Do You Fuel Yourself Adequately?

 

 

Thousands of runners recently attended The North Face 100 and 50km races in the Blue Mountains. Sometimes it is hard not to be amongst the racing. However, sitting on the other side of the fence whilst the action gallops past gives a wholesome insight into the nutrition & hydration strategies of athletes.

Three Classifications of AthletesIn the race, we observed three types of athletes:

1. The Blank Stare RunnerThe scenery of the Blue Mountains is stunning. Jagged tracks clutch to the side of overhanging cliffs. Damp forests hold tumbling waterfalls. However, the Blank Stare Runner will see little of this handsomeness. They also appear not to hear much until they stumble across your wildly clapping hands and goofy grin. They pull a tight smile and march onwards. From close up, they appear to have the ‘lights off’ - the I’m-on-a-mission facade with eyes glazed-over. From afar, there is an element of a plod, a trip, a stumble. One guesses behind it all is a negative mindset.

2. The Weary but Starry Eyed RunnerFifty or one-hundred kilometers is never going to feel easy. There will always be an association with pain and a little suffering. But no matter how physically fatigued, the Weary but Starry Eyed Runner can maintain a smile. Their eyes sparkle with the challenge and even from a distance they easily acknowledge your excited cheers. They mutter a thanks, give a gentle high-five and then scuffle off around the corner.

3. The Prancer and Dancer RunnerThis runner has the ability to make you forget about how much pain everyone else seems to be in. You find yourself pulling out your phone and googling entry dates for the next race. Before you see them, they have seen you. Their iPhone is out and they are happily snapping pictures to capture the memories. They are dancing across the rocks and prancing past the course marshals giving praise and a hearty, ‘thank you’. Their eyes are alight with anticipation. They might be fatigued but they are holding those negative thoughts at bay.

Which type of athlete are you?You may fall somewhere in the middle and may shift from one to another at different points of a race. However, I am sure that looking back at race photos or your race debrief will help you identify with some of the above analogies?

Athlete Classifications: Symptomatic of Your Nutrition & Hydration

• Race fueling is about fueling your brain not your body

Even for the slimmest athletes, the body has enough adipose tissue (fatty acids) stored to carry you a very, very long way. In endurance activities where the intensity is lower, a reasonably trained athlete should adequately utilize stored fatty acids for locomotive energy. However, there is one organ in the body that cannot use fatty acids for energy, and that is the brain.

The brain’s functional tissues is surrounded by the blood brain barrier. This is a physical block to protect the organ from harmful intruders and substances. When fatty acid is transported in the body, it is attached to a protein called albumin. This creates a molecule too large to pass through the barriers of the brain. Thus, the brain’s fuel source is glucose, the simplest molecular form of carbohydrate.

In races, we require the central nervous system and brain input to keep every other tissue of our body functioning. It drives our breathing, our heart, our working limb muscles. With an inadequate supply of glucose to the brain, this system starts to slow and will eventually grind to a complete halt.

• Feed your brain glucose

If the brain holds everything together, then we must ensure that it receives an adequate supply of energy in the form of glucose. It is true that we can utilize stored muscle and liver glycogen for conversion into glucose and energy, but these stores are dramatically limited. Therefore, a fueling strategy for endurance race day must included simple forms of glucose, the best of which is a maltodextrin (pure glucose) gel.

• Glucose absorption requires sodium

The absorption of glucose across cellular membranes requires a transporter protein that sits lodged in the cellular membranes. The functioning of this glucose transporter is often spared as the digestive tract starts to slow (the functioning of the digestive system will be overridden by the blood flow demands of the working muscles). That is, the body will prioritize the functioning of this glucose transporter over the digestion of fats, proteins and more complex carbohydrates, such as fructose.

• Sweating causes a loss of sodium

Sweating causes large losses of sodium, especially over prolonged periods of time such as during endurance races. The amount of sodium varies from person to person and day-to-day, but can be in the vicinity of 1500-2000mg per 1L of sweat. No other electrolyte loss comes anywhere near the losses of sodium. This is because most other electrolytes, such as magnesium, are found within body cells. That is, sodium is an extracellular molecule floating freely in the bloodstream so it incurs the largest electrolyte losses during exercise.

• Failing to replace sodium disrupts glucose absorption

If you fail to replace the sodium you are loosing, chances are you will not be absorbing the glucose you are trying to ingest. Without sodium present, the functioning of the transporter proteins slow. Therefore, the cellular membranes of the digestive tract, working muscles and mitochondria (power houses where energy is produced) become impermeable to glucose.

• Low sodium and glucose intake affect the brain and central nervous system

If you are trying to rehydrate during races on water alone, you will likely be disrupting the body’s ability to absorb nutrition. Further more, if you are using a sports drink or electrolyte with inadequate sodium to meet your losses, you may also be disrupting your nutrition intake. Begin to become aware of your sweat losses both in volume and in the salt crusting that can appear on your clothes if you are a heavier sodium sweater. This can be a great guide to judging your losses.

You Athlete Classification Explained

• The Blank Stare Runner

Your central nervous system is seriously affected. In essence, you have become similar to a diabetic with low blood glucose levels. Whatever you are drinking and eating is inadequate to supply sodium and glucose to the transporter pumps in your cellular membranes and thus, energy to your brain. Try to learn to listen to your central nervous system. Negative thought processes, clumsy feet, feeling cold, dizziness, vertigo, numb feet or hands, or even nausea can all be symptomatic of low glucose levels in the brain. If you observe someone like this or their eyes have a glazed-over appearance, feed them instant glucose along with a higher sodium concentration electrolyte. If they are nauseous, you can rinse their mouth with glucose as the oral mucosa has a direct glucose absorption pathway to the brain. If this helps, you can then start to slowly feed them glucose via gels, chemist jelly beans and glucose tablets.

