Nutrition tips: what to eat and when based on Swimming.
A daily intake of 10,000 calories might be enough to sustain five average men for a day, but it meets the needs of just one all-conquering swimmer. When asked to describe his daily regime, Michael Phelps, the American swimmer who won eight gold medals in Beijing 2008, said: "Eat, sleep and swim, that's all I can do". While Phelps' food requirement is exceptional, most elite swimmers need to gobble between 3,000 and 6,000 calories a day just to replace the energy they use up in intense training.
They are in the pool twice a day, often performing sessions that deplete their glycogen stores - the body's source of fuel in exercise – completely. Tiny muscle fibres get damaged when they are training so hard and need to be healed, and a high carbohydrate, low-fat diet with some protein is the best way to keep their bodies on top form.
Typically, a top swimmer will eat main meals based around carbohydrate foods such as bread, potatoes and pasta. When it comes to a race or training session, they consume a large meal - often pasta with a tomato-based sauce - about four hours beforehand. One to two hours before swimming, it's a good idea to have a light meal of breakfast-type foods such as cereal, toast and fruit jam, which is easy to digest. Moments before competing many swimmers use isotonic gels or sports fluids containing tiny particles of easily digestible carbohydrate.
Dehydration.
Because swimming pools are generally cooler than the body's core temperature, it is unlikely that swimmers will sweat too much or overheat, so dehydration is not a great risk. Pool water is generally heated to about 26-29C, which has a cooling effect on the body. Although swimmers don't have as great a need for fluid intake during training as, say, distance runners or cyclists, they still need to make sure they drink enough. Generally, the rule is to drink about 125ml of fluid for every kilometre swum.
Post-swim snacking
A lot of people neglect the food they eat after intense exercise, but it's very important. Try drinking fresh fruit juice to supply carbohydrate, fluid and electrolytes or body salts - dilute with water if it tastes too acidic.
As a guideline, you should aim to eat 0.5g of carbohydrate for every pound of body weight two to three hours after you finish training to top up your depleted glycogen stores. Rest and replenish are the rules after intense swimming, your body needs to recover!
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Monday, 25 July 2011
Swimming Nutrition Advice & Tips
Swimming Nutrition Advice & Tips
After hours of hard training sessions you are well prepared and determined for your next gala. You’re feeling great and are in tip top form. You’ve obviously been doing a lot of things right. However, the gala has a different set of challenges, you will face days or even weeks of competition, often away from home. Hours will be spent on a hot humid pool-side, and you will need to cope with the physical and mental stresses of swimming heats and hopefully finals!
There are 3 main factors to consider when planning your nutritional strategy for competition:
1. Energy Provision
All Olympic disciplines of swimming are heavily dependent upon the carbohydrate energy system. If you are to swim at your best you will need to ensure that your nutrition contains adequate amounts of carbohydrate energy to fully replace your muscle glycogen stores. Carbohydrate is stored in the body as muscle glycogen.
2. Hydration
It is well documented that as little as 2% loss in body weight due to dehydration will cause performance to fall by 10%. Dehydration can be a major factor in swimming because of the nature of the environment.
3. Maintaining a familiar nutrition programme.
It’s best to check what food will be available at the race venue and your accommodation before you get there rather than find out they have nothing you like when you arrive. Better still make sure you have taken enough food yourself so you know what you will be eating. Sports nutrition bars can be especially useful to provide a nutritious high energy snack that is easily carried in your kit bag.
There is no doubt that the swimmers who look after their fluid and energy needs will be at a major advantage over those who take less care about what and how much they drink. Pool sides tend to be very hot and humid at the best of times, by the time you’ve packed in all the competitors and spectators the temperatures soar, and sweat rates are likely to be far above normal. An electrolyte fluid replacement drink is ideal. Have a drinks bottle with you at all times. You’ll be doing yourself a favour even its just water.
CAUTION : Be careful about drinking too much tea, coffee, cola’s, or other drinks with caffeine in as this has a diuretic effect and can make matters worse. Keep your carbohydrate energy levels high. Maintaining optimum glycogen levels is the key to maintaining optimum performance.
Most swimmers could complete a training session without supplementing their carbohydrate energy stores with an energy drink, but how is this likely to affect performance on the long as well as the short term?
Once you are running low on carbohydrate energy the body has to rely increasingly upon its fat stores to supply the fuel for exercise. Fat is a very good store of energy, but when it comes to using it, fat has a much higher oxygen cost than carbohydrate. This means that the body will have to work much harder to supply more oxygen to the working muscles in order to go at the same speed, so you will not be able to swim as fast as when carbohydrate is available.
