Whole Health
September/October 2008

Turbocharge Your Workout: Your guide to eating for energy

It’s time to take your game to the next level. For that, look to your diet. If you’re not getting the right kinds of food before, during, and after a race or hard workout, your body may be stuck in second gear—just when you need it full on. These simple nutritional strategies will help you go faster, go farther, and feel better.

Before the Race
“One of the greatest myths is that you should have a big pasta dinner the night before a race,” says Adam Korzun, MS, RD, sports dietician with the U.S. Olympic Committee. The underlying rationale—to load up on carbohydrates—makes sense, but you actually need to carbo-load three to four days before the event. In fact, “a big meal the night before can be detrimental to your performance because you don’t have time to process the food, so it’s just sitting in your system,” says Korzun. Instead of the all-you-can-eat rotini, try these prerace strategies:

→Three and four days before the race, chow down on 350 to 500 grams of carbohydrates per day. Your body stores the carbs as glycogen, which gets broken down into glucose (your muscles’ primo fuel) during exercise. Choose mostly complex carbohydrates, like whole-grain breads and pasta as well as fruit. With these foods the sugar releases into your body more gradually than do simple sugars, giving you long-lasting energy.

→One day before, eat small meals every three to four hours, consisting of complex carbs, vegetables, and lean protein (such as skinless chicken breast, low-fat cottage cheese, or tofu). “This will give you enough calories to maintain glycogen stores without putting too much in your system for you to digest,” says Korzun.

Up to 80 percent of runners say they’ve suffered from “runner’s stomach” (cramps, the runs, and nausea). If prone to this, shy away from hard-to-digest foods the night before, such as cruciferous vegetables (broccoli, cauliflower, brussels sprouts, and cabbage), fatty foods (only 20 to 30 percent of the meal’s calories should come from fat), and dairy (if you’re at all intolerant). Easier- to-digest veggies include asparagus, carrots, and canned vegetables.

→In the days and hours preceding the race, hydrate up, “until your urine is close to clear,” says Korzun.

→One to two hours before the race, eat 50 to 200 grams of carbohydrates (such as a bagel, two pieces of fruit, or an energy bar) and 5 to 10 grams of lean protein (one serving of yogurt, a few pieces of jerky, or low-fat string cheese), with fluids. “During exercise your body breaks down muscle fibers for energy,” says Korzun. “But some studies show that eating a little protein—not an entire steak or anything—beforehand slows that degradation.”

→Ten minutes before the race, drink about 10 ounces of a sports drink. Food, however, may upset the stomach. In one study of half-Ironman competitors, all who ate within 30 minutes of the race threw up.

During the Race

When your body runs out of glycogen, you “hit the wall,” or bonk. You can avoid that by supplying your body with a steady stream of simple carbohydrates—such as those found in energy gels, bars, fruit, pretzels, even candy — and, of course, the ever-important water. Here are some general guidelines:

→For workouts shorter than 45 minutes, you probably need only fluids, says Korzun. Longer than that and you need simple carbs to stay energized. In one study conducted by Chris Byrne, PhD, an exercise physiologist at the University of Exeter, people walked on an inclined treadmill with a backpack. Those who ate carbohydrates during the workout had significantly less fatigue and greater endurance. Every hour shoot for about 30 to 60 grams of carbs (equivalent to one or two gel packs, a large banana, or a medium-sized energy bar, like LUNA or Clif).

CHARGE UP: Power foods for every workout stage

BumbleBars. Packed with wholesome seeds, nuts, agave nectar, and fruit, these tasty bars help your body recover by giving it protein, healthy fats, and natural sugars. www.bumblebar.com

Mix1. These fruit-and-protein smoothies are great a couple hours before a race or as a recovery drink. Favorite flavor: Blueberry vanilla. www.mix1life.com

Recharge. This all-natural sports drink gives you electrolytes and carbs—without artificial colors or flavors. www.knudsenjuices.com

 

Recovery bar. With the perfect ratio of carbs, protein, and fats to repair muscles, the Recovery bar makes it easy to hit that 30- to 60-minute postexercise window. www.powerbar.com

Sport Beans. Not only do Sport Beans taste like jelly beans, but a 2006 study by researchers at the University of California, Davis found that cyclists and triathletes had faster times when they ate Sport Beans partway through a workout. www.sportbeans.com

→Although some studies show that eating protein midworkout decreases the breakdown of muscle, others show that it may hinder performance—like fueling a car with slower-burning fuel. While the debate rages, “the most important thing is to maintain fuel supplies by eating some carbs every hour,” says Korzun.

→Be wary of bars or candy containing sugar alcohols like sorbitol, mannitol, and xylitol. Found in many low-carb or diet foods, sugar alcohols can have a laxative effect.

