Nutrition & Performance: Back to basics

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Do you sometimes feel food and eating overwhelming? Is it easy to get lost in details, instead of focusing on the basics? Does food support your training and everyday well-being?

I’ve always been interested in nutrition and performance. I’ve also tried all kinds of special diets and now I understand how I was actually making my life harder. For example, eating dairy-free, gluten-free, drinking daily one liter of full-fat milk to gain muscle, a very short experiment with intermittent fasting, and others.

All of these ideas came from some random source and I didn’t know enough to question them. I don’t mean to say they are useless, but in my case, they were. I also completely understand the easiness of getting stuck in the jungle of trendy diets, superfoods, and quick fixes in order to eat healthier. Everyone also has their own ideas of what healthy eating is, which might be even more confusing.

In this post, we’ll go over how much energy you should be getting, why macronutrients (proteins, carbohydrates, and fats) are important, and how much of them should you be getting. We’ll start off with the plate model. It’s a practical and easy tool to guide you. The next blog post is going to be about supplements that improve your performance and health.

Food is more than kilocalories

In this post, I’ll focus on just the nutritional point of view of food. But food is also so much more than macronutrients and fuel, it’s something to be enjoyed. You can connect with people when preparing it, meet people over a meal, or it can bring back memories you have forgotten. Perceiving food as fuel, makes you miss all the beautiful things that are involved.

It’s easy for us to focus on how many macronutrients we are eating, but it’s so much more. With that out of the way, let’s dive into the topic itself. We’ll start off with the plate model and dive deeper into energy balance and macronutrients after that.

General recommendations - “the plate model”

Nutrition can feel pretty overwhelming with quantities like eating 1.6 grams/kg/day of protein per day and recommendations of fat quality. At the end of the day, you shouldn’t make it too difficult for yourself. I like to use the plate model for this purpose.

On a lighter training day, fill half of your plate with vegetables, one quarter with starchy foods like potato, corn, or rice, and one quarter with a protein option, and lastly, add some fats like seeds or olive oil (check out the picture below). If you have a harder training period going on, increase the quantity of starchy foods to increase your carbohydrate intake. (1)

The same proportions apply whether you need 2000 or 3500 kcal. You just have a bigger plate of food. In some cases, it’s worth tracking your macronutrients more closely if you have a more specific performance goal in mind. For example, in spring I wanted to lose weight. I went on a calorie deficit and tracking my macros and calorie intake by weighing my food helped a lot.

I want to emphasize that this is a very general guideline. The amount of vegetables can vary between the meals but at the end of the day, the ratio should be somewhat close to the plate model.

The next section is going deeper into nutrition and individual needs on energy balance and macronutrients.

Energy balance

Research has shown that lacking sufficient calories and/or enough macronutrients can mess with our training adaptations, recovery, risk of injuries, and disturbances in our immune, endocrine, and reproductive function (2). So we really want to make sure we’re getting enough energy.

Energy balance means the balance between energy intake and expenditure. If your goal is to lose weight, you want to have an energy deficit. So you eat less than you use. If you want to gain weight, it’s the opposite.

Our energy needs are very individual based on our activities of daily living and how much exercise we do. For someone who exercises 30-40 min per day, 3 times per week can typically meet their needs with 1800-2400 kcals/day or about 25-35 kcal/kg/day because their demands are not too high. For someone else training 5-6 times per week, 2-3 hours at a time can need 40-70 kcals/kg/day so about double compared to the recreational person. (2)

Fun fact, the expenditure of Tour de France cyclists has been estimated to be as high as 12,000 kcals/day. (2)

Analyses have revealed that many athletes are not getting enough energy during training. Especially endurance athletes, weight class athletes (boxers, wrestlers, etc.), gymnasts, skaters, and dancers. Female athletes are also at particular risk of under-fueling due to the demands of their sport and surrounding culture. (2) Eating disorders are out of scope for this blog post but they are a serious matter to keep an eye on.

Protein

The basis for us to grow our muscles lies in the relationship between the rate of muscle protein synthesis (MPS) and muscle protein breakdown (MPB). Our muscles only grow when the amount of muscle protein synthesis is higher than breakdown (Figure 1). Ingesting protein plays an important role in stimulating muscle growth with exercise. (3)

This is important for everyone. Not just for the active person. Especially for the aging population, breaking down muscle protein leads to sarcopenia and loss of function.

The solid lines illustrate MPS and dashed lines MPB. After meals the rate of muscle protein synthesis is increased. Adapted from Trommelen & van Loon 2016 (3)

For exercising individuals, an overall protein intake of 1.4-2.0 g/kg/day is sufficient (2). A meta-analysis with 49 studies and over 1800 participants showed that protein intakes at amounts greater than ~1.6 g/kg/day do not further contribute to resistance training-induced gains in fat-free mass (5). Based on this, I would use that 1.6 g/kg/day as a starting point.

