← Female Sports Nutrition: Sports Performance, Build Muscle, High Protein, Meal Prep Ideas, Meal Planning, Boost Energy, Strength Training
Female Sports Nutrition: Sports Performance, Build Muscle, High Protein, Meal Prep Ideas, Meal Planning, Boost Energy, Strength Training
Ep 4: Carbs Uncovered: The Secret Fuel Behind Athletic Excellence
00:20:26
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In today's episode, we're going to talk everything you ever wanted to know about carbohydrates. What they are, what they do in your body, the timing of carbohydrates, and why carbs are king. If you're sick of feeling like you can't gain traction in your workouts, you're tired all the time, you're not recovering well, you want to build muscle, but nothing's working well. In today's episode, you're going to find out exactly what foods are going to benefit you and when so you're no longer moody dragging throughout the day or your training session and you can build some beautiful muscle. Let's get started.
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Do you wish you could look like you train as much as you do? Are you sick of scouring the Internet for sports nutrition tips only to find information tailored to men? Do you wish there was a simple solution to fueling your body for your activity level? Are you ready to find freedom with food? It is possible to have balance between fueling your body for your sport and for enjoyment. And it's not as complicated as you may think.
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Can we say hello?
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Food freedom?
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There's a way to have it all.
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And eat your cake too. And I'm going to show you how. Hey, I'm Kristen, a former multi sport athlete, a sports dietitian, personal trainer and Jesus lover. In this podcast, you will find practical, sustainable fueling tips for female athletes that will set you free from diet culture. An ever changing set of nutrition rules. Under fueling and underperforming, you'll learn how to put together a fueling plan that works for you, that doesn't require all the rules. Tracking every morsel of food you consume, letting food consume your every thought, with.
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Jesus at the center of it all.
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If you're ready to find a sustainable nutrition plan that works for you with your active lifestyle and is tailored to your unique physiology, break free from diet culture and finally feel comfortable in your own skin. This podcast is for you. Whip up that smoothie, lace up your shoes and let's jump in.
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I have a pet peeve. And that's when people say when you eat carbs, they turn into sugar. That is just simply not true. That is a myth. Carbs don't turn into sugar. They already are sugar. Sugar are carbohydrates and carbohydrates are sugar. That is the scientific name of carbohydrates. There are many different types of carbohydrates or many different types of sugars, I should say, like monosaccharides disaccharides, oliosaccharides, polysaccharides, sugar, alcohols, artificial sweeteners, even fibers. There's tons of different types of carbohydrates or sugars. So what in the world does all of that mean? Because I know I just gave you a whole bunch of scientific jargon. So let's talk about monosaccharides. Monosaccharides are the simplest form of sugar or carbohydrates. So they consist of a single sugar molecule. Those would be things like glucose, fructose, galactose. So those are found in fruits, honey, different types of root vegetables, even dairy disaccharides consist of two monosaccharide molecules bonded together. So those would be things like sucrose, lactose, and maltose. So common table sugar, milk, malted foods and beverages. Oliosaccharides are found in beans, cabbages, broccoli, whole grains. They can cause lots of gas and bloating. And also things like legumes and different types of vegetables. And these are 3 to 10 monosaccharides. Polysaccharides are many different monosaccharides put together. So those can be different starchy foods like potatoes, beans, whole grains and legumes. So. So there are many different types of sugars or carbohydrates, like I said. But what do they actually do in your body? One, they give you energy. So carbohydrates is your body's primary source of energy. That is the first thing that your body's going to go to for energy. And that is the only thing that your brain can run off of. In the simplest form, the simplest sugar, like we talked about, is glucose. And that is the only thing that your brain can run off of. So if you think back to times where you didn't really eat a lot, maybe you didn't eat even eat breakfast at all, or you haven't eaten in a while, you feel brain fog, you can't think straight, you're hangry, you are really moody. That is you having low blood sugar, and that is being low on energy and carbohydrates. Also, your body's going to store