Athletes have special nutritional needs. Those who work professionally in sport are usually advised by nutritionists who study their specific needs. But you, who do sports on a regular basis, are interested in knowing which foods are best for you to achieve optimal performance. Today we offer you information about the diet for athletes.
In this country we bring you closer to sports nutrition. Our endocrines and nutritionists will answer all your questions and advise you. You will also have to be concerned about couple of matters, such as how long do flax seeds last?
Sports nutrition
Each sport needs a different diet and a specific supply of nutrients. Running twice a week is not the same as being an elite athlete.
Don’t you think
It will not only depend on the type of exercise or caloric expenditure, but also on your goals, lose weight, gain muscle mass, regain strength.
- An athlete’s base diet should not be based solely on muscle proteins. Actually the proportion should be as in a balanced daily diet. That is, 50-60% carbohydrates, 25-30% fat and 10-15% protein.
- For thorough strength training, amino acids will be reinforced in a corrected diet.
- For a competition, a preparation diet will be carried out with greater energy accumulation to avoid deficiencies.
- During a test or competition the specific expense will be taken into account and the contribution of liquids will be reinforced.
- In the recovery diets the lost nutrients will be restored after a maximum effort.
Breakfast for athletes
Going out to practice intense sport after an 8-hour fast is not recommended? After the exercise you will be hungry, but that does not mean you should eat anything. A good breakfast for an athlete will consist of:
- Fruit
- Milk or derivatives
- Wholegrain cereal: Wholemeal bread, whole grains.
You can include some lean protein like turkey or egg if your sport is demanding on a muscular level. Knowing the the health benefits of peanut butter is also important. Look at these examples:
- Milk with cocoa and cereals, bread with tomato and oil and fruit
- Fruit Macedonia, yogurt with muesli and infusion.
- Red fruit smoothie, cheese and turkey integral sandwich.
Food for athletes
A healthy and balanced diet for an athlete, just as for the rest of the mortals must be complete and varied, to be able to introduce the maximum possible ingredients and avoid nutritional deficiencies. But athletes have to place special emphasis on feeding the muscle and getting energy quickly, so they must pay attention to complex carbohydrates, which maintain stable power and the proteins that muscle uses as food.
So if you are an athlete your diet should contain:
Whole grains, such as rice, pasta, bread or breakfast cereals, which contain fiber to eliminate toxins and regulate traffic and provide complex carbohydrates as the main source of energy. You must ingest them every day.
Proteins in the form of white meat, such as chicken, turkey or rabbit, white fish that do not contain fat and are easily digested, sole or hake, blue fish that provide essential fatty acids, such as salmon or sardines, and that help recover after effort, and eggs that contain proteins of great biological value and accelerate metabolism. Every day there will be two portions.
