Heart-healthy sources of fat include avocados, salmon, nuts and nut butters, and olive oils. Protein is needed for your body to build and repair muscles.

Small amounts of protein may also be used for energy. Protein can be found in lean meats like chicken and turkey, beans, tofu, eggs, and dairy products such as Greek yogurt, cheese, and milk. Vitamins and minerals are not sources of energy, but they have many important functions in the body.

For example, vitamin D and calcium are needed for strong bones, and iron is needed for blood cells to carry oxygen throughout your body. Certain minerals, like potassium, calcium, and sodium are called electrolytes.

They are important during exercise because they have an effect on the amount of water in your body and on how your muscles work. Athletes should eat a balanced diet with a variety of foods to make sure they get enough vitamins and minerals.

It is fine to take a regular multivitamin, but supplements with high doses of vitamins and minerals do not improve performance and may actually be harmful.

Water is essential to keep you hydrated. When you are physically active, dehydration is not only dangerous, but can also keep you from performing your best.

In order to stay hydrated, keep a water bottle with you and drink throughout the day. Carbohydrate loading is a technique used to increase the amount of glycogen in muscles. It involves eating extra carbohydrates during the week before a competition, while at the same time cutting back on your training.

Although some extra protein is needed to build muscle, most people get plenty of protein from food. Eating enough calories especially from carbohydrates! is actually more important for building muscle than having extra protein.

It depends. So drink plenty of water and sports drinks. Eat protein. Eat high-quality protein such as lean meats, fish, poultry, nuts and eggs. However, be careful on the amount of protein you eat; too much protein can put a strain on your kidneys.

Get plenty of sleep. Let your body recover so you feel energized the next day. Make sure you let your body catch up on sleep so you can wake up each day enthusiastic and ready to live a healthy lifestyle.

We have all heard it before, breakfast is the most important meal of the day. This is especially true for athletes. Breakfast helps energize you in the morning and keep you going strong the whole day.

Your well-being is important to us. Click the button below or call us to schedule an appointment with one of our orthopedic specialists. Becoming a great athlete takes time, dedication and great effort. Proper sports nutrition is no different. It takes time to develop improved eating habits.

And you cannot expect dramatic changes in your diet and performance overnight. Small, incremental steps always work best, allowing your body and mind to adjust to the changes. To see real and permanent results, you must want those changes to take place.

Dedication to the nutritional goals and protocols must be a mainstay. The effort to plan meals and snacks accordingly, and the discipline to stick to the plan, must be evident on a daily basis.

Regardless of nutrition goals, athletes must eat often to stay energized. And their recovery from workouts is slow, which ultimately leads to a decline in performance. While this may be challenging at first, a consistent effort and sure-fire plan makes this a normal part of their routine.

All pre-exercise fueling should focus on carbohydrates. Daily carbohydrate recommendations range from 2. A good rule of thumb here: The harder the workout, the higher your carb intake. The closer you get to the workout, the food selections should be lower in fat and easier to digest.

High-fat foods should be avoided, because they take longer to digest and can upset your stomach during exercise. Smaller food quantities should be chosen at this point for the same reason. If you have two to three hours before workouts, a decent-sized meal can be consumed, with some protein, but still focusing on the carbs, and keeping the fat to a lower level.

With only 10 to 15 minutes before the workout, a small snack like an energy bar or piece of fruit is a wise choice. Following workouts, refueling is the major focus and it may be the most important area in helping you reach your performance goals. This means replenishing carbs that were burned for energy in addition to adding the adequate protein needed to repair and build muscle.

Daily protein requirements range from 0.

Also, protein calorie intake often poses a problem in the United States because athletes understand weight in terms of pounds and not kilograms. The old bodybuilding adage of one gram of protein per pound of weight for muscle gain is easy to understand and follow because it uses simple math.

Using pounds requires math that is not so simple. Protein quality is easy to rate, but fats are more complicated and athletes need guidance. The real magic is in small things that cumulate over time.

Marginal gains used to be a buzzword. Recovery with nutrition means making the right choices every day. While each meal and snack matters, healthy gains occur over the years. There are many methods of nutrition to improve recovery, and they receive a lot of attention.

Keep the big picture in mind because too much focus on a few tricks of the trade will not be as effective. You have to do a lot of things correctly to see nutrition show up on the stopwatch or the final score. Summary: Instead of placing a high value on a small set of superfoods or recovery techniques, do many small things right consistently.

Make the small things easy and consistent rather than doing a set of small things perfectly. Today we see too much overthinking about nutrient timing.

