Performance Nutrition: Key recommendations

Here is a summary of the Fit Stop's basic recommendations for eating healthy while training to maximize fitness performance:

1. Try to eat 5-6 smaller meals a day to give your body a steady supply of energy (calories) and nutrients and to keep your blood sugar at a consistent level.


2. Eat nutrient dense, fiber rich, complex carbohydrates such as brown rice, whole-grain pasta, potatoes, whole-grain breads, low sugar high fiber cereals, and beans. Carbohydrates provide the energy needed to maximize the intensity in your training which is the most important factor for increasing strength, power and endurance.


3. Eat high quality, low-fat poroteins, such as egg whites, chicken, turkey, tuna, lean red meat, low-fat dairy products, and if necessary low-fat protein supplements.


4. If, because of high volume training or limited time, you have difficulty eating the recommended amounts of food every day, try to consume a high protein, low-fat powder drink as a snack or as part of a meal. Be careful though, if you are trying to get rid of some excess body fat, the powder drinks can cause calories to add up quickly.


5. For healthy snacks choose fruits, dried fruits and nuts along with sports nutrition bars that are low in fat and high in carbohydrates and protein. Try to avoid these foods directly before working out as this may cause a spike in insulin and comensurate drop in blood sugar during exercise. Choosing low glycemic foods to ingest at least 30-60 minutes prior to exercise can prevent low blood sugar and increase fat oxydation.


6. Consume energy drinks before and after weight training but just water during weight training. When training for endurance exercise that lasts over an hour you should consume carbohydrates during your activity (approx. 30-60 gms/hour) and a mixture of carbohyrates (2/3) and Protein (1/3) immediately following your long workout in order to maximize replenishment of your stored carbohydrates (e.g., glycogen) in the muscle. Go to Fuel Tools for more info and to determine you fueling needs.


7. Be sure to consume enough fuel to balance your energy expenditure. Try not to limit your fuel intake by more than 5oo calories below your actual expenditure. Learn your energy balance by participating in a Cardio-Metabolic Exercise Profile.

CAUTION: These statements have not been reviewed by the Food and Drug Administration. This information product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease. Consul with your physician or registered dietician before starting any weight-loss, fitness and diet program.

Maximizing Strength to Weight Ratio - Part 1

Like with many training goals to get your best end result you will more than likely target an example or model of the outcome you have in sight. If your goal is to be more competitive in an endurance event then all you have to do is look at the podium in that event and you can identify some traits that tend to be common amoung the winners. If your target is road racing on a bike then your model body type would be light, thin on top with a significant amount of power producing mass in the lower body, whereas if you were modeling a triathlete you might find athletes who are light but they would typically show up with a little more mass in the upper body. On the other end of the spectrum if your goal event was to be a competitive olympic rower you would no doubt see bodies that were still lean but quite a bit heavier since they are required to produce enough power to move themselves and their boat or shell faster than their competitors over a relatively short period of time. Not only do different types of events suggest the optimal body type but the duration of the event will dictate which type of athlete will reach the podium. Generally longer endurance events like marathons or triathlons will favor light athletes while short sprinting type events which require explosive power over a short distance will usually favor the larger body types.

Whatever your target, one thing that is common to all these athletes is that they do not carry any excess weight that does not produce some form of power for their event. Muscle is the power producer while body fat does not produce power and is generally sufficient for your health in only relatively small amounts. So any excess in body fat is a limitation whether you are sustaining long bouts of exercise or short sprints. Granted - some sports like football and power lifting may require very high absolute mass levels to perform well and even excess fat can create a more powerful affect when trying to move another heavy mass. But if we are talking about the ability to move quickly and efficiently the LEANer mass (not fat) is most critical to high performance. This is why when we are evaluating an athlete's physical fitness and performance we typically will look at their strength relative to their weight. For cyclists we measure fitness performance by looking at their watts (power) per kilogram of body weight. A cyclist who is a mountain specialist will need to generate a very high wattage per kilogram of their body weight at their lactate threshold (LT) or functional threshold (FT) to be competive on the hills. This means they have to be light but at the same time able to generate a relatively high sustainable power to be competitive. A power to weight ratio of 5.0-6.0 or more is typically required for the top competitors. That means if you could generate 400 watts at your LT (that's a lot) than your weight would need to below 145 lbs to have more than a 6.0 watt/kg. Calc: 145/2.2 = 66 kg, that's 400 watts/66 kg = 6.1 watts/kg. Sprinters (cyclists) on the other hand will require a high sustainable power but also will need to be able to generate high levels of absolute power for the all out sprint. This means they will typically be heavier with huge power producing thighs.