carbohydrates in your muscle and your liver as glycogen. Glycogen is the storage form of carbohydrates. And if you're not storing carbohydrates in your muscle and your liver, well, guess what? You're actually not able to build or maintain muscle very well. And you're also not recovering from your workouts either because you need that storage form of glycogen or storage form of glucose in your muscles known as glycogen. It also helps with protein sparing. So we like to say that carbohydrates is muscle sparing. And what that means is our bodies are constantly in a catabolic state, so they're constantly being broken down, including your own muscle mass. If you're not eating enough carbohydrates, well, guess what? Your body's going to go after your own muscle as a fuel source, and we don't want that to happen. You need to be eating enough carbohydrates to prevent that from happening. Also, this is probably something you did not know is that carbohydrates are necessary for fat oxidation, also known as fat burning. So if you're not eating enough carbohydrates, fat metabolism is incomplete, which can lead to the production of ketones, which can cause ketosis if you're not managing properly. Now, I know people that are on the ketogenic diet may want that, but for the rest of us, we don't want that. That is not going to be beneficial. One, as a female or two, as a female athlete. Lastly, carbohydrates is going to support your digestive health. So think of fiber. Fiber is a type of carbohydrate, but it's indigestible. It really just provides bulk in our system and it does slow down the digestion of our food because it takes a long time to pass through the system. But it's going to aid in digestion, it's going to prevent constipation, it's going to feed your good gut bacteria and support just your overall digestive health, which then in turn plays a major role in your overall health in your life. Carbohydrates are also responsible for providing your body with B vitamins, which is essential for energy production, which means that you need B vitamins to facilitate your body being able to turn actual food into usable energy. Also vitamin C, which is found in fruits and vegetables, which are still carbohydrates, vitamin A, potassium, magnesium. Magnesium has gotten such a lot of attention recently and for good reason, because that's going to play a big role in your muscles relaxing, and you also need that for energy production, nerve function and bone health. Also, whole grains are going to provide iron as well as different legumes and leafy vegetables. Calcium is also going to be provided by some carbohydrates, like dairy, leafy greens, some fortified cereals, things like that. And Then like I said, fiber, fiber. We need for just day to day health as well as gut health. So now I'm going to tell you a little story about myself. And if you listen to my second episode, you will have heard the story already. But for those of you that haven't, back when I was doing my triathlon days and I was also struggling with disordered eating and feeling like I couldn't eat, I couldn't eat carbohydrates, especially because I was going to gain weight. I wound up doing a triathlon and I did not prepare well for it. I ate a salad the night before. The morning of I don't think I had much of a breakfast. I don't remember exactly what I have, but I don't think I had much of a breakfast that morning. I brought some snacks with me, but it really wasn't much and I wasn't able to really snack on them like I wanted to. And I also only had Gatorade G2, which is calorie free Gatorade, no carbohydrates, my sports drink during the race. Well, it was a terrible race. I had no energy. I was dragging through that triathlon. I had a massive headache, which turned into basically a migraine. And I had to stop and ask a police officer if he had any food and he gave me a Nature Valley granola bar and that solved my problem instantly. Least a headache. I still had a horrible race. I had lots of cramping. I barely made it through the run. I was just mad and angry when I got done with that race. And I remember my parents being at the end of the finish line cheering me on and I was just like, don't even. I'm so mad right now. But if I would have fueled myself properly and eaten carbohydrates, I wouldn't have had that problem. So let's get into what this means for female athletes as far as carbohydrates go. So you want to eat the majority of your carbohydrates in the morning and around your training sessions. That is when your body's going to use it the most. I did not do that when I was doing my triathlon. So don't do what Kristen did. You want to, like I said, eat the majority of your carbohydrates in the morning because your body is going to release a lot of cortisol that is going to allow you to just get enough energy to get you to food. It is not going to be enough for you to do a workout on or to go to school or go to a job or do anything important, it's just enough for you to get food in your system. And that needs to contain carbohydrates and a good amount of carbohydrates as well. Probably about 30% of your