Of
all the topics within sports nutrition, one topic seems to be far more popular
than the rest. That is the topic of nutrient timing. Every athlete wants to
know exactly how much to eat and exactly when to eat it. While, in my opinion,
using the training plates presented in my previous article are the easiest and
possibly best way for most athletes to determine their meals for the day, there
is some more fine tuning that can be done if you’re ready to do a little math. So
get your calculators out and let’s get going.
With
this article we are going to focus on estimating your overall daily needs of
protein and carbohydrate. We will focus on these two because carbohydrates are
our fuel source while protein is what repairs and builds our muscles. Our next
article will focus on using your recovery window as the guiding principle to
determine what times during your day you should be getting these nutrients.
First, let’s talk about how many grams of
carbohydrate and protein a typical high level athlete may need each day during training
season. What is recommended by the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics,
Dietitians of Canada, and the American College of Sports Medicine is that an
athlete consume 6-10 g/kg/day of carbohydrates and 1.2-1.7 g/kg/day of protein.
Don’t let the numbers and metric units scare you off!!! Look below for a walk
through of the calculations for a 175 lb athlete.
1.
175 lbs / 2.2 kg/lb = 79.5 kg
2.
79.5 kg x 6 g/kg/day of carbohydrate = 477 g of
carbohydrates
3.
79.5 kg x 10 g/kg/day of carbohydrate = 795 g of
carbohydrates
4.
79.5 kg x 1.2 g/day of protein = 95.4 g of
protein
5.
79.5 kg x 1.7 g/day of protein = 135.15 g of
protein
There you are! 5
simple calculations and you have your numbers! For our theoretical 175 lb
athlete we got a carbohydrate range of 477-795 grams of carbohydrate per day
and a protein range of 95-135 grams of protein per day. One more series of
calculations!
1.
477 g of carbohydrate x 4 calories/g = 1908
calories
2.
795 g of carbohydrate x 4 calories/g = 3180
calories
3.
95 g of protein x 4 calories/g = 380 calories
4.
135 g of protein x 4 calories/g = 540 calories
So, our final
count is 1908-3180 calories from carbohydrates and 380-540 calories from
protein each day. What a range! How in the world do you know how much is right
for you? The answer comes down to what level of training you are currently in.
Let’s take our hypothetical athlete and say he is a swimmer doing 2-a-day
practices with a weight lifting session in addition. They would be at the high
end of our range. Now, let’s say our athlete is a distance runner having a
normal practice during his season. He would be on the low end of this range.
Using these
numbers as guides for planning your meals can help ensure that you as an
athlete are properly refueling your body with important building blocks for
energy replenishment, muscle repair, and muscle growth. Be warned however, if
you cannot be honest with yourself about your level of training than you may
end up eat way to much or too little food. Also, check out the reference table
below for some pre-complete calculations!
|
Weight
|
Weight in kg
|
Carbohydrate
Range in grams
|
Protein range in
grams
|
|
160 lbs
|
72.7 kg
|
436-727 g
|
87-124 g
|
|
170 lbs
|
77.3 kg
|
464-772 g
|
93-131 g
|
|
180 lbs
|
81.8 kg
|
491-818 g
|
98-139 g
|
|
190 lbs
|
86.4 kg
|
518-864 g
|
104-147 g
|
|
200 lbs
|
90.9 kg
|
545-909 g
|
109-154 g
|
Michael Coseo MS, RD, LD
No comments:
Post a Comment