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Nutrition Information by Paige Holm, R.D.
Five simple ways to improve your training diet today
Maybe you suspect that your training diet is not all that it should be. But there is so much sports nutrition information out there, you never know what to believe and sometimes it just seems easier to skip that breakfast, go with fast food, take that supplement, and forget about cooking. But a good training diet does not have to be hard. Follow two or three of the following tips, and feel confident that your diet will improve for the best!
#1: Keep a training diet diary.
I know of many athletes who keep a diary of their workouts, but I know of very few who keep a food diary. But the concept is the same. Writing things down brings an awareness about your current habits. This insight can be invaluable when trying to figure out why, for example, you didn?t perform so well in your last competition or why training lately has gotten a bit stale. It may not be such a mystery when you see that you have only been eating two meals a day for the past week! My advice is to keep a food diary at least one week out of each month. If necessary, you can bring your diary to a sports dietitian, coach, or trainer who may be able to spot potential problems.
#2: Eat more fruits and vegetables.
Oh, come on now, you knew that was coming! The nutrients found in fruits and veggies are essential to a solid training diet. Don?t make the mistake of thinking your daily multi-vitamin is as effective as eating whole foods, they are not. Whole fruits and veggies for example contain substances known as phytochemicals that appear to be beneficial to your health. Also, fruits and veggies contain carbohydrates, the preferred energy source of working muscles. Next time you reach for the vitamin C bottle, grab an orange instead and your body will thank you.
#3: Eat breakfast. (That is, if you don?t already)
It?s true what your mom said. Breakfast is the most important meal of the day and it?s name says it all. You are breaking the overnight fast where blood glucose and liver glycogen (storage form of glucose) have become low. Since your muscles rely on glucose during exercise, having glycogen "loaded" muscles before workouts and competitions will result in better performance. My favorite breakfast for athletes: 6 oz. fruit flavored yogurt, 1 cup grape nuts, and 3 sliced strawberries.
#4: Pack a lunch.
It may seem easier and cheaper to just grab a quick burger and fries for lunch, but packing a lunch a few times a week with foods bought at the grocery store ends up being cheaper. Do the math and see! And if you are busy during the lunch hour, you?ll find a sack lunch is much more convenient than having to run to a restaurant. A good sack lunch: tuna sandwich with lettuce and tomatoes, banana, and skim milk.
#5: Cook.
Easier said than done right? I don?t expect that most student-athletes will become Martha Stewart, cooking gourmet meals every night. But what I do recommend is to choose one recipe every week that sounds appealing. Make a trip to the grocery store for the ingredients, prepare the meal for you and a friend, and make a little extra for lunch the next day. You can follow tip #2 at the same time and be sure to include a vegetable in the meal. A great web site for easy recipes: www.mealsforyou.com.
Sound Nutritional Habits for Athletes
As you are likely aware, no one training diet works for all athletes (that would be too easy!) Effective sports diets are as varied as the athletes who consume them. There are, however, some common denominators to effective training diets that are worth mentioning:
BALANCE:
It is without a doubt important to get plenty of carbs in a training diet - but some athletes tend to go ?carb crazy?® and forget the importance of consuming high quality protein and fat. Without adequate protein our bodies cannot recover well from repeated intense workouts. And some fat is necessary for good health. Athletes should strive to get a balance of the macro nutrients (carbohydrate, protein, and fat) at each meal and snack.
HYDRATION:
The rigors of a training program can dehydrate you quicker than you can say ?desert?®. A good training diet always contains tons of fluids. (The recommendation from the folks at Gatorade is : 80 oz. per day baseline, 16 oz. prior to a workout, 4-8 oz. every 15 minutes during exercise, and 24 oz. soon after exercise.)
VARIETY:
One of the hardest things for most student-athletes to do is vary their diets. There is a tendency to get into a ?rut?® and eat the same things every day. The importance of variety is that each food has its own unique set of nutrients and by limiting variety, you are limiting your intake of important vitamins and minerals. Try at least one new (or neglected) food every week - your body will thank you for it!!
TIMING:
A good training diet provides the athlete with plenty of ?fuel?® prior to a workout or event an is timed so that a feeling of fullness or GI distress is prevented. Timing of meals and snacks is very individual and usually entails a lot of trail and error.
MODERATION:
This one sort of goes hand in hand with balance. Effective training diets usually do not contain large amounts of any one food, nutrient or supplement. By the same token, the occasional indulgence in ?sinful?® foods is allowed. (key word is occasional!!)