In the past, we got caught up with megadoses of antioxidants, and then we got scared that nutrients would blunt adaptations from training. If an athlete or coach is concerned about adaptations to mitochondria and muscle, for example, juice away with tart cherries and take supplements before bed.

Summary: A few cool studies on cranberry and blackcurrant juice show that other options besides tart cherry juice exist, which is key because athletes get tired of drinking the same thing. By timing the intake of caffeine and beetroot juice, my athletes get the performance benefits from caffeine during practice and the health and relaxation benefits from the juice later in the day.

Before training, my athletes drink coffee. Instead, they drink beetroot juice two hours before bedtime and the results are fantastic. Since sport is too often high octane and full throttle, most athletes need to take a nap or learn to be ready to nap.

It seems the best athletes are the ones who know how to chill out and conserve their energy for when they need it. Summary: Stack various fruit blends with beetroot juice to encourage relaxation and parasympathetic reactivation.

Timing it a few hours before bed can help those who need help driving their mood into regeneration and recovery. Canned mackerel and sardines are trending.

I used to hate the idea of fish in a can, and now I feel like a fool for not jumping into the underground world of canned fish lovers. Wild, fresh sardines are loaded with omega-3s and make great snacks for athletes who want food but also want a break from traditional options.

They also provide so many other nutrients they deserve to be in the same category as salmon. Mackerel, a fish I thought was unexciting, is more nutrient dense than sardines. Relying solely on omega-3 supplements is a bad idea because athletes will miss out on the other nutrients their bodies need.

Instead, we recommend a blend of sources. Summary: Omega-3s are very important for total body health, and natural whole food sources are a great way to complement supplementation. Canned fish is practical, and chia seeds are convenient because small amounts provide health benefits.

As a protein, animals are effective for athletes due to the obvious—we eat their muscle to repair our own. High-quality beef, chicken, eggs, lamb, and pork are everything to serious athletes. Not only are they more nutritious, but they also taste better.

This means eating a lot of meat each day, averaging about two pounds for large athletes and one pound for athletes under 80 kilos. My solution is using a meat share, and other options like local farms and Walden are awesome.

Understanding the process of raising cattle and how each part of the animal is used is educational, and we need more of that. Summary: With meat, you get what you pay for. Put your money on quality protein sources from good suppliers.

The nutritional content and taste are worth it, and the process of selecting the right animal protein is a great lesson in health promotion. Eating more vegetables and fruits requires discipline and shopping. And it means eating true servings a day. To me, this is three servings per meal, or one serving every other hour.

I find that at least half the servings need to be whole and raw. You can include juice, but only one serving. First prioritize plants with your athletes.

It will dramatically control their eating and remove the temptation for junk food. So what is the trick? Start with a weekly plan to eat servings by creating a checklist and staying loyal to it. Farmers markets are not just for food enthusiasts.

They offer a nicer social experience than going to a store. Summary: Planning fruits and vegetables into your daily nutrition requires shopping effort, so create a checklist and stick to it.

Keep in mind that produce tends to be the most wasted food because of spoilage. Measuring heart rate is easy, measuring vertical jumps is simple, measuring speed is straightforward, but measuring nutrition is hard. Nothing is more demanding than evaluating nutrition because cause and effect involve more than body composition.

Nutritionists and coaches need to blood test their athletes. I devoted an entire article about the reasons why, and I repeat the importance here. If you want to have a complete nutrition program, blood testing is the winning ticket.

Several programs try to use proxy tests for testosterone, which is clinical guesswork using subjective questions. Testing blood is the only way to learn what is truly going on internally. If you want to know if a diet is working, do body composition measurements, field tests, and biochemical testing.

Summary: Quarterly blood tests are the standard for athletes and ensure athletes are following their dietary practices. Follow-up testing with other biochemical tests helps with complex problems and specific challenges when needed.

Several pundits attacking the efficacy of genetic testing tend to throw the baby out with the bathwater too often. Instead of bashing it and highlighting what is wrong, share what is useful and what works. Summary: Read the research and science on genetics and nutrition to understand how food interacts with the human body.

Omega-3s are overpriced and spending money on multivitamins is a waste. And many supplement companies charge too much money for too little. Athletes and teams on tight budgets lose thousands of dollars over a few years that they could have spent on therapy or travel.

I prioritize vitamin D and next to that are healthy fats. Blood testing saves money in year two—mapping lifestyle patterns cuts unnecessary costs.

Some companies are aware of necessary doses, but they care about profits and not results. A more recent strategy adopted by some athletes is to train with low body carbohydrate levels and intakes train low.

There is accumulating evidence that carefully planned periods of training with low carbohydrate availability may enhance some of the adaptations in muscle to the training program. However, currently the benefits of this approach to athletic performance are unclear.

