What Athletes Need To Know About Diet and Supplementation to Optimize their Performance and Health - Part 2

In Part 1 of my article What Athletes Need To Know About Diet and Supplementation to Optimize their Performance and Health, I discussed how the three fundamental macronutrients (carbohydrate, fat, and protein) work together in the right balance, and at the right levels, to fuel an athlete's body so optimal performance can be achieved. Now I want to spend some more time discussing food and energy in more detail.

The food an athlete eats BEFORE, DURING, and AFTER a workout is important for both comfort and performance.


What an athlete should eat and drink BEFORE EXERCISE:

What you eat BEFORE exercise often depends upon your unique needs and preferences, but should be designed according to the intensity, length and type of workout you plan to do. Some GENERAL GUIDELINES include eating a solid meal 4 hours before exercise, a snack or a high carbohydrate energy drink 2 to 3 hours before exercise, and fluid replacement 1 hour before exercise.

It is probably intuitive that exercising on a full stomach is not ideal. Food that remains in your stomach during exercise, or during an event, may cause stomach upset, nausea, and cramping. So to ensure you have enough energy, but minimize the chance for stomach discomfort, you should allow a meal to fully digest before exercise, or before the start of an event. This generally takes one to four hours, depending upon what and how much you've eaten. Everybody is a little different, so you should experiment prior to exercising to determine what works best for you.

If you have an early morning workout or race, it's best to get up early enough to eat your pre-exercise meal. If not, you should try to eat or drink something easily digestible about 20 to 30 minutes before the event. The closer you get to the time of your event, the less you should eat. You can have a liquid meal closer to your event than a solid meal because your stomach digests liquids faster.

Since glucose is the preferred energy source for most exercise, a pre-exercise meal should include foods that are high in carbohydrates and easy to digest. This includes foods such as pasta, fruits, breads, nutrition bars, nutrition shakes, as well as HEALTHY energy drinks.

If you are going on a short running workout, it's not essential to eat immediately before you run if you consistently eat a healthy diet and have properly replenished your glycogen stores after your last workout. In fact, the majority of the energy used to fuel your run comes from the stored energy in your body (glycogen), not the food you've just consumed. Most people have enough glycogen to fuel about 90 minutes of high-intensity exercise and several hours of moderate exercise. So if you feel fine doing a short run on an empty stomach, go for it.

If running on empty doesn't feel good to you, you will want to eat something light that will digest easily. A good pre-run breakfast for those who run three to six miles can be something as simple as a banana, water and maybe a cup of coffee an hour or so before starting your workout. You could also eat toast with jelly or half a nutrition bar or half a nutrition shake. You'll need to learn what foods work best for you and figure out how much time you need to digest your food. But most people can eat a banana without problems.

NOTE:  Avoid food that contains a lot of protein or fiber, as it takes a long time to digest before running.

If you are going on a longer running workout (longer than 10 miles) it may be necessary to eat up to two hours before you run so you have enough energy and allow time for it to digest. Consider eating 400-500 calories and drinking 16-20 ounces of water before going on longer runs. Opt for high-carbohydrate foods that digest easily and provide quick energy for the run, i.e fruit, cereals, pancakes, a bagel with jelly, fruit smoothies, a nutrition bar, a nutrition shake, or anything else easily digested.

NOTE:  Stay away from food that has a lot of fat and protein, because it does not digest as well. Also, during your longer run, you may want to consider bringing along a carbohydrate gel pack or a small packet of pure honey in case energy stores run low.

Now when it comes to competition, here are some guidelines of what to eat.


Food Guidelines for Competition:

3 to 4 Hours Before Competition:

• Fresh fruit
• Bread, Bagels
• Pasta with tomato sauce
• Baked potatoes
• Cereal with milk
• Yogurt
• Toast/bread with some peanut butter, lean meat, or cheese
• Nutrition bar
• Nutrition shake
• Water

2 to 3 Hours Before Competition:

• Fresh fruit
• Bread, Bagels
• Pasta
• Yogurt
• Water

1 Hour or Less Before Competition:

• Fresh fruit (apples, watermelon, peaches, grapes, or oranges) and/or
• Energy gels
• Up to 1 1/2 cups of a sports drink

If you are an endurance athlete, research suggests that eating some sugar (glucose) 35 to 40 minutes before an event may provide energy when your other energy stores have dropped to low levels. However, you should experiment with this before competition because some people do not perform well after a spike in blood sugar.

