Many athletes believe that a change in body composition will improve speed, power, fitness and performance. Whereas some athletes are genetically made with a body composition that is suited for a specific sport, most athletes put a lot of work into trying to reach a body composition goal.
This leads me to the point of this blog post...athletic success requires work but how much work is too much work? Should athletes have to "work" on changing body composition on top of the training that is required to physically prepare for an event?
This is why I caution athletes to be careful how they go about body composition changes. The body should change naturally as a result of a solid foundation of eating, nutrient timing and proper use of sport nutrition products. It's also important to make sure your idea of how you think your body should look isn't based on the idealized image seen in media - one that emphasizes little to no body fat and extreme leanness and/or muscular definition. When athletes have a strong desire to change body image, extreme changes often result. As a reminder, restrictive eating alongside excessive exercise is counterproductive to the performance goals of becoming a stronger, fitter and faster athlete.
Consider the example of a triathlete who wants to become a strong and resilient to tolerate the training load for an upcoming Ironman. Building muscle while obtaining optimal body fat levels may help optimize fitness and race readiness. In order to build strong muscles, you need to optimize your muscle-building efforts (ex. strength training, cardio-based strength work). You do the "work" in the gym, but what happens next? To become stronger, your body requires enough calories so that your body can actually build muscle. For the athlete who is constantly worried about eating "too much," restrictive eating measures in attempt to lose body fat may actually prevent you from building lean muscle mass. In sport nutrition 101, one of the most important nutritional guidelines for building muscles is to eat enough calories and to time specific foods with your training. This isn't just about protein (more protein doesn't build more muscles) but the combination of protein and carbohydrates -in the appropriate amounts, timed well with your workouts.
By neglecting to eat "enough," the diet becomes limited in nutrients and energy. Consequently, a greater the loss of muscle occurs alongside a decrease in your resting metabolic rate. In other words, your body becomes sluggish and weak instead of energetic and strong. This is why it's highly advised not to make extreme changes in your diet, especially when you are training for an event.
Consequently, the strategies that most athletes take to change body composition are unsafe, extreme, health damaging and performance sabotaging. I find that most of the nutritional tips that athletes follow to try to change body composition are from uneducated or poorly trained nutrition "experts" with little to no background in sport nutrition or exercise physiology.
Food is your fuel. Your body can't perform at its best when its fuel stores are inadequate. Because a race-ready weight is more about how you perform than how you think you should look, consuming adequate calories is key to providing your body with the energy and nutrients that it needs to perform at its best, while maintaining optimal health on a consistent basis.