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Eating For Fitness and Sports
by Ray L Burton
http://www.planningdiets.com/
Many sports rely on short bursts of power along with
prolonged periods of activity. This complicates the eating
plan even more. Energy for the muscle work and that for the
cardio work vary, but the basis for replenishing nutrients
used up during your training and competition remains the
same. The amounts required may differ, however.
During pre and in season when both endurance and short
term train is intense, refilling of energy stores must be
facilitated. Glycogen storage in your muscles and liver
must be filled on a daily basis in order to prepare you
for the next days training. With off-season training, when
you are training less often and less intensely, you will
have greater periods between training to refill these
energy stores. Calorie requirements during this phase of
training will be significantly reduced.
Complex carbohydrates provide you with the energy
requirements necessary for both forms of energy production.
Since you are training intensely during pre and in season
training, additional carbohydrates are needed. And as with
any type of training, carbohydrates with a low glycemic
index are recommended before training sessions.
When you consume foods that are low on the glycemic index,
your blood sugar will be more stable for longer periods of
time. The glycemic index rates carbohydrates by how quickly
they are converted to glucose, the form of sugar found in
your blood. The lower the rating, the better they are for
sustained sugar levels in your blood.
Most of your energy for activities like swimming and tennis
comes from glycogen store and sugar in your blood. By
attempting to spare the glycogen in your muscles for those
bursts of energy, you will need to sustain your blood
sugar levels while sparing muscle glycogen stores. A drop
in blood sugar will produce fatigue no matter what mode of
training you are in. So eat plenty of complex carbohydrates.
Protein needs are elevated due to intense strength training
and lengthy endurance training. Quality protein will be
needed throughout all phases of training for complete
recuperation and additional growth.
Fat intake should be limited to unsaturated fats. No more
than ten to fifteen percent of your daily caloric intake
is recommended to be in the form of fats. The ratio of fats,
protein and carbohydrates should be 1,2,4 for endurance
strength athletes.
Although it is not uncommon to see athletes eating a candy
bar before competition, this is not a beneficial practice.
The high concentration of simple sugars found in a candy
bar and thus in your blood, causes a surge of insulin
release. As the insulin gets released in your blood, it
promotes the uptake of sugar by your cells. This will in
turn wipe out mot of your blood sugar and lead to a severe
drop in energy. So the candy bar is counter productive to
obtaining additional energy over the long run.
As you can see, deficiencies can result from inadequate
eating practices. To protect against deficiencies of any
nutritional type, eat healthily, take a multivitamin
mineral everyday and supplement your eating with quality
nutritional supplements.
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