Athletes, Nutrition & Performance

Athletes go well beyond normal standards in energy expenditure and physically stressing the body’s limits. Unbalanced or deficient diets and dehydration not only will curtail performance ability of an athlete but will also create a much greater risk of injury.

It is assumed that because one is an athlete that they are good examples of physical fitness. In truth their understanding and application of healthy lifestyles is on par with the rest of society. Two recent studies have shown that the eating habits of college athletes are sub par and these athletes are as ignorant of and indifferent to healthy eating habits as the general public.

A recent sports psychology study done on college athletes suffering from overtraining and burnout found that inadequate amounts of caloric intake, sleep, and recovery were the culprits. It took sports psychology to make this obvious deduction. While training intensity adjustments are needed to ensure progress, the monitoring of this is impossible to ascertain unless caloric, hydration and sleep needs are applied by those responsible: the athletes themselves.

While the reasons why vary between genders and across sports, a recent nutrition study of division 1 athletes found out that the vast majority of athletes do not eat enough calories to fuel their performance. Complex carbohydrates are the primary fuel for intense muscular effort yet only 15 percent of the athletes studied consumed adequate carbohydrate amounts. Protein synthesis and muscle hypertrophy will be limited or negated if protein intake is low, even if total energy is sufficient and yet only 26 percent consumed adequate protein. Nearly two-thirds of the female student-athletes reported wanting to lose weight, which is almost always at odds with fueling for athletic performance. Many male athletes, while falling short on overall calories, were consuming more than the recommended amount of fat, saturated fat, and cholesterol.

Email me if you are a college athlete and want to make improvements in your diet to fuel your academic and athletic efforts. I do 1 free phone consultation per week to interested college athletes who impress me via email introduction.