Nutrition 101 for swimming
what you need to know to make the most of your swimming training.
Energy (aka Calories or kcals) is the most important factor for training performance. Create all the perfectly ‘balanced meal plates’ you want, if it doesn’t contain enough energy your training will suffer. A Ferrari, despite the impressive engineering, still needs fuel!…it’s great that you are including vegetables and salad in your diet for micronutrients, fibre and health, but you will at times need higher density food if you are training multiple hours per day at high intensity.
Macronutrients. There are three macronutrients: protein, fat and carbohydrate. All have their functions in the body and all are relevant for sports performance, so don’t cut out or go ‘low’ on any of them. E.g. A ‘low carb’ diet is not appropriate for a performance swimmer (or insert any endurance athlete here!). Neither is chronically low fat.
Protein is your priority for recovery, it directly supports training adaptations so be sure to consume protein after every training session. Aim for 0.3-0.5g per kg bodyweight. If your chosen source is vegan, aim for the higher end of this.
Carbohydrate fuels high intensity training. A low carbohydrate diet will limit your ability to repeatedly go hard. Carbohydrates can be periodised according to glycogen replenishment requirements. (You can also experiment with carbohydrate periodisation to improve your metabolic flexibility, but that’s for another post.)
Eat a variety of foods to ensure that you are getting all of the micronutrients you need to be healthy. Marginal sports supplementation gains are not a priority if you are not eating a variety of foods to support immunity, digestion etc. If you notice that you only eat broccoli, can you introduce some other colours? If you only eat bread as a source of carbohydrate, can you introduce another grain? Try including potatoes, quinoa, rice and oats in your diet. At meal times, including wholegrains and vegetables will ensure that you are eating adequate fibre.
Competition fuel. Race day is not a time to be wildly experimenting with your nutrition. Eat foods that you know you enjoy and feel good off, we are all different. However, a couple of things to keep in mind. For meals and snacks close to racing, opt for low fibre, low fat options e.g. malt loaf, bagel and banana, as opposed to bran flakes. Lower fibre will ensure that you are digesting the carbohydrates faster and getting that energy to your muscles where you want it! Don’t neglect hydration, this process starts in the days leading up to an event. Use training to practise fueling strategies. When racing your priority is fueling the race and recovering between races, don’t fret about ‘optimal nutrition for health’, do what you need to do to get the job done!
Need help in applying all of this to you? You may benefit from a nutrition consultation or a coaching block focused on your nutrition and mindset.