Coaches - Nutrition
Written by Administrator
Saturday, 13 February 2010 08:35
Nutrition info for swimmers
Fatigue is common after hard physical training day after day, especially when you work out twice a day. You might blame your exhaustion on a "bad day". But if you are always tired, it might be due to your diet.
When you exercise, you draw on energy stored as carbohydrate in muscles. This energy comes from the foods you have eaten. During a two-hour workout, you can easily use up all your stored carbohydrates, and the carbohydrate level in your muscles will not be replenished for the next day's training.
Suppose you eat a diet low in carbohydrate. After just three days at two-hour workouts, your muscle carbohydrate can be nearly used up. You are a candidate for fatigue. However, on a high carbohydrate diet after the same workout, your muscle carbohydrate level can be almost as high as it was before you began training. So you can have the energy to train and to compete at your top performance level by eating a diet high in carbohydrate through the season.
The main difference between the training diet and your normal diet is that the training diet is probably higher in carbohydrate. In particular, the training diet includes more foods from the grain group and fruit-vegetable group, which are excellent sources of carbohydrates.
Of course, you will need protein, fat, vitamins, minerals, and water in your diet. You get these nutrients, as well as carbohydrate, by eating a variety of foods from each of the four food groups (dairy, meat, fruit-vegetable, and grain).
Everything you do influences your performance, but your food choices have the most effect due to the long term and short term benefits. A proper diet, including proper selection of foods, will help your training and performance while also achieving a healthy lifestyle once you stop competing.
To ensure a balanced diet, remember that there are no magical nutrition remedies. So forget the fads and eat a variety of wholesome foods from the four food groups. Foods in these groups provide protein, fat carbohydrate, fiber, and all the necessary vitamins and minerals. Your ideal diet should include the following percentage of calories:
- Carbohydrate 50-60%
- Fat 20-30%
- Protein 14-18%
