Eat to Win

Chapter 1

Nutrition 101

Calories

Calories have often been over-complicated by mainstream media. They are demonised, feared and misunderstood. Put simply, calories are a unit of energy. The more calories a food contains, the more energy it provides.

Our bodies use the calories (energy) from our food in different ways. As you can see from the following diagram, much of our energy intake is used by our basal metabolic rate.

BMR: Basal Metabolic Rate - calories burned when resting (respiration, digestion, organ function, brain function, etc.). The rate of this will depend on your body mass; this isn't something you can change.

TEF: Thermic Effect of Food - the calories you burn processing the food you eat. Certain foods can increase TEF, such as a high protein diet.

NEAT: Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis - these are the calories you burn by movement outside of exercise (walking, standing, fidgeting, cleaning, washing the car, walking up the stairs, cooking, etc.).

TEA: Thermic Effect of Activity (also known as EAT: Exercise Activity Thermogenesis) - calories burned through exercise.

The following figure is a breakdown of what our body uses calories for. The biggest one (outside of BMR) is NEAT. If you move a lot outside training, you must be aware of your level of NEAT. If you do 8 km of walking or a long commute on a bike to work on top of your training session, you need to make sure you are consuming adequate calories to cover all your physical movement. To calculate your required calories, you can follow the below equation (Harris-Benedict):

BMR = 10 × weight (kg) + 6.25 × height (cm) - 5 × age (years) - 161

To determine your total daily calorie needs, you then multiply your BMR by your physical activity level (PAL):

Sedentary (little or no exercise): calories = BMR × 1.2

Lightly active (light exercise/sports 1-3 days/week): calories = BMR × 1.375

Moderately active (moderate exercise/sports 3-5 days/week): calories = BMR × 1.55

Very active (hard exercise/sports 6-7 days a week): calories = BMR × 1.725

If you are extra active (very hard exercise/sports and a physical job): calories = BMR × 1.9

So, let's use my friend Emma as an example. She is a 26-year-old teacher who plays football and trains four times a week. She is 168 cm and 65 kg. Her PAL is moderately active (1.55). Her calorie calculation would be as follows:

BMR = 10 × 65 (kg) + 6.25 × 168 (cm) - 5 × 26 (years) - 161 = 1409 calories

BMR × PAL = 1409 × 1.55 = 2183 calories

This is the minimum number of calories that Emma needs to cover her energy requirements. If her training load increases via frequency, intensity or volume, she should increase her calories accordingly.

Macronutrients

Carbohydrates, proteins and fats are called macronutrients. All food is made up of one, two or all three of these nutrients. We need these in large amounts in our diets, and the amount of each you should consume will vary depending on your desired outcomes.

We fuel our bodies with the food we eat. If we under consume one or more of these nutrients, or mainly consume lower nutrient foods, our bodies may become under-fuelled or undernourished. If this continues unaddressed, you are at risk of ill health, underperforming, injury and burnout.

Carbohydrate

Carbohydrates have had a lot of bad press over the last few years. The anti-carb movement blamed the rising rates of obesity on increased consumption of carbohydrates by the public. Low carb diets soared in popularity, and people started cutting bread, pasta and other nutritious sources of carbohydrate from their daily intake - all of which was mostly unnecessary and unsustainable.

So, let's get a couple of things straight. The macronutrient itself does not cause any negative health effects in otherwise healthy individuals. However, there are many different sources of carbohydrates, from lentils and fruit (nutrient-dense) to pizza and ice cream (nutrient sparse). Some are more nutritious and others less so.

Carbohydrates are the body's preferred primary fuel source. They provide energy to your muscles, during movement and exercise, and to the central nervous system (brain) throughout the day. If you play high-intensity repeated sprint sports (which, if you are reading this book, I presume you do!) you need to focus on carbohydrates for fuelling your training sessions and matches. Inadequate carbohydrate intake will lead to poor fuelling and refuelling and, ultimately, result in a sub-optimal performance. The following table shows the carbohydrate recommendations for athletes. You will see here that on days where you are training for about an hour you should aim for 5-7 g/kg of body weight, and on days where you are required to perform for more than an hour, you should aim for 6-10 g/kg of body weight.

Daily Carbohydrate Needs for Fuel and Recovery for Athletes

That means on training days, depending on your weight, you should be aiming for a minimum of the below carbohydrate intake:

55 kg: 5 × 55 = 275 g

60 kg: 5 × 60 = 300 g

65 kg: 5 × 65 = 325 g

70 kg: 5 × 70 = 350 g

75 kg: 5 × 75 = 375 g

You can use the recipes in this book to help you reach these high carbohydrate targets. If you focus on high carb meals and snacks throughout the day, you will find it easier to follow this well-proven advice.

There are two main types of carbs:

1. Slow-releasing (starchy/complex) carbohydrates

We want to focus on slow-releasing carbs for most of our intake to ensure we keep our blood sugars stable and have a constant release of energy throughout the day. They take longer to digest and therefore result in a steady release of energy throughout the hours after. These complex carbohydrates are often a good source of fibre as well (more to come on that in the next section). Once consumed, carbs are broken down to glucose, which is their simplest form, and then stored as glycogen in our muscles and liver. This stored glycogen is used during periods where there is an energy demand from your body, i.e. movement or exercise. It is this stored glycogen that will be used during your training sessions or games. The longer the duration or the higher the intensity of the exercise, the more glycogen required to fuel the session. Therefore, optimal carbohydrate intake is key to performing at your best. Optimal carb consumption means optimal performance.

2. Fast-releasing (sugary/simple) carbohydrates

These types of carbohydrates are quickly broken down and absorbed by the body. They usually result in a quick spike in blood sugars and subsequent increase in energy levels. Unfortunately, this increase in energy is short-lived; and if more energy isn't consumed, it is usually followed by a drop in blood sugar levels, which leads to low energy levels. If you predominately consume simple, sugary carbohydrates throughout the day, you may experience periods of short bursts of high energy followed by spells of low energy and fatigue. For this reason, we want to avoid relying on sugary carbs for our energy intake. However, at certain times, when we are aiming to perform at our best, consuming fast-acting sugary carbs will be to our...