NOTE:  Endurance athletes should avoid foods that contain a lot of fat or fiber since they can be very difficult and slow to digest and remain in the stomach a long time. They will also pull blood into the stomach to aid in digestion, which can cause cramping and discomfort. Meats, doughnuts, fries, potato chips, and candy bars should be avoided in a pre-exercise meal.

Now let's discuss hydration. Athletes should strive to drink ten cups of water every day, in addition to replacing water that is lost during exercise. A good rule of thumb is to drink about 16-20 ounces of water, 2-3 hours before exercise, and about 8 ounces of water 15 minutes before exercise. Try this and then modify your fluid needs as necessary.

You may be wondering about the benefit of caffeine for exercise. Caffeine is a stimulant and can improve endurance.

NOTE:  Caffeine can have serious side effects for some people. Those who are very sensitive to its effects may experience nausea, muscle tremors, and headaches. Too much caffeine is a diuretic, and can result in dehydration, which decreases performance.

And as a final note, just remember that everyone is a little different. What works for you diet-wise may not work for your teammate or training partner. An eating plan is highly individualized based on what works for each athlete along with the preference of that athlete.


What an athlete should eat and drink DURING EXERCISE:

Depending on the type and duration of exercise, energy foods (including bars, shakes, drinks, gels and other easily digestible carbohydrates) can keep you from depleting your energy too quickly DURING exercise.

In addition, drink up to about 8 ounces of water every 15 minutes during exercise depending on the type and duration of exercise. If you will be exercising longer than 90 minutes, drink about 8 oz of a sports drink (with no more than 8% carbohydrate) every 15-30 minutes.


What an athlete should eat and drink AFTER EXERCISE:

The first nutritional priority AFTER exercise is to replace any fluid lost during exercise. A good rule of thumb is to drink 16 ounces of water right after exercise. If you want to be more precise, weigh yourself before and after you exercise, and then replace fluid losses by drinking 20-24 oz of water for every one pound of weight lost.

The next nutritional priority after hydration is replacing key nutrients. The post-exercise meal is critical to recovery and improves your ability to train consistently.

It is important to consume carbohydrate, such as fruit or juice, within 15 minutes post-exercise to help restore glycogen.

In addition, research has shown that eating 0.3 to 0.6 grams of carbohydrate for each pound of body weight within two hours of endurance exercise is essential to building adequate glycogen stores for continued training. That works out to 45 to 90 grams of carbohydrate (or 180 to 360 calories) for a 150-pound athlete. Waiting longer than two hours to eat will result in 50% less glycogen stored in the muscle. The reason for the two-hour window is that carbohydrate consumption stimulates insulin production, which aids the production of muscle glycogen. However, the effect of carbohydrate on glycogen storage reaches a plateau.

Research also shows that combining protein with carbohydrate within 30 minutes post-exercise nearly doubles the insulin response, which results in MORE stored glycogen. A well-balanced, high-quality nutrition bar or shake can provide a convenient way to meet this recommendation. The OPTIMAL carbohydrate to protein ratio for this effect is 4:1 (four grams of carbohydrate for every one gram of protein). Eating more protein than that will have a negative impact as it will slow rehydration and glycogen storage.

Consuming protein has other important uses after exercise as well. It provides the amino acids necessary to rebuild muscle tissue that was damaged during intense exercise. The amino acids in protein can also stimulate the immune system, making you more resistant to colds and other infections. Protein can also increase the absorption of water from the intestines and improve muscle hydration.

When it comes specifically to running, some good options for your post-exercise meal include a high quality nutrition bar, a high quality nutrition shake, oatmeal with low-fat milk or soymilk, eggs with whole grain toast, or yogurt and berries. Whatever you choose, you want to find a way to get the right nutrition within the 30-minute window.

