In the first article in this series, Foundational Nutrition, we gave a deep dive into the science of nutrition to help provide a better understanding of the varying roles of the foods you eat. In this second article, let’s take a deeper dive into what this all means for you as an athlete and into some practical ways to apply this knowledge to promote athletic performance and recovery while also supporting your overall health.
The Athlete’s Nutrition Pyramid, shown above, is a helpful visual to understand nutritional priorities as an athlete. Nutritional components lower on the pyramid are truly foundational and therefore require more of your effort and attention, while those at the top are less important and should be prioritized accordingly. From bottom to top, the pyramid includes: adequate energy intake, nutrient timing, meal composition, and supplements.
Many athletes want to jump directly to the top of the pyramid, skipping the foundational components lower down, thinking that supplements will provide a “hack” or a quick fix. Be warned that this is not a sustainable approach. Regardless of your athletic goals, if you hope to participate in sport for a number of years, you must master the basics at the bottom of the pyramid.
Let’s go over each category to better understand why it matters in the context of sport and to learn some practical tips.
ADEQUATE ENERGY INTAKE
Simply put, as far as nutrition is concerned, the most important thing that you can do as an athlete is to ensure that you are eating enough.
As previously described, all macronutrients provide energy that your body needs to undergo every single process that keeps you alive and human, from blinking your eyes to expanding your lungs to pushing blood through your veins. Add training for a sport to the mix, and your body now needs quite a lot of additional energy. If you fail to meet those energy needs through food, not only will your training suffer, but your body will begin to slow or shut down critical processes, such as heart rate and thermogenesis (the process by which your body produces heat).
Specifically, consequences of inadequate fueling include:
- Increased risk of injury
- Hormone imbalances, resulting in menstrual and sexual dysfunction
- Decreased immune system function
- Poor performance and recovery
- Decreased metabolism
Furthermore, inadequate energy intake can contribute to Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport (REDs), a recently introduced clinically diagnosed syndrome “of impaired physiological and/or psychological functioning experienced by female and male athletes that is caused by exposure to problematic (prolonged and/or severe) low energy availability”. Clinically, REDs can present as impairments to bone health, metabolism, gastrointestinal function, cardiovascular function, sleep, mental health and cognition, and immunity – all resulting from not eating enough relative to exercise levels.
If you notice any changes in any of these factors, it may be a sign that you are not eating enough and is worth checking in with a Registered Dietitian or a physician who is well-versed in REDs.
A note on weight loss: There may be times when managing body weight is important or necessary. Weight loss requires eating fewer calories than those utilized to support daily bodily functions and exercise. It is important to carefully consider the necessity of losing weight to meet your athletic goals and to only pursue weight loss – at a slow and sustainable rate – during the off season in order to minimize impact on training and risk of injury.
NUTRIENT TIMING
The next level of the pyramid is nutrient timing. This consists of two components: fueling regularly throughout the day, and fueling around training sessions.
Eating consistently throughout the day
As you learned previously, calories are a form of energy. Eating consistently provides an almost constant stream of energy to fuel your day-to-day activities, whether you’re at work, playing with your kids, or training.
Research on “within-day” energy deficiency indicates that going for long periods without eating can result in decreased metabolism and hormonal dysfunction – even if the total amount of calories consumed is adequate.
So, what does it mean to fuel “consistently”? We recommend not going more than 3-5 hours while awake without eating a meal or snack containing both carbs and protein.
Why do carbs matter?
Carbs are your muscles’ preferred source of fuel. While all macronutrients provide calories, a meal of fat does not fuel athletic performance in the same way as a meal that includes carbs. If you’ve ever gone for a run after eating bacon and eggs for breakfast, you’ve experienced this. Research shows that athletes who don’t eat enough carbs, even if they are eating enough total calories, may have worse bone health, immunity, and athletic performance than those who do.
Why does protein matter?
Protein plays many roles in the body, but from a training perspective, perhaps the most important is building muscle. Eating protein consistently throughout the day maximizes the amount of time the body is in an anabolic state – in other words, when the right mix of hormones and protein availability encourages the body to build muscle. Protein is also digested more slowly than carbs are, so pairing a protein with a carb is helpful in preventing blood sugar spikes and crashes. The blood sugar roller coaster is not only physically unpleasant, but also detrimental to health.
