Post-workout Eating
You've sweated, er, sung for your supper--eat up! Eat within an hour of a hard workout, to facilitate recovery. This is especially important sports nutrition diet advice if you?re doing more than one workout a day. Try and keep this sports nutrition snack approximately 4 parts carbs to 1 part protein with little fat. This will improve your recovery time.
Everyday Hydration
A sports nutrition diet doesn't stop at the gym. For proper sports nutrition, you have to stay hydrated all the time, not just when you're working out. Put a water bottle on your desk and sip it all day long. Staying well hydrated will also help you reach your goals if you're on a program such as the P90x weight loss program.
How Much Protein?
To be a pro, eat a high-protein sports nutrition diet! The RDA for protein is .8 gram per kilogram of body weight (.36 g per pound). This is for sedentary people. Active people require more protein in their sports nutrition regimen.
Endurance athletes need 1.2-1.4 g/kg (.55-.64/lb). Strength athletes need 1.4-1.8 g/kg (.64-.81/lb). You can safely eat 2 g/kg (1 g/lb), but more than that is unlikely to be absorbed and utilized, though this varies with the individual.
High Carb Diet
Forget Atkins and the no-carb when it comes to sports nutrition! Carbohydrates are the body?s preferred energy source, and anybody who works out hard needs to eat a sports nutrition diet heavy on carbs, about 3-5 grams per pound of body weight, according to nutritionist Nancy Clark.
Carnitine
Carnitine as a sports nutrition supplement aids fat metabolism, which is important to endurance athletes and others who work out long and hard. However, it is classed as a nonessential amino acid, which means the body manufactures it from other amino acids. There is a theory that the body does not manufacture enough for strenuous exercise and a carnitine sports nutrition supplement can help.
Studies on supplemental carnitine for increasing performance are inconclusive, but there is no sound evidence that including it in a sports nutrition diet can help athletic performance, and it has little value for weight loss.
If you want to try it anyway, make sure it?s L-carnitine. D-carnitine can be dangerous. Follow instructions on the label.
Chitosan Supplements
Too much dietary fat can lead to weight gain and health risks. We need some fat in our diets, especially "good" fats, but most of us sometimes end up eating too much fat, and not necessarily the good kind. Chitosan supplements can help by binding to fat so that less of it is absorbed by the body. Chitosan is a natural fiber supplement.
Sports Drinks - the healthy way
Gatorade is thirst-aid! Many people prefer sports drinks to water because they taste better and it?s easier to drink them more often in a sports nutrition diet.
If the sports drink contains a small amount of carbohydrate, sodium, and potassium, the drink will effectively hydrate the person. The following facts are important to consider when using a sports drink for sports nutrition:
- Sports drinks should contain between 14 and 19 grams of
carbohydrate per eight-ounce serving (six to eight percent). A drink with more than ten percent carbohydrate may cause slow absorption, nausea, cramps, or diarrhea. A drink with five percent or less sugar solution may not provide enough additional sports nutrition energy to increase exercise length.
- Carbonation causes stomach bloating. Dilute carbonated drinks to half-strength.
- The correct sodium level for sports nutrition supplement drinks is 100-110 milligrams per eight ounces. Sodium content in sports drinks can range from eight to 116 milligrams.
- Fruit juices have 10-15 percent carbohydrate and need to be diluted. Mix one part juice to seven parts water.
- You do not sweat out vitamins; there?s no need to buy sports nutrition drinks that include vitamins.
- Water is adequate for exercise under one hour. However, if the exercise is intense or lasts more than an hour, a sports drink will be beneficial.
- If you?re participating in a sports event lasting four hours or more, you need a sports nutrition drink that contains from 110 to 120 milligrams of sodium.
Too Much Water
Don't buy up the water supply at Costco till you read this. Hyponatremia, or water intoxication, is not common, but it can kill you. It is chiefly a problem with ultradistance runners, who may drink too much water without sufficient sodium, which can cause excess fluid to build up in the brain and lungs. Of course, too little water is a much more common sports nutrition deficiency and you should drink plenty during exercise.
As with any diet, balance is the key to a sports nutrition diet. For strenuous exercise up to an hour, just water is all right. For exercise of 1-4 hours, you should use sports nutrition drinks with electrolytes, but over 4 hours you may need to add more salt than found in most sports drinks.
Don't neglect solid foods in your sports nutrition diet. Try eating some pretzels in the last half of a long race.
Energy Gels
Are you gellin'? If you like energy gels as a source of sports nutrition, drink a lot of water with them as they are concentrated sports nutrition carbohydrate sources. These are for use during sports nutrition diet consumption only and have no real benefit in a normal diet.
Creatine Usage
Another for the list of don'ts if you're a teenager. Don?t take a creatine sports nutrition supplement if you are under 16, since you body has plenty of creatine at this stage anyway. If you are a competitive athlete between 16 and 18, take it only under a doctor?s supervision and prescribed sports nutrition diet.
If you are a healthy adult (free of liver, kidney, or metabolic problems) who has reached a plateau in training, and your doctor approves, and you want to try creatine monohydrate, do not exceed recommended sports nutrition dosages. Expect weight gain, and be careful of overtraining injuries if you suddenly feel stronger. Taking more creatine supplements than recommended will not help and may hurt.
Also, always drink a lot of water when you?re taking creatine. Take it with a carbohydrate source, like grape juice, or in a balanced pH mix, which is much better. In your sports nutrition diet, cycle off creatine during off season or periods of lighter training.
Drinking Sodas
Coke or Pepsi? When you're training, neither. Go easy on the soft drinks in your sports nutrition diet.
There has been some indication that drinking a lot of carbonated sodas, especially cola, can have an adverse effect on bone strength in teenage girls. (This would probably also be true of diet sodas.)
This is very controversial and far from proven, but there is no doubt that it alters your body?s pH levels. But the possibility plus the proven fact that many people, especially teenagers, consume a large percentage of their calories as soft drinks, which have no nutritional value and displace a proper sports nutrition diet, should make you think twice about drinking a lot of soda. Like a sports nutition supplement, you don?t have to give up soda; just don?t make it a major part of your sports nutrition diet.
Mineral Supplements
A mineral sports nutrition supplement may be helpful, especially if you don?t eat a lot and aren't in serious training with an intense sports nutrition diet. But don?t supplement over the RDA. Too much can be toxic. A good multi-vitamin/mineral supplement if probably the best choice for most people.
Supplements from Food
When you?re planning what sports nutrition supplement to take, also consider any sports nutrition energy bars or fortified cereals you eat. You may be taking too many vitamins and minerals in your sports nutrition diet.
Pre-Marathon Meals
In an ideal sports nutrition diet, with or without a sports nutrition supplement, you should eat 2 grams of carbohydrate for every kilogram of body weight (divide your weight in pounds by 2.2) 2 hours before a marathon. Experiment with pre-run sports nutrition and your long training runs to see what works for you.
Vegetarian Diets
Should you eat all rabbit food? A well-balanced vegetarian sports nutrition diet will neither help nor hinder sports performance. While the meat vs. veggie sports nutrion debate rages, there are still many elite athletes who are vegetarian.