The GI has become of increasing interest to athletes in the area of sports nutrition. However, the particular timing of ingestion of carbohydrate foods with different GIs around exercise might be important. There is a suggestion that low GI foods may be useful before exercise to provide a more sustained energy release, although evidence is not convincing in terms of any resulting performance benefit.

Moderate to high GI foods and fluids may be the most beneficial during exercise and in the early recovery period. However, it is important to remember the type and timing of food eaten should be tailored to personal preferences and to maximise the performance of the particular sport in which the person is involved.

A high-carbohydrate meal 3 to 4 hours before exercise is thought to have a positive effect on performance. A small snack one to 2 hours before exercise may also benefit performance. It is important to ensure good hydration prior to an event. Consuming approximately ml of fluid in the 2 to 4 hours prior to an event may be a good general strategy to take.

Some people may experience a negative response to eating close to exercise. A meal high in fat, protein or fibre is likely to increase the risk of digestive discomfort. It is recommended that meals just before exercise should be high in carbohydrates as they do not cause gastrointestinal upset.

Liquid meal supplements may also be appropriate, particularly for athletes who suffer from pre-event nerves. For athletes involved in events lasting less than 60 minutes in duration, a mouth rinse with a carbohydrate beverage may be sufficient to help improve performance.

Benefits of this strategy appear to relate to effects on the brain and central nervous system. During exercise lasting more than 60 minutes, an intake of carbohydrate is required to top up blood glucose levels and delay fatigue.

Current recommendations suggest 30 to 60 g of carbohydrate is sufficient, and can be in the form of lollies, sports gels, sports drinks, low-fat muesli and sports bars or sandwiches with white bread.

It is important to start your intake early in exercise and to consume regular amounts throughout the exercise period. It is also important to consume regular fluid during prolonged exercise to avoid dehydration.

Sports drinks, diluted fruit juice and water are suitable choices. For people exercising for more than 4 hours, up to 90 grams of carbohydrate per hour is recommended.

Carbohydrate foods and fluids should be consumed after exercise, particularly in the first one to 2 hours after exercise. While consuming sufficient total carbohydrate post-exercise is important, the type of carbohydrate source might also be important, particularly if a second training session or event will occur less than 8 hours later.

In these situations, athletes should choose carbohydrate sources with a high GI for example white bread, white rice, white potatoes in the first half hour or so after exercise.

This should be continued until the normal meal pattern resumes. Since most athletes develop a fluid deficit during exercise, replenishment of fluids post-exercise is also a very important consideration for optimal recovery. It is recommended that athletes consume 1.

Protein is an important part of a training diet and plays a key role in post-exercise recovery and repair. Protein needs are generally met and often exceeded by most athletes who consume sufficient energy in their diet. The amount of protein recommended for sporting people is only slightly higher than that recommended for the general public.

For athletes interested in increasing lean mass or muscle protein synthesis, consumption of a high-quality protein source such as whey protein or milk containing around 20 to 25 g protein in close proximity to exercise for example, within the period immediately to 2 hours after exercise may be beneficial.

As a general approach to achieving optimal protein intakes, it is suggested to space out protein intake fairly evenly over the course of a day, for instance around 25 to 30 g protein every 3 to 5 hours, including as part of regular meals.

There is currently a lack of evidence to show that protein supplements directly improve athletic performance.

Athletes need protein in their diet so they can maintain their muscles. It is very important, therefore, that you understand your body and how much protein it requires.

The average person needs just under two grams of protein per kilogram of body weight. For a pound athlete, that is about grams of protein per day. Avoid protein supplements that put a strain on your kidneys.

Instead, eat high-quality protein, like fish, nuts, poultry, lean meats, beans, eggs, or milk. Milk is especially to good drink after a game, as it provides both carbohydrates and protein.

Even just a small drop in hydration levels can detrimentally impact athletic performance. As a rule, athletes should drink about two cups of fluid prior to training, and then four to six ounces of fluid every 15 minutes of exercise.

You can drink water, milk, sports, and percent fruit juice to maintain your hydration. But you should be aware that percent fruit juice and sports drinks tend to be high in sugar content. You should only drink sports drinks when you are playing the game and need a fast hydration and electrolyte replacement.

Of all the essential nutrition tips for athletes, it is perhaps most important that they heed this one: athletes should avoid processed foods at all costs, especially if they are coming close to a competition.

Processed foods can make you feel drowsy and cause a loss of concentration. To that end, athletes should stay far away from sugary breakfast cereals, tinned vegetables, bread, microwave or ready-made meals, and cakes. This may look like a plea to give up truly pleasurable parts of your life.