Finally, as athletes, particularly during a hard training block, energy and nutrient needs are significantly higher than those of the general public. Eating every 3-5 hours may be the most practical way to meet these needs while avoiding feeling overfull and sluggish – which could result from trying to squeeze all of your nutrition into just two or three meals per day.
Eating before/during/after a training session
This component of nutrient timing is what many people think of when they think of sports nutrition. Indeed, if day-to-day nutrition is like base building, nutrient timing is like peak training – you need to develop a solid base, but the long runs and speed workouts are where a lot of the magic happens.
Similarly, you need to dial in your foundational nutrition, but the timing of your nutrient intake relative to training or competition can ultimately mean the difference between a PR and a DNF.
Fueling before a session
The primary objective of fueling before a workout is to top off your fuel tank and provide your muscles with a quick source of energy for training. This means that the focus of this meal or snack should be on carbohydrate – and, indeed, the less time you have to eat prior to a training session, the higher the proportion of carbohydrate should be.
For example, if you are eating two hours before a long run, you may choose to eat two slices of toast with peanut butter and a banana. If you only have 30 minutes before your run, a banana is a smarter option. The banana will provide quick-acting carbohydrate to your muscles, while pairing it with peanut butter may cause gastrointestinal issues and in addition would slow digestion – delaying the availability of energy to your muscles.
Fueling during a session
The body is only able to store a certain amount of carbohydrate – typically enough to power about 90 minutes of exercise. This means that if you plan on exercising beyond this point, you must eat carbs to continue providing your muscles with a source of energy.
Consequences of skipping intra-workout fuel are high and include:
- Bonking: Hitting the wall occurs when your glycogen stores are depleted and your blood sugar plummets
- Muscle breakdown: Without adequate carbs, your body will start to break down muscle proteins to form new carbohydrate for energy (gluconeogenesis). This is not a good thing for recovery and should be avoided whenever possible.
- Performance decline
Fueling after a session
After training, nutrition serves a different purpose: recovery. You have probably heard the advice to drink a protein shake after a workout to help repair your muscles. But carbs also play an important role in your post-workout recovery!
Firstly, you’ll need to replenish your muscles’ glycogen stores that you’ve used up during training. You can think of this as refilling your gas tank. Secondly, insulin, a hormone released in response to eating carbs, serves as the key that opens up your muscle cells to let in protein. Without carbs, the protein from your shake can’t do the hard work of repairing your muscles. Again, the best after-training snack or meal includes both carbs and protein.
MEAL COMPOSITION
Eating enough is of utmost importance and each of the three macronutrients provides our bodies with something different – and as such, it is important to eat them in the proper proportions to optimize both health and performance. Like most things with nutrition, individual needs vary, but you can use the information gleaned from the Performance Plates shown below as a starting point.
Shown below, the Performance Plates were adapted from the United States Olympic Committee’s Athlete’s Plate and provide a guideline for day-to-day meal composition on easy, moderate, and hard training days.
Easy training day: rest day, short (less than 30-minute) recovery workout
Moderate training day: workout lasting about 60-90 minutes
Hard training day: workout lasting at least two hours, doubles or “brick” workouts
During a training cycle, even on rest days, it is wise to follow the moderate plate to maximize recovery and preparation for subsequent training sessions.
Each color on the plate represents a different food group. The relative proportions of each food group are shown across easy, moderate, and hard training days. As training length and intensity increase, notice that the proportion of carbs on the plate increases while the proportion of fruits and vegetables decreases and the proportion of protein remains steady. The need for extra carbs may seem obvious: the longer the training session, the more carbs needed to provide energy.
But why do the extra carbs come at the cost of fruits and veggies? There are two primary reasons for this. First, by filling up on fiber-packed salad, you may not be hungry enough to get in all the carbs you need. Second, excess fiber in fruits and veggies can cause unwanted gastrointestinal distress, especially in sports like running where the stomach and intestines are jostled around.
What about the third macronutrient? You may have noticed that fat is not included on any of the plates. This doesn’t mean that athletes don’t need to eat fat! In fact, it’s the opposite, as fats provide essential nutrients for our bodies. The reason fat is not included on the plates is simple: fat often provides flavor on our plates or is a part of other food groups that we are eating. For example, a salmon filet would fall into the protein section of the plate – but salmon is also a great source of omega-3 fatty acids. Fat also shows up in the things that we use to flavor and prepare our food, whether it’s salad dressing, a sprinkle of cheese, roasted pumpkin seeds, or cooking oil.
