High Carb? High Protein? The Best Diet for Optimum Performance

When it comes to making sure your body is operating at its peak performance level, your diet is one of the most important areas to focus on.  You wouldn’t expect an expensive car to run well on poor fuel or NO fuel, and your body is no different.  The types of food you eat and the amounts you consume can dictate how well your body handles the stresses an intense workout or sports activity can place on it. 

There are so many eating programs available and they cater to pretty much any eating preference, but when it comes to the type of diet you should consume as an athlete or very active person, your best bet is a diet that contains carbs, proteins and healthy fats.   Any plan that has you eliminate any of these three is not going to do well for you when optimum performance is your goal, but for optimum performance, carbohydrates should make up the bulk of your diet.

The Proper Time to Eat Carbs

Carbs, Proteins and Fats all have their place in a high performance diet and WHEN you eat them is just as important as how much you eat.  While you want to consume all three elements at every meal, when it comes to having improved endurance, higher energy and better glycogen storage, you should precede your workout or sports activity with carbs and save the protein for after where it aids in faster recovery and rebuilding of the muscles.

Ensuring that you consume carbs before, during and after your workout or sports activity will help you have a high quality experience with the most benefits to your body. The consumption is not extreme, typically 50-100 grams before the activity, 30-75 grams every hour during the activity, and follow it up with 75 grams afterwards. 

Some good examples of carbohydrates to include in your diet are rice, pasta, crackers, juices and fruits.  Be sure to include adequate amounts of water or a good quality sports drink as well for hydration.

Proteins and fats are also important

Proteins and healthy fats round out the athlete or active person’s diet and are equally important to maintaining optimum performance during sports or work outs.  It is not recommended that an athlete consume a high protein diet for many reasons.

One factor is that a high protein diet increases the amount of water the body needs and can cause dehydration if an increase of water is not accounted for and maintained.  This can put undue strain on the kidneys as well.   High protein diets can also affect the balance of muscle glycogen and can impair an athlete or active person’s performance. 

 There are many schools of thought on the proper amount of protein a person should consume, but a key factor is the amount of activity you do on a regular basis.  A person who works out 3 times a week will not require the same amount of protein as a professional athlete.  

In general, a good guideline to follow would be ½ to ¾ grams of protein per pound of body weight for someone who exercises three times a week. If you are a competitive athlete, that number will increase to .6 to .9 grams of protein per pound of body weight and so on.  Seek the advice of your doctor if there is any question as to your personal protein requirements.  Foods such as nuts, chicken, eggs, fish and beans are perfect sources of proteins.

Fats are also a necessary addition to your diet, but the key is making sure that they are the right kind of fats.  Empty calories and high sugar foods such as cakes, cookies, chips and candy are not the type of fats we’re talking about.   Olive oil, nut butters, fatty fish (sardines, tuna etc) are good sources of fat.

A good guideline to consider when adding in a fat intake amount is to keep it at around 30% of your overall food intake.  That means if you are eating 2500 calories a day, less than 900 calories should come from fat.  Again it is recommended that you seek your doctor’s advice or the advice of a nutritionist if weight loss is your goal or you have specific dietary needs. They will give you the amounts that are good for your specific needs.

The bottom line is that what you eat plays a major part in how your body performs and responds to the activities you engage in.  Fuel it properly according to your activity levels and activity intensity and you will find your performance will soar. Fill it with empty calories or unbalanced dietary choices and you’ll feel the effects in poor performance and poor recovery as well.