NOTE:  For those people that aren't athletes that might be reading this article, this wouldn't be the ideal plan for you. If your goal is fat loss, you would want to wait to eat an hour after your workout to maximize fat burning.

The bottom line for athletes is this: If you are looking for the best way to refuel your body after long, intense exercise, a 4:1 combination of carbohydrate and protein within the 30-minute window post-exercise seems to be your best choice.

It's worth noting that many athletes do not receive the optimal levels of MICRONUTRIENTS, vitamins and minerals, from their diet. In fact, in my experience, many don't understand the OPTIMAL levels of micronutrients necessary to optimize performance. It's important for an athlete to understand that micronutrients are just as critical as macronutrients (carbs, fats, and protein) in optimizing performance.


Importance of a pharmaceutical-grade multivitamin/multimineral supplement:

Good supplementation is just as critical as a good diet, and supplementation gives you the assurance you are not depleted in essential nutrients. But you might be wondering what I mean by good supplementation. Athletes can benefit from a good multivitamin/multimineral supplement in the same manner as non-athletes (to fill in the missing gap of nutrients they are not getting from their diet). It is true that athletes are more likely to eat a better diet, increasing their intake of key nutrients. However, the extra physical and mental stresses many athletes experience may also increase their requirement for certain key nutrients. These stresses can lead to depletion even if an athlete is eating a good diet.

That is why it is critical for an athlete to take a high quality, broad-spectrum, well-balanced, pharmaceutical-grade, multivitamin/multimineral supplement. It is not enough to take just ANY multivitamin/multimineral supplement. While there are lots of companies that make supplements, there are lots of companies that make POOR QUALITY supplements. Don't sell your health to the lowest bidder. Look for a multivitamin/multimineral supplement that is produced to pharmaceutical standards so quality and safety is ensured. A complete, broad-spectrum, well-balanced, safe and effective multivitamin/multimineral supplement is critical to ensuring key nutrient requirements are met and optimal performance can be achieved. You DO NOT have this guarantee with most supplements on the market unfortunately, which is why athletes especially need to be selective. If you would like help selecting a multivitamin/multimineral supplement, please send me a message, and I will walk you through the process of selecting one that will optimize performance. 


Note for World-Class Professional and Olympic Athletes:

You MUST BE selective when it comes to nutritional supplements as you have to worry about the possibility of testing positive for banned substances if you take over-the-counter supplements. If you are a professional or olympic athlete, to give you more assurance, verify that the supplements you are taking have gone through third-party testing to ensure purity. One such program, whose approval is sought out by top companies, tests for the presence of WADA (World Anti-Doping Agency) banned substances and is called the NSF Certified for SportTM program (http://www.nsf.org/). This independent certification helps athletes make educated decisions about the safety of the dietary supplements they choose to take and is free of potential company hype.

The NSF Certified for Sport program was developed to meet the growing demand of athletes, coaches and all others concerned about banned substances. The NSF Certified for Sport(TM) Mark helps consumers know that products have met NSF's stringent independent certification guidelines. Products are tested and facilities are inspected for a wide range of substances prohibited by the World Anti-Doping Agency, the NFL/NFLPA and MLB/MLBPA. The list includes stimulants, narcotics, steroids, diuretics, beta-2 agonists, beta blockers, masking agents and other banned substances.

Also look to companies that have received Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) registration and dietary supplement certification through NSF. NSF International is an independent, not-for-profit organization, that helps protect you by certifying products and writing standards for food, water, air and consumer goods. Founded in 1944, NSF is committed to protecting public health and safety worldwide. NSF is a World Health Organization Collaborating Centre for Food and Water Safety and Indoor Environment. Additional services include safety audits for the food and water industries, management systems registrations delivered through NSF International Strategic Registrations, Ltd., organic certification provided by Quality Assurance International and education through the NSF Center for Public Health Education.
 
These third-party certifications simply help athletes, as well as consumers in general, know the products they are taking are nutritionals they can trust.

I hope these past two articles have given you more direction as an athlete to help you achieve optimal performance. If you have any questions about anything posted in the past two articles, please feel free to send me a message. May your next training session be great!