PERSONAL:
The best training diets are the ones that take into account the huge range of nutritional needs of athletes. We all have different sports, schedules, genetics, training programs, good likes and dislikes, supplement needs, cultural beliefs, ethics, sizes, body compositions, living situations, incomes,.....well, you get the idea. All these factors play a role in what your ?perfect?® training diet will consist of.
What should I eat on campus?
Most student athletes will tell you that eating on campus is totally incompatible with a sound training diet. Indeed it is a challenge to maintain a training diet in the midst of hot dog stands and fast food joints. Luckily, restaurants here at U of A have made some big improvements in the past several years, and you can find many nutritionally sound meals right here on campus. Following are some sample meals from some of the major restaurants here on campus that I consider to be nutritional winners.
First, keep in mind these general rules:
- anything fried is high in saturated fat and calories and low in nutrients.
- turkey, chicken, and roast beef on a sandwich are lower in fat than chicken and tuna salads which are typically prepared with mayonnaise.
- water and juices or sports drinks are better choices than soda for both nutrients and hydration.
- go easy on salad dressings and creamy sauces which are typically high in fat. Try the low fat salad dressings.
"A" Bagels
whole wheat bagel
3 oz. sliced turkey
1 slice swiss cheese
shredded lettuce
2 slices tomatoe
6 oz. frozen yogurt
1 bag Sun Chips
700 calories, 100 gm *CHO, 37 gm protein, 19 gm fat
other: good sources of fiber and calcium
substituting an apple for the yogurt and chips:
490 calories, 70 gm CHO, 28 gm protein, 11 gm fat, 6 gm fiber
note: the Veggie Wrap is also an excellent choice here
Louie's Lower Level
stir fry:
1.5 cups brown rice
mixed veggies (broccoli, carrots and onions used in this analysis)
3 oz. skinless chicken (cooked in oil)
670 calories, 82 gm CHO, 39 gm protein, 19 gm fat
other: good source of iron
note: substitute the chicken for beef or tofu or just have a veggie stir
fry. Ask for the veggies and meat to be fried in water to lower the fat
content.
McKale Snack Bar
peanutbutter and jelly sandwich (2 slices bread with 1.5 Tablespoon PB and
1.5 tablespoon jelly)
1 Yoplait yogurt, original
1 orange
590 calories, 97 gm CHO, 19 gm protein, 15 gm fat
other: good sources of fiber, calcium, and monounsaturated fat.
Fidlee Fig
salad bar:
1.5 cups romaine lettuce
3 cherry tomatoes
green peppers
cucumbers
1/4 cup garbanzo beans
1/4 cup cottage cheese
1.5 tablespoons low fat italian dressing
8 oz. skim milk
570 calories, 67 gm CHO, 36 gm protein, 18 gm fat
other: good sources of fiber and and calcium
McDonalds
breakfast:
hotcakes
6 oz. orange juice
1 teaspoon margarine
2 oz. syrup
540 calories, 111 gm CHO, 9 gm protein, 8 gm fat
lunch:
2 hamburgers
1 low fat milkshake
850 calories, 124 gm CHO, 36 gm protein, 23 gm fat
other: good sources of calcium and iron
note: fast food is not typically a good source of fiber
Other good chioces at McDonalds: oat bran muffin, grilled chicken sandwich
*CHO = carbohydrate
Unfortunately, the biggest barrier to eating healthy on campus is cost. The healthy stuff tends to be a bit more expensive. Here are a couple of ideas to help offset some of that added cost:
- try to balance cheap days with expensive days to break even at the end of the week
- bring your own snack and lunches to campus 2 or 3 times a week and pay a little extra for healthy meals the other days.
- buy the "main course" part of the meal on campus and bring your own snacks to fill out the meal. For example, buy a sandwich on campus and bring your own fruit and yogurt to go along with it.
CARBS, CARBS AND MORE CARBS
If you?ve heard it once you?ve heard it a millions times.......if you're an athlete, you need carbohydrates for optimal performance. Why is it so important to get plenty of carbs? Our muscles use carbohydrate in the form of glucose to make the molecule ATP. ATP is the molecule that allows your muscles to contract. Having enough of this molecule is essential for prolonged exercise as well as for short bursts of intensive exercise. When you ?hit the wall?®, your muscles have essentially run very low on glucose and are unable to produce ATP at an adequate rate, resulting in muscular fatigue. You need approximately 55-65% of your calories to come from carbohydrate in order to keep your glucose tank full. Why so much compared to fat and protein? Our bodies have a limited ability to store extra carbohydrates whereas we have relatively ample fat and protein storage ?tanks?®. How can you get enough carbohydrate? Pick up the handout Foods Highest in Carbohydrates?® and be sure to include plenty of these foods in your sports diet.