This is really important when you consider that the longest Olympic swimming event takes less than 15 minutes. It is easy to see the consequences in competition, less especially for long distance open water swims, this energy system will have little to do with your success in the Olympic swimming distances. Since it is the carbohydrate energy systems which are most important for success in these events, then it makes sense to use and improve these energy systems during training. Your training sessions will not only be less mentally taxing but more productive as well! Obvious when you think about its effect on training. Training whilst glycogen depleted will not only be hard work and mentally taxing, but could result in training the wrong energy system for competition. Long training sessions whilst running low on carbohydrate energy will have to be at a lower intensity and will train the fat burning energy system.
Whilst there are benefits of having a good fat burning energy system, especially for long distance open water swims, this energy system will have little to do with your success in the Olympic swimming distances.
Since it is the carbohydrate energy systems which are most important for success in these events, then it makes sense to use and improve these energy systems during training. Your training sessions will not only be less mentally taxing but more productive as well!
After hours of hard training sessions you are well prepared and determined for your next gala. You’re feeling great and are in tip top form. You’ve obviously been doing a lot of things right. However, the gala has a different set of challenges, you will face days or even weeks of competition, often away from home. Hours will be spent on a hot humid pool-side, and you will need to cope with the physical and mental stresses of swimming heats and hopefully finals!
There are 3 main factors to consider when planning your nutritional strategy for competition:
1. Energy Provision
All Olympic disciplines of swimming are heavily dependent upon the carbohydrate energy system. If you are to swim at your best you will need to ensure that your nutrition contains adequate amounts of carbohydrate energy to fully replace your muscle glycogen stores. Carbohydrate is stored in the body as muscle glycogen.
2. Hydration
It is well documented that as little as 2% loss in body weight due to dehydration will cause performance to fall by 10%. Dehydration can be a major factor in swimming because of the nature of the environment.
3. Maintaining a familiar nutrition programme.
It’s best to check what food will be available at the race venue and your accommodation before you get there rather than find out they have nothing you like when you arrive. Better still make sure you have taken enough food yourself so you know what you will be eating. Sports nutrition bars can be especially useful to provide a nutritious high energy snack that is easily carried in your kit bag.
There is no doubt that the swimmers who look after their fluid and energy needs will be at a major advantage over those who take less care about what and how much they drink. Pool sides tend to be very hot and humid at the best of times, by the time you’ve packed in all the competitors and spectators the temperatures soar, and sweat rates are likely to be far above normal. An electrolyte fluid replacement drink is ideal. Have a drinks bottle with you at all times. You’ll be doing yourself a favour even its just water.
CAUTION : Be careful about drinking too much tea, coffee, cola’s, or other drinks with caffeine in as this has a diuretic effect and can make matters worse. Keep your carbohydrate energy levels high. Maintaining optimum glycogen levels is the key to maintaining optimum performance.
Most swimmers could complete a training session without supplementing their carbohydrate energy stores with an energy drink, but how is this likely to affect performance on the long as well as the short term?
Once you are running low on carbohydrate energy the body has to rely increasingly upon its fat stores to supply the fuel for exercise. Fat is a very good store of energy, but when it comes to using it, fat has a much higher oxygen cost than carbohydrate. This means that the body will have to work much harder to supply more oxygen to the working muscles in order to go at the same speed, so you will not be able to swim as fast as when carbohydrate is available.
This is really important when you consider that the longest Olympic swimming event takes less than 15 minutes. It is easy to see the consequences in competition, less especially for long distance open water swims, this energy system will have little to do with your success in the Olympic swimming distances. Since it is the carbohydrate energy systems which are most important for success in these events, then it makes sense to use and improve these energy systems during training. Your training sessions will not only be less mentally taxing but more productive as well! Obvious when you think about its effect on training. Training whilst glycogen depleted will not only be hard work and mentally taxing, but could result in training the wrong energy system for competition. Long training sessions whilst running low on carbohydrate energy will have to be at a lower intensity and will train the fat burning energy system.
Whilst there are benefits of having a good fat burning energy system, especially for long distance open water swims, this energy system will have little to do with your success in the Olympic swimming distances.
Since it is the carbohydrate energy systems which are most important for success in these events, then it makes sense to use and improve these energy systems during training. Your training sessions will not only be less mentally taxing but more productive as well!
Monday, 13 June 2011
Tuesday, 24 May 2011
Protein Packed Meals.
Protein-Packed Meals.
Cream of Tomato Soup with Cubed Chicken and Wild Rice
This is a delicious, protein-packed twist on the classic tomato soup. Fast and easy to prepare and so warming and comforting.
Preparation time: 20 minutes
Cooking time: 1 hour
Ingredients: 3 cups of chicken stock 3 cups of water 1 cup long grain wild rice 10 plum tomatoes (pureed in your food processor or blender) 4 skinless, boneless breasts of chicken (with excess fat removed), cubed 1/2 cup fresh basil Fat-free sour cream
Directions:
In a large, heavy pot, combine chicken stock, water, rice, pureed tomatoes, and cubed chicken (uncooked).
