By Chris Hague
There are a lot of diets out there (Keto, Atkins, Paleo, vegan, vegetarian, carnivore, gluten-free, low-fat, Special K, and the list goes on) all of which espouse that they work the “best.” They claim to help you lose weight, re-lose weight, keep the weight off, decrease acne, decrease inflammation, boost energy, and restore your connection to your Paleolithic ancestors. But can they make you a better and faster athlete?
Understandably, with so much diet advice out there, mostly from non-athletes, many athletes are confused as to what to eat not only in training but also outside of training. Many athletes try to apply mainstream diets to the context of their training and very active lifestyles, which can lead to disastrous results. The secret is that no one diet will work for everyone–the human body is amazing like that, so I am not going to focus on a single diet that you should have as an athlete, but rather on the commonalities that these successful diets share and the outcomes that you should be looking for when you are trying to figure out what to eat.
Here are five traits that all great diets for endurance athletes possess.
A great diet:
Fuels your workouts (and the rest of your life) A good diet for an endurance athlete provides energy for you to be able to do the work required to achieve your goals as an athlete. If you have a long workout, your body will need energy to execute that workout properly, so if your body is not getting that fuel, then you are sabotaging the purpose of that workout. Moreover, a good diet for an athlete ensures that you can get through the rest of your day without being a crabby mess or raiding the fridge at 2 am.
Supports recovery A good diet does two key things for recovery. First, it gives you the building blocks (specifically proteins but also carbohydrates to replenish depleted stores and healthy fats as they can be the precursor to essential hormones) that allow you to repair your body from the work that it has done. Even when perfectly fueled, longer workouts will deplete your energy stores, break down muscles, dehydrate, and, generally, stress your body. Thus you need to give your body what it needs to repair and destress. Secondly, a good diet will support other aspects of recovery primarily sleep and relaxation (in the sense of switching back to a parasympathetic state). For example, ingesting a bunch of caffeine or alcohol after a workout will disrupt your sleep and, in turn, disrupt your recovery.
Includes all three macronutrients A good endurance diet includes different ratios of carbohydrate, fat, and protein and does not neglect or even demonize one of these. Your body needs all three of these to function optimally and in different ratios depending on when you are training, your training level, and the type of training. While there have been case studies of athletes who have fueled an Ironman on nothing but water and coconut oil or cyclists who eat nothing but bread and rice, the research still supports that the best diets have carbs, fats, and protein.
Is sustainable By this I mean that you can follow your diet consistently and easily throughout the annual training cycles without difficulty or massive upsets in training from injury or sickness.
Includes real foods and processed foods (“rocket fuel”) when needed One commonality nearly all diet gurus espouse is that most of your diet should be from unprocessed foods, including fruit, vegetables, whole grains, oats, seeds, nuts, beans, legumes, etc. That’s because these are ideal sources of bioavailable nutrients, gut-healthy fiber, vitamins, and minerals, which are needed for overall bodily function and health. They also fill you up and leave you satisfied. However, during training, these sources are sometimes not ideal; thus, athletes can need ultra-processed carb sources. Potatoes, dates, prunes, and figs are great sources of carbohydrates, but they can be hard to carry during training and racing and the fiber can cause issues at high-intensity levels, which is why gels, chews, gummies, and sports drinks are ideal and precise options to fuel you for what you need as an athlete. I am not saying that more natural options aren’t good (who doesn’t like rice cakes or salted potato nuggets on a long bike ride?), but rather that it is OK to include processed foods when the occasion calls for it in training, racing, or recovery.
As you go through your diet and start to look around at what to include more of (or less of), if you are checking these boxes, your diet is going to help you become a better athlete.
Chris Hague is a USAT Certified Coach & Precision Nutrition Certified Coach based in Nashville, TN. He works with endurance athletes of all levels.