To Supplement or Not to Supplement:
THE ATHLETE?S DILEMMA
As a sports dietitian, I am frequently asked about nutritional supplements. Supplements and ergogenic aids are big businesses. According to Richard Lewis, Ph.D. director of the University of Georgia sports nutrition program, some schools spend upwards of $12,000 a year on supplements (mainly creatine). Athletes are a prime market for these products as they are always trying to improve performance. There is a growing body of research on many of these substances but in most cases, there is still not enough evidence to make solid recommendations to athletes.
With all the current research, we can make a few broad conclusions:
- For an athlete consuming adequate energy and a variety of foods, nutritional supplements does not appear to benefit performance.
- If an athlete?s diet is deficient in certain nutrients due to poor food choices a supplement such as a multivitamin can be beneficial, and
- Certain ?at risk?® groups of athletes can benefit from supplementation. These groups include athletes consuming inadequate energy for weight loss purposes, vegan or vegetarian athletes - especially those not consuming dairy products, and female athletes who are ammenorrheic (not having menstrual periods).
Before deciding to supplement your diet, make and effort to become informed about the product. Unlike most of our food and prescription drugs, the FDA does not currently regulate most nutritional supplements - which essentially means manufacturers can make any claim they want about a product without having to back it up with solid evidence. Seek out a nutrition professional such as a registered dietitian (RD) to help you evaluate the product.
More on Supplements
Because ergogenic aids are such a hot topic AND I just attended two presentations dealing with this subject this months nutrition articale will be on...you guessed it...ergogenic aids! I will describe in some detail the ergogenic aids which seem to actually work and I will simply list the ones that are not currently recommended.
It never hurts to remind ourselfs what "ergogenic aid" means. An ergogenic aid is defined as 'any substance, technique, or device, that is used to enhance sports performance.' They can be classified as nutritional (creatine, carbo loading), psycological (mental training), pharmacological (steriods), physiological (blood doping) and mechanical (aerodynamic
bike). The following ergogenic aids are ones which have a growing body of research behind them and appear to enhance performance with minimal side effects.
Carbohydrate loading:
This technique has been used for many years. It used to consist of an elaborate scheme of heavy exercise with a low carbohydrate intake followed by an exercise taper with tons of carbohydrate in the diet. Most research indicates that this technique, while effective, is probably not necessary to achieve full glycogen stores. As long as you can get enough carbohydrates in your training diet (not a problem for most athletes!) your muscles will replenish the glycogen sufficiently. How much carbs should you eat? The recommendations are 3.2-4.5 grams of carbohydrate per pound body weight per day. Note: try and consume about 50-100 grams of carbohydrate within two hours after a cometition or training session - this is when your muscles are especially good at synthesizing glycogen.
Creatine:
Research indicates that creatine is probably best at enhancing performance of short, repetitive, high intensity sports / events. It does this by increasing the synthesis of phosphocreatine in the muscle thereby increasing ATP synthesis. The typical dosage has been 20 -30 grams per day over 4-5 days and a maintenance dose of 5 grams a day after. There is new research, however, indicating that dosages based on body weight may be beneficial (for example .3 g/kg/day for 4-5 days then .03 gm/kg/day as maintenance). Side effects include weight gain of about 1-4 pounds, muscle cramps which usually subside with later consumption, and gastrointestinal distress. Long term side effects are not yet known (something to consider when contemplating usage). Because of the weight gain, creatine is not recommended for endurance athletes. Note: absorption of creatine may be enhanced when taken with a carbohydrate source and may decreased when taken with caffeine.
Sodium Biarbonate:
Like creatine, sodium bicarbonate only enhances performance in short, intense events. Sodium bicarbonate works by acting as a buffer to lactic acid which accumulates in the body with high intensity exercise. A study showing an increase in performance used 6 male middle distance runners. They took .3 gm/kg baking soda one hour before running an 800 meter time trial. Their times significantly decreased by about three seconds (the placebo group improved by one second). A significant side effect of sodium bicarbonate is GI distress. This is a user beware situation and this product should not be used during competition unless experimented with first in practice (actually, this goes for all ergogenic aids!)
HMB:
HMB (betahydroxymethylbutarate) is a breakdown product of the amino acid leucine. The research on this product is limited, but what we do have looks promising. HMB may enhance recovery by decreasing exercise induced muscle breakdown. Enhanced recovery can mean more effective training and an increase in lean body mass.
There are several ergogenic aids which are popular, but the research does not indicate that they are effective, and some can even have dangerous side effects and are therefore not recommended. These include the following:
- chromium picolinate
- carnitine
- ephedra
- pyruvate
- DHEA
Frequently Asked Nutrition Questions
and their Answers
Paige Holm, RD
Q: Is it bad to eat late at night?
