Athletic Diet and Nutrition

Hey, this is Dr. Gangemi. In this SockDoc video I want to talk about diet and nutrition for athletes. There’s so much information out there today about what type of diet is going to work better for an athlete to help you develop your fitness and adapt to whatever sports you’re dealing with and to become a faster, stronger, more efficient athlete. Now gluten-free diets, Paleo diets, vegan diets, high carbohydrate, low fat, ketogenic diets, all these different types of diets, but in this video I want to talk primarily about how to fuel your body based on the type of activity that you’re doing.

We need to base off how much we move during the day. We need to basically adjust our diet, our carbohydrate, protein, and fat ratio dependent upon our activity levels. If we’re training really hard, we typically are going to need to eat more food. If we are not training as hard, we can go about eating less food. Let’s talk about also how to develop your aerobic system and your anaerobic system in relationship to the food that we’re eating. So think about aerobic and fat and think about anaerobic as carbohydrates and sugar. There’s lots of discussion on this on the SockDoc site where I talk about developing an aerobic system as well as developing your anaerobic system too.

Aerobic, more fat burning, okay? So you’re able to go longer at a harder intensity but longer at a lower heart rate. In other words, you’re becoming a more and more efficient athlete. That’s the benefit to developing your aerobic system. You can train longer and harder at a lower or the same heart rate than what you were able to do otherwise. And the way you fuel your aerobic system is by eating more fat. Maybe even 60-70% of your diet should be fat. I’m a big proponent of when someone wants to really develop their aerobic system is to do that at the fastest state.

Get up in the morning, go for a run, go for a kayak or a paddle board or whatever you’re into, and do that at an aerobic heart rate typically around that 180 minus your age heart rate that I talk about on the site but without eating food because if you eat a carbohydrate food you’re going to change your lactate levels at that time and you’re going to be less aerobic. You’re going to have more difficulty developing your aerobic system. So for fats, of course, grass fed beef, pasture raised pork, wild caught fish, free range eggs, bacon, butter, other healthy dairy products like heavy cream, really good fats, olive oil, nut and seeds, you know the rest.

So think really high quality fats when you’re developing your aerobic system, okay? Now, carbohydrates, those have a place too. I’ve seen a lot of issues with athletes doing ketogenic diets and eating typically less than 25 grams of carbohydrates per day and trying to train hard too. I’m not saying it doesn’t work sometimes. It can really help you develop your aerobic system and become a better athlete but if you’re training hard, high intensity, heavy strength, and really pushing yourself, especially after racing, think about eating some carbohydrates, especially within that 30 to 60 minutes after your training. Really you need some protein in there too.

There’s nothing wrong with some carbohydrates, starchy carbs, plantain, sweet potatoes, even white potatoes if you metabolize them well. Of course, you got some fruits, good carbohydrates. Just pay attention to how well you metabolize them. Even chocolate and some really good treats, 85% cacao or more, think more honey and maple syrup rather than white refined sugar. Don’t be afraid of the carbohydrates, you do need them to recover when you’re pushing yourself hard. Proteins? Athletes typically need about 1.5 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight, if not up to two, two and a half grams if you’re really intense at certain times of your training cycle as well as if you are recovering from an injury.

So, again, the harder your training the more carbohydrates and protein you need typically, the easier your training in developing your aerobic system. You should be able to get by with less carbohydrates and more fats. So always adjust your diet, always think about what you’re doing in relationship to how your training, and you’ll become a much more efficient athlete and a much healthier individual.

Hope you like this video. There’s lots more information on the SockDoc site about diet and nutrition and, of course, injury treatment and prevention. A lot of other health topics on there and it’s all natural, 100% holistic. Stay away from NSAIDs and all those other drugs on the SockDoc site and a lot of information about barefoot and minimalist running. So check us out, hope to see you next time.
 

Dr. Stephen Gangemi "Sock Doc"

I'm a board-certified chiropractic physician and clinical nutritionist with a passion for true natural health care. I implement dietary & nutritional therapies, exercise & movement practices, and lifestyle changes along with manual therapy techniques to help the body heal and prevent illness and injuries.