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Athletes are busy — they burn calories faster than anyone else and makes the most use of their energy. Oftentimes, they don’t get the chance to prepare a healthy meal ahead of time, this is the reason why getting help from NutriFit healthy meal delivery provides convenience. When a person does something at high intensity, a diet that can help perform better at your peak and recover afterward is important. Below is an athlete’s meal guide to keeping your sporty feet going!
- Get enough protein. Although protein does not provide a lot of energy that an athlete’s body needs, it needs it to maintain the muscles.
- Know how much protein you need. An average person needs about 1.2 to 1.4 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight a day. Athletes may need 1.7 grams per kilogram of body weight such as a 200-pound athlete needs 150 grams per kilogram of protein.
- Choose the right protein food. Protein can cause a strain in your kidney, instead of taking supplements, you can prefer natural food protein donors such as lean meat, fish, poultry, nuts, beans, eggs, or milk.
- Drink Milk. One of the best foods for recovery after an event is milk because it provides a good balance of protein and carbohydrates. This combination is helpful for athletes. It also has calcium know to help and maintain bones get stronger.
- Load up on carbohydrates. This is an athlete’s main source of fuel, as carbohydrates get digested by your body, it changes them to glucose and stores it to the muscle as glycogen and then changes it to energy as you move. If you exercise longer than 90 minutes use these strategies:
- Load carbohydrates 3 to 4 days before an event to help top up the glycogen stores.
- Eat a diet where you get 70% of calories from the foods you take such as breads, cereals, pasta, fruit, and vegetables to achieve maximum carbohydrate storage.
- Eat your last meal 3 to 4 hours before exercising on the day of the event to give your stomach time to get empty.
- Avoid eating sugary or starchy foods within 30 minutes of starting an activity as it can speed up the dehydration.
- Eat a snack and drink fluids every 15 to 20 minutes to replenish carbs, minerals, and water.
- A whole grain bagel or carrot sticks helps reload the lost carbohydrates.
- Drink fluids early and often. Intense exercise matched up with hot weather can leave a person dehydrated. You can determine if yo experience dehydration or not with the color of your pee. A pale yellow color indicates that you are getting enough fluid while a bright yellow or dark urine means you need to drink fluids as you are falling short.
- Go easy on fat. Avoid fatty foods on the day of the event since they can upset the stomach.
- Reach for sports drinks. This helps replace the lost electrolytes gone from sweating. It provides an equal amount of water to get the perfect balance of fluid and electrolytes.
An athlete’s most important treasure is the health of his body, so do what you need to do right.