Experiencing these three symptoms? Your nutrition plan may need optimizing.
Fueling is often simplified to calories in versus calories out. It makes sense, to an extent. When you burn more calories than you’re taking in, you might experience fatigue, injury, immunosuppression, and decreased performance.
But the types of nutrients you consume — and how much of each — also matter. “A lot of athletes, when they come to me, it's obvious that they're underfueling,” says Cassandra Padula Burke, M.F.S., R.D.N., L.D., C.P.T., a registered dietitian, certified triathlon and endurance coach, and owner of Catalyst Nutrition & Performance in Maryland. “Like, as soon as we do a daily like a one-day recall, and they tell me what they're eating, and then they're telling me what they did for training, it's very clear right out of the gate.”
Compounding the problem is the misinformation, often spread on social media, surrounding diet. “There's this plethora of misconceptions and myths and wrong information, quite frankly, that people are ingesting; they’re trying every trend and fad instead of doing what is really evidence-based and we know supports health and performance,” says Burke.
How to Fuel for Performance
How to best fuel your body for performance depends on a slew of factors: your activity level for the day, training goals, and health conditions, among others, says Burke. That’s why she suggests using these athlete-specific guidelines developed by the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee’s sport nutrition team as a baseline, then personalizing your plan from there.
Carbohydrate: 3-5 grams/kilogram of body weight per day for low-intensity training or skill-based activity days, 5-7 grams/kilogram of body weight per day for moderate (~1 hour) training days, 6-10 grams/kilogram of body weight per day for endurance (1-3 hour) training days, 8-12 grams/kilogram of body weight per day for ultra-endurance (4.5+ hour) training days.
Protein: 1.2-2.2 grams/kilogram of body weight per day.
Fat: 20-35 percent of daily caloric intake, which is the recommendation in the Dietary Guidelines for Americans.
Hydration: Burke recommends 30-45 milliliters of fluid/kilogram of body weight per day, with an extra 16 to 24 ounces per hour of training.
When planning your meals and snacks, prioritize carbs and protein, says Burke. “We really want to get the protein and the carbs dialed in first, because those [respectively] support protein muscle synthesis and glycogen replenishment once carbohydrate sources are used,” she explains.
Importantly, don’t fall into the “carbs are bad” trap you see online. The macronutrient is essential to supporting physical activity, according to Burke. “Our body looks first for carbohydrate to turn into energy and get into our bloodstream, whether that comes from food that we might be taking in during exercise (depending on how long our exercise is) or glycogen that it's pulling out of the muscle to convert to energy,” she explains. “In the absence of having that source of carbohydrate, your body's going to what we call ‘bonk’ pretty quickly.” (Bonking, aka “hitting the wall,” occurs when glycogen stores are depleted and can cause fatigue during training.)
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These nutrient goals can sound unrealistic, especially for serious athletes who need hundreds of grams of carbohydrates a day. But when you translate those numbers into real food, it becomes easier to envision yourself hitting those targets, says Burke. A breakfast featuring a bagel and an orange alone will lend you nearly 72 grams of carbs, while a dinner with a side of a cup of sweet potato and one-quarter cup of uncooked rice provides almost 63 grams.
How to Tell If You’re Underfueling
A day or two of underfueling won’t immediately wreck your performance, says Burke. But it can become an issue if you continue to miss the mark over the course of a few weeks.
To determine whether or not you’re falling short, keep track of your intake of those key nutrients and stay on the lookout for these key signs of underfueling.
1. You’re not as mentally sharp.
“If [an athlete is] training regularly and they're always feeling tired or irritable or like they can't focus or concentrate — they kind of have that brain fog — those are kind of physical signs to them that they probably aren't eating enough,” says Burke.
2. You can’t seem to recover.
Most athletes should take at least one, if not two, rest days each week to allow for muscle repair, says Burke. If you’re still feeling drained after those dedicated recovery moments, you could be underfueling, says Burke. Similarly, poor sleep could be a sign you need to optimize your nutrition, she adds.
3. Your performance is waning.
When you’re getting the nutrients you need (and you’re following a well-designed workout and recovery program), your performance metrics should generally be improving over time. Declines — in your power, strength, or endurance during the same workouts or athletic events — are an indication of poor fueling, says Burke.
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There’s no one-size-fits-all nutrition plan. If you’re hitting those nutrient guidelines and still feel like you aren’t 100 percent — or you’re not sure what’s appropriate for you and your activity level — Burke suggests reaching out to a dietitian who specializes in sports nutrition. They’ll help you develop a program that supports both your training needs and overall health.