Each athlete has unique needs when it comes to fueling for sports performance. An athlete’s genetics, level of competition, personal preferences, and the sport in question all play an important role when it comes to optimizing nutrition.
What is Sports Nutrition?
Sports nutrition is a specialized field that focuses on optimizing an athlete's diet to support their training, performance, recovery, and overall well-being.
This involves tailoring nutritional strategies to meet the unique demands of different sports, while taking into account factors such as training intensity, duration, specific performance goals, and individual preferences and challenges.
But sports nutrition isn’t just about what you eat and drink before, during, and after training or competition. It also covers a wide range of topics, including:
- Nutrition periodization and energy balance
- Managing nutrition-related concerns in the sporting context (ex., Gastrointestinal upset, amenorrhea, nutrient deficiencies, etc.)
- Managing specific conditions, allergies, or intolerances (Celiac disease, etc.)
- Altering body composition
- Creating a positive team culture around food
- Identifying and preventing Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport (RED-S) in at-risk athletes
- Safe and appropriate use of supplements and ergogenic aides
- Meal planning and other food skills (ex., Planning ahead for out-of-town competition)
Regardless of your level of competition, spending some time learning about sports nutrition can help you get the most out of your season!
How can athletes benefit from seeing a sports dietitian?
Working with a sports dietitian can offer numerous benefits for athletes. Here are some ways sports nutrition counselling can help boost performance:
- Developing personalized nutrition plans: need help planning your nutrition around training and competition? Working with a dietitian can help you develop a nutrition plan that ensures you receive the right balance of nutrients to fuel performance.
- Optimizing energy levels: looking to minimize fatigue or gastric upset and improve endurance and focus on competition day? It’s not just what you eat that’s important. It’s when you eat it. Sports nutrition counselling can help maximize your energy availability when it counts the most by focusing on nutrient timing around competition.
- Improved recovery: Post-workout nutrition is one of the keys to getting the most out of training (and preparing you for the next session.) Different types of training require different refuelling strategies, and working with a dietitian can help you find what works best for you.
- Body composition management: Through personalized nutrition plans, athletes can work towards goals such as muscle gain, fat loss, or weight maintenance while still ensuring they have the ideal balance to support the demands of training.
- Nutritional education and food skills: through counselling, athletes can gain a greater appreciation for the roles of different nutrients in supporting sports performance and overall health. They can also learn useful skills like meal planning and budgeting and feel empowered to make informed food choices.
- Individualized support and accountability: Working with a sports nutrition dietitian provides athletes with ongoing support and accountability. Regular check-ins and follow-up sessions allow for adjustments to be made to the nutrition plan as needed, as well as provide guidance, motivation, and problem-solving to help athletes stay on track with their nutrition goals.
Registered Sports Dietitian Services at our sister clinic, the Nepean Sports Medicine & Physiotherapy Centre
Ruth Burrowes, their sports dietitian, can help you get on the right track to improved health, hydration, fueling, and performance, no matter the level of competition or sport you love!