Ensuring that you are meeting your energy needs is an important part of your sports performance nutrition strategy. Regardless of age, if an athlete’s diet does not provide enough energy to support their requirements for health, daily living, growth (if you are a child or teen), in addition to your training, your sports performance can suffer.
If you are not eating enough, you may experience:
- Decreased muscle strength and endurance
- Decreased coordination
- Reduced glycogen stores
- Decreased training response
- Impaired judgement
- Decreased concentration
- Irritability and Depression
- Increased injury risk
As the intensity and duration of your training increases, your body expends more energy and you deplete your energy stores. Your body stores energy as both fat and carbohydrate. Fat is stored primarily as body fat. Carbohydrate is stored as glycogen in the muscles and liver and as blood glucose in the blood.
During training you can become fatigued for numerous reasons. One reason can be depleted carbohydrate stores.The more intense or longer the exercise, the more carbohydrate stores are being used up. Unlike fat, the body can only store a limited amount glycogen so it needs to be replaced. By making slight adjustments to your meals, you can help to ensure you are well fueled going into training and you are replacing these carbohydrate stores to get the most out of your next training session.
When you exercise, your body will use a combination of both fat and carbohydrate, however certain energy sources are preferred by the body depending on the exercise intensity. During prolonged exercise at lower intensities, fat stores provide more energy To provide energy at higher exercise intensities, your body relies more on carbohydrate for energy such as muscle glycogen. . During exercise that lasts several hours, the body will also break down liver glycogen to maintain the availability of carbohydrate it needs to function.
So how can you ensure you are eating enough to support your training?
1. Practice Healthy Eating guidelines for Athletes.
Your everyday eating habits will have the greatest impact in terms of eating for performance.
The basic guidelines for healthy eating are the same for everyone, athletes included.
Eat a variety of Healthy foods each day and:
- Have a plenty of vegetables and fruits
- Eat protein foods,
- Eat grain foods, choosing whole grains more often
In Canada we have gone to a really simple way of thinking. Rather that recommend a particular number of servings per food group, we now suggest proportions as if you are looking at your plate.
- ¼ of a plate for protein foods—for example meats, milk, chicken, cheese, fish, beans, tofu….
- ¼ of a plate for grain or starch foods—potato, pasta, rice, grains, bread….
- ½ a plate of fruits and vegetables—cooked or raw vegetables, salads, fruit
For more information on Canada’s newest food guide see my article here.
2. Fine tune your eating to better match your training needs.
As an athlete, your energy needs will change depending on the type of training and sport you are doing. Some sports involve more intense activity, while other sports may be lower in intensity in terms of energy expenditure. In addition, your training may differ from day to day or depending on your training goal.
As your training changes, so should your nutrition strategy.
One of the easiest ways to adjust your meals is to use the Athlete’s Plate® as a guide.
The Athlete’s Plate® is a tool that was developed by Dr. Nanna Meyer in collaboration with the United States Olympic committee with the aim of helping athletes adjust their food intake to meet the needs for varied training amounts and intensity. One of the great things about the Athlete’s plate® is that it can be easily adapted to a food culture and the athlete’s way of eating.
How does it work?
Each plate is made up of 3 food groups similar to Canada’s Food guide. Each food group has an important role in the athlete’s nutrition strategy:
- Grains(preferably whole grains): provides carbohydrates for energy to fuel muscles
- Vegetables and fruit : provides for nutrients for health and are linked to reduced oxidative damage
- Proteins: for building/repairing muscles
In addition, each plate also includes:
- Healthy fats: to provide energy and essential fatty acids for health and flavor
- Spices/flavorings for enjoyment of tastes
- Fluids: for hydration
While the proportions are shown on a plate they could also be represented in a bowl. The Athlete then chooses the training plate that most closely matches their training day and uses it to plan their meals.
Introducing the Athlete Training Plates…
There are 3 types of athlete plates to choose from.
1. The Easy Training Day Plate
The easy training day plate is for days when you have an easy workout.
It is also for athletes in sports requiring lower amounts of energy.
The plate is very similar to Canada’s Food Guide in that it has ¼ protein foods, ¼ grain foods, and ½ vegetables and fruit.
2. The Moderate day training plate
This plate is for days that you have longer training, moderately intense training, or training that happens twice a day that may involve one technical session and on endurance training.
This plate is the one you will probably use most often during training.
You’ll notice that the grains proportion goes up and the fruits and vegetables goes down. This is because the training requires more energy from carbohydrate and the grains provide more than fruits and vegetables.
3. The Hard Training Day Plate:
The hard training play is for days that you have two hard training sessions or possibly a competition that uses a lot of energy.
You’ll notice that the grain section goes up even more making up half the plate. This is because this level of training requires more energy from carbohydrate. The fruit and vegetables goes down because the grains provide more carbohydrate.
Why doesn’t the protein change on the plates?
Research has shown that regardless of the training intensity, athletes will still meet their protein requirements with a ¼ plate proportion of protein foods at meal time. In addition you will likely get additional protein from snacks or beverages throughout the day, so larger portions of protein foods at meal times are not necessary.
What about mixed dishes that combine food groups? How would that work?
For meal items that include multiple food groups like casseroles, sandwiches, salads, the Athlete’s plate® can still be used. In those cases you would need to look at the individual ingredients and which food groups they would fall into and the proportion they make up in your meal. Then you adjust your serving size and additional meal components according to which Athlete’s plate® you’re following.
How can the plates work for everyone? Wouldn’t some people need naturally more or less energy than others regardless of their training intensity?
It is true that the energy requirements differ from person to person. Because these plates are based on proportions and can be used by smaller and larger athletes, males and females, people who eat more or less. The athlete would adjust their energy intake based on their personal feeling of hunger and being comfortably full at the end of a meal. An athlete would keep the same food group proportions but adjust their portions size to meet their hunger. For example a ¼ plate of protein remains a ¼ plate regardless of the portion size.
For more info on planning meals according to plate proportions, the following videos by Health Canada are great resources.
A Final note….
Remember the Athlete’s plate® is a tool to assist not a hard fast rule. As an athlete, you need to determine what works for you.
Pay attention to your body.
Let you hunger cues be your guide.
Determine what strategies work best for you and your training schedule.
For more individualized guidance, you may want to seek advice from a sports nutrition dietitian.
For your downloadable (and much prettier) copies of the Athlete’s Plates® follow this link to the University of Colorado Colorado Springs website.
Eaters' Digest 