Depending on what type of athletic performance you're undertaking, you'll want to eat in ways that aid your training. Eating the wrong foods, eating at the wrong time or even eating the right foods at the wrong time can hurt your workout results. Regardless of whether you're body building or training for a sport, you'll want to eat more carbohydrates to fuel your workouts.
Considerations
The higher your heart rate during activity, the more glycogen--or how your body stores carbohydrates--you'll burn. If you are training year round, your workouts might emphasize muscle building and aerobic conditioning for several months, then shift to muscular endurance, culminating in sprint, or interval, training during your season. Create an annual training plan so you can match your diet needs to your training.
Seasonal Eating
During the off-season for many sports, you will likely be working on muscle building. During this time, you'll want to eat carbohydrates to fuel workouts and lean protein to help build muscle. In addition, you'll want to eat more calories than you burn. For bodybuilding, carbohydrates can make up more than 60 percent of your daily calories, with protein about 20 percent and fat around 15 percent, according to University of New Mexico professors Len Kravitz and Phil Block in their article, "Tailoring Nutrient Intake to Exercise Goals." During the pre-season and in season, decrease your calories as you taper off bodybuilding. Eat enough calories to maintain your weight and fuel performance.
Timing
Eat more carbohydrates prior to activity, and within one to two hours of finishing activity, to help replenish stores you've just depleted. Eat your protein farther away from game time and workouts. If you are eating three to four hours before weight lifting or sports, eat a meal with carbohydrates, protein and fat. If you are eating closer to your workout or game, decrease protein and increase carbs. After weightlifting, protein provides amino acids that help muscle repair and regeneration while fat interferes with digestion and nutrient absorption. After sports performance, such as a football game or tennis match, drink a carbohydrate-based sports drink or eat carbs to replenish what you have used during your activity and to replenish stores for your next game or match.
Frequency
To get the calories you need without overloading your body's metabolism, spread your calories out throughout the day. Don't work out on an empty stomach first thing in the morning, or your body will not have enough glycogen to properly fuel your muscle contractions. Eat six or more times per day to keep your metabolism working.
Lean Protein
To build muscle, eat lean protein sources that have less saturated fat. The breast meat from chicken and turkey is the leanest part of the bird. Cheaper cuts of beef have less fat. Eat egg whites for protein without the cholesterol. Fish is another good source of high-quality protein.
Game Day
As a sample daily eating plan for tennis players, Page Love, a registered dietitian certified in sports dietetics, recommends breakfast, a mid-morning snack, lunch, afternoon snack, dinner and an evening snack, with pre- and post-match eating on days you compete. Her sample meals and snacks all contain carbs, fat and protein, with her pre-match eating limited to carbs and post-match recovery a glass of low-fat chocolate milk and several cups of water.
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