Athletes have high energy and nutrient requirements to fuel their performance and meet their body’s needs for overall health and well-being. Some athletes even need up to three times the amount of calories as a sedentary individual. Cyclists, rowers, endurance runners and even some team sport athletes may need up to 4000-6000 calories per day to fuel and recover from their high training load. Consuming this amount of food in three meals, especially with long exercise sessions, can be very challenging. One of the barriers to these athletes meeting their energy requirements is time and satiety. While snacking is often viewed as unhealthy for the general population (depending on the type of snack), athletes need to understand that snacks are a useful way to meet their daily nutritional goals. Snacking plays a crucial role in the nutrition and performance of athletes, offering a convenient way to ensure they are fueling their bodies correctly throughout the day and around their training schedules. This blog post delves into why snacks are important for athletes, common snacking mistakes to avoid, and suggests some snacks tailored for different purposes. One of the primary benefits of snacking is the ability to distribute food consumption evenly throughout the day. This strategy enables athletes with high energy demands to consume smaller main meals by incorporating multiple snacks during the day, ensuring they can complete their meals more comfortably. Often, these athletes face challenges in meeting their energy requirements because of the vast quantities of food they need to consume daily. Training multiple times a day for up to two hours at a stretch is incredibly time-consuming and can hinder some athletes from either preparing large meals or consuming substantial quantities of food between two training sessions. This limitation is often due to the time constraints that don't allow for either cooking or lengthy meal times. Moreover, eating large amounts of food in a short interval can lead to gut discomfort, potentially disrupting their subsequent training session. Snacks can also be very useful when planning food timing around training. Snacks can serve as both pre-workout and post-workout options. This can be useful when trying to top up your glycogen stores right before training or an event, thus helping you perform better. Snacks can also serve as post-workout options, supplying you with enough carbohydrate and protein to enhance training adaptation and promote recovery. Lastly, by having high-protein snacks throughout the day, athletes can stimulate muscle protein synthesis more often, enhancing muscle growth and adaptation from training. Snacks are an essential ally for athletes with high energy requirements, assisting them and others in optimizing the timing of nutrient intake to enhance performance and recovery. However, numerous athletes encounter pitfalls in their approach to snacking, which hampers the potential benefits. When people think of snacks, they may envision chocolate, candies, and chips, but this is far from what athletes require. Snacks should serve a purpose in an athlete’s diet and should be as high in quality as their meals. Many athletes opt for less-than-ideal snack choices, such as chips, pies, and sugary sodas. Depending on their goals, athletes' snacks should be either calorie-rich and nutrient-dense or high in carbohydrates or protein. The need for a high caloric intake does not justify consuming an entire bag of chips when they could opt for a more balanced alternative, like peanut butter toast with fruit and a glass of milk, for instance. This approach not only meets the calorie requirement but also provides a healthier, more nutritious balance. For athletes with high energy requirements, looking for energy and nutrient-dense snacks to meet daily energy goals, consider the following: Including healthy fats in your snacks can increase calorie content without adding too much volume. Good options include olive oil, avocado, peanut butter, and nuts. Turning snacks into smaller meals with a range of nutrients, including carbohydrates and protein, can help meet nutrient goals for the day. Smoothies are an easy way to consume a lot of calories and nutrients in a small amount of food. For athletes who struggle to get enough calories despite adequate snacking, mass gainers can be useful, but be careful not to overdo it and ensure they are batch-tested. Snacks can also be another opportunity to incorporate more vegetables and fruits. Including fruits in your smoothie or vegetables such as spinach will be beneficial. For those aiming to optimize performance with high-quality pre-workout snacks, consider the following: Pre-workout snacks should be high in carbohydrates, low in fiber and fat, and moderate in protein content to ensure easy digestion and glucose provision during training while preventing gut discomfort. Fruits, such as very ripe bananas, with low fiber content and mostly fructose and glucose, make great pre-workout snacks. Aim to consume pre-workout snacks 1 hour to 30 minutes before exercise, depending on the type of snack. Lastly, here is what to look for in a snack when seeking a good post-workout option: Post-workout snacks should contain 20g to 30g of protein and a moderate to high amount of carbohydrates to optimize muscle protein synthesis and glycogen replenishment. Combining protein and carbohydrates has been shown to improve glycogen store replenishment. Consume your post-workout snack immediately up to 1 hour after exercise to reap the best benefits. In conclusion, snacks are a valuable tool for a range of athletes and goals. They can help athletes meet their energy and nutrient daily goals while aiding others in optimising performance and recovery Here is a list of pre and post workout snacks we often recommend to clients: Pre-workout snacks: Muesli bars Fresh fruits (e.g., apples, bananas, oranges) Greek yogurt with berries Whole grain crackers with hummus Rice cakes 3 Weetbix Whole grain toast with avocado A bagel (good for large training days) Here are some high-protein snack options: Greek yogurt/High-Protein yogurt Hard-boiled eggs Cottage cheese and crackers Protein bars or protein shakes Jerky (beef, turkey, or chicken) Tuna and crackers A handful of almonds Protein nut bar Small ham + cheese wrap Protein smoothies with whey protein powder and fruits

