Improving Performance Through Nutrition

Athletes are always looking for that special drink, powder, bar, or gel to help improve their performance. But the truth is, most athletes I see are concerned with putting on unwanted pounds, which leads to them not eating or drinking enough calories.
When you want to maximize stamina, endurance, and output, not only what you eat, how much of it you consume, and how often you take in calories, is critical in enhancing performance. For the endurance athlete, meals and hydration before, during and after a workout can be underestimated. Depending on the type of exercise performed, it is necessary to replace lost nutrients back into the body within15 minutes post workout to promote optimal recovery, as well as to restore muscle glycogen storage. This creates a better scenario for the next workout in that torn muscle tissue is repaired, and the maximum amount of energy is available to the muscle. What percentage of each nutrient and the number of grams needed to make this happen depend on many factors: weight, gender, sport-specific training, % lean body mass, among other variables.
If an athlete is trying to decrease body fat and increase lean tissue, it is crucial to take in enough calories in the form of carbohydrates to prevent the body from using protein as an energy source, but rather for muscle synthesis. This often gets overlooked in that carbs have gotten a bad rap for years...remember not all carbs are created equal!

If you are an athlete who would like to enhance your sport-specific perfomance, contact me or a local Registered Dietitian who specializes in Sports Nutrition, and who has a background in Fitness Training.

Monique Boulet RD, CDN, CPT

518 312 6309