A: It depends on your current eating habits. If you typically eat several healthy meals and snacks throughout the day, and still find yourself hungry later at night, go ahead and have a snack. Hunger is your body's way of telling you that your blood sugar is low and the food you consume will restore blood sugar and liver glycogen rather than being stored as body fat. If you typically don't eat all day and you are (of course) ravenous late at night, there is a good chance you will consume more calories than are needed by your body at that time. If you are a very lean athlete with "hollow leg syndrome" eating late at night is not a bad thing as long as you also make sure to get calories throughout the day to fuel your sports activities. For the rest of us, the drawback of consistent late night calorie surges is that over time, extra unwanted pounds can creep up. As with all your other meals and snacks, late night snacks should be of the healthy variety.
Q: How many calories do I need?
A: The number of calories your body requires on a daily basis depends on several factors. First, even if you were to lie in bed all day without moving, your body would require calories to do such things as breath and maintain a core body temperature. This is called your resting metabolic rate. When you do get out of bed and move around, your body requires additional calories for what is called the "activities of daily living". As an athlete, you need to also add on calories for your daily training. This can be considerable, particularly when your sport is in season.
While determining individual calorie needs is no easy task, nutritionists typically use equations based on research that do a fairly good job. See the information in italics below if you are interested in determining your own daily calorie needs.
Q: How can I lose a few pounds without sacrificing lean body mass?
A: Theoretically, in an individual with a healthy metabolism (i.e. someone who does not diet frequently), weight loss will occur when energy consumed is less than energy expended. This negative energy balance can be achieved by either eating fewer calories or expending more energy. Naturally, athletes already expend large amounts of energy in the form of exercise. For those athletes who consume enough energy to maintain their current body weight, decreasing intake by 200-300 calories per day should result in slow weight loss. I don't recommend losing more than 1-2 pounds per week because at high rates of weight loss, you risk loosing more of your lean body mass than you bargained for. This can only undermine your further attempts at weight loss not to mention negatively affect performance.
For more information or to determine your calorie needs, please see the handout entitled "How to Lose Weight and Maintain Energy" by Nancy Clark located outside of room 109B in McKale.
Nutrition for Competition
Whether you are a football player or a distance runner there is a critical time in the hours before, during, and after your event when your nutrition decisions can mean the difference between a great and not so great performance. As your game, meet, or event approaches you should be focused mainly on fluids and carbohydrates.
FLUID: Start hydrating at least 24 - 48 hours before your event. You may think you are losing most of it in your urine and that is true to a certain extent, but hydration is too important for top performance to be ignored. Choose non-caffeinated beverages like water, sports drinks, and natural juices. Caffeine can work against you because it stimulates urine production and may actually dehydrate you if you?re not careful.
As your event approaches keep these rules in mind:
Before: drink 16-24 ounces of fluid 2 hours before your event.
During: drink 4-8 ounces every 15-20 minutes during your event. In events lasting more that an hour make sure your beverage contains carbohydrate.
After: consume at least 24 ounces in the hour following the event. Then resume your normal consumption of fluids (80 -100 ounces a day minimum).
CARBOHYDRATES: Protein and fat are crucial in your daily training diet, but as important events draw near you may want to increase your carbohydrate consumption a bit. Your specific sport and the nature of your event will influence your decisions here. Discussing each type of event is beyond the scope of this article, but keep these general rules in mind:
Before: About 24-48 hours before your event, start increasing your carbohydrate intake. During this time you should focus on complex carbs such as wheat breads and pastas, brown rice, vegetables, bran cereals, etc. Complex carbs will steady your blood sugar so that it is not very high or low as you begin your event.
During: This is when simple carbohydrates such as those found in many energy bars and drinks are the best choice. These sugars will enter your bloodstream quickly and be an immediate fuel source for your muscles.
After: In the several hours after an event, your muscles are at least partially depleted of glycogen (storage form of glucose) and therefore highly receptive to synthesizing new glycogen. Your job is to consume enough carbohydrate so that your muscles can adequately recover. You should eat at least 100 grams of carbohydrate (400 calories) within one hour after your event. (You may also want to get in some quality protein at this time to further assist muscle recovery.) Two hours later, have another 50-100 grams of carbohydrate and continue eating plenty of carb - rich foods the rest of the day for full recovery.
Remember that good nutritional habits in the days before an event will not make up for poor eating habits in between. Rather you should consider competition nutrition as the icing on the cake. Another important note: never eat something in a competition that you haven?t already tried in training. You never know if your body will have a negative reaction to certain foods and you certainly don?t want to find out the day of your event!