carbohydrates for the day. Now around your training sessions, before, during and after, you also want to take in a fair bit of carbs, carbohydrates. So you want to be taking in somewhere in the neighborhood of 30 to 60 grams of carbohydrates before your training session. If you're going to be out there for an hour or longer training, you definitely want to follow that Same rule of 30 to 60 grams of carbohydrates per hour that you are training. And then after you're done training, you want to be taking in a large amount of carbohydrates as well. The amount after training really is going to depend on your weight, your training session, how intense it was versus was it, you know, an easier training session when your next training session is going to be. So I don't have as good of hard and fast numbers for that, but it's going to be somewhere around the 60 gram mark. Just to kind of give you an idea. Now that does contribute to your overall daily needs of carbohydrates, but the other times of the day you don't need quite as much carbohydrates unless you're going to be having two a day workouts. If you're going to be having two a day workouts, you need to eat a lot of carbohydrates in between those two training sessions. So for example, if you're waking up early in the morning and you're having a practice before school and then you are going to school and then after school you have another training session, you need to eat a lot of carbohydrates in between there. For the rest of us that are not doing that, you can actually cut back a little bit on your carbohydrates other times of the day. And I don't mean cut back as to have a low carb diet. I just mean you don't have to have a lot of carbohydrates, you know, 60 grams at, you know, one particular point in time you can, you know, taper off, you know, at dinner if your training session is earlier in the day, for example. So examples of what you could have around a training session, training sessions, you want to eat differently than the rest of the day. Training sessions is where you Want to have quick digesting carbohydrates or quick digesting sugars so that it can get into your bloodstream a lot faster and be utilized a lot faster by your working muscles. So this would be things like fruits, dairy. So a good example would be Greek yogurt with some berries on top and some granola. White bread. Yes, I said it. White bread is a great example here. Or a white carb or white wrap, rather not a low carb wrap. You could have, you know, some deli turkey in there, some cheese. You could even do a peanut butter and jelly and have that either as a sandwich or as a wrap. You could have some apples or a banana or with some peanut butter and a yogurt or milk on the side. You could do chocolate milk here. And same thing for after a training session. It's kind of the same deal. You want quick digesting carbohydrates. So all the things that I just mentioned before a training session would certainly work after a training session. Another easy option would be to have a smoothie. You can make that with Greek yogurt. Or you could do a scoop of protein powder, maybe a banana, some, some peanut butter thrown in there, some cinnamon and some honey and a little bit of milk to thin it out. That would be a great example of a smoothie that you could have after a training session. You don't want to have a lot of fiber before or after a training session, and certainly not during because that's going to slow down the absorption of your food and then that's going to slow down the utilization of that energy. So quick digesting carbohydrates before, during and after a training session. Now the rest of the day you really want to focus more on high fiber foods and that would be beneficial for gut health. So these would be things like oatmeal, brown rice, whole wheat pasta, whole wheat bread, any type of winter squash. So pumpkin, butternut squash, acorn squash, beans, legumes, peas, things of that nature. You want the high fiber foods the rest of the day. Like I said, it's going to contribute to gut health, but it's also going to help to add bulk to your system so that you are regular in the bathroom and you're not struggling with constipation. Now, if you are not eating a lot of fiber right now, you don't want to just go buck wild and add in 30 grams of fiber per day. You're going to have severe GI issues, a lot of gas, a lot of pain. So you want to start working Yourself up from where you are and make sure that you are drinking a lot of water. Females need around 25 grams of fiber per day, so just keep that in mind. Now you may be thinking, what does this all mean for me? And let me tell you, research actually shows that a high carb diet actually helps maintain your glycogen stores. Remember, that is the storage form of glucose in your muscle and your liver. And that's going to allow athletes to sustain longer periods of intense effort. Especially in endurance sports like long distance running, cycling, swimming, any, anything that even is going to be short bursts of energy. So think like soccer or rugby or gymnastics, those all are going to require short bursts