Sports Nutrition 101 - The Benefits of Fueling the Body
9/25/2009 12:00:00 AM
Sept. 25, 2009
The benefits of fueling the body with proper nutrition allows you to...
- Increase in athletic performance
- Increase in conditioning levels
- Increase in strength levels
- Increase in energy levels in everyday life & training
- Increase in mental capacity, acuity, & alertness
- Increase in metabolic functioning
- Increase in immune system functioning
- Increase in lean muscle mass
- Improve recovery time
- Promote muscle repair and growth
- Decrease risk of injury
- Decrease risk of chronic fatigue
- Decrease in body fat
- Decrease in amount of muscle tissue lost during in-season
Food... 100 percent legal... And it works!
Nothing takes the place of good nutrition. As an athlete, you need more vitamins, minerals and calories in order to train at a high level. The lack of these essential nutrients can lead to fatigue, injury and decreased performance.
Your goal is to FUEL your body all day long through meals, snacks and fluids. On top of that, it is important that you get adequate sleep and take at least one day a week to recover and refuel. Without proper sleep and recovery, your body will begin to break down lean muscle mass for energy. Your muscle grows and repairs itself when you are at rest... not when you are training. Also, your muscles take a variety of nutrients to properly recover.
Your goal - as an athlete - is to get adequate energy from carbohydrate, protein and fat consistently over the course of a day starting at breakfast. Eating often (five-to-eight times per day) helps your metabolism stay up. This gives you energy to train/compete, energy to study and it keeps you from feeling like you are "starving" which can lead to overeating.