In the realm of fitness and performance, the intimate connection between training and nutrition is undeniable. Thinking about your nutrition is sometimes challenging. In fact, planning your nutrition adequately requires consideration of many factors. The type of sport you play, the energy system you utilise, when you will be able to eat, and when you can cook, are all crucial elements. These questions can be answered by thinking ahead and planning your training so that you can anticipate and optimise your nutrition. Planning your week in advance provides consistency. By knowing every Monday what your training will entail, you can have a good understanding of what foods you will need to eat to meet your nutrient requirements. Below are some good questions to ask yourself about your training to help you better prepare How many times will you be training this week? This will dictate how much food you need to recover and fuel your training. When will you be training? This will dictate when you will eat and what food you will need to fuel your training. For example, if you train early in the morning, opt for easily digestible carbohydrates to fuel your session while avoiding gut discomfort. What type of training is it? Answering this question will determine how much carbohydrates or protein you require to fuel and recover from your training. In what phase of your training are you? This will help you gauge how much food you need. If you are in a challenging training block, you will require more food than during a de-load week. These four simple questions will guide you in understanding how much you need to eat, when you can eat, and the optimal amounts of each nutrient for your training and recovery. Another key aspect of organisation is planing your Grocery Shopping! Once you have determined your nutritional needs for the week, you can start planning your grocery shopping list. Once again, ask yourself the following questions: How much carbohydrate will you need? When will you be able to cook? This will allow you to know what type of food you need to buy, depending on how long they stay good in your fridge, whether raw or cooked How much protein will you need? Will you be away from home most of the day?  What snacks will you need throughout the day? By answering these questions, you will know which foods to buy and which meals to cook, as some meals are easier to transport/consume away from home than others. Finally, once you have purchase your food, I highly recommend meal prepping to save time and money! Athletes need to juggle training, recovery, work, and other obligations, making their lives very busy. Cooking is another time consuming tasks added to the long list of tasks an athlete needs to achieve by the end of every day. Instead of cooking at every meal, meal prepping allows you to spend one hour twice a week to cook all your meals and then freeze or refrigerate them to be ready whenever you need them. This technique allows you to save a significant amount of time. If we estimate that, on average, someone spends 30 minutes for each lunch and dinner they cook, they spend an average of 7 hours a week cooking. Using meal prepping, you would be able to shorten this to approximately 2 hours per week. Another advantage of meal prepping is the cost efficiency. By cooking in larger quantities, you will need to buy food in bulk rather than in single servings. In the long run, buying in bulk will save you a significant amount of money! Lastly, by having all your meals ready in advance, you will ensure you always have the food required to fuel and recover from your exercises. This will prevent skipping meals due to not having time to cook or resorting to fast-food and takeaway options that don’t meet your nutritional requirements for performance. A disadvantage of meal prepping is the decrease in the variety of meals you eat during the week. Instead of eating a different meal every time, you will likely be swapping between 2 to 4 options for the week. Additionally, people meal prepping need to make sure they have a powerful fridge or freezer that will allow them to keep their food safe and edible throughout the week. In the demanding realm of an athlete's life, the saying "Being organised is being in control" becomes a guiding principle. Through the intricate relationship of training, nutrition, and the constraints of a hectic schedule, strategic planning emerges as an indispensable tool. From anticipating training needs to meticulous grocery shopping and embracing the time-saving efficiency of meal prepping, this organised approach not only defines clear objectives but also liberates valuable time and financial resources. By planning, athletes ensure a consistent and tailored nutritional intake, mitigating the risk of skipping meals or resorting to suboptimal alternatives.

