Helping Athletes Fuel for Double (and Single) Workouts
Written by: Nancy Clark, MS RD CSSD
As one coach aptly stated, “Too many athletes show up for training, but they don’t show up for meals. They might as well not show up for training.” As sport dietitians, we know that to be true! Athletes can only train at their best if they are well-fueled on a daily basis.
Unfortunately, too many athletes wonder what (and if) they should eat before exercise. Because no single pre-exercise food is best for all athletes, we want to encourage each of our athletes to experiment to learn which foods settle best in his or her body. Here is some guidance for planning effective pre-exercise fueling.
• First off, encourage your athletes to train their guts (not just their muscles and mind).
Athletes (particularly in running sports) can purposefully choose to not eat within hours of exercise as a means to avoid gastro-intestinal upset. While this may seem like a good idea for the short term, it’s a bad idea for the long run.
The intestinal tract is trainable. To train the gut, an athlete can start by nibbling on 50 to 100 calories of any simple-to-digest carb within the hour pre-exercise. Once their GI tract tolerates that snack, they can titrate the calories up to 200 to 300 kcal per hour, depending on the sport. By experimenting with a variety of fruits, starchy vegetables, and grains, athletes can learn what works best for their body. Each athlete is an experiment of one.
For some athletes, GI distress can be caused by the inability to thoroughly digest FODMAPS, specific types of carbohydrates (Fermentable Oligo-, Di-, Mono-saccharides And Polyols). FODMAP education can be helpful.
• Meal timing matters. When athletes eat matters as much as what they eat.
Too many athletes eat undereat during the active part of their day, only to consume a huge meal before going to bed (which can interfere with sleep). They may need to be reminded they are either fueling up or refueling. Every meal has a function.
Morning exercisers want to eat part of their breakfast before they workout and then the rest of their breakfast afterwards They then want to enjoy an early hearty lunch at 11:00ish and a second lunch/hearty snack at 3:00ish. The goal of the second lunch is to both fuel the upcoming second workout of the day, as well as curb the appetite for dinner so they can then eat a lighter dinner—and likely sleep better than if they had stuffed themselves with a big meal.
• Busy athletes need to plan time to eat.
Athletes who juggle work/school and double workouts often complain they have no time to eat. Sometimes that is true and sometimes they choose to sleep a few more minutes (leaving no time for breakfast) or keep working on a project (leaving no time for lunch). Those are both choices. They could have chosen to make fueling more of a priority.
One solution is to schedule lunchtime in the daily calendar or set an alarm for a 3:00 pm snack before a 4:00 pm workout.
Final thoughts
For athletes, every meal has a purpose. They are either fueling up to prepare for exercise, or they are refueling afterwards to both recover from the work-out and prepare for the next session. Fueling properly takes time and energy.
As sport dietitians, we need to teach our athletes to be responsible! They must not brush off meals and snacks as if they are optional inconveniences in a busy day. The same athletes who (almost) always find time to train must also find time to fuel properly. Proper fueling requires time-management skills, particularly for athletes doing double sessions. Rest days or weekends can be good times to food shop and batch-cook, enabling athletes to have the right foods in the right places at the right times to optimally fuel and/or refuel from hard workouts.
Author
Nancy Clark MS RD CSSD counsels both fitness exercisers and competitive athletes in the Boston area. Her best-selling Sports Nutrition Guidebook is a popular resource, as is her online workshop. Visit NancyClarkRD.com for info.
