5 Critical Nutrition Mistakes Endurance Athletes Need to Avoid

Nutrition is the discipline that is often overlooked and put last while training takes the spotlight. I get this, training is often the hero for performance, but nutrition is his or her sidekick that is needed for adaptations and for recovery, so that training and racing can prevail in the future.

Since nutrition is often not adequately considered for many athletes, common nutrition mistakes often transpire. Understanding and correcting these mistakes can significantly improve your training effectiveness, race-day performance, and recovery. In my 7 years of private practice I have seen significant improvements in my clients once we address these nutritional areas.

Let’s start looking at nutrition as the hero not the sidekick and prevent these 5 nutritional mistakes. 

 

1. Back-ending Your Nutritional Day

In our busy world with marketing campaigns of ‘New day new me’ everywhere, I see so many clients who underfuel in the morning then go raid the pantry in the afternoon/evening as their body has hit a blood sugar low. The body is primed for fuel in the morning as we have fasted overnight and we need energy for the day. Hence if we eat good complex carbs, protein and unsaturated fats in the morning we will be more satiated, less likely to overeat and use the food for energy and repair, not stored as adipose tissue (1,2). 

Front-ending our nutritional day or eating to our circadian rhythms works well for those who train in the morning. This is because we can fuel around our morning training to ensure we have adequate energy, recover well and support training adaptations. 

I know we are all busy in the morning trying to fit in; training, getting the kids ready, work, walking the dog, housework, the list goes on. However if we can create a plan to fuel well in the morning you will see a complete physiology shift to your recovery, cravings, weight and energy. This can be very simple and once you have it dialed you then don’t have to think about it anymore.

If you feel you need help with this check out my meal plans online here, or reach out to me for a personalised plan.

2. Skimping on Protein

Insufficient protein intake over prolonged periods of time will lead to loss of muscle, fatigue, decrease immune function, hormone disruption, decrease transportation of numerous nutrients and increase satiety for sugar and fatty foods (3). If you don’t have enough protein your body will be un-satiated and go craving food later in the day e.g. craving high sugar/fatty snacks in the afternoon and evening. 

Active women need around 1.4–2.2g of protein/kg/day (4,5). Active menopausal women should be consuming the upper range. Active Males need around 1.7-2.2g of protein/kg/day (6).

Higher protein intakes of 2.3–3.1g/kg/d may be needed for lean body mass retention in resistance-trained athletes during hypocaloric periods (7).

3. Underfuelling

Undereating can cause disturbances to hormones, gut issues (leading to malabsorption of nutrients), fatigue, poor recovery, poor sleep, mood, weight gain and decline or plateau in sports performance/fitness (8,9). On a daily basis both males and females should be eating a baseline calorie intake of 40-60 calories per kilogram of fat-free mass (10).

"Women and men have a 30 min-1 hour window post exercise to take in high value protein."

 

 

4. Not Fuelling After Training

Before and after training are the most critical times to take in nutrition, not only to fuel the workout but also to replenish glycogen stores and damaged muscle. Women and men have a 30 min-1 hour window post exercise to take in high value protein (11). Pre menopausal women need a hit of 35g of protein while post menopausal women need 40-60g of protein post exercise (11,12,13). Within this time our bodies are in a heightened state of absorption and hence we can consume less for maximum recovery. If we wait longer than an hour post exercise we would need to eat almost twice the amount of nutrients to get the same recovery benefits, not so great when our goal is maximising weight to power ratio (14).

5. Choosing the Wrong Fuel

The best training or racing fuel for you is going to depend on several factors. These include; gender, gut tolerance, training or event duration and intensity, dietary preferences and sweat composition.

Gender and gut tolerance:

Female athletes have a higher rate of gut issues when consuming simple carbohydrates, fructose and maltodextrin (15,16,17). This can also be similar in those who experience gut health issues. Therefore, these athletes may benefit from choosing sports nutrition products that use other forms of carbohydrates such as;

• Huma Gels

• Veloforte energy gels

• Naak- Ultra Energy Puree

• Muir energy- energy gel 

• Rawvelo energy gels or 

• UnTapped - Energy Gel (<5% fructose). 

It’s worth noting that most of these gels do contain fruit concentrates, which can contain some fructose. These products are also a good choice for athletes looking for sport nutrition made from as close to real ingredients as possible. 

Training or event duration:

30g of carbs per hour for events lasting 1-2 hours. 60-120g of carbs per hour for events over 2 hours (18).

highly concentrated in carbs such as Precision Fuel & Hydration - PF Carb Only Drink Mix. If you are getting most of your energy through food or gels you will be okay to have a mix that is lower in carbs and more electrolyte focused such as Pure Sports Nutrition - Electrolyte Hydration.

It is best to separate your hydration and energy into different products. This is due to the fact that for a liquid to be an available hydration source it should be around 5% carbohydrate. A carb mix is going to be at a much higher concentration than this and therefore you are sacrificing your hydration needs.

Sweat composition:

Everyone's sweat rate and composition is very different. Some people are salty sweaters, others lose potassium quickly and others just sweat out water. Your diet plays a part in what your sweat may consist of. For example if you consume a diet high in sodium you are likely to sweat out more sodium. You will only truly know what your sweat is composed of if you do a sweat test. 

In regards to those who are salty sweaters you may want to go for a hydration drink that is high in sodium such as Precision Fuel & Hydration - PH 1500 Electrolyte Drink Mix. If you are a low salt sweater you could go for a more balanced mix of electrolytes such as Hyro - Electrolyte Hydration Mix - Mixed Bag or Koda Nutrition - Electrolyte Powder Mixed Pack. Keep in mind that these are just electrolyte mixes, if you are looking to get some carbohydrates in through hydration you might be best suited to something like Tailwind Nutrition - Rapid Hydration Bag or Skratch Labs - Sport Hydration Drink Mix Bag

 

Ash Miller
Dietitian and Nutritionist (Masters)
Bachelor of Physical and Health Education
Instagram: @ashthomo_nutrition 

References

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