The Power of Athletic Nutrition

Hi Everyone, thanks for checking out this week’s newsletter. Below you'll find:

• Performance Concept of the week

  • The Power of Athletic Nutrition: Fueling Your Athlete's Mind and Body for Performance

• Action plan

• Resource of the week

• Things to Explore

• Got Questions?

Performance Concept of the Week

The Power of Athletic Nutrition: Fueling Your Athlete's Mind and Body for Performance

Many of us hear the word “nutrition” and we think about what we eat. While this is a major component of nutrition, it is not the only consideration.

Nutrition is better understood broken down into two components:

1. What you eat or your food choices (nutritional choices).

2. How we make nutritional choices (nutritional psychology).

In this article, we will discuss proper nutrition for competitive and high-performance athletes focusing on the nutrition choices component and how you can help support their pursuit of performance excellence through proper nutrition.

The reality for you as a parent of a competitive or high performance athlete is nutrition is challenging because every athlete’s needs are different.

It’s ok to ask for help. Feel free to reach out if you’d like to get assistance on nutritional choices and planning to help support your athlete by booking a free 20 minute intro session, or shooting us a note by email or chat.

The Importance of Athletic Nutrition

Good nutrition helps to supply your athlete’s body and brain with the energy it needs to perform, aids in recovery after training/competing, supports the body’s growth and repair, and helps to manages illnesses. A well-nourished athlete will often outlast an equally skilled but less well-nourished competitor.

What You Need to Know - Nutritional Choices

The nutritional needs of athletes differ from those of non-athletes due to their increased energy expenditure and physical demands. If your athlete is an adolescent this becomes more challenging as they go through their regular growth and development stages simultaneously.

As the parent of a competitive or high performance athlete, it's essential to not only pay attention to their nutrition, but support them in making healthy choices, and even creating an environment where they can prepare a healthy meal or snack from scratch on their own.

What to Eat & Food Choices

Remember the question at the beginning of this article about putting regular gasoline in your Ferrari…..you just wouldn’t do it!

Knowing the major components of what to eat and food choices is a must for parents!

The Types of Nutrients

Nutrients are divided into Macronutrients (Carbohydrates, Proteins, and Fats) and Micronutrients (Vitamins and Minerals).

Carbohydrates

Carbohydrates are the main energy source for athletes as they provide the necessary glucose for the muscles and brain. They get stored in the muscles and liver and serve as fuel during prolonged, intense exercises. Foods like whole grains, fruits, and vegetables provide these much-needed carbs.

45-65% of calories per day should come from carbohydrates. The amount depends on each individual athlete’s needs.

Protein

Protein plays a vital role in an athlete’s nutrition by aiding in recovery and rebuilding of muscles post-exercise. It also supports immune function and promotes a feeling of satiety. Good sources of protein include meat, fish, eggs, dairy, and plant-based options such as lentils and beans.

15-30% of your calories per day should come from protein sources, again the amount depends on the athlete’s needs.

Fats

Fat is also an essential macro nutrient that provides energy, supports cell growth, and guards the body's organs. For athletes, sufficient fat intake becomes crucial for long duration or low-intensity exercises. Foods with healthy fats include avocados, nuts, seeds, and fatty fish are good sources of healthy fat.

20-35% of your total daily calories should come from fat, with less than 10% of total daily calories from saturated fat.

Micronutrients

Micronutrients (vitamins and minerals), while needed in smaller amounts, are crucial for multiple body functions. They help to produce enzymes, hormones, and other substances necessary for healthy growth and development and performance. Iron, calcium, vitamin D, B vitamins, and antioxidants are especially important for athletes.

Eating a healthy balanced diet will get you these vitamins and minerals, but it is important to be aware of these as part of overall basic nutrition knowledge.

Food Shifting

Food shifting is a great concept as a parent to support your athlete. Food shifting is a concept of analyzing your current food choices and replacing some of the existing foods with more nutrient rich foods. While this may seem trivial, little things go a long way, especially when fuelling your competitive or high performance athlete. The chart below provides a few examples:

What Does the Research Say to Help Us?

As a parent it is important to recognize the factors that influence food choices. Birkenhead & Slater, 2015 identify 5 key factors.

Infographic Key Take Aways

Factors to influence food choices include:

1. Physiological and Biological

2. Lifestyle, Beliefs and Knowledge

3. Psychological

4. Social

5. Economic

Sports Nutrition for the Adolescent Athlete

Desbrow et al (2014) identified a number of factors that are important for parents to consider with their adolescent athletes. Check out the results of their findings below.

Infographic Key Take Aways

1. Reflect on the daily exercise demands of the athlete (i.e. how many workouts/games or how many calories are they burning).

2. Spread protein sources out throughout the day.

3. Eat unsaturated fats, limit saturated fats.

4. If you eat a healthy balanced diet, you do not need to take vitamin supplements

5. Don’t forget about hydration.

Summary

This article underscores the multifaceted nature of nutrition. It does however only tackle the first component with respect to food choices.

Check out our resource of the week, our Nutrition and Nutritional Psychology Resource Guide to learn all about the second component, nutritional psychology.

This guide comes complete with links to meal planning templates, a nutrition guide, healthy snack combinations, information on supplements, and much more!

Action Plan

This week’s action plan includes evaluating your athlete’s current nutritional needs and habits:

1. Identify what the daily exercise demands are for your athlete?

2. Put together a list of foods your athlete loves, likes, dislikes (and any dietary nuances such as intolerances or allergies). Have them eat a healthy balance from the love and like list!

   • Download the “Nutrition Rules of Thumb Checklist” to Support Your Competitive or High Performance Athlete.

3. How much food should they be taking with them each day, as well as consuming on a daily basis?

4. What meal planning and snack options do we require?

5. Check out the Nutrition and Nutritional Psychology Resource Guide for more on nutritional psychology.

Resource of the Week

Want to learn about nutrition and nutritional psychology for your competitive or high performance athlete? Check out our Nutrition and Nutritional Psychology Resource Guide below.

Things to Explore

• Read: Our Reading Library

• Download: Resource Guide Series

• View: Previous Weekly Performance Concepts

Got Questions?

Do you have a question, or want to know more about a topic. Let our team of experts help you. Ask your question here by clicking the button below. We will post answers to questions within future newsletters.

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