Above all else, it is important to listen to your body. You may find that as you approach peak training week, your body craves more carbs than what is shown on the plate. Learning to listen to the needs of your body is a key strategy in being able to provide it with the nutrition that it needs to perform well and feel great.
SUPPLEMENTS
Many athletes turn to supplements after hearing about them from friends or on social media as a “hack” or quick fix, but the reality couldn’t be further from the truth. Indeed, supplements are found at the very top of the Athlete’s Nutrition Pyramid because they are meant to supplement an already sound diet – not replace or make up for an inadequate diet. Over-reliance on supplements is unsustainable, not as effective as eating optimally, and expensive.
There is a time and a place for supplements. For example, most vegans will need to supplement vitamin B12 since it is not found naturally in any plant foods.
Before adding a new supplement to your dietary regimen, ask yourself the following questions:
- Do I need it?
Does the supplement provide something that I can get from food, sleep, or by moderating my training routine? Is the intended outcome of the supplement something that is actually beneficial for me? - Is it effective?
Does the supplement actually do what it is supposed to do? Has the supplement been studied scientifically in active human beings to demonstrate its effectiveness? Often, the answer to these questions is no. - Is it safe?
In the United States, the supplement industry is not regulated in the same way as food and medications. As a result, manufacturers don’t have to be completely honest with what they list on the Supplement Facts label. Cross-contamination with heavy metals and other substances banned in competition is a concern with many supplements – and manufacturers have little incentive to disclose this information.
Furthermore, many vitamins and minerals should not be blindly supplemented, as taking too much of some of these nutrients can cause negative side effects and toxicity. - Does this supplement fit my budget?
There is no denying that many supplements are quite expensive. In some cases, a supplement may be worth the extra cost, but if it isn’t effective and isn’t providing something that you actually need, is it really a good use of your money?
HYDRATION
A discussion of nutrition basics would not be complete without touching on hydration.
Hydration involves replacing fluids and electrolytes lost through sweat, breath, urine, and feces. Hydration is highly individualized and it may take some trial and error – and possibly some testing – to dial in a solid hydration strategy for training and competition.
The best indicator of hydration status is the color of your urine. A lemonade color indicates optimal hydration, an apple juice color indicates slight dehydration, and a darker color may indicate the need to seek medical help.
A good starting point for your day-to-day hydration is to take your body weight in pounds, divide that number by two, and drink that many ounces of fluid throughout the day.
Hydration while training likely involves looking at two primary factors:
- Sweat rate: Usually expressed as the number of liters per hour, this is the volume of sweat you lose per hour during exercise.
- Sweat sodium concentration: Often expressed as milligrams per liter, this is the concentration of sodium (salt) in your sweat. In other words, it tells you how salty of a sweater you are.
The best way to determine your individual sweat composition and hydration needs is to take a sweat test. However, while sweat sodium concentration is largely determined by genetics, both it and sweat rate may change based on weather, training, and heat adaptation – so both of these metrics may change over the course of a training cycle. This is an important consideration when choosing the right sweat test for you – or whether or not a sweat test is even necessary.
Here are some general guidelines for hydration during your training sessions, competitions, and expeditions:
- For a training session that lasts under 90 minutes, unless it is unseasonably hot or you are an abnormally salty sweater, it should be fine to hydrate using water alone.
- If you will be out for longer, it’s a good idea to incorporate salty snacks (like pretzels or jerky) or use an electrolyte supplement in your water.
- Don’t forget to hydrate during winter sports. Even if you aren’t sweating, you are still losing fluids through your breath.
- At high altitudes, fluid loss through breath increases, so your hydration needs will also increase.
CONCLUSION
Now that you have learned a little more about how to apply some foundational nutrition strategies, this is a great opportunity to review your current choices and determine whether there is something different you can try to better support your training and overall health. Once you have given that a try, you’ll want to check out the third article in this series (coming soon) to learn about common nutrition mistakes and possible solutions.
Reviewed by Chantelle Robitaille, MSc.