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Dianna GWhat do Elite Athletes Eat When They Train? The Paleo diet may be the Perfect Solution
April 29th 2010 18:18
Weight loss is commonly what is on most of our minds when we consider going on a diet but what about the athletes? How valuable is diet for long distance athletes, high level sprinters and olympic champions?
If you are about to compete for a marathon where energy is very important to finishing the race, chances are good, you would load up on carbs pre-race. But no-one ever really explains why you should and what complex carbs do to give you energy Complex carbs give more energy because they use less oxygen than most foods such as fat. Because of this they metabolize enough to give little boosts of energy that a soccer player or cross country skiier would need to perform well over a long stretch.
Focusing on carbs is a good thing, at least before the race and many athletes claim that loading a diet with carbs by as much of 70% two days before the race gives them enough energy stores to be competitive at an elite level.
Could a diet consisting mostly of carbohydrates be good during training as well for the athlete? Or should you change your eating habits for the best results during training?
The answer is yes.
Lately, many athletes that rely on endurance are making the switch to the "caveman" or paleo diet during training but most use a modified version of it. The paleo diet for athletes involves nothing unnatural, meaning that foods that are processed including most of the complex carbs we eat including rice, bread and pasta, are completely off limits.
The reason for this modification is that while complex carbohydrates are good for your energy stores, there are some who believe that they could actually hamper the body's ability to repair muscles efficiently during long and rigorous training sessions Plus, different foods are harder on our bodies to process. The paleolithic dieters believe that the less energy your body has to spend processing what we eat, the more time our body can spend repairing itself.
Usually, the carb loading is temporary though. Most elite athletes take special care as to what goes into their body. Usually, during non training times, an athlete will stick to the cleanest foods he or she can and avoid the foods that contain sugar and grains. If you ask any competitor, they are going to tell you that the paleo diet is just smart eating. And although they will load up on carbohydrates during race time, a cleaner diet during non-competition days is not only good for them from a health perspective, it is just smart.
If you are about to compete for a marathon where energy is very important to finishing the race, chances are good, you would load up on carbs pre-race. But no-one ever really explains why you should and what complex carbs do to give you energy Complex carbs give more energy because they use less oxygen than most foods such as fat. Because of this they metabolize enough to give little boosts of energy that a soccer player or cross country skiier would need to perform well over a long stretch.
Focusing on carbs is a good thing, at least before the race and many athletes claim that loading a diet with carbs by as much of 70% two days before the race gives them enough energy stores to be competitive at an elite level.
Could a diet consisting mostly of carbohydrates be good during training as well for the athlete? Or should you change your eating habits for the best results during training?
The answer is yes.
Lately, many athletes that rely on endurance are making the switch to the "caveman" or paleo diet during training but most use a modified version of it. The paleo diet for athletes involves nothing unnatural, meaning that foods that are processed including most of the complex carbs we eat including rice, bread and pasta, are completely off limits.
The reason for this modification is that while complex carbohydrates are good for your energy stores, there are some who believe that they could actually hamper the body's ability to repair muscles efficiently during long and rigorous training sessions Plus, different foods are harder on our bodies to process. The paleolithic dieters believe that the less energy your body has to spend processing what we eat, the more time our body can spend repairing itself.
Usually, the carb loading is temporary though. Most elite athletes take special care as to what goes into their body. Usually, during non training times, an athlete will stick to the cleanest foods he or she can and avoid the foods that contain sugar and grains. If you ask any competitor, they are going to tell you that the paleo diet is just smart eating. And although they will load up on carbohydrates during race time, a cleaner diet during non-competition days is not only good for them from a health perspective, it is just smart.
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