Mark Allen on food

The Grip by Mark Allen
Eat To Win  

What fuel are you putting in that athletic engine? Hopefully all good stuff! The wiser the food choices you make the more efficient your body will be at replenishing its reserves after workouts and repairing itself at nighttime. Let me give a few general themes to go by to help you craft your meals around foods that you like. As an example, we all need good carbs to replace used glycogen after long workouts. Where you get those good carbs will depend on your personal preference. It can be from whole grain breads, brown rice, yams, or tortillas. Your choice. So let's take a look at the basics. Then from there you can fill in the blanks as far as the exact foods you choose.

Carbohydrates. These are essential for both exercising efficiently and for repair work. Even at aerobic levels of intensity it takes a bit of carbohydrate's stored energy to be released to fuel the fat burning chain of events. No carbs, very slow fat burning (only from converting protein to carbohydrate which is so slow it won't really help you in training or racing). It is also necessary for protein synthesis. Carbs provide the fuel to make new muscle when you are sleeping like a baby. But it only works if you have it available.

Immediately following a long session it is recommended to get up to 1gm of carbohydrate for every kg of body weight in during the first hour. Then over the course of 24 hours the range goes from 8-19gm/kg of body weight. So if you weight 160-lbs that would be roughly 72gm of carb in the first hour post workout or about 300 calories.

With the exception of the first bit of carb post workout, your main source should be from foods that have all their fiber still intact and that are not high glycemic carbs.  A modest amount of higher glycemic carbohydrate taken immediately after a workout can be okay for most people, but for all of us the bulk should come from whole grains, real fruit (not just juice), and legumes.  Try keeping simple sugars to a bare minimum. Even those "healthy" sodas are chock full of carbs that will send your blood sugar skyrocketing, which is not a good thing for stabilizing your body.

Protein. Your daily need for protein, just like carbohydrate, is related to your exercise levels. The more you workout the more protein you will need. Many recommendations put that number at 1.2-1.4gm/kg of body weight per day for endurance athletes. Any amount above about 2gm/kg of body weight has been shown to cause dehydration and excess urea, neither of which is a good thing.

So for our 160-lb endurance machine, that is going to be as much as 100gm of protein needed daily. Just like the carbs, timing can help with protein utilization. Research suggests that protein taking in that first hour after exercise if eaten with carbohydrate causes the release of insulin and human growth hormone, which work to help build new muscle. The reverse of this is that waiting several hours after a long workout to take in protein and carb will reduce the effectiveness of both at doing their job to replenish and repair.

Where you get your protein is going to be personal choice. It can come from animal sources including dairy or from vegetable origins by combining a grain with a legume to create a complete protein with all the amino acids you need to build and repair muscle.

Fats. Not all fats are created equal. There are two basic types: saturated and unsaturated, which includes omega-3, omega-6 and omega-9 oils. Each form has its purpose in your body. All are needed. Some are easy to get and others more difficult. Saturated fats are the easiest to get if you eat animal products (which includes dairy). Omega-3 oils come from sources including cold-water fish, walnuts and beans. These increase fat burning and oxygenation to the tissues as well as reduce inflammation. Omega-6 oils like canola, safflower and soy oil, in small amounts are okay. But in a body that is stressed out they can turn into saturated fat and gum up the works. So go easy on these. Omega-9 oils come from olive oil and are stable in the body and do all the good things (reduce inflammation and increase fat burning).

If you are working out a lot about 20% of your total calories can come from fat. With less activity that percentage actually goes up even though the total calories you take in daily and the total fat calories would go down.

Overall Calories. There at lots of great calorie calculators online if you search them. But a very general need is about 18-19 calories per pound of body weight (more with more activity). So for the 160-lb triathlete training a decent amount, the total is going to be close to 3,000/day.

Cheers,
Mark