Eating enough food to match your activity level can be challenging. This can cause what is called low energy availability LEA. LEA is a sign that your body does not have enough energy left over after exercise to protect and grow your body.

LEA may even cause a female athlete to lose their monthly menstrual cycle. This is called amenorrhea. Female athletes without a menstrual cycle have about 6 times as many stress fractures in their career than those who do have a menstrual cycle.

Athletes typically need at least 3 meals and snacks daily to prevent LEA. Choosing whole foods is like picking the best tools for your athletic journey. They provide your body with the energy and nutrients it needs to perform at its peak.

Eating whole foods gives your muscles fuel to help you run faster, jump higher and get stronger. Here are some examples of whole-food choices. Carbohydrates are important for physical activity and can seriously boost your performance. They give you more energy for the effort you put in during your activity, compared to fats and proteins.

They are also important for keeping your hormone levels, like estrogen and progesterone, in check. Carbohydrate foods should make up the biggest part of what you eat as an athlete. Even a short period of carbohydrate restriction can affect your bone health.

This happens by lowering the number of bone-building substances while increasing the amount of elements that break down your bones. Overall, this can lead to weaker bones. Aim to fill your plate half full of carbohydrate foods such as pasta, bread, rice, potatoes, quinoa, couscous and others.

This guide is designed to be used for meals only. You will most likely also need to eat snacks between meals to keep your energy levels up.

Snacks play a crucial role in fueling an athlete. Due to the high training demand of sports and recreational activities, it can be difficult to get enough fuel by consuming only 3 meals daily.

If you play a sport or engage in physical activity often, snacks per day between meals can help you stay energized and on top of your performance. Here are some snack ideas:. Staying well-hydrated is essential for athletes.

Athletes need different amounts of hydration depending on their body size, what sport they do, how much they sweat and where they train.

Read more about exactly how much water you should be drinking as an athlete. You may need to consume carbohydrates and fluids to keep your energy level up during activity sessions. If your training session is longer than 1 hour, in hot and humid weather, high intensity or if you can't make it through your workout, you will benefit from consuming these nutrients during your workout.

However, this may lead to digestive issues if your stomach isn't used to it. When you train your gut, you are allowing your stomach to practice using this fuel during training, which can reduce digestive issues and improve nutrient delivery to your muscles.

Like any other athletic activity, training your gut takes practice and builds over time. Here are some steps to take:. To get started with individualized recommendations, request an appointment with our sports dietitian by calling or emailing SportsNutrition KUMC.

The ChiefsGameDayChallenge offers healthy recipe hacks and exercises for staying active while you watch the the game. Skip Navigation Home News Room Blogs 7 Ways to Turbocharge Your Athletic Performance.

Print Share. Make sure you eat enough. Fiber, the wonder carb, aids digestion and helps stabilize blood glucose levels in the body — p reventing sugar spikes and crashes, and the production of fat deposits near the gut. According to this 5-year study published in Neurology, eating your leafy greens is key to staying sharp as you age 3.

Seniors who eat at least one serving of leafy greens a day showed to have much slower cognitive decline than those with similar lifestyles who never or rarely eat their greens. They tested better in both memory and thinking skills. They were cognitively 11 years younger than the folks not eating leafy greens.

This is hardly the first study to link boosted brain health and leafy greens. Leafy greens are packed with vitamin E, folic acid, vitamin K1, lutein, and beta-carotene — all of which have been linked to boosted brain health and delayed memory decline.

Chlorophyll , the reason greens are so green, has a powerful neutralizing effect on toxins like aflatoxins that are highly carcinogenic. It is also high in fiber to promote good gut bacteria growth.

Beta carotene not only neutralizes harmful free radicals , but it benefits your eye health and skin health as well! Not a big greens person?

The good thing about spinach is it's relatively mild so it can easily be hid into almost any dish. And it's definitely worth the effort. Here's how you can reap the benefits of spinach, even if you're not into salads. Although the chlorophyll may turn your smoothie green, adding 1 loosely packed cup of raw spinach per serving will not result in a flavor change.

Try this easy and delicious vegan green smoothie recipe. Blend 1 cup of spinach with 1 cup of water per 6 servings of soup until smooth. Stir the mixture into your soup when you add the rest of the liquid.

Add it to pizza sauce, pasta sauce, casseroles, stir-fry, lasagna, veggie burgers, and stuffing before cooking or baking. Eating healthy doesn't have to be boring!

Get hearty and delicious plant-based meals that fill up, delivered right to your door! Some of our favorite spinach-loaded dishes include:. Fresh plant-based meals for athletes, ready to heat and eat. Delivered right to your door. Order MamaSezz Peak Performance Bundle here. Older post Newer post.

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Read this article on the Outside app available now on iOS devices for members! But for athletes in particular, there are a few key ingredients you should try to work into your diet every day.

Eat these nine foods for performance gains, a sharper competitive edge, and improved general health. Greens like spinach, kale, and arugula are high in nitrates, chemical compounds that improve blood flow and, in turn, have been shown to make both short and long endurance efforts feel a lot easier.

A similar study found the nitrates found in beetroot an approximately mg serving helped people drop 41 seconds from their 5K time. Throw a serving of your favorite green into a smoothie, use it as a bed for a grain bowl, or blend it into a homemade pesto for that same dose and potential performance boost.

