Nutrition for your Athletic Goals
Many people are concerned about consuming too many calories and, consequently, gaining body weight. However, having a weight-centric approach to health can often lead to shortchanging other important healthy habits, including your physical activity levels. Focusing on restricting overall caloric intake, rather than emphasizing a nutrient-dense, balanced diet, can ultimately limit exercise output.
Arguably, everyone should have individual exercise goals. Physical activity is a cornerstone of longevity and improved quality of life, and moving your body daily is a habit that helps to support the health goals that most people are interested in attaining, including a long, disease-free life. A dietary pattern that supplies adequate nutrition is what fuels athletic performance.
As your exercise output increases, your body’s nutrient demands also increase. Adequately fueling your body will allow you to push the bounds of your athletic performance and, consequently, improve your health. Underfueling will result in feeling strained during your workouts, being fatigued throughout the day, and increasing your likelihood of becoming sick or injured.
For individuals who are increasing their activity levels or who already sustain high levels of activity, achieving enough daily caloric intake can often be challenging. Relative Energy Deficit in Sports (RED-S) is a term used to describe the syndrome of declining athletic performance among athletes who do not consume enough fuel to meet their energy demands. As such, active individuals need to be intentional about eating enough nutrient-dense, balanced meals and snacks to support their needs.
Two of the most important nutrients for supporting physical activity are carbohydrates and protein.
Carbohydrates are the main fuel source for muscles and should be adequately supplied before and after exercise. Muscles store carbohydrates as fuel in the form of glycogen, which provides a sustained energy source during physical activity. A lack of carbohydrate intake will lead to under-fueled muscles that quickly become fatigued and strained during exercise. Dwindling glycogen stores results in reaching your lactate threshold quicker during exercise, which essentially is the burning sensation you feel in your muscles as they reach fatigue.
Protein is the main nutrient for rebuilding muscle after exercise, and dietary protein helps to stimulate muscle protein synthesis, which ultimately results in muscle hypertrophy with successive training. A lack of quality protein in the diet will limit muscle growth and, as a result, will limit athletic output. Additionally, underfueling in general will cause the body to break-down skeletal muscles as fuel, again putting a cap on performance.
So how much carbohydrate and protein should somebody sustaining high activity levels consume? In general, the Acceptable Macronutrient Distribution Ranges (AMDR) for athletes are as follows: 45 - 65% calories from carbohydrates, 10 - 35% calories from protein, and 20 - 35% calories from fat.
More specifically, athletes should aim to consume at least 5 -7 grams of carbohydrate per kilogram body weight per day, and 1.2 - 2.0 grams of protein per kilogram body weight per day.
As an example, an athlete who weighs 150 pounds (68 kilograms) should consume 340 - 475 grams of carbohydrate and 82 - 136 grams of protein per day. Broken-up into 3 meals, that equates to 113 - 158 grams of carbohydrate and 27 - 45 grams of protein per meal.
Here you can see how challenging it can be to accomplish that intake on a daily basis. This is where intentionality with nutrient-dense snacks or an additional meal can be important for physically active individuals. This is especially true in regard to protein, since the body can only use about 30 grams of protein per meal towards muscle protein synthesis. Distributing protein intake evenly throughout the day is imperative for maximum benefit.
Overall, striving towards a long, disease-free life means setting physical fitness goals at every life stage, and adequate nutrition is fundamental to fueling that exercise output. Instead of shortchanging your health by being weight-centric and restricting your calories, choose to focus on habits that promote physical fitness and a nutrient-dense, balanced eating pattern that provides a variety of quality carbohydrate and protein sources.
Working with a dietitian is a great way to learn how to build eating habits that support athletic performance and win with nutrition! If you are interested in working with me, schedule a FREE discovery call here.