Fueling Athletes with High Energy Needs
As an athlete, eating enough to meet your energy needs can be more challenging than expected. There are a number of factors at play when it comes to nutrient intake for an athlete, including time and digestion. In fact, many athletes struggle with eating enough food relative to their energy output, causing them to end up with a syndrome called RED-S, or Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport. Athletes affected by RED-S have insufficient calorie intake and/or excessive energy expenditure, and this low energy availability results in poor health (reproductive, bone, immune, heart, mental) and declining athletic performance.
One of the barriers to an athlete eating enough is time. Athletes tend to have many demands on their schedule, including the time it takes to train and exercise (sometimes multiple training sessions per day during seasons of competition), prioritizing sleep (ideally between 8-10 hours each night), and other daily activities (i.e., school, work). Attempting to fit-in enough eating opportunities throughout the day can be quite the challenge!
What’s more, digestion is a process, and back-to-back meals can sometimes feel too filling. Often an athlete’s muscles are in need of more fuel, but their stomach is not ready to take in more food. Without a clear dietary strategy on how to optimize digestion, athletes may feel full without actually having well-fueled muscles.
Lastly, intense exercise has been shown to suppress hunger in athletes. They may feel like they are “listening to their body” by eating only when they feel hungry, but they could very likely be underfueling, especially if they don’t take refueling on rest days seriously.
If you are an athlete with high energy demands, consider these strategies:
Drink Juice
Liquid carbohydrates are an excellent way to fuel-up muscles and rehydrate at the same time. They are quick to digest, and they can be consumed on-the-go. Many athletes reach for protein drinks to build muscle; however, excess protein does not build muscle. Excellent workouts build muscle. And in order to have excellent workouts, muscles need to be well-fueled with glycogen. Glycogen is a storage form of carbohydrate in the muscle. By drinking juice, an athlete can easily maximize their glycogen stores. Moreover, juices provide natural vitamins, minerals and antioxidants that help with muscle recovery, making them a superior choice to many sports beverages. Try choosing a variety of colorful juices, such as orange juice, cranberry juice, pineapple juice, or pomegranate juice.
Eat Early
Breakfast is literally “breaking” an overnight “fast”. Don’t prolong it! Many athletes skip breakfast claiming they are “not a breakfast person”, “don’t feel hungry in the morning” or “feel nauseous eating breakfast”. These feelings around breakfast are not set in stone – the body can be trained to tolerate and even look forward to eating a morning meal. Athletes who skip breakfast will have a harder time accomplishing all of their required nutrients for the day, and interestingly, breakfast-skippers in general tend to have poorer body weight management. For athletes, it's best to eat early and eat often. If it’s an early start to the morning, perhaps two breakfasts are fitting (i.e., breakfast #1 at 6:30 am, breakfast #2 at 10:30 am).
Fill-In Calorie Gaps with Fats
The base of an athlete’s diet needs to be carbohydrates for fueling-up muscles and an adequate amount of protein for repairing muscles. However, dietary fats have an important role to play as well! While carbohydrates and proteins provide 4 calories per gram, fats provide 9 calories per gram. Therefore, fats are a more calorie-dense nutrient. Dietary fats should not displace quality carbohydrates in an athlete’s diet, but they can supplement an athlete’s diet by providing more energy. Additionally, many dietary fats are anti-inflammatory, which is incredibly helpful for reducing muscle inflammation and speeding up recovery time. Add peanut butter to toast or oatmeal, have guacamole with whole grain tortilla chips, choose full fat dairy (milk, yogurt) over skim dairy, roast veggies in olive oil, or add slivered almonds to cereals and salads.
Snack on Dried Fruit
Dried fruit is a concentrated source of carbohydrates, fiber, vitamins and minerals. Practically speaking, eating dried fruit can be easier than eating whole fresh fruits. For example, eating 5 dried apricots can be quicker than eating 5 fresh apricots. And given that the water content is removed from dried fruits, they can often be less filling. The antioxidants in dried fruit also help to improve blood flow and reduce muscle inflammation. Dried fruits are a nice on-the-go option for athletes. While whole fresh fruits should remain a staple in an athlete's diet, incorporating dried fruits is a simple way to meet higher energy demands. Add dried cranberries to cereals, add raisins to mixed nuts, snack on dried banana chips or mango slices, or sprinkle dried cherries on salads. Note that it’s best to avoid dried fruits with added sugars.
As an athlete, it’s important to be aware of how much energy your body requires from food each day. It can be easy to underfuel, especially during peak training seasons, or if you are a youth athlete whose body is growing. It’s best to work with a dietitian who can accurately assess your energy needs and teach you how to properly fuel your body. Once you understand your nutrient needs, using the above-mentioned dietary strategies can help to prevent underfueling.
Consider working with me! Schedule a FREE discovery call here.