An optimal athlete diet is made of many inter-related parts that are constantly moving - all in an effort to support your training. In other words, every meal and snack that you consume during the day is an essential part of your training plan. Many athletes fail to construct the diet in a way that supports the demands of training and supports health. There’s no value in putting all your effort and energy into your training if you lack a solid foundation of nutritious eating. As the saying goes, you can’t out-exercise a poorly planned diet. Your diet is the foundation in which your body can function optimally in life and during your workouts.
Just like a training plan, your diet requires nutrition modifications throughout a training season. There will be many times throughout the year when you need to build from your “normal” style of eating. This increase in calories, carbohydrates and more energy-dense foods allows you to support the more rigorous times of training (higher volume and intensity). On the bottom level of your many different variations of eating, your diet should be designed in a way that reduces your risk for disease, supports a healthy functioning immune system, optimizes a healthy body composition (this shouldn't be confused with a "race weight") and provides a source of energy so you can perform daily activities. This is your foundational diet. The diet is made of primarily wholesome or real food to supply your body with a variety of vitamins and minerals, as well as carbs, protein and fat – all to support metabolic and hormonal processes and to keep the body in good health.
But this diet alone can not support your training demands - specifically when training volume and intensity increase. If you fail to adjust your diet in times of added training stress, your health will be compromised and you will perform below your athletic capabilities.
When your training volume/intensity increase, your diet should remain nourishing. The foundational diet should not change. But, there needs to be extra emphasis on what and when you eat (nutrient timing) and the addition of sport nutrition products. Although anyone can get by with subpar nutrition for a short term, overtime, if you fall short on your daily and sport nutrition requirements and you can sabotage your physical health and your psychological well-being – this is where the hormonal, endocrine and metabolic disruptions occur.
You must first build a solid foundation of eating for your "sport specific" diet to work for your body, health and performance.
To help you build a solid foundation of eating, it's important to determine your daily nutrition needs to support a low level of physical activity (~1/hr exercise a day, a few days per week). From there, you can add in additional calories, primarily in the form of carbohydrates and protein (these added calories will be prioritized around workouts to support the added training stress and fuel requirements. Often these foods are more energy dense - lower fiber/fat and packing more calories per bit - and are consumed in the 1-4 hours post longer or more intense workouts).
Build your foundational diet
1) Take your weight in lbs and divide by 2.2 to determine your weight in kilograms.
But this diet alone can not support your training demands - specifically when training volume and intensity increase. If you fail to adjust your diet in times of added training stress, your health will be compromised and you will perform below your athletic capabilities.
When your training volume/intensity increase, your diet should remain nourishing. The foundational diet should not change. But, there needs to be extra emphasis on what and when you eat (nutrient timing) and the addition of sport nutrition products. Although anyone can get by with subpar nutrition for a short term, overtime, if you fall short on your daily and sport nutrition requirements and you can sabotage your physical health and your psychological well-being – this is where the hormonal, endocrine and metabolic disruptions occur.
You must first build a solid foundation of eating for your "sport specific" diet to work for your body, health and performance.
To help you build a solid foundation of eating, it's important to determine your daily nutrition needs to support a low level of physical activity (~1/hr exercise a day, a few days per week). From there, you can add in additional calories, primarily in the form of carbohydrates and protein (these added calories will be prioritized around workouts to support the added training stress and fuel requirements. Often these foods are more energy dense - lower fiber/fat and packing more calories per bit - and are consumed in the 1-4 hours post longer or more intense workouts).
Build your foundational diet
1) Take your weight in lbs and divide by 2.2 to determine your weight in kilograms.
2) Take your weight in kilograms and multiply by 3 to determine your daily carbohydrate needs.
3) Take your weight in kilograms and multiply by 1.5 to determine your daily protein needs.
4) Take your weight in kilograms and multiply by 1 to determine your daily fat needs.
Example: 140 lb = 64 kg
Carb intake = 64 x 4 = 256g/d (or 1024 calories)
3) Take your weight in kilograms and multiply by 1.5 to determine your daily protein needs.
4) Take your weight in kilograms and multiply by 1 to determine your daily fat needs.
Example: 140 lb = 64 kg
Carb intake = 64 x 4 = 256g/d (or 1024 calories)
Protein intake = 64 x 1.5 = 96g/day (or 384 calories)
Fat intake = 64 x 1 = 64g/day (or 576 calories)
Total = ~2000 calories/day
This would be the minimum amount of calories (and carbs/pro/fat) to consume to support a low intensity workout regime of one-hour of exercise a day, a few times per week. This diet also applies to off days of training. If you exercise more than this, you will need to increase your carb needs to at least 4-5g/kg/day and increase protein needs to around 1.8g/kg/day.
Example: If you are working out for 2-3 hours a day, your carb needs will go from 256g to 384g (or 1536 calories). By focusing first on your foundational diet, you can do a better job of ensuring that you meet your daily nutritional needs when your training volume increases in volume and intensity.
Many athletes fall short on fueling the body properly on higher intensity and higher volume training days because of falling short on calories from the foundational diet.
Fat intake = 64 x 1 = 64g/day (or 576 calories)
Total = ~2000 calories/day
This would be the minimum amount of calories (and carbs/pro/fat) to consume to support a low intensity workout regime of one-hour of exercise a day, a few times per week. This diet also applies to off days of training. If you exercise more than this, you will need to increase your carb needs to at least 4-5g/kg/day and increase protein needs to around 1.8g/kg/day.
Example: If you are working out for 2-3 hours a day, your carb needs will go from 256g to 384g (or 1536 calories). By focusing first on your foundational diet, you can do a better job of ensuring that you meet your daily nutritional needs when your training volume increases in volume and intensity.
Many athletes fall short on fueling the body properly on higher intensity and higher volume training days because of falling short on calories from the foundational diet.
Build your foundation diet now to maintain a healthy and strong body in your more rigorous times of training.