Question: “You have been meeting with clients for many years. When You are an accomplished elite mountain athlete. What are three themes people think you’re doing wrong in your approach to endurance nutrition?”
As a sports nutritionist who works with athletes on a daily basis, I can say that I’ve seen it all. I’m here. Eat this! don’t eat it! This food is healthy! This food group is unhealthy! This diet is the key to performance! Take this supplement and promise to run as fast as Killian!
humans face a remake 200 food decisions every daybut most of us can’t even decide what to make for dinner tonight. The thing can be overwhelming and stressful, even for a trained nutritionist.
As a general consumer of media and an athlete myself, I totally understand that. I have the greatest empathy for athletes who are completely lost as to what they can do.
So I started taking close notes on some of the most common questions my endurance athlete clients ask me. Below are three of the most common nutrition issues I see.
Problem #1: Not Eating Enough
The biggest problem I see is athletes not eating enough. We often don’t know how much we actually need to eat to account for these stressors.
There are so many things that can complicate this, such as changes in appetite after a run, lack of fuel while running, or an enormous amount of time spent on your feet that can rob you of the time you spend eating. Eating is so difficult that athletes must dedicate as much time, effort and attention to eating as they do to training. We also need to compare the differences between the Hoka Speedgoat 5 and Speedgoat 4 in detail.
Chronic overeating, whether intentional or accidental, can cause a variety of hormonal changes that negatively affect the immune system, increase the risk of injury, and adversely affect performance.
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it until the day I die – real food, full of nutrients and moderation, and what brings us physical and emotional satisfaction is the secret to performance.
I always tell athletes to eat more when in doubt! Athletes rarely overeat, even if they really try. Double his servings, add snacks, eat more before, during, and after your run, always have dessert, and keep fun foods around the house. These help the athlete reach her daily calorie intake.
I personally love adding avocado to everything from tacos, toast, crackers, rice bowls, smoothies, and more. There’s no easier, tastier way to get more calories, micronutrients and healthy fats. Or my personal favorite is the “one pint of ice cream a night” tradition.
Problem 2: Believe in the silver bullet.
Just as you can’t outrun a bad diet, you can’t take a lot of supplements to negate bad dietary choices. rice field.
It may seem like an easy method, but it doesn’t always replace the benefits you get from eating real, nutritious foods. Although there are some exceptions for athletes with high blood pressure, it is possible to get all the nutrients you need from a well-balanced, nutrient-dense diet. For example, vegans can increase their iron intake by making chili, which is a combination of iron-rich beans and tomatoes. It can increase the absorption of iron from sources.
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Supplements such as fancy green powders, mega doses of multivitamins, and meal replacement powders are attractive because of their convenience, but they are often only short-term solutions with short-term benefits. , vitamins, minerals, fiber, antioxidants, and more, real foods rich in nutrients are much better absorbed and tolerated. It gives you what you need to function properly and efficiently.
Nor is more the better. When you take certain types of supplements, you run the risk of toxicity, especially with regard to fat-soluble vitamins (A, D, E, and K) and iron. may be connected.
Taking high levels of water-soluble vitamins (Vitamin B and Vitamin C) will make your urine really expensive as it will excrete everything your body doesn’t need. Either way, we’re probably just throwing money down the toilet (literally) or just setting ourselves up for potential future health problems. lower in weight and the body utilizes them better.
Problem #3: Following a specific diet in hopes of achieving better performance.
You name it, I saw it. I’ve seen athletes follow restrictive diets like keto, paleo, gluten-free, and even outrageous diets like the grapefruit and bacon diet… on their fingers.
In most cases, athletes may be influenced by professional athletes following the same type of diet, or someone in their running group may have successfully followed that diet. And while I’m sure some people have found success after certain restrictive diets, that’s by no means the secret to unlocking your potential and improving your performance.
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Food plays many roles for us – physical, emotional and social – and its role on physical and mental health is multifaceted. Restricting food in hopes of boosting performance (hence happiness too!) will undoubtedly reduce performance in the long run. When it comes to our bodies, the stress associated with restrictions and diets has a negative impact on our overall health, impacting our performance and longevity in sports.
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it until the day I die – real food, full of nutrients and moderation, and what brings us physical and emotional satisfaction is the secret to performance.
Alex Borsuk Hasenohr (MS) is a sports nutritionist and professional trail runner with Dynafit. She is passionate about using hands-on nutrition to help athletes reach their full potential and can be reached through her website.
