Athletes who participate in cold weather activities have a variety of special needs when it comes to performing at an optimal level while staying comfortable and safe as temperatures drop.
These concerns typically focus on:
Learning basiccold weather exercise safety
Avoiding frostbite and hypothermia
and Dressing for cold weather exercise
But how you fuel your exercise in the cold can also help you perform your best and stay comfortable and safe. Proper nutrition can help regulate your core temperature, and keep your body warm while fueling your muscles. In the summer it's easy to sweat to regulate your temperature and remove excess heat.
In the cold weather your body temperature normally drops. Your metabolism increases to warm and humidify the air you breathe and you tend to burn slightly more calories to stay warm. Breathing in cold, dry air forces your body to warm and humidify that air and with each exhalation, you lose significant amounts of water. Winter athletes need to consciously drink more fluids to replace the water that gets lost via respiration. Add this to a decreased desire to drink (the thirst mechanism is reduced in cold weather) and you can see why one of the biggest nutritional needs during winter exercise is replacing fluids. Dehydration is one of the main reasons for reduced performance in the cold.
When it comes to eating during cold weather exercise, warm foods are ideal, but not very practical. The problem with cold foods and fluids is that they can chill the body. In summer, this cooling effect is helpful during exercise, but in winter hot foods are the better choice.
Ideal foods are complex carbohydrates consumed 2 hours prior to exercise. Soups, chili, bread, bagels, pasta with tomato sauce baked potatoes, cereals, peanut butter, lean meat, and low-fat cheese are good choices.
It's also important to eat continually to replace carbohydrate stores that are being used for exercise and warming. If you don't replace this energy you will likely feel more fatigued and chilled. Children get hungrier more often and fatigue quicker. This is especially important for children. Plan ahead and bring energy bars, chocolate bars, trail mix, bananas, sandwiches or something that you like and will eat.
