Top 5 Nutrition Mistakes & How to Fix Them

Over the last 24 years, I have seen nutritional mistakes that have resulted in bad race & training results; here are the top five mistakes and how to correct them.

NOT KNOWING YOUR SWEAT RATE
You may ask how your sweat rate relates to nutritional mistakes; the reason is associated with how your body stores water relevant to what you eat.  Fruits in vegetables are high in vitamins & minerals, but they are also high in water and natural forms of electrolytes (what you lose in through sweat). Also, for your body to store one gram of sugar for energy, it stores 2.5 grams of water.  If you want to improve your pre-hydration levels, eat more raw fruits and vegetables.

When it comes to sweating, your goal is to lose between 1-2% of your body weight in a given workout – no more or less.  If you lose more than 2% of your body weight you are officially dehydrated, if you lose less than 1% you are over hydrated.  This is a very fine line that needs to be evaluated on a regular basis with the following variables being factored in:  air temperature, humidity, intensity and duration.

To help you calculate your personal sweat rate, please email me at robb3@earthlink.net and I will send you a simple to use Sweat Rate Calculator.  It will provide you insight into your sweat rate along with inform you if you’re eating habits are helping or hurting your performance on the track.

NOT EATING ENOUGH HIGH QUALITY CALORIES
As mentioned above, fruits and vegetables are high in water, vitamins, minerals and electrolytes.  However, fruits and vegetables are not high in calories.  This means that you must eat a lot of fruits and vegetables (along with lean protein sources) to perform at an optimal level.

To determine if you are consuming enough calories to fuel your training efforts, both on and off of the track, you need to evaluate exactly what and how much you have eaten, when you have eaten and then evaluate the quality of your workouts. This is very simple to do by maintaining a daily food log (Note: if you don’t have a simple to use food log, please email me at robb3@earthlink.net and I will send you a copy of our food log that is easy to use and maintain on a daily basis).

There are two typical  realizations that come from maintaining a food log; one is the quantity of food that comes out of a box and/or a can; the amount of total calories consumed on a daily basis is not enough to fuel your efforts.  By maintaining a daily food log  and evaluating your energy levels/performance results you will develop a personalized nutritional plan in less than two weeks.

NOT EATING ENOUGH HIGH QUALITY FAT
Fat has gotten a bad rap in the media, but the fact of the matter is that your body needs high quality fat on a daily basis for your body to perform at an optimal level.  Typical symptoms of insufficient fat intake include: fatigue, delayed recovery, depression, over eating, constantly hungry and more.  The role of fats in your performance is beyond the scope of this article; however, it is imperative that you consume the following unsaturated fats on a daily basis: extra virgin olive oil, avocadoes and fish oil.

These fats are either used by your body as energy or past as waste – which means no stored body fat!  This is a win-win situation for you: improved performance and decreased body fat.  When you increase your clean fat intake, there are two things you will notice within two weeks: improved endurance and not hungry all of the time.  The reason for this is because most individuals don’t consume enough high quality fat – simple fix with huge benefits.  For high quality snack and meal ideas that include these items, please email me at robb3@earthlink.net and I will forward to you

NOT EATING IMMEDIATELY AFTER A WORKOUT
When you work out your body gets the majority of its energy from stored sugar from your muscles (your brain gets its sugar from your liver); the longer and more intense your workout the more you “empty” your stored muscle sugar.  When you are finished with your riding session or cross training workout away from the track, you have a 20-30 minute window to replenish these depleted stored sugar levels optimally.  During this short post exercise window, you have an enzyme (glycogen synthase enzyme) that is highly activate within your muscles cells that helps increase the replenishment of sugar within the muscles (and liver).

The longer you wait to consume high quality food after your riding session or workout, the less effective your replenishment will be and your recovery window will take longer as a result. Ideally, you want to consume food in a 4:1 ration between carbohydrates and lean protein.  Simple solutions include fruit smoothies made with Greek yogurt or chocolate milk.   For high quality smoothie ideas, please email me at robb3@earthlink.net and I will forward to you thirty smoothie recipes that are easy to prepare and carry with you to the track or gym. 

NOT DRINKING ENOUGH WATER
The average human body contains 96 pints of water – 64 of these are found inside the body’s cells.  Your brain is 75% water, your blood is 85% water, muscle is 70% water, and you see how important being hydrated is literally from the inside out.  Please don’t confuse hydration levels with sweat rate discussed earlier; hydration levels are strictly relevant to maintaining proper fluid levels within your body for optimum health and ultimately performance.  Your sweat rate is relevant to how much perspiration you are creating as your body attempts to rid itself of internal heat.

As a general rule of thumb, your need to consume half of your body weight in ounces of water – for example, if you weigh 150 pounds, you need to consume 75 ounces of water on a daily basis to maintain proper hydration levels.  Any activities that you perform on a daily basis: exercise, work, leisure, etc. has to be factored in addition to your daily needs.

There are two simple indicators of proper hydration levels: urine color and urination frequency.  Regarding your urine color, the lighter your urine the more hydrated you are.  Please note, if you are taking a multi vitamin that contains B vitamins, your urine will be a tad darker as a result.  As your body absorbs and purges the B vitamin, the color of your urine will become lighter in color.  In regards to your urination frequency, you should be visiting the restroom once an hour.  Though this can be an inconvenience at time, the health and performance benefits are definitely worth it!