Why is it important to fuel your body

• 1. Why is it important for sports people to eat well?

  If you are playing sport regularly for your school or a club, what you eat and drink is important to help you perform at your best. Good nutrition can:

  Inhaltsverzeichnis Show

  • What does food mean to our body?
  • The Science of Weight Management
  • Stop Judging Food as Good vs. Bad
  • Help you perform at your best
  • Help you stay healthy and feel great
  • Help you achieve your fitness and training goals

• 2. Should I follow this advice at all times or just before a competition?

  You should follow this advice at all times to maintain good health and get the best possible results from your training.

• 3. I don’t want to make big changes to my diet – what are the most important changes I should make?

  Choose one or two things to change in your diet at any one time e.g. improving your snack options or making sure that fluid intakes are adequate. Once you’ve got this right, move onto something else and before you know it you will have a healthy and varied diet.

  The Fuel Your Body leaflet is packed with information about what to eat and drink to perform best in your sport, stay healthy and feel great.

• 4. What foods should I eat in order to build muscle?

  Protein is one nutrient needed for muscle growth, building and repair. Some excellent protein rich foods to include in the diet are lean red meat, soya and tofu, chicken, turkey, nuts, fish, pulses, eggs, yoghurt, low fat milk and cheese.

  It is a myth that you need protein supplements to build muscle mass. Protein intakes way above your needs will not result in further muscle growth.

  Carbohydrates also play an important part in gaining muscle. If you are not eating enough to meet your energy (calorie) needs, then you will have little or no success at building or maintaining muscle mass. A structured training programme is also essential.

• 5. What snacks should I eat before and after exercise?

  Before exercise:

  To ensure your energy levels are at their best when you exercise, eat a meal or snack that is high in carbohydrates two to three hours before you exercise. Some ideas for pre-exercise snacks include the following

  • Toast (add banana, nut butter or baked beans as a topping )
  • Chicken with rice and salad
  • Jacket potato with beans, tuna or chicken and salsa
  • Yoghurt drink with a scone and low-fat spread
  • Low‑fat creamed rice with dried fruit
  • Low‑fat yoghurt and fruit
  • Bagel with cream cheese or peanut butter

  After exercise:

  To restore your energy levels after exercise and to maintain muscle mass, eat a snack that is high in carbohydrates and protein. Here are some examples:

  • Ham, tuna or turkey sandwich with a drink or water
  • Low‑fat milk with a banana
  • Yoghurt drink
  • Bagel and cream cheese, crumpet or pancake with jam
  • Pot of low-fat yoghurt and a banana
  • Fruit and low-fat milk

• 6. Do I need extra protein after sport?

  This is another myth! You don’t need huge amounts of protein to "bulk up". Protein powders and shakes are not recommended for teenagers. You will get plenty of protein by including foods that contain protein in your diet. 

• 7. How do I know if I’m getting enough fluid?

  Checking your urine colour is a quick and simple way for you to see if you are drinking enough fluids. It should be a pale-yellow colour. If it is darker than this, you need to drink more.

• 8. Do I need sports supplements?

  You do not need sports supplements. Sports supplements have not been tested on teenagers or children, so there is zero evidence to show they are safe for your growing body and are not recommended for anyone under 18 years of age. A varied balanced diet will provide all the nutrients you need.

• 9. How do I improve my performance?
  • Eat a varied balanced diet that meets your growth and energy needs
  • Drink enough fluids to stay hydrated and replace any lost fluids
  • Plan your training and recovery properly
  • Improve your technique and skills through training

• 10. Does this advice apply to friends who don’t play sport?

  Absolutely! While some of the advice is sport-specific, there are some great ideas in the Fuel Your Body leaflet on how to incorporate healthy meals and snacks into your diet and how to achieve a more balanced, healthy lifestyle. Good nutrition is important for healthy growth and development as well as fuelling energy needs for sport.

• 11. Where can I find out more?

When you’re deciding to eat or drink something, what is your main motivation behind choosing that particular item? Aside from being hungry or thirsty, it’s likely because you like the taste, texture, or feeling that consuming that food or drink gives you. Do you ever find yourself rewarding certain things like exercising at the gym, a hard day at work, or avoiding ‘bad foods’ for a specific duration of time, with a ‘cheat meal’ or a food item? This is a cycle that a lot of us find ourselves caught in, and it is stopping us from making meaningful lifestyle changes and improving our relationship with nutrition. We have to change our approach towards food.

What does food mean to our body?

In order to function, our body needs fuel, i.e. caloric energy. Food is fuel for our bodies. Food is how we will reach our health and fitness goals. How are you fueling your body to achieve the goals you have set for yourself? Whether you are working towards a scale goal (i.e. weight loss/gain/maintain), and/or non-scale goals (i.e. increasing your squat one rep max, completing a 5k event), we should be focusing our attention on making nutrition choices that will set us up for success. When we start thinking about food as a means to powering our goals, we can take a more mindful approach to our nutrition every day.

Check out one of our blogs about How to Eat to Gain Muscle if that’s one of your goals!

The Science of Weight Management

If you want to achieve the results you’ve been dreaming about, and build lifelong habits, you have to take the emotional connection that we all have towards food out, and start thinking about your nutrition as a science. Delicious science, but science nonetheless.

For my nutrition clients, I give them a daily calorie budget that I expect them to stay within, along with macro-nutrient goals (protein, carbohydrate, and fat) that will help them feel satiated and give them the energy needed to perform their workouts at the gym, long days at work, and in their daily lives as parents and spouses. By keeping ourselves accountable to macro-nutrient goals we can be sure that the foods, and beverages, on which we decide to consume are nutrient-rich and worth spending our calorie budget.

A properly balanced nutrition plan, with a calorie budget that doesn’t leave us feeling deprived day after day is what I recommend to my clients who are interested in building a healthier relationship to nutrition.

What do I mean by properly balanced? I’m talking macro-nutrients: carbohydrates, protein, and fats.

All three play important roles in the daily functioning of your body, as well as impacting your performance in the gym. Finding a balance that allows you to feel satiated, and provides your body the building blocks to build and exert strength, power, confidence.

I’ve found that 40{885586236f5820200058e61f9e2fcec1023d525f8b1a6e4e5a4fd7f3c0d65acb} carbohydrate | 30{885586236f5820200058e61f9e2fcec1023d525f8b1a6e4e5a4fd7f3c0d65acb} Protein | 30{885586236f5820200058e61f9e2fcec1023d525f8b1a6e4e5a4fd7f3c0d65acb} Fat is what works best for most of my athletes and clients.

Stop Judging Food as Good vs. Bad

Another huge factor? Variety, and not labeling foods as ‘off-limits’. I believe that every food can be consumed, but we have to take into account what that food equates: how expensive were the calories consumed to our daily calorie budget, was that food satisfying, will that food help fuel our body and further our goals? I cannot stress enough that making mindful decisions when it comes to nutrition is so empowering. Choosing to eat something because you know how it will improve your mood after a hard day at work, your performance in the gym, or at your athletic endeavor, will give you the control because you have the knowledge of what your body needs to function.

We have to take back the power and emotional attachment we all have towards eating, and stop using food as a reward, just like we need to adjust our perspective on exercise as a punishment for calories consumed. We’re not dogs doing tricks, we don’t need treats or rewards. We have to shift our perspective if we want to achieve the results we want. Our fuel can be tasty, but rewarding ourselves with empty calories and nutrient-devoid foods isn’t truly a reward after all, is it?