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Are you a weight trainer or athlete in Houston who needs peak performance from your body…

Take the guess work out of your dietary needs!  Gain energy when needed without  special foods or drugs.  Get top performance from your body and and feel your best now and forever.

How do I optimize my fuel stores?

Your body can use either stored sugars (glycogen or glucose) or fat as ready sources of energy. In extreme circumstances it will feed on your lean tissues (muscle). As an athlete it is extremely important that your stores are always topped up. This can be achieved by eating every 2.5-3.5 hours.

What is the best eating plan for an athlete?

Numerous studies conquer that top performance comes from balance. Every meal and snack should have a carbohydrate, protein and some fat. Athletes who restrict carbohydrates cannot sustain performance. Athletes who restrict protein will not repair muscle. Athletes who restrict fat end up with hormone imbalance. 

What are micronutrients?

Micronutrients are vitamins and minerals. These are extremely important to regulate body functions and for optimal health. Fatigue, poor immunity, difficulty losing fat, muscle function, organ health and much more are reliant upon micronutrients. In the 1920’s we could get our daily requirement for the micronutrients from approximately 2 cups of vegetables. In the present day, it would take about 75 cups of organic spinach just to get our daily requirement of minerals alone. This is due, in part, to poor soil quality. Our soil is void of chromium, iron, iodine and more. 

Macronutrients

What are macronutrients?

There are three macronutrients. These are carbohydrates, protein and fat. All are essential to healthy body function. An excess of any one of these can lead to poor health and performance. When considering a balanced diet it is critical to be able to read a food label.  

Vitamins and minerals, the micronutrients, are critical. With stress, food additives, exercise, exposure to toxins and oxidation of cells the athlete must supplement with a high quality multivitamin. It is impossible to get all nutrients from food due to poor soil quality and the demands of daily life.

Carbohydrates – 1 gram of carbohydrate has 4 calories

Carbohydrates are fruits, vegetables, grains and sugars. Your body converts carbohydrates to glucose and eventually glycogen during digestion. Glucose is an easily used simple sugar and is crucial for energy. Glycogen is stored in the muscles.

Your body has a limited storage capacity for carbohydrates. It can store approximately 200 grams in your muscles and an additional 90 grams in your liver. This is equivalent to about nine bananas.

When you are training or competing these stores run out very quickly and you may experience fatigue, dizziness, weakness, or severe inertia.

Every meal must have a carbohydrate component. Pre-workout should include complex carbohydrates such as oatmeal or other whole grains. White flour should be avoided as it gives a severe blood sugar high and then a low. Wheat flour attracts more molecules of water to it than other grains and may cause bloating and some people may have an inflammatory response. Rice, oats, sweet potatoes, spelt, kamut, quinoa, potatoes, bananas, and fruits are all excellent higher glycemic foods which will produce plenty of energy.

If you have an easy training day or a rest day choose vegetables over heavy complex carbohydrates as your demands are lower. Vegetables are easy to digest and have fewer carbohydrates per serving. Ideally it is best to eat more carbohydrates on a heavy training or competition day and the night before and fewer on easy days.

Fiber is critical to performance. When you exercise your body produces many toxins that must be eliminated. Ideally you should consume 2 grams of fiber for every 100 calories. Studies illustrate that people who consume a minimum of 30 grams of fiber per day have greater performance due to hormone balance, waste elimination and digestive tract health.

Lastly, your body cannot burn fat without carbohydrates. In the absence of sugars it goes into ketosis causing cellular damage and a variety of other health problems.

Protein – 1 gram of protein has 4 calories

Over 50,000 structures in the human body are composed of protein. This macronutrient aids in muscle repair, regulating fluid levels, providing essential amino acids and slows the conversion of carbohydrates to glucose which allows energy to be released slowly.

Excellent sources of protein include egg whites, protein powders, poultry, fish and all shell fish, lean cuts of meats, dairy products and soy. Every meal must have a protein component, especially if you are trying to optimize athletic performance. 

As an aside I do not advocate protein powders with high amounts of artificial sweetener as this can impede performance. Protein bars may be used during competition or intense training. Bars that have a minimum of 20-30% protein are preferable. Consuming a bar that is entirely protein with very few carbs will do very little for endurance or sustained performance. Protein should only be supplemented if it cannot be adequately supplied in the athlete’s diet. That being said, having a high quality protein powder on hand for times when you need supplemental protein does not hurt.

I have used shakes with many top athletes as a way to get easily digestible supplemental protein. Sometimes, with morning practices, it is difficult to perform on a breakfast with egg whites or dairy. This is when a shake can be useful.

Fat – 1 gram of fat has 9 calories

Fat is essential to many body processes. It aids in hormone regulation, can be an energy source during aerobic activity, acts as an appetite suppressant, can improve digestive tract health, and will slow the conversion of carbohydrates to glucose.

As an athlete you must consume approximately 20-30% of your calories from fat. Saturated fats such as butter, hydrogenated margarine or peanut butter, animal fats and high fat dairy products may lead to disease in the future. If you are trying to gain weight you must still choose unsaturated fats such as olive oil, flax oil, seeds and nuts.