Eat to Maximize the Benefits
of Your Training
When you’re competing, the margin between
winning and losing is often very small. Paying attention to
detail when you train, like monitoring what you’re eating
and drinking, can be that margin of difference. Athletes often
know to pay attention to their diet on an event day and during
an event itself. But what’s often not appreciated is that
the right balance of calories, carbohydrates, protein, and fat,
and the proper timing of intake in relation to exercise, can
help maximize the benefits of training, day in and day out.
It also reduces your risk of exercise-related illness and injury.
If you make the right nutrition choices to support your training,
you allow your body to fully adapt to the hard work you’re
putting in. Ignore nutrition, and you run the risk of not maximizing
the full potential of your training and of having your performance
suffer.
Training requires energy. That energy comes from calories in
the food you eat. If the calories you burn match what you are
expending every day, you’re able to train and compete
at your best. Consume too many calories, and your body fat starts
to creep up, which can slow you down and hamper your performance.
Too few calories can also lead to a fall-off in your performance
and can increase your risk of injury and illness. Some sports
require so much energy and so many hours of training that getting
in enough calories can be challenging. In these cases, snacks
and small frequent meals, especially between workouts, are necessary.
To assess the adequacy of your caloric intake, track your body
weight periodically — about every two weeks. It’s
not a perfect system, because your weight will fluctuate, but
if you see a sustained dip or jump in your weight over a month
or two, adjust your caloric intake up or down accordingly.
There is no simple formula to pinpoint how many calories you
need each day. In fact, your needs will vary based on the intensity
and duration of your training, competitions, and other activities.
If training sessions are frequent, long and hard, your caloric
needs are going to be high. However, during periods of low activity,
during the off season or if you’re injured, cut back on
caloric intake by decreasing the quantity of food that you consume.
When it comes to calories, the key message is to adjust calories
going in when you’re changing the number of calories going
out.
If you are strength training to build larger muscle mass, muscle
gain will be limited if you fail to consume enough calories
to meet your energy needs. Dieting to lose weight, while trying
to add muscle, is not an effective strategy. If adding muscle
is your goal, your strength training program may require that
you supplement your typical food intake with an additional 500
calories daily.
Carbohydrates found in foods like fruits, vegetables, breads,
cereals, pastas and potatoes are the most important muscle fuel
for endurance sports. The stores of carbs in your body —
glucose in your bloodstream and glycogen in your muscles and
liver — are in short supply and constantly need to be
replenished. What you eat and drink each day must provide enough
carbohydrates to fuel your training and optimize the recovery
of muscle glycogen stores between workouts:
- For light training days (moderate duration and low intensity),
consume about 2.3 to 3.2 grams of carbs per pound (5 to 7 grams
per kg) body weight. For a 150 pound (68 kg) athlete, that’s
345 to 480 grams of carbs daily.
- On heavy training days, consume 3.2 to 4.5 grams of carbs
per pound (7 to 10 grams per kg) body weight, or 480 to 675
grams of carbs daily for a 150 pound athlete.
- For light-to-moderate workouts, a high-carb diet will usually
reload your muscle glycogen stores within about 24 hours. To
start the recovery process, consume 0.5 grams of carbs per pound
(1.1 grams per kg) body weight within 30 minutes after exercise.
For a 150 pound (68 kg) athlete, that’s about 75 grams
of carbs within a half hour after exercise.
- If you are engaged in heavy training, including two-a-day
workouts, or where you are working out again within 12 hours,
you’ll need rapid recovery. To speed recovery between
workouts, consume 0.5 grams of carbs per pound (1.1 grams per
kg) body weight within 30 minutes after exercise, and then repeat
that every hour for 3 hours or until you resume meals. For a
150 pound (68 kg) athlete, that’s about 75 grams of carbs
within a half hour after exercise, and another 75 grams every
hour for up to 3 hours or until you start eating regular high-carb
meals.
Protein is the next order of business. Good sources of protein
include fish, chicken, lean cuts of beef or pork, eggs, low-fat
or nonfat dairy foods (cheese, yogurt, cottage cheese), beans,
and nuts. The fact is, most athletes get plenty of protein provided
that their caloric intake is sufficient. So forgo the obsession
to consume more protein. Instead, focus on timing your protein
intake in relation to your workouts:
- If your training is mostly aerobic or for endurance, consume
10 to 20 grams of protein as soon as possible after you finish.
This protein will provide the amino acid building blocks needed
to promote muscle tissue repair and building in response to
your training.
- For resistance training workouts, consume 10 to 20 grams of
protein just before and just after working out, to help with
the repair and building of lean tissue.
Keep in mind that reloading muscle glycogen stores and building
and repairing muscle in response to your training doesn’t
begin in earnest until you provide the necessary nutrients.
So, don’t delay in providing the carbs and protein. Keep
carb- and protein-rich snacks on hand to eat right before and
right after training, to start the refueling and recovery process.
Fats are another important energy source for muscles. In fact,
they are the primary fuel your muscles rely on when you are
resting and during low-intensity exercise. Sports nutritionists
are less concerned about replacing the fat you burn during exercise
because fat stores in the body are plentiful. On your best day,
you may have up to 2,000 calories worth of stored carbs in the
form of glycogen and glucose — but you have more than
80,000 calories worth in the form of fat! So, running out of
fat stores is not a worry. In practice, make sure you meet your
carb and protein needs each day. The remaining calories can
be provided by fats, with the healthiest sources being the heart-healthy
omega-3 fatty acids in certain fish like salmon; plant sources
such as nuts, seeds, grains and avocados; and vegetable oils
like olive and canola.
In summary, adequate calories; the right balance
of carbs, protein, and fat; and timing of carb and protein intake
in relation to exercise can help you stay healthy and injury-free,
and maximize the benefits of your training.
|