Please see the handouts outside of room 109B by Nancy Clark, RD, "Recovery after hard exercise" and "The pre-competition meal" for more information.
Nutrition Websites You Can Use!!
Was one of your New Year?s resolutions to improve your training diet? If so the internet can be a great resource....that is if you know what to look for. People are getting online for just about everything, and believe me - there is no shortage of nutrition information on the web! Just typing in "nutrition" into any search engine is bound to provide you with a plethora of pages to be sifted through. But when it comes to the internet, anything goes - and faulty or bogus nutrition information is as common, if not more so, than sound nutrition advice. So below are a few web pages I've come across that have concise, sound and helpful sports nutrition information. I also threw in a page with tons of great recipes so next time you ask "what should I have for dinner?" you'll know where to look!
www.dietsite.com
Did you eat enough protein yesterday? Along with great sports nutrition information, this site has a built in diet analysis program that will analyze a whole day, one meal, or a single food item. You can also become a member of this site for free and keep a diet diary to monitor changes and improvements in your diet.
www.runnersworld.com/nutrition
Don't let the name scare you off - this site is not just for runners! Every month in Runner's World magazine, Liz Applegate, a well known sports nutritionist, writes fantastic nutrition articles about everything from sports drinks to supplements to pre-event nutrition. The information is easy to understand and very helpful to athletes of all types.
www.sportsci.org
Once you get on this site, click on "CompEat". There you will find some interesting sports nutrition articles by Louise Burke, another well known sports nutritionist who works with Olympic level athletes. These articles are slightly more advanced than the Runner's World articles, but helpful nonetheless. Especially helpful are the articles about carbohydrate and performance - check them out and see what you think.
www.gssiweb.com
This is the official Gatorade Sports Science page and it is geared toward nutrition and health professionals. Still, if you feel you have the nutrition basics down pat and are looking for more in depth information, this is a great place to go.
www.MealsForYou.com
Who needs cookbooks when there are web pages like this! Type in a specific recipe, a specific ingredient or a specific amount of carbohydrates you want to consume in your next meal...there are hundreds of great recipes ready to go. And the nutrition information is right there along side each recipe so you can tell the healthy from the not so healthy fairly easily.
This should give you a good place to start! If you get sidetracked (which is so very easy to do when surfing) just remember, there is a lot of bad nutrition information on the internet. Be wary of sites that look scientific and professional, but are actually trying to sell you something. If you come across a page you are not sure about just email me at plh@u.arizona.edu. I'll check out the site and let you know what I think! Happy New Year! - Paige Holm, R.D.
Fluid schedules
One of the most challenging problems for you as a student-athlete is what to eat to stay at your peak, mentally, and physically. Knowing how to do it on a budget and without the support you'd get at home; planning, shopping, and cooking can be difficult. That's why I'm here to help.
No, I won't be cooking for you, but I will be working in the weight room to help Coach Wirth and the other trainers with your nutrition needs and questions. I'll have handouts to help you figure out what and where to eat around campus, and grocery lists to help you make/pack your own. In addition, I'll be available to meet with you individually, or for quick questions during your workout. In the meantime, there are some basics you can consider to get you started. While no one diet meets every athletes' needs, there are a few "fundamentals" that apply to all effective training diets. One of the most important fundamentals is drinking fluids to maintain hydration.
DRINK FLUIDS
You've heard it from coaches and trainers a thousand times - "don't get dehydrated," "drink plenty of fluids." Athletic Trainer, Matt Radelet, repeatedly counsels, "Put more in your mouth than on your head - and swallow it!"
Dehydration is the number one performance minimizer, both mentally and physically. Just 1-2% decrease in body water (as little as 1.5 pounds for a 150 pound athlete) can dramatically effect strength, endurance, and judgement in your sport. And now you're training and competing in the desert - requiring extra concern about dehydration. Sports drinks can really help, especially during workouts over 1 hour long. Soda, however, is not a good choice. You'll feel full faster and drink less in the long run. So, have a FLUID SCHEDULE:
- Drink a minimum of 10 - 12 cups of fluids throughout each day as your base.
- Before training or competition, drink at least 16 oz.
- During training and competition, drink at least 4 - 8 oz. every 15 -20 minutes.
- After training and competition: drink 2 cups for every pound of weight lost, or at least 24 oz.
Good nutrition can give you the edge you need for top performance in a busy life with lots of demands. I look forward to helping you make the most out of your food choices to be your best as a student and an athlete at the University of Arizona. Please introduce yourself to me when you are in the weight room. Gale Welter, R.D., C.S.C.S.
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