Swimmer Nutrition; Meal Plan When Training
12,000 calories a day is not a recommended or typical swimmer neutrino. But for Michael Phelps his trainer gave the okay and encouraged him to eat enough to replenish the enormous amount of calories he was burning.
The idea is to give the muscles something to work with, if the calories are not replaced, the muscles will not recover from a tough training session and there will not be adequate energy stored for the next session or completive event.
Swimmer Meal Plan Nutrition Training
Although quantity matters, the key factor is quality. Getting your nutritional habits in order is the best way to build a proper meal plan for swimmers. The top four basics are what you will build your meal plan upon.
- Eat breakfast
- Eat protein with every meal
- Eat every two - three hours.
- Drink water all day
- Drink a pre and post workout drink with protein and carbohydrates. This is not gatorade, which has the carbohydrates but not the protein. Consider creating your own from the basic homemade Gatorade recipe and adding a scoop of protein powder to the mixture and shaking well. A simpler way to get the same result is from a small bottle of skim chocolate milk.
Studies show higher recovery rates with those that consume a protein before and after your workout. This practice will also help considerably with cramps, lightheadedness, and dizziness after practice. Toss a bottle of the chocolate milk or your own protein drink concoction in your training bag and sip within the training window, 30 minutes before and 30 minutes after your workout.
Specific Tips on Swimmer Nutrition
Like most diet related advice, there is plenty of conflicting information out there; no carbs, high carbs, high protein, anything goes. The key is to find the balance for your own body. This may involve some trial and error.
A few specific tips regarding swimmer nutrition include;
- Add protein powder to your breakfast cereal; oatmeal can be loaded up with protein, raisins, nuts and bananas, or other fruits for a healthy and satisfying breakfast.
- Cans of tuna, hard-boiled eggs, and muesli bars and peanut butter will become a staple in your snacks of choice. Giving yourself high protein, lean fat options will go along way in keeping up your levels of nutrition.
- Stay away from fatty, fried foods. These will do nothing but slow you down.
- Packages of nuts, yogurt, and chocolate milk should be carried with you in your training bag for a quick burst of energy.
- Eat regular sized portions, several times a day. It is never good to gorge, even the night before a big meet.
- Don’t be afraid of carbohydrates. Consume bagels, whole grain breads, potatoes and cereal bars.
References
Swimming Club-https://www.gysc.org.uk/swimming-training-tips-nutrition/all-pages.htm
Wall Street Journal- The Michael Phelps Diet- https://blogs.wsj.com/health/2008/08/13/the-michael-phelps-diet-dont-try-it-at-home/tab/article/