→Drink fluids regularly (every 15 minutes, if you’re sweating a lot) because “dehydration decreases aerobic and anabolic capacity, increases fatigue, and decreases performance all around,” says Korzun. In fact, studies have shown that losing just 3 percent of your body weight in water impairs both physiological and cognitive functioning. How much you should drink depends on exercise intensity, the temperature, and your weight. (For instance, you can lose 0.5 liters per hour while walking on a warm day.) Byrne recommends drinking to sate thirst. “Thirst is the body’s excellent physiological mechanism for detecting changes in its body water levels,” says Byrne. “I don’t buy in to the oft-told story that by the time you become thirsty it’s too late, as dehydration is already present.” If you simply drink when thirsty, you might not replace all the fluid you’ve lost exercising, says Byrne, but by “using our thirst as a natural, commonsense, and technical-free approach, you can minimize the negative consequences of dehydration while protecting against the overdrinking condition of hyponatremia”—a life-threatening state in which the body is overhydrated and the electrolyte balance is skewed.

→If you’re overheating, opt for drinking cold, icy liquids, which draw heat away from the body tissues and into the water, thus cooling you down.

Sports drinks or water? You decide. Both rehydrate the body, Byrne says. True, sports drinks also contain electrolytes like sodium and potassium, critical for proper functioning of the muscles and the nervous system. (Foods like pretzels, gels, bananas, and bars provide electrolytes, too.) Just aim for getting about 0.5 grams of sodium every hour of exercise (for a 150-pound, lightly sweating person).

Use caffeine wisely. Several studies on runners and cyclists support the ergogenic (performance-enhancing) effects of caffeine, and many bars and gels now contain the stimulant. But if you never eat caffeinated foods or drink coffee while training, don’t start on race day because everyone reacts a little differently to caffeine. Sometimes it can upset the stomach, cause anxiety, or, in people at risk for heart disease, decrease blood flow to the heart, according to a 2006 study at the University Hospital of Zurich.

After the Race

Each race or workout should make you stronger for the next one. But that happens only if you give your body the building blocks it needs to repair and refuel muscles. Proper recovery becomes especially important if you’re working out again the next day. Here’s how to refill the tank:

→In the first 30 to 60 minutes, eat at least 50 grams of simple carbs (an energy bar, fruit smoothie, or dark chocolate bar) and 10 to 20 grams of protein (½ cup of cottage cheese, one scoop of protein powder, or 2 ounces of skinless chicken breast). “During this window of time, your body is primed to synthesize glycogen,” says Korzun. By giving your cells carbohydrates and protein, “they can replenish glycogen fuel stores and rebuild muscle.” After an endurance event, eating healthy unsaturated fats (think vegetable oils, avocados, seeds, and walnuts) helps restore lipids used during the race, too.

→Drink plenty of water to rehydrate—preferably with food because “fluid consumed with a meal post-exercise has been consistently demonstrated to be superior at replacing body water than water alone or any sports drink,” says Byrne.

→Snack on antioxidant-rich fruit and fruit juices, such as blueberries, cherries, apples, and apricots. Intense exercise creates free radicals in the body, called exercise-induced oxidative stress. These highly reactive molecules damage cells and have been linked to aging, cancer, and other diseases. You can neutralize free radicals with the antioxidants in fruit. A 2006 study in Clinical Nutrition, for instance, found that cyclists who drank a black grape– raspberry–red currant drink after a strenuous ride decreased the amount of free-radical damage by 25 percent.

→As a long-term recovery strategy, make sure you get enough iron. More than 36 percent of female athletes are iron deficient, according to a study in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association, often because of iron lost through menstruating, sweating, and blood cells rupturing when the foot hits the ground while running. The Recommended Dietary Allowance for non-pregnant women 19 to 50 years of age is 18 milligrams per day, which you can get from iron-rich foods like lean meats, lentils, fortified cereals, and green leafy vegetables. Take iron supplements only under a doctor’s supervision, however, because overdosing is dangerous.

→Start an eternal love affair with nutrient-dense foods such as vegetables, fruits, whole grains, nuts, and beans as well as foods high in calcium, such as dairy, spinach, and soybeans. Research has shown that you lose calcium, magnesium, and zinc during exercise, largely through sweat, making it important to eat plenty of vitamin- and mineral-rich foods, not just post-race but as a lifelong habit.

Of course everyone is different: Some perform best on strict, low-fat, all-organic diets whereas others thrive on jelly donuts. So figure out what works for you. The biggest mistake Korzun sees athletes make is being solely focused on refueling after the race. “Recovery takes place before and during the race, too,” he says. “If you go into a race with your tank half full, you’re going to come out of it empty and recovery will be harder.” If, on the other hand, you continuously fuel your body with the right food, it will be gunning to go 24/7.