I would like to identify for you some of the most important elements regarding sports nutrition that I have found essential over my career as an athlete, trainer and coach. In my personal and professional experience it is quite clear that you will undoubtedly perform at a MUCH lower level than you are capable of; and putting yourself at a competitive disadvantage to those with whom you are performing against or competing with, if you are not properly fueled.  Your body is like a computer in this sense: What you put in, is what you get out.  Here is what I will cover using a brief bullet point style of writing so you get the most out of this article. If you require more detail please feel free to reach out to me to set up an appointment to chat.  Topics are:

•Meal Quality

•Meal Quantity

•Meal Frequency & Timing

•What does it all mean?

Meal Quality

•Avoid convenience foods such as fast carbs that come in a box or bag

•Eat balanced meals containing carbs, protein, and fat

•Fresh is better than processed any day of the week

•Alcohol consumed within 12 hours of a competition will negatively affect athletic performance.  Friday night happy hour will affect your Saturday morning activities! 

•Drink your water.  Or coffee, or tea, or other water based fluid.  Hydration is hydration.  Caffeine induced diuretic effect has been disproved for everyone that regularly consumes caffeine.  The diuretic effect is only valid when you don’t regularly consume caffeine.  Like a new coffee drinker. 

Meal Quantity

•Keep meal sizes relatively even in size throughout the day for the best blood sugar regulation.  How large a quantity depends on many factors including: Height, weight, age, sex, activity level, injury status, chronic illness, stress, lack of sleep and more!  A custom nutrition analysis can reveal a “magic number” for you.  I can provide that one on one if you need it.

•Even sized meals keep energy levels, your blood sugar, even through the day.  Slightly larger meals are fine during the course of  “standard” day-to-day living that revolves around socially important bonding meals.  I am talking about family gatherings that include breakfast, lunch, and or dinner.  The larger these meals, the smaller the mid meal snacks should be.  In a perfect world, even energy distribution is best.

•Do you know how much you really are eating?  Next time you go to eat what you consider a normal portion go ahead and prepare it.  Now before consuming it, backwards measure out the food.  See how much you are REALLY eating.  Then read the label and you might be shocked at what you find.  Did you have just 1 serving of what you are making?  Old guidelines such as don’t eat anything bigger than your hand are useful to be aware of your food intake.  However, taking measurements are an exact tool and can produce much better results.

Meal Frequency

•For best sports performance it is important to attempt to evenly distribute your energy throughout the day.  6 evenly sized meals is an ideal.  Realistically getting 3 meals and 3 snacks is probably more in line with day-to-day living.  That is unless you can commit to a lifestyle change during your most competitive seasons.  Summer sport athletes can be more lax in the winter and vice versa.

•Eating 60 to 30 minutes before activity is best.  As long as you are not eating a massive portion you should be able to clear your stomach within 45 minutes of any food intake.  Then you will be properly fueled for your activity.  If your are embarking on a long road race or ride you may want to eat much earlier to make sure you don’t create an unplanned potty break.  Not fun at all.  So plan ahead.

•Eating a lean protein source within 30 minutes after intense activity will ensure your muscles get replenished so you can recover and grow.  This 30 minute window is a critical time in which your muscles are most open to absorption of nutrients.  Some experts believe the window is even shorter. Make it 30 minutes and you are ahead of most people.

•If your goal is to improve muscular strength and development then it is important to have ANOTHER meal within 60 minutes of the first protein source post exercise.  This meal should ideally consist of lean protein, unrefined carbs and some fats as well.  That means that within 90 minutes you should have a pure protein source, and then a protein-carb blend meal.  Fat in this meal is fine too.

What does it all mean to you?

Let’s see if I can give you more of a reason to eat right around your training and sports.  If you are fueling your body properly around your exercise you need to understand what it does regarding weight loss (if that is a goal).  Eating these meals reduces your available daily calorie total available to you to consume during the remainder of the day. Do the math:  A meal prior to exercise, a protein source such as a protein shake right after exercise, and another meal within 60 minutes of that.  Subtract these calories you need to fuel your body right, and what you get to eat the rest of the day is reduced considerably.  If you are attempting to lose weight this is a critical point to understand.  You may think, “ I just worked out, I need those calories”; and it’s true.  But the fact that most people don’t understand, when it comes to weight loss, is that you just consumed a fair portion of your daily total of calories within 2-3 hours of the day.  This is necessary.  But because you worked out these are not free calories you don’t count!  The remainder of the day you now have to manage what’s left of caloric budget so to speak.

THIS IS WHY THE VAST MAJORITY OF PEOPLE WHO EXERCISE NEVER LOSE WEIGHT: EVEN IF THEY TRAIN HARD AND EAT CLEAN! 

But you can’t manage a budget you don’t understand.  And simply eating the right types of foods doesn’t mean that you are eating the right quantity of foods to maintain your energy balance or create an energy deficient.  That is why knowing how much you need to eat in a given day is critical to weight loss or reduction of body fat.  Think about it:  If results were based solely on the training and the hard work you do, then why are you not the most fit you have ever been?  What kills me personally is to see so many people working out so hard and not managing the most critical portion of the process; nutrition.  I can help you figure out your caloric demands.  If you want to know your personal “magic number”, then reach out to me and set up a time to meet.  We can change how you approach your food, training and manage your mistakes along the way.  Knowledge is power:  get smarter about how you eat & train to improve your performance.  Learn how to let your hard work show. 

The Bod Coach has presented to and currently has time slots available to speak with high school athletics programs throughout Connecticut regarding these and other sports nutrition topics.  Contact Karl to discuss getting your student athlete the most recent sports nutrition info available today.