Tips for staying hydrated

Some tips for staying hydrated:
Drink small amounts of water frequently, rather than large amounts less often.
Drink cold beverages to cool your core body temperature and reduce sweating.
Weigh yourself after working out and drink 2-3 cups of water for every pound lost. Your body weight should be back to normal before the next workout.
Pay attention to the amount and color of your urine. You should excrete a large volume that is nearly colorless. Small amounts or dark colored urine can indicate dehydration.

The most important factor!

Water is the most important factor in sports nutrition. It makes up about 60 percent of body weight and is involved in almost every bodily process. Your body cannot make or store water, so you must replace what you eliminate (i.e., urine, sweat). Everyone should drink at least two quarts (eight cups) of water each day, and athletes need more. Drink plenty of fluids before, during and after sports events to stay hydrated and avoid overheating. When you workout or compete, especially in hot weather, try to closely match the amount of fluid you drink with the amount you lose to sweat.

Cool water is the best fluid to keep you hydrated during workouts or events lasting an hour or less. Sports drinks (i.e., 6-10 percent carbohydrates) are useful for longer events. Most of these types of drinks should be diluted approximately 50 percent with water. Drink even if you are not thirsty. Thirst is not a reliable way to tell if you need water. You won't start feeling thirsty until you have already lost about 2 percent of body weight - enough to hurt performance. And if you stop drinking water once your thirst is satisfied, you will get only about half the amount you need.

The winning edge

Athletes who want a winning edge should get the right nutrition. When you drink enough water and eat a balanced diet, your body can make energy efficiently and fuel top performance. You can make the most of your athletic talents and gain more strength, power and endurance when you train. Base your diet on a variety of factors including your age, size and physical condition; and the type of exercise you are doing. See your doctor for individualized nutrition advice.

A carb loaded diet

To avoid running out of carbohydrates for energy, some endurance athletes like
long-distance runners, swimmers and bicyclists load their muscles with glycogen
by eating extra carbohydrates in combination with doing depletion exercises
several days before an event:
First exercise to exhaustion. Your workout
must be identical to the upcoming event to deplete the right muscles.
Then
eat a high-carbohydrate diet (70-80 percent carbs, 10-15 percent fat, 10-15
percent protein) and do little or no exercise starting three days before your
event.
Muscles loaded with unused glycogen will be available to work for
longer periods of time during competition. See your doctor for advice before
trying a carb-loading diet.

orthoinfo.aaos.org

Tips from Nancy Clark

Tips from Nancy Clark
Don't Arrive Too Hungry
One prerequisite to successful nighttime dining is to eat a hearty lunch or an afternoon snack. This prevents you from attacking the refrigerator the minute you walk in the house in the evening.
Nancy Clark's Sports Nutrition Guidebook ( Human Kinetics, 1997), p. 88

A Game Plan for Good Nutrition
Three basic keys to healthful eating:When choosing your meals and snacks, try to base your nutrition game plan on these three important keys to healthful living:
1. Variety. There is no one magic food. Each food offers special nutrients. For example, oranges provide vitamin C and carbohydrates but not iron or protein. Beef offers iron and protein but not vitamin C or carbohydrates. You'll thrive best by eating a variety of foods. I often counsel athletes who severely restrict their diets. One runner, for example, limited herself to plain yogurt, rice cakes, and oranges. Besides lacking variety, her diet lacked iron, zinc, vitamins A, E, K, and much more.
2. Moderation. Even soda pop and chips, in moderation, can fit into a well-balanced diet. Simply balance out refined sugars and fats with nutrient-wise choices at your next meal. For example, compensate for a greasy sausage and biscuit at breakfast by selecting a low-fat turkey sandwich for lunch. Although no one food is a junk food, too many nutrient poor selections can accumulate into a junk food diet.
3. Wholesomeness. Choose natural or lightly processed foods as often as possible. For instance, choose whole wheat rather than white bread, apples rather than apple juice, baked potatoes rather than potato chips. Natural foods usually have more nutritional value and fewer questionable additives.

What shape is your diet?

Whereas square meals and a well-rounded diet were once the shape of good nutrition, the food pyramid reflects nutrition for the 1990s. The U.S. Department of Agriculture has developed this new model that divides food into six groupings of varied sizes that stack into a pyramid. The pyramid supports the concept of a carbohydrate-based sports diet and offers the visual message that you should eat lots of breads, cereals, and grains for the foundation of your diet; generous amounts of fruits and vegetables; and lesser amounts of animal proteins and dairy foods. The tiny tip of the pyramid allows for just a sprinkling of sugars and fats.

Prevent yourself from getting too hungry!

Food is one of life's pleasures. Food is also important for fueling your body and investing in your overall health. As an active person, you may want to eat well but you struggle with juggling food and good nutrition with your busy schedule of work and workouts, family and friends. Students, parents, businesspeople, and athletes alike repeatedly express their frustrations with trying to eat high quality diets. "I know what I should eat," they tell me. "I just don't do it." Although they take the time to exercise, they don't always make time, or know how, to eat right.
One basic trick to winning with nutrition is to prevent yourself from getting too hungry. Hunger depletes the energy you need to choose the foods that both support your sports program and enhance your health. Whether you are a fitness exercise or an Olympic athlete, you can nourish yourself with wholesome foods, even if you are eating on the run.