also addresses carb periodisation in a practical way — more carbohydrates on training days (rice, roti, banana) and slightly reduced on rest days — without the obsessive macro-counting that makes nutrition unsustainable. The goal is building habits that work for the next 5 years, not the next 5 days. Special attention is given to vegetarian protein stacking for those who don't eat meat, because building 130g+ of protein from Indian vegetarian food is absolutely possible but requires deliberate planning.

This plan is for gym-goers, recreational athletes, football and cricket players, runners, and anyone who trains regularly and wants their diet to match their effort. It works whether you train in the morning or evening — the timing notes explain how to shift meals. It's particularly useful if you've been training for 6+ months but not seeing the muscle or strength gains you expect, because in most cases the problem is protein distribution and post-workout nutrition, not training volume.

It's also for people who want to move away from expensive supplements and build a food-first approach. Whey protein is fine as a convenient supplement but should not be the primary protein source when sattu, eggs, paneer, rajma, and curd are available at a fraction of the price. The plan shows you exactly how to hit your protein targets with real food — and where a supplement actually adds value versus where it's just expensive convenience.