of intense energy and you need the carbohydrates for that. Studies also show that when carbohydrate intake is high, it delays the onset of fatigue and it allows the athlete to maintain high intensity output longer than a low carb diet. Carbohydrates post exercise also improve glycogen resynthesis and that is important for recovery. So when you have multiple events in a day, like I said back to back training, you're going to need that high carbohydrate amount. Some of you may be wondering about low carbohydrate diets and fat adaptation. And here's the deal. Low carb diets can increase the body's reliance on fat as a fuel source by enhancing fat oxidation. But this is really only going to apply to ultra endurance athletes. So those who are performing a lower intensity exercise for a longer duration. So think of somebody that is doing like a hundred mile race, that is the only person that the low carb fat adaptation is going to apply to. Everybody else that's going to be doing high intensity exercise or some type of exercise that's going to last an hour to even a couple of hours is going to benefit from having a higher carb diet. So at this point, if you're feeling like, okay, just tell me what to eat, I have no idea what to eat. Let me just give you an example of what a day could look like. So for breakfast maybe it is a nice big bowl of oatmeal with some berries on top, some peanut butter and it's made with some milk. And then you have a snack a couple hours later and that is a Greek yogurt with some berries and some fruit on top. And you can have maybe some crackers with that. Now your lunch is going to be one to two sandwiches depending on your activity level. And each sandwich is going to be two slices of Bread, you can have some turkey on there, some ham, you could do rotisserie chicken slices, whatever you want. Have a pasta salad on the side plus a piece of fruit. Now your afternoon snack is going to be a smoothie. You'll have either a scoop of protein powder or you're going to have Greek yogurt in there, a banana, some peanut butter, a little bit of honey and a little bit of milk to thin it out. That's going to be your pre workout snack. And then as soon as you get done your training session, you're actually just going to go home and eat dinner. So you don't really need to have a post workout snack because you're going to be eating within that 30 minute window. So dinner is going to be a piece of salmon, a nice big pile of white rice and some broccoli with some butter on top and a glass of milk. That's your day that is obviously going to be different from person to person, depending on what your sport is, what your activity level is, your age, your weight, all types of things. And that's where a sports dietitian like myself comes in. So that is just an example. But I want you to see what a day with eating more carbohydrates would look like. And of course, if you need help with putting together a solid sports nutrition plan and figuring out how, how many carbohydrates you actually need over the course of the day, you can reach out to me, just go to my website, elitenutritionandperformance.com consult and you can schedule a free consultation with me and we can talk about how that all works. Now let me tell you about another time when I was doing another sport and I actually fueled my body correctly and I felt wonderful. So again, if you listen to episode number two in this podcast, you will have heard the story already. But back when I was training for a figure competition, this was years later, after I was doing my triathlons, I was trying to build muscle and I was eating a lot of food and I was also eating a lot of carbohydrates. I was eating several hundred grams of carbohydrates a day. And you know what? I was able to build tons of muscle. I felt wonderful. I had so much energy that I was constantly bouncing off the walls and my husband was like, what is wrong with you? I was able to squat more than double the my body weight and I felt and looked wonderful. And I want the same thing for you. So take my advice, eat more carbohydrates. If you're not eating much now, I would certainly look at that first before you just start adding things in willy nilly. Start writing down what you're eating and seeing your carbohydrate trends over the course of the day. Make sure that you're eating more earlier in the day and you're eating around your training sessions. Hey friend, if this podcast inspired you.
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Encouraged you, or changed you, I would love for you to leave me a review and share it with a girlfriend.
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Who will find it helpful or inspiring. That is the best way you can.
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Thank me and help me share my knowledge so I can help more people just like you. I'm so thankful that you spent this time with me today and I'd love to connect with you. Join my Facebook group, Female Sports Nutrition, or send me a DM on Instagram or hop on over to my website elitenutritionperformance.com I'll see you back here next week.