Picking the right workout isn’t enough to hit your warm-weather fitness goals.
Sure, we all (hopefully) know that you can’t out-exercise a bad diet, but it’s about more than that. After all, food is fuel. Without the right fuel in the tank, you’re not going to get where you want to go. It doesn’t matter if you’re a triathlete, stand-up paddle boarder or training for your first 5K.
“What you eat right now might sustain you for a 9-to-5 job but leave you drained during or after an hourlong workout,” explains registered dietitian Marie Spano, a board-certified sports dietitian with the Atlanta Hawks. “With exercise training, fueling needs change.”
[See: 8 Signs You Are Made to Be an Athlete.]
Fuel Rules Every Athlete Should Follow
Mastering these six fueling strategies can help every athlete a build a foundation for success.
1. Eat Every Four Hours
Whether you’re training for fat-loss, a race personal best or just fun, how you fuel your body around the clock — not just immediately before or after exercise — affects your workouts, says board-certified sports dietitian Georgie Fear, a registered dietitian and author of “Lean Habits for Lifelong Weight Loss.” “Try to avoid starving and then feasting; just stay fed by regularly eating while you’re awake,” she says. Bonus: By eating regularly throughout the day, you can largely eliminate the need to worry about dedicated pre- and post-workout meals. Just schedule your workout between your regular meals.
2. Spread Your Protein Intake Throughout the Day
Americans are notorious for getting the bulk of their protein intake at dinner. However, 2014 research published in the Journal of Nutrition shows that simply distributing your regular protein intake more evenly throughout the day improves the body’s ability to build lean muscle. Whatever your sport or workout goal, having healthy levels of muscle will help you reach it. “Eat at least 25 to 30 grams of protein per meal,” Spano recommends. And, remember, those meals should be frequent.
[See: 5 Unintended Consequences of Eating Too Much Protein.]
3. Boost Your Hydration Factor
“Most of us are chronically dehydrated, which can take a toll on your ability to focus and concentrate when exercising, and it can impair your strength and power,” Spano says. Research in the Journal of Athletic Training also shows that dehydration can worsen post-exercise muscle soreness. She recommends drinking enough fluid that you have to use the restroom every few hours.
During exercise, aim to drink 6 to 8 ounces of water every 15 to 30 minutes, Spano says. Ideally, when you finish your workout, your weight should be no more than 2 percent less than your starting weight. (So if you start a workout at 150 pounds, you should weight at least 147 when you finish.) Any additional losses in weight point to significant dehydration.
4. Follow a Whole Diet
That means cutting down on packaged foods and focusing on nature-made foods such as fruits, vegetables, whole grains, dairy and meats, says Joe Howdyshell, national head coach for the United States National Ski Mountaineering Team and owner of the Summit Endurance Academy in Breckenridge, Colorado. (If it comes with an ingredients list, the shorter that list is, the better.) When working with athletes, his major nutritional focus is on “cleaning up” their plates, helping them reduce the amount of low-performing ultra-processed foods such as frozen pizzas, fries and chips they consume. Put junk in, and you can expect to get junk out.
5. Listen to Your Hunger and Satiety Cues
It’s important not to under-fuel — which can hurt your exercise performance, cause fatigue and potentially even lead to immune problems — but you don’t want to over-fuel either. “Be cautious, though, that you don’t overcompensate for how many calories you think you burned,” Fear says. “I’ve seen many many athletes do this and end up gaining 5 or 10 pounds over a four-month training block.” For instance, a woman may only need 350 extra daily calories to fuel a 4-mile run. “That’s not much — an extra half-cup of rice and Greek yogurt plus fruit,” Spano says. Eat when you’re hungry and stop eating when you are slightly full (but not stuffed).
6. Never Exercise on Empty
With the sun coming up earlier, spring is the perfect time to revive your morning workouts. “It can be tough to tolerate food before an early sweat session, but going in on fumes can mean a shaky, weak or even puke-y feeling,” says Fear, noting that low blood-sugar levels can lead to poor performances and even fainting, so it’s not something you want to risk. Her suggestion: Try to eat a small (100- to 150-calorie) snack that’s rich in carbs as soon as you can so that you have something in your stomach and bloodstream during your workout. A banana, apple or a piece of whole-wheat toast will work. “After your workout, consume your full, regular breakfast,” she says.
[See: 7 Diet Mistakes Sabotaging Your Weight Loss.]
Fit Your Fuel Strategy to Your Exercise Goals
Got down the basics? Good. Now take your exercise routine to the next level by integrating these tailored approaches.
For Improving Speed or Endurance …
“In general, the longer or the greater intensity your workouts, the more calories you will need,” Spano says. “These extra calories should come from protein and carbohydrates.” Carbs become especially important when you are exercising above your lactate threshold (aka: the intensity at which your body has to use both aerobic and anaerobic metabolism to produce energy, identified as when you can no longer keep up a conversation), Howdyshell says.
As long as you are getting about 40 percent of your daily calories from carbs, you are likely well-fueled for most exercise, though research published in Sports Medicine shows that consuming a small amount of carbs during high-intensity exercises lasting 45 minutes to an hour can improve exercise performance. However, if you are going much longer than that — and especially if you are exercising for longer than 90 minutes — intra-exercise carbs are vital to keeping blood sugar and energy levels where they need to be.
For Building Muscle and Burning Fat …
“If your plans are to lift heavy things and gain muscle, you’ll want to make sure you eat at least 1.4 grams of protein per kilogram body weight — and even more than that won’t hurt,” Fear says. While the current recommended daily allowance, or RDA, for protein is 0.8 grams per kilogram of body weight per day, that number is the minimum amount the body requires, rather than an optimum amount.
For instance, a 2015 review published in Applied Physiology, Nutrition, and Metabolism concluded that to maintain healthy levels of lean muscle mass, most individuals actually need far more protein than the RDA. And since more muscle means a faster metabolism, it states that increasing your protein intake, especially when combined with physical activity, can improve fat-loss results. (Intakes of up to 2.8 grams of protein per kilogram body weight per day is healthy in athletes, according to the review.)
While scientists and trainers have long worried about exercisers consuming protein during the “anabolic window,” the short time following a workout when the body was believed to build muscle, current research shows that this ” anabolic window” actually extends for several hours following exercise. Hence that previous “eat every four hours” recommendation.
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Will Your Diet Support Your Spring Training Regimen? originally appeared on usnews.com