Bring to a boil over medium-high heat and reduce heat to a simmer.
Cook on low heat for one hour.
Before serving, dollop with sour cream and top with fresh basil.
Chicken and Black Bean Wraps
Preparation time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 30 minutes
Ingredients: 4 large skinless, boneless breasts of chicken (remove all excess fat), grilled and chopped 1/4 cup red onion (peeled and chopped fine) 1 15-oz can black beans (rinsed and drained) 2 jalapeno peppers (remove seeds and sliced thin) 1 6-oz can yellow corn (drained) Romaine lettuce (cleaned and shredded) 1 cup fat-free sour cream 1/4 cup fat-free ranch dressing 2 Tbs low-sodium taco seasoning 6 large whole-wheat wraps or soft whole-wheat tortillas
Directions:
Preheat grill to medium-high heat and cook chicken until golden brown and juices run clear when pierced with a fork.
Or
Prepare in oven at 350 degrees for 20 to 25 minutes until golden brown. Chop into small cubes.
Combine chicken, onion, beans, peppers, corn, and lettuce in a medium size bowl and set aside.
In a small bowl, combine sour cream, ranch dressing, and taco seasoning. Pour mixture into the bowl of chicken and mix until all is coated well with the dressing.
Fill wraps and roll like burritos and serve immediately.
Turkey Chili
Preparation time: 20 minutes
Cooking time: 1 hour
Ingredients: 2 Tbs light olive oil 2 cups onion (peeled and chopped) 1 medium red bell pepper (seeded and chopped) 5 cloves garlic (peeled and minced) 2 lbs lean ground turkey 3 cups chicken broth 1 1/2 Tbs chili powder 1 tsp cayenne 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon 1/2 tsp fresh ground pepper 2 tsp coarse salt Fat-free sour cream 2 green onions (cleaned and chopped)
Directions:
In a large heavy pot, combine onion, pepper, and garlic with 1 Tbsp olive oil over med-high heat. Cook, stirring occasionally, until medium brown and onion is transparent.
At the same time, in a large skillet, brown ground turkey over medium-high heat.
When turkey is browned, add to the onion mixture (once it's fully cooked). Add broth, chili powder, cayenne, cinnamon, salt, and pepper.
Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low and cook for 1 hour.
Serve warm and topped with fat-free sour cream and chopped green onion.
Chicken and White Bean Chile
Preparation time: 20 minutes
Cooking time Crock-pot: 3 to 4 hours
Ingredients: 2 lbs skinless, boneless breasts of chicken (with all excess fat removed), cubed 2 cups chicken stock 2 cups water 1 cup white onion (peeled and diced) 3 jalapenos (seeded and diced) 1 Tbs light olive oil 2 Tbs chili powder 1/2 tsp oregano 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper 1 16-oz can white (northern) beans Fat-free sour cream Fat-free cheddar cheese 1 jalapeno (seeded and chopped fine) 2 green onions (cleaned and chopped)
Directions:
Pour 1 Tbs light olive oil into a large, heavy skillet. Add chicken. Cook over med-high heat until golden brown.
In a large Crockpot, add all ingredients and cook on high for three to four hours or until desired consistency.
Serve warm, topped with fat-free sour cream, green onion, jalapenos, and fat-free cheddar cheese.
Lemon-Pesto Chicken
Preparation time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 25 minutes
Ingredients: 4 skinless, boneless breasts of chicken (remove all excess fat) 3 Tbs pesto sauce (your favorite brand or homemade if you have it) 3 large fresh lemons (juiced and seeds removed) 1 tsp lemon zest 1/8 tsp both course salt and fresh ground pepper
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butterfly your chicken.
In a large bowl, combine pesto, lemon, zest, salt, and pepper. Add chicken and coat well.
In a 9 x 11 baking dish, bake chicken at 350 degrees for 20 to 25 minutes or until the juices of the meat run clear.
Serve with rice and steamed or roasted veggies.
Chicken Macaroni
Preparation time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 1 hour
Ingredients: 2 skinless, boneless breasts of chicken (all excess fat removed), chopped 3 cups chicken stock 3 cups water 1 can garbanzo beans (aka, chick peas) 2 cups whole-wheat macaroni noodles 1 small can tomato paste 1 lb baby spinach
Directions:
In a large, heavy pot, combine chicken, stock, water, and garbanzo beans. Bring to a rapid boil over medium-high heat for five minutes. Reduce to medium-low heat.
Cook over medium-low heat for 20 minutes.
Add macaroni noodles and tomato paste. Cook until macaroni is tender when pierced with a fork (about 15 minutes).
Add spinach and cook for three more minutes.
Serve warm.
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