One of the many roles that strength coaches fulfill for their athletes is that of nutritionist. It might not be something we’ve been classically trained in but nutrition is a science we do know a lot about. Food is the fuel to our performance, and we are obsessed with performance, therefore we are often obsessed with food. Many strength coaches can rattle off information about macronutrient timing and breakdown until they are blue in the face, but does this hit home with their athletes? The fact of the matter is any advice on any subject is useless unless it leaves an impact on whoever is listening. I believe the best nutritional advice you can get is going to be the simplest and that which will allow you to make consistent and immediate changes to better your diet. That is where I came up with the idea of “the Hierarchy of Nutritional Concerns.” The point is for an athlete to consider where he or she is on the hierarchy and to make adjustments until they are ready to move onto the next stage. We want to give athletes a progression to how they should go about addressing their diet. Changing one’s diet is a difficult task since so much of what and how we eat is a habit. This approach, by changing one manageable thing at a time, will make it easier for the athlete to stick to these changes in their diet.
Caloric Needs
The first stage of the hierarchy is to learn what an appropriate caloric input is; or in general terms, how much food you should eat. You will fall into one of three categories: a need to gain weight, a need to maintain weight, or a need to lose weight. These categories coincide with three caloric needs: more calories, the same amount of calories, or less calories consumed, respectively. Counting calories can be tedious, inexact, and difficult at times, so the easiest way to establish your caloric input is to vary the amount of food you eat until it matches your caloric needs. This will take some experimenting but you should learn about how much food you actually need to eat, and you should be able to consistently eat this amount. If you begin to address anything about your diet while still eating the wrong amount of calories chances are you will not see the results you want. Once you can master your ability to match your caloric input with your caloric needs you can move onto the next stage.
Quality of Food
When you have an idea of how much food to eat, the next change to make is what kind of foods you are eating. High quality foods will result in the highest quality performance of your body. A lot of your performance in the pool, field, weightroom etc. is dependent on your body’s ability to respond to stress. The less attention your body has to pay to overcoming the stress of poor food choice the more attention it can pay to overcoming the stresses of working out and competition. Highly processed foods will produce inflammation in your body, which is a stress to overcome. Limiting this inflammation by eating more natural and wholesome foods will result in less unnecessary stress for your body. A majority of your diet should be composed of foods that have stood the test of time, and were not artificially made. They are often foods derived from things that once walked this earth or grew in it (ever see a Pop-tart tree? Me neither.) Once you have found that you are still able to stay within your caloric needs and you are eating mostly meats, plants, nuts, or dairy then you can move onto the next stage.
Macronutrient Breakdown
A lot of people begin at this stage and do not have mastery of the first two stages and will see less than desirable results. The macronutrients are the three major sources of energy your body derives from food: protein, carbohydrates, and fats or lipids. Each macronutrient provides different benefits and so the amount of each will vary per the demands on an individual’s body. Protein is arguably the most important macronutrient for athletes, and a majority of calories should be consumed from protein sources. Protein is an important molecule in almost all cellular processes and therefore is needed in high amounts for the system to run most efficiently. Eating enough protein for your body is going to allow it to carry out its normal processes and effectively respond to the stress of workouts and competition. Protein sources include meat, nuts, dairy, and beans. If you don’t feel fresh and “normal” at anytime, chances are you need to increase your protein consumption. Fats will provide the most energy per unit for your body so your main meals should contain some form of fat. The healthiest forms of fat can often be found from animal byproducts like dairy or in plant oils like olive or coconut oil. Since they provide the most energy they are very important in helping an athlete fulfill the high energy demands on their bodies so that the body can still carry out its normal processes. Carbohydrates are the macronutrient that can be varied the most in an athlete’s diet. They provide the body with a quick source of energy, but do not aid much in terms of recovery from stress. They are most useful in fueling the efforts that impart the stress. Consumption of carbohydrates should vary depending on the level and intensity of the stressful event (practice, game, workout etc). The best sources of carbohydrates will come from fruits and vegetables in the form of fiber. When you have an understanding of the macronutrient amounts that work best for you, and are composed mostly of high quality foods, and also fall within your caloric needs, then you are ready to move onto the next stage.
Nutrient Timing
The most specific and last stage of the hierarchy of nutritional concerns is the timing of your nutrients. Once all the other stages have been mastered, the last thing to tinker with in perfecting an athlete’s diet will be when he or she eats what they eat. If the diet is meant to complement or even aid in an athlete’s performance, than it must be tailored specifically to that performance and this is only done if the fuel is made accessible to the body in time for the performance. The most important period of nutrient timing is going to be pre-workout or pre-competition. Eating too close to a workout or competition will not give the body the time to break down the food and will often leave an athlete feeling weak or even nauseous. Eating too early will leave the body without the fuel necessary to complete the effort. Since carbohydrates are the most readily available form of energy, they are best consumed before a workout or competition along with some protein. Since fats take the longest to digest, they are generally best to avoid in the hours leading up to a workout or competition. After a workout or competition your body is looking to recover quickly and is in need of the energy to do so, and the building blocks to use. Therefore post-workout protein and carbohydrate consumption is important. Fats will be most beneficial to helping with long term recovery and restoring energy supplies, and are best consumed long before a competition or anytime after. A general guideline would be carbohydrates and protein closer to a period of intense effort, and protein and fat further away from that time.
The best way for an athlete to get the most advantage from their diet is for them to experiment and find what works best for them. It helps to be brutally honest with where you stand in the hierarchy. Eating quality foods a few times a week does not mean you have mastered this stage and are ready to worry about your macronutrient breakdown. Focusing on a broad concept like eating quality foods until you have grasped and mastered this concept will make it easier to keep it in check when you begin to address your macronutrient breakdown. The key to an advantageous diet is consistency with the basics. Athletes love progression, accomplishment, and most importantly seeing results. Helping them understand what they need to focus on in order to advance and the most efficient way to go about doing it will hit home with them. With the hierarchy of nutritional concerns, an athlete will understand the basics of maintaining a proper diet and when they will be ready to progress the complexity of it in order to see the best results.