Endurance runners will also need to generate a powerful pace relative to their body weight. You will typically see thinner, lighter athletes in the longer events and slightly larger athletes with more mass for short or middle distances. Some researchers have estimated that for every 1% reduction in body fat you can see a 1% increase in running speed. For triathletes the same is true, a higher power to weight ratio will equate to a faster run and ride.

Now, don't go out and start cutting weight by shutting down the fuel supply and exercising into oblivian just yet - there are limits to what you can lose and how you should lose it. As with any fitness endeavor you do not want to abuse you fitness to get light. My next post will discuss the optimal training guidelines for optimizing your strength to weight ratio.

P.S. to find out your power to weight ratio go to www.fitstop-lab.com/fitnesstesting.htm and get evaluated today. Choose the Cardio-Metabolic Exercise Profile - and check for specials at http://www.fitstop-lab.com/

MaxFat: Part Two

As we discussed a while ago the Fat Burn zone can be a confusing concept since exercising at your MaxFat level does not necessarily lead to an optimized ability to burn off excess body fat or even push up your fitness level. However, the truth is there are real benefits to understanding this concept and with being able to identify your own maxfat zone which can lead to a better training effect; whether that effect is increasing your ability to sustain long workouts (stamina), recover quicker from extensive training, increase your sustainable power and yes, even optimize your body composition (i.e., body fat %). The following information provides actual fat bump charts of athletes and exercisers who completed a Cardio-Metabolic Exercise Profile in our lab. Each chart suggests a different training history and their story may help illucidate more fully the fat utilization theories and how you could benefit from similar information.

Sample 1: The endurance runner

Typically an endurance trained exerciser who has trained a large percentage of the time in the sub-threshold levels will provide a fairly high fat utilization (6-9+ kcals/min) at their fat bump and their fat contribution will continue to decrease as intensity approaches the lactate or ventilatory thresholds (LT). Quite often at LT there will be little or no fat utilization and energy systems will be relying primarily on carbohydrate fuel (i.e., from stored glycogen in liver and muscle). This athlete showed a fairly high utilization even at the LT suggesting a good ability to spair the limited glycogen even at a fairly high sustainable pace.

Sample 2: The endurance cyclist

Notice the fat burn rate does not go up quite as high for this similar sized and fit athlete, though fat utilization is still present even at his LT. This is a very well trained endurance athlete like the runner example but because the test is on a bike the fat contribution will typically be lower. One theory for this is that since muscle recruitment and fatigue is more concentrated in the legs when cycling the fat utilization is limited by comparison.

Sample 3: Endurance Cyclist

A fit Cyclist during a 30 minute sustained effort just below his threshold wattage. Note the low contribution of fat for energy. This is actually not bad for an effort level of 80% of max VO2. Remember - fat contribution will decrease as you approach your threshold intensity.

Sample 4: Overtrained/ Unrecovered Fit Cyclist

This cyclist is a world class masters cyclist who came in for testing following a long hard ride. Note the random spikes of fat utilization. High intensity training can have residual effects on fat utilization compromizing the sparing or replenishment of glycogen for days. Other factors that might have contributed to this response may include unusually high stress response to testing discomfort (i.e., mask, etc.) or even eating behavior leading up to the test. Take away - be sure to evaluate your metabolic responses when you are fully recovered.

Sample 5: Very unfit new exerciser

Note the extremely low lactate threshold and low level of fat contribution throughout the test.
This individual had just started training on the elliptical machine 3 days per week and was hoping to start a running program. The test on a treadmill suggested that she would not be able to run even at a slow pace without exceeding her threshold. We encouraged her to spend most of her training in the next 6-8 weeks working below the threshold to avoid overreaching and to begin maximizing her ability to sustain work and use more fat as a fuel. Later we suggested she add some more intensity by including 1-2 interval workouts a week at or slightly above the LT (i.e., zone 3&4) to encourage greater fitness development.