When to eat, what to eat, and how much to eat, a special Districts for Culture Recreation and Sport event proves to be informative
There was a time, not so long ago, when three square meals of steak and eggs – especially right before a workout – was a top athlete who believed they had to perform at their best.
To say that things have changed over the years is a bit of an understatement.
Against this background, the districts for culture, recreation and sports held their latest seminar. Sports dietitian Heather Hynes of the Saskatchewan Sports Medicine and Science Council provided tips and information on how to properly fuel exercise.
“Where it really starts is a clear understanding of an exercise diet or how we manage a person’s overall physical performance. It comes down to making sure an athlete is getting enough energy every day,” said Hynes.
“This intake, the energy your body gets from food, is really a fundamental element. We really need to focus on how often we want to feed our bodies, what types of foods we should be eating as often as possible, to try to strike a balance between the variety of foods and the types of hydration that we eat should have. “
Eat early, eat well
It starts with what you do first thing in the morning. This can include a large, healthy breakfast of oatmeal and fruit, yogurt with berries and a banana, or even homemade blueberry pancakes. Anything healthy for getting fuel into the system, and most importantly first thing, whether or not you enjoy breakfast
“Training your gut and stomach to accept food in the morning is a skill, and it’s a really important skill for athletes to develop early in their careers because you always come across competitions that happen early,” said Hynes . “I often come across athletes who say they can’t eat in the morning and their strategy is not to eat, and that’s not really a strategy. So start small with a mini pre-workout meal, if needed … and build on that to turn into a full meal. “
Eat smaller meals more often
Constant intake throughout the day is also important to avoid the high and low energy levels that result from the usual “three meals a day” that are often three hours or more between meals.
“When we go without food for more than three hours, we crave food, carbohydrates like bread, grains, crackers, and fruits. Our bodies know that this will lead to higher spikes in blood sugar,” Hynes said. Avoidance of these cravings and surge can be accomplished through smaller meals during the day – breakfast at 9 a.m., lunch at 12 p.m., healthy snack at 3 p.m., dinner at 6 p.m., and a pre-bed snack at 9 p.m.
The importance of a balanced diet during the day is demonstrated by an athlete who shows up for training at 5 p.m. without having consumed anything since lunch.
“If you’ve had a lunch that wasn’t enough, but you’re used to dinner being your big meal, you’re going to be low-energy exercising,” Hynes said. “That’s what we’re trying to toggle so that lunch is more complete and the snack comes in the afternoon or after school to get energy for the workout you’re doing.”
Drink fluids, stay hydrated
Hydration has also become an increased part of proper nutrition, with athletes hydrating throughout the day and during exercise.
This is a general estimate of two to three liters of water per day, depending on the needs of the body. Hynes pointed out that proper fluid intake during exercise is also a skill to adapt to, and that athletes should learn to drink water at a high heart rate early in their training careers.
Small snack if required, balanced dinner
If you work out before dinner, your fuel intake may need to be increased slightly, and Hynes recommends something small, like a ¼ cup of raisins, a medium-sized banana, or even a healthy homemade muffin.
“This can be really helpful for the athlete who has to go straight to the training session from school,” said Hynes.
Then there is the recreational meal, often used as dinner for athletes who exercise after school or work.
Hynes presented a special slide showing an “athlete’s plate” with the right proportions of proteins, grains and vegetables. Vegetables take up a little less than half of the plate, with egg whites and grains each covering about a third. The ratio helps athletes get the right amount of nutrition from a variety of sources. The variety of nutrients helps repair and restore hard-trained muscles.
An after-dinner exercise regimen requires a pre-bed snack for the same reasons as above.
“You should refuel in the evening and especially if it is the time of day you should be active,” said Hynes. “The snack before bed provides the body with a combination of ingredients, carbohydrates and protein and helps the athlete to recover. If an athlete says they’ll be sore the next day, is that really an area I’ll focus on snacking before you go to bed and getting enough protein by that time? “
Everything about protein intake
Ah yes, protein. The building block for repairing muscles and increasing size and strength for every athlete. This is where the pre-game steak and eggs mentioned above came into play in the old days without realizing that the lack of carbohydrates in such a meal wouldn’t improve performance, but it would help recovery.
As a rule, a high-performance athlete under the age of 18 needs up to 1.8 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight, while older athletes need up to 2.0 grams per kilogram.
Hynes used the example of a 15 year old female athlete weighing 125 pounds. You would need about 102 grams of protein a day, broken down into 16 to 20 grams per meal – which is three eggs, a can of tuna, half a cup of cottage cheese, ¾ cup of Greek yogurt, and soon.
“That’s a really important part of how a body should get protein. We want it to be distributed as evenly as possible,” said Hynes. “This is very helpful in supporting muscle mass and strength development and individual health.”
Supplements only if necessary
All of this leads to a supplementation that Hynes only recommends for a specific deficiency such as iron, vitamin D or B12. This is because, in most cases, proper food intake makes protein powders and the like unnecessary.
“I have athletes aged 10, 12 who said, ‘I put a scoop of this protein in my smoothie,’ and I’m like, ‘really? That is definitely not needed, ”said Hynes. “It’s really tempting for athletes to think of supplements as the answer to questions they may have, or for simplicity, taking a scoop of something and shaking it and drinking it would be the same as having food.”
Hynes recommends reaching out to them at heather.hynes@sasktel.net if you have any questions about the supplement.
Last takeaways
In total, Hynes ran seven takeaways from the seminar:
- Have balanced meals with the right proportions of proteins, vegetables, and grains
- Pay attention to the timing and intake of proteins
- Fuel for the demands of the day
- Schedule snacks to maximize your workout
- Focus on hydration and be consistent
- Refuel every three to four hours
- Monitor progress to see if things need to be improved or changed.
The seminar was part of a monthly series from the districts for culture, recreation, and sports. The next sessions in April looked at sleep and its effects on athletic performance.
