Sports nutrition can be complicated and with so much information out there it can be hard to decide what’s right for you and your activity so I’ve selected some basic principles that apply to nearly every sport. Let me know if it’s helped you…
Eat a balanced diet each day
To exercise consistently, you need to provide a good supply of high-quality energy to your working muscles. The easiest way to achieve this is to eat a balanced breakfast and continue eating a variety of high-quality foods throughout the day.
Several hours before your workout
The pre-exericse meal will vary depending upon your exercise style. If you workout in the evening, lunch should include easily digestible foods high in complex carbohydrates, such as wholegrain bread, pasta, fruits and vegetables. A big salad with a small amount of protein works well. Select a small amount of lean meat such as chicken or fish, and experiment with what works best for you.
If you exercise first thing in the morning, you’ll probably feel best if you eat a light breakfast of fresh fruit or eggs. Again, everyone is different, so experiment with what works best for you. Regardless of what you choose to eat, you should drink plenty of water before and during a morning workout.
Thirty minutes before your workout
Depending upon the type and duration of workout you do, you’ll want to eat a small snack and drink some water a half hour before you get going. Trail mix is great for aerobic workouts over 60 or 90 minutes, but if you are going hard for thirty minutes, you probably only need a banana or a small handful of dried fruit. For a shorter workout, you may not want to eat anything at all, but can get a few calories from drinking a glass of fresh juice.
You should also start drinking water before your workout so you’ve consumed about 250-300ml in the hour before your workout.
During your workout
Proper hydration during exercise depends upon the intensity and duration of exercise, the fitness of the athlete, and weather conditions. In order to simplify the recommendations, a good starting point is to drink about 250-300ml of water every 15 min during exercise.
If exercising longer than 90 minutes, drink 250-300ml of a sports drink or fresh juice mixed with water (1:1 ratio) every 15 – 30 minutes. Exercising for more than about 90 minutes usually requires that you replenish lost carbohydrates. If your workout is less than an hour, odds are you don’t need to consume anything extra.
Hydration after your workout
After your workout, drink enough water to replace water lost through sweat. The best way to determine this is by weighing yourself before and after exercise. For every pound of body weight lost, you’ll need to consume about 3 cups of fluid.
Another way to determine how much liquid to consume is to check the colour of your urine. Dark, concentrated urine may indicate dehydration. Your urine should be relatively clear in colour.
Eating after your workout
The post-exercise meal should be eaten within two hours of a long or intense workout in order to replenish glycogen stores for continued exercise. While research shows eating 100-200 grams of carbohydrate within two hours of endurance exercise is essential to building adequate glycogen stores, eating a combination of both carbohydrate and protein seems to be an even better option. Studies have found that a 4:1 ratio of carbohydrate to protein seems to be the ideal combination of nutrition. And although solid foods can work just as well as a sports drink, a drink may be easier to digest making it easier to get the right ratio and meet the 2-hour window.