That amount of protein also improves your health, helps you recover more quickly, and possibly speeds your metabolism to shed more fat, studies suggest.

You can—and probably should—get much of your protein from lean meats like chicken breast, but realistically,. Enter protein powder. Need a good option? Try our three favorites. Try topping your yogurt with some blueberries or throwing raspberries into your oatmeal.

Which is exactly why you need garlic. A huge body of research suggests that garlic can improve cholesterol ratios and reduce triglycerides, blood pressure, and arterial stiffness. At the end of the two weeks, they were asked to run a half marathon.

This means you can get back to training faster, and harder than ever. There you have it, load up on spinach before your next workout and see noticeable results!

Talk about a superfood! Want to give your immune system a boost? Eat plenty of foods naturally packed with Vitamin C. Not only does this super vitamin help protect your body against infection, but it helps repair body tissue, form collagen , and maintain strong and healthy bones and teeth.

Vitamin C also aids in the absorption of iron, which — SURPRISE — leafy greens are packed with as well! Not only do these magical greens help prevent blood clots and heart attacks , but the fiber content can regulate triglyceride and cholesterol levels. The iron assisted by vitamin C helps to transport oxygen around your body through your bloodstream.

The power tri: Potassium, calcium, and magnesium work together to lower blood pressure. Fiber, the wonder carb, aids digestion and helps stabilize blood glucose levels in the body — p reventing sugar spikes and crashes, and the production of fat deposits near the gut. According to this 5-year study published in Neurology, eating your leafy greens is key to staying sharp as you age 3.

Seniors who eat at least one serving of leafy greens a day showed to have much slower cognitive decline than those with similar lifestyles who never or rarely eat their greens. They tested better in both memory and thinking skills. They were cognitively 11 years younger than the folks not eating leafy greens.

This is hardly the first study to link boosted brain health and leafy greens. Leafy greens are packed with vitamin E, folic acid, vitamin K1, lutein, and beta-carotene — all of which have been linked to boosted brain health and delayed memory decline.

Chlorophyll , the reason greens are so green, has a powerful neutralizing effect on toxins like aflatoxins that are highly carcinogenic. The National Agency for Health Security, Food, Environment and Labour ANSES recommends eating fish twice a week 3.

Therefore, you can combine a lean fish such as cod or Alaskan hake with a fatty fish such as salmon or sardines. Science is unanimous. The Omega 3 contained in salmon and all fatty fish improve neuromuscular function and reduce fatigue, which helps to improve sporting performance 4.

In addition, salmon has a health advantage in preventing cardiovascular disease, brain development and reducing certain diseases. The only drawback is that, due to the risk of contamination by heavy metals, care must be taken with the label and its origin.

According to researchers at the University of Leuven in Belgium 5 , green vegetables, like spinach, are extremely effective in improving sporting performance. oxygen-depleted as in the case of altitude athletes. After 5 weeks of testing, the composition of the muscle fibres had changed positively.

The researchers explain these results by the presence of nitrates in this type of food. They allowed vasodilation and better irrigation for easier oxygen transport.

Integrating green vegetables is therefore beneficial for the performance of any athlete and especially for endurance athletes at altitude. Bananas can be taken everywhere and consumed in no time at all, making them one of the sportsmen's favourites.

Easy to eat, it is useful to boost, provide quality carbohydrates before exercise or prepare for recovery in post-training. Rich in potassium, bananas are useful for muscle recovery and cramp reduction.

As you may have noticed, bananas are omnipresent in the supplies or at the finish of a run. To carry your banana everywhere, without it crashing, we advise you to choose a "banana case" yes, it does exist.

In addition to creating a sensation among your classmates, you can eat it anywhere, before, during or after your sporting event. Finally, be aware that the more ripe the banana is, the more its glycemic index increases. Once again, a scientific reference 6 , almonds boost sporting performance.

A study published in the Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition informs us that athletes who consumed 75 g almonds for 4 weeks saw their performance increase in cycling during a endurance effort.

Among them were 8 cyclists and 2 triathletes. The study points out that a handful of almonds as a snack is particularly suitable for athletes to provide the nutrients they need.

Generally, it is recommended to consume 1 g of fat per kilo of body weight. To meet its needs, oilseeds are all available, especially as snacks. Raisins provide energy to the athlete with these 75 g carbohydrates per g.

American researchers 7 tested 11 male riders, divided into three control groups. Eating raisins improves sports performance by providing carbohydrates.

Very popular with sports enthusiasts, dried fruits are popular to give a boost. Do not hesitate to vary the pleasures according to your desires.

Good for morale, dark chocolate acts as an anti-stress. Source of magnesium , it could have a beneficial effect on cramps while theobromine significantly stimulates the nervous system. It is also very rich in antioxidants and thus helps to fight against free radicals.

Each of them provides micronutrients as well as macronutrients useful for amateur and professional athletes. Nevertheless, our article would not be complete without reminding us the importance of hydration in sports performance. Now it's up to you to stay hydrated and eat better to maintain your health, enjoy your sport and why not set new records.

Zong, A. Gao, F. Hu, Q. Sun, Juin Arch Intern Med June 13; 11 Lewis, P. Radonic, T. Wolever, G. Wells, Juin De Smet et all, Juin