A common misconception in the fitness industry is that lifting weights is reserved for bodybuilders, however, this is far from the truth. Strength-based workouts are the perfect compliment to more cardio-based exercise and the benefits are numerous. Gyms these days have a wide range of equipment that provide opportunity for an extensive range of people to regularly engage in strength-based exercise which promote increased muscle mass. Some key positive effects of having more muscle mass include: reduced sarcopenia, better blood-sugar control, increased ability to perform daily tasks, and improvement of psychological wellbeing. In this blog I go over some key benefits of strength-based training and what you can do to support your training from a nutritional standpoint. The gradual loss of muscle and strength as we age, termed sarcopenia, begins to occur in our 40’s. Sarcopenia and the loss of muscle is consistently linked with a lower-life expectancy. Strength-based exercises that promote muscle growth are great for decreasing the effects of sarcopenia as we age For a lot of people, high refined carbohydrate food intake and long periods of sedentary activity promote consistently high blood-sugar levels which can commonly lead to type 2 diabetes. One of the easiest ways to improve our body’s ability to maintain a healthy blood-sugar level is to increase muscle mass. This is because muscle soaks up excess glucose both during exercise and in periods of rest. Lifting weights is also effective for maintaining muscle and joint function throughout the lifecycle, improving quality of life as daily tasks can be more easily performed: things like carrying the groceries and mowing the lawns become easier for people when they engage in strength-based exercises because they require less effort. Strength training, like all forms of exercise, is also a tool to improve mental wellbeing. Studies consistently show that individuals who engage in regular strength training have lower rates of anxiety and depression and improved cognitive ability. Furthermore, the endorphins released from strength training will leave you feeling great for the rest of the day. There are a few key nutritional strategies we can use to support strength-based training. Firstly, we must consider that lifting weights uses energy and we need to fuel our body in a way that supports strength training. During high intensity exercise like weightlifting your body tends to rely on carbohydrates for fuel. Most people will consume adequate carbohydrates to support strength training in their standard food intake. If you are an individual who is on the lower carbohydrate end of the spectrum, adding slightly more carbohydrates will improve your ability to accel in strength-based training. Some good carbohydrate sources throughout the day include foods like kumura, whole-grain bread, brown-rice and oats. These are great options because they are slow digesting carbohydrates that provide a long-lasting source of energy. Aiming to have a meal with a decent source of slow digesting carbohydrates around 2-3 hours is a great option to optimise performance and energy. Good foods to consume just before a workout, particularly if you haven’t eaten anything in the couple of hours prior, include fruits, yoghurt or a granola bar. These are good options because they are faster digesting and provide a more immediate source of energy. These foods are good to consume in the hour before and after a workout to refuel your muscles. It will be no surprise to most people that protein is the key nutrient that supports muscle recovery and growth. During weightlifting exercises our muscles are broken down due to the stress put on them. For our muscles to recover and grow optimally, we need to consume more protein than usual. In New Zealand the ‘Ministry of Health’ recommends that the average male needs to consume around 70 grams of protein and the average female needs to consume around 50 grams to meet their minimum requirements. Note that this is the minimum requirement needed and a growing body of research suggests that consuming more protein is better for our health. Most New Zealander’s comfortably meet their minimum protein needs via their normal food intake, however, our demands increase when we begin to put further stress on our muscles via strength-based training. The consensus is that someone lifting weights should consume a minimum of 1.6 grams of protein per kilogram of bodyweight. For the average 70-kilogram person this would equate to 112 grams of protein per day (70 x 1.6 = 112g). To quantify this in ‘food-terms’ the difference between the minimum recommended intake of 70 grams per day and 112 grams per day equates to about one medium sized chicken breast. A good habit to get into is reading food labels to educate yourself on how much protein is in different foods. After doing this for a while, you become aware of how much protein you are consuming throughout the day to ensure you are meeting your increased needs. Good protein sources include chicken, fish and eggs. On the plant-based front, foods rich in protein include tofu, lentils and quinoa. A key recommendation related to protein intake is that we want to evenly space our protein intake throughout the day to optimise muscle growth and recovery. This recommendation is in contrast with the average modern way of eating which often features smaller amounts of protein with breakfast, a slightly larger amount with lunch and then a significant amount with dinner. This is not optimal as there is only one meal (dinner) throughout the day where we are optimising for muscle growth. A good guide to aim for is having around 20-25 grams of protein at each main meal with a focus on at least one of these meals being within two hours of working out. From a broader perspective, a diet rich in whole and unprocessed foods should be the focus of the weightlifter to ensure that micronutrient needs are met to support general health and energy levels. The world of supplements can be daunting for the new gym-goer. Luckily for our bank account, supplements are not a necessity for the average weightlifter. Some supplements that may be useful include a protein powder, creatine and caffeine. Whey protein, the most common type of protein supplement, is derived from cows’ milk and is a completely safe supplement that supports muscle growth. Whey protein is also an easy and affordable source of protein that can be taken ‘on-the-go’. Some people will struggle to consume enough protein via their food intake so having a whey protein shake after a workout or in spaces between main meals can be a good practice to get into. For plant-based eaters, plant proteins provide a similar benefit and are equally safe to consume. Creatine is one of the most widely researched supplements in existence and consistently results in improvements in strength and power while also delaying the onset of fatigue. Creatine is found naturally within muscles. By supplementing with creatine, we boost our ability to produce ATP which is the molecule our body uses for muscle contraction. For the intermediate lifter who is interested in supplementation – creatine is a solid choice. Finally, caffeine is a friend of the weightlifter. Caffeine helps with strength-based exercises by improving muscle strength and power. It certainly isn’t a necessity, but some caffeine may help power you through more gruelling workouts and there are limited side effects assuming you are not someone who struggles with sleeping after increased caffeine consumption. All things considered; strength-based training is a great way to improve overall health. If you are interested in strength-based training like weightlifting, consider purchasing a couple of sessions with a personal trainer to ensure you are completing exercises with the correct form to avoid injury. After that, the nutrition principles that support strength-based training are relatively simple. Consider that we need to fuel appropriately with carbohydrates and have sufficient protein for our muscles to grow and recover. As always, focus on a diet with mostly whole foods to support overall health. From these basic nutrition principles, you are 90% of the way there and you can worry about the finer details as you become more experienced in the gym.

