Is Paleo beneficial for athletes

If you have read the rules of the paleo diet and you are an athlete and your thoughts were like mine, don't worry, it is actually very beneficial. I know your thinking that you have different nutritional needs as an athlete and that this doesn't sound like something you could follow, but it is doable. You are actually allowed to do some modifications to the paleo diet to cater to your specific needs.


Endurance Athletes
The most important thing for an athlete is to eat enough food. I know that sounds weird, but you need to make sure you are getting enough energy to fuel your sport. Also for an endurance athletes, you are going to want to eat more fat and carbs. Paleo diet is very high in protein, but and hour before and and up to an hour after your workouts, add some more carbs for recovery.




Power Athletes 
As mentioned above, it is very important that you are eating enough food to fuel your sport. For Power athletes, you are going to want to make sure to consume healthy fats, it is what muscles prefer as fuel. Also as a power athlete, you will want to try to stay under 150g of carbs a day. It is also recommended to consume 1g of protein per pound of body weight per day. Remember, meat over protein powder, a few bites of meat equals a whole scoop of protein powder.


Athletes need rapid recovery after training and sometimes its hard to always have the appropriate food nearby. This is the only time it is okay to break the paleo rules, specifically for endurance athletes. If you are about to run a marathon and need to carb load to properly fuel your body for the race and to be at very best, it is okay to eat that pasta dinner the night before. Also during a race, lasting longer than an hour, water is not going to replace all of the nutrients you have lost, and eating whole foods while racing is not usually an options, so this would be the only time it is allowed to have a sugary sports drink such as Gatorade or reach for your gel packets half way through a marathon. Remember to only use these modifications when absolutely necessary and don't use it as an excuse every day you are training.

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