• The Weary but Starry Eyed Runner

Your nutrition and training strategies are strong but likely the quantities need adjusting. Sparkling eyes and alertness suggest that the central nervous system is coping. The physical weariness can be a symptom of further training required, or it may also be that you need to increase the quantity of glucose and electrolyte replacement. You should also be paying close attention to changes in your central nervous system as the race progresses. If negative thoughts, anxiety, clumsiness or any of the other symptoms above settle in, make sure you increase your glucose and sodium intake. This is especially true if you start to experience cramping.

• The Prancer and Dancer Runner

You are nailing it! To run like this, your central nervous system must be functioning fully and you are alert enough to absorb your surroundings. Further to this, it appears that your training has prepared you optimally for the challenge you have embarked upon. However, keep an eye on climatic changes throughout the race as increases in temperature, humidity or wind will alter your evaporative sweat losses. Monitor your thoughts and alertness, with any small changes requiring a top-up of energy.

Source : FindyourFeet.com

The Food Lies We Tell Ourselves

Straight from our Community registered dietitian nutritionists, we get a firsthand look at some of the lies clients tell themselves when it comes to rationalizing what they eat. Unfortunately, these little untruths can quickly sabotage a healthy diet. Could you also unknowingly be ruining your healthy eating plan by telling yourself these little white lies? Read on to learn the truth.

 

Food Lie #1: I need to snack frequently to keep my metabolism up.

You may have heard that you shouldn’t wait too long between meals to prevent your body from going into “starvation mode”—a time when your body conserves calories to prevent depleting its energy stores. Think back to the caveman days when humans wouldn’t eat for days; their bodies would become efficient at holding on to what they ate so they could survive until the next time they were able to have a successful hunt. The theory is that this may be happening on a smaller scale when you wait too long to eat.

So you try to prevent this scenario and overcompensate by making sure you eat something every few hours. The problem is, if you’re attempting to eat several mini-meals throughout the day, the calories add up. Even a couple of energy bars throughout the day can add an extra 500 calories, contributing to a body-fat gain of 1 pound per week! You may think that bar is keeping your metabolism revved up—but even if it is, the additional caloric burn won’t contribute 500 calories (or anything even close to that!) each day.

Solution: If there is more than four to five hours between your lunch and dinner, allow yourself one small fiber- and protein-filled, mid-afternoon snack—but no more. A hardboiled egg and a piece of fruit, for example, would be a great choice.

Food Lie #2: I can eat whatever I want because I just burned off a lot of calories during my workout.

Although the treadmill or the elliptical (or your spin teacher) may all tell you that you burned 800 calories, this is usually not true. Unless you weigh 200 pounds and run for an hour, you won’t burn close to that many calories. If you are eating without much restraint after a workout, this is likely having a negative effect on your waistline. For many people, not only do they rationalize that they can eat a lot of food after a workout, they also feel hungrier after working out and tell themselves it’s because they burned a lot of calories. Unfortunately, appetite after a workout tends to increase to a much greater degree than the amount of calories you actually burned.

Solution: Eat to fuel your workout and refuel, not to replace the calories you think you burned. If you notice that your hunger increases a lot after you exercise be sure to drink extra water and fill up on veggies to help to satisfy your appetite without consuming too many calories.

Food Lie #3: It was just a few bites.

Just because you didn’t order it and it wasn’t on your plate, doesn’t mean those bites of your significant other’s burger, fries or dessert won’t add up. Ditto for the small piece of cake in the break room. A few daily extra bites may seem forgettable, but they can easily set you back 100 calories (or more!) each day. Although that may not seem like much, over the year that will set you back ten pounds!

Solution: If you find yourself having those little bites here and there, cut them out completely for two weeks and track your weight. If you are like our clients, you’ll notice a difference on the scale.

Food Lie #4: The bag (carton, box, or whatever you just finished off) was almost empty.

Plow through an already opened bag of chips, box of cookies or carton of ice cream and it’s easy to believe there wasn’t much in there. If you don’t portion food out on a plate first so that you can see how much food you truly are eating, it’s easy to tell yourself you didn’t eat much.

Solution: Easy! Simply portion your food on a plate and eat from that—you won’t be able to trick yourself into thinking you ate less than you did!

Food Lie #5. You need that electrolyte drink.

Sure, that brightly colored, sweetened drink filled with electrolytes might seem necessary, but unless you’re exercising intensely for more than an hour (and most people aren’t) you really don’t need it. It just adds extra calories.

Solution: Stick to water, seltzer or another calorie-free fluid, unless you are exercising for more than an hour.

Food Lie #6. You ate it because it gives you extra nutrients.

Every food seems to be fortified these days. Even if it has extra calcium, additional B vitamins or added fiber, it’s still not reason enough to eat it. After all, cookies with added calcium are still cookies. Don’t justify eating the chips because the label claims they have added fiber.

Solution: Get your nutrients from your food. If you want a small indulgence, choose it because it’s an indulgence and not because it’s providing you with nutrients.

 Source : Tammy Lakatos Shames and Elysse (“Lyssie”) Lakatos