A well-balanced diet rich in essential nutrients is the foundation upon which athletic success is built. However, the harder an athlete trains, the greater the need for food and nutrients to enhance performance and support recovery. Managing nutrition solely through whole foods can sometimes be challenging due to time constraints or the sheer volume of food that certain athletes need to ingest to meet their requirements. This is where supplements can play a role. Without a doubt, supplements offer a convenient way to quickly consume specific nutrients without the fullness that eating certain foods might entail. However, not all supplements are equal in quality. They may feature misleading claims, fake dosages, and, in some cases, could be contaminated with banned substances that could potentially end an athlete's career. This blog post aims to provide guidance on why caution is essential in selecting supplements, who supplements are intended for, and how to ensure that the supplements chosen are safe for both personal use and one's athletic career. Supplements and their Lack of Regulation Foods found in supermarkets are subject to stringent regulations imposed by governing bodies such as the Ministry of Primary Industries to prevent misleading consumers with false claims and advertisements on packaging. For instance, a food product claiming to be "low in sodium" or "low in fat" must contain a specific amount of sodium or fat; otherwise, MPI wouldn't permit such labelling. Unfortunately, supplements do not face such strict rules, allowing products like "fat burners" to display claims such as "helps burn fat" without substantiating their efficacy. Additionally, supplement companies can support their claims with self-published or funded research, introducing bias and rendering the results questionable. This lack of regulation poses a particular concern for young athletes and individuals new to exercise, as they are more susceptible to being misled by such claims due to their limited experience in the field. Therefore, when selecting supplements, do not get baited by claims on the packaging; instead, look at dosages and ingredients. Conduct your own research and talk to professionals about whether ingredients actually align with your goals. Supplements and Lack of Active Ingredient Testing While we recommend scrutinising ingredient lists and dosages to make informed decisions about supplement use, this approach may fall short at times. Supplements can often contain less or none of the ingredients listed on their labels. Unlike medicines, supplements are not subject to the same rigorous testing regarding the accuracy of their ingredient dosages Supplements and Contamination with Banned Substances Supplement manufacturing facilities often produce multiple products simultaneously, heightening the risk of cross-contamination. Consequently, some facilities might produce medicines banned in a sports context, and machines used in supplement production might carry traces of these banned substances. While the dosages in supplements may not impact health or performance significantly, inadvertent ingestion of these substances during anti-doping testing could lead to positive results, putting athletes at risk of sanctions. The consequences of unknowingly consuming contaminated supplements can be severe, ranging from tarnished reputations to competition suspensions. A 2016 Australian study found that 19% of the most purchased supplements in Australia were contaminated with banned substances. After considering these issues, you might wonder if finding a trustworthy supplement is impossible. Fortunately, there are ways to determine if a supplement is worth purchasing. How to Identify Legitimate Supplements Having highlighted three major issues with supplements—lack of regulation on claims, uncertainty about ingredient dosages, and the presence of banned substances—it's crucial to explore solutions. Two key measures can address all these concerns. The first step is to check if the supplement has undergone third-party batch testing. This testing ensures that the product contains the stated ingredients and amounts, is free of harmful contaminants or potential drug contaminants, and does not contain any undisclosed ingredients. Look for logos from the five main third-party batch testing companies on the product, along with a batch number that you can verify on the tester's website. The 5 main third party drug testing companies are HASTA, informed sport, BSCG, NSF certified sport and USP. Once you've confirmed third-party batch testing, research the listed ingredients. Examine.com can be a really useful website to check the effectiveness of different ingredients While supplements offer convenience, they can be a potential trap with dramatic consequences for athletes. To make informed decisions, consult with your nutritionist before purchasing any supplements.