For myself, weighing 75 kg that would be about 120 grams of protein per day. With more intense training and with an energy deficit, I would probably eat a bit more. For muscle protein synthesis, it also makes sense to eat protein multiple times per day as illustrated above. I’d recommend eating at least three times per day if you train actively.

What kind of protein is the best?

This stuff is a bit geeky and it doesn’t seem to matter that much in practice. As long as you’re hitting your protein goals, you’re good to go.

Proteins are different based on their amino acid profile, source, and methods of processing or isolating the protein. These differences influence the availability of amino acids and peptides, which further increase the rate of protein synthesis. Also, the rate of digestion and absorption are important considerations. (2) In other words, all proteins are not built the same.

For example, whey, casein, and soy protein are digested at different rates, which may affect muscle protein synthesis. Plant-based diets are growing more popular and plant-based proteins are also used widely. Even though, the concentration of the amino acids isn’t as favorable for muscle growth, in practice using plant-based proteins has led to a similar change in fat-free mass and strength as whey protein. (2)

Carbohydrate (carbs)

Carbohydrates are needed if you are into intensive exercise. In particular, before, during, and after training and competition. Our body uses carbs as fuel from the pre-exercise meal, or from glycogen that is stored in our muscles after we’ve eaten carbohydrates in previous meals.

If we’re just sitting around and resting, we utilize fat for energy. As we start light exercise, we also utilize more carbohydrates for fuel. And when the exercise intensity increases we continue to use more and more carbohydrates and less fat. Research has shown that the more glycogen stores we have, the better we can perform especially in endurance training (6). If you do very intensive exercise for a short time, you’ll use a lot of your glycogen stores as well, so keep in mind that it’s not only the length of training effort.

If you’re not training to meet any type of performance goal, you can meet your daily carbohydrate goal by consuming 3-4 g/kg/day of carbs. But if you’re training more, especially endurance training, you want to get more.

The majority of carbs should come from whole grains, vegetables, fruits, etc. while foods that empty quickly from your stomach such as refined sugars, starches, and sports nutrition products should be reserved for situations in which you need carbs fast. So for example, before, during, or after a training session. (2)

But in reality, having a balanced diet most of the time allows you to eat a bag of chips or a tub of ice cream if you feel like it. Like I said in the beginning, food is much more than just calories and macros.

Fats

Dietary fat is needed to support our immune function, build cell membranes, absorb fat-soluble vitamins, and keep our sex hormone levels in normal ranges. (7, 8) They are also used in low-intensity exercise, but most of us carry around enough fat so we don’t have to worry about eating enough fat for training purposes.

The recommendation for fat intake is pretty similar for active and non-active people. A general recommendation is to consume a moderate amount of fat, about 30% of your daily caloric intake. So with a daily caloric intake of 2500 kcal, it would be about 83 grams of fat.

The calculation: So 30% * 2500 kcal = 750 kcal. One gram of fat has about 9 kcals. 750 kcal is divided by 9 kcals and we land at about 83 grams.

Higher amounts are safe as well, but it’s pretty easy to consume a lot more energy than you need. Having a very low fat intake can lead to health problems with your immune and reproductive function, so I wouldn’t recommend that.

What it comes to fat quality, replacing saturated fat (e.g. butter, cheese, bacon, etc) with monounsaturated (e.g. olive oil, avocados, almonds, etc.) and polyunsaturated (e.g. walnuts, fish, flax seeds) fats is recommended. (9)

Summary

Nutrition can be pretty overwhelming when you dive deeper. At the end of the day, if you have no specific performance or body composition goals, and just want to feel good, follow the plate model. But if you want to be more specific or lose weight, then it makes sense to go into detail.

• If you want to maintain your weight, keep your energy balance neutral. If you want to gain weight, go with a positive energy balance. And if you want to lose weight, go negative.

• Eat about 1.4-2.0 grams/kg/day of protein. Based on your activity level, type of training, and goals, adjust accordingly.

• Consume enough carbs. If you’re not training to meet any type of performance goal, you can meet your daily goal by consuming 3-4 g/kg/day. Might be less if you’re more inactive or more if you do a lot of endurance training.

• Don’t go too low on your fat intake. If you keep it around 25-30% of your energy intake, you should be good.

As a caveat, these tips are very general. There is a lot of variation between people. Find a sustainable, healthy way for you to eat and keep it consistent. That’s where the progress lies.

If you feel uncertain about any nutritional part and would like to dive deeper but don’t know where to start. Let’s talk.

References

1. The plate model [Internet]. Finnish Food Authority. [cited 2022 Aug 7]. Available from: https://www.ruokavirasto.fi/en/themes/healthy-diet/nutrition-and-food-recommendations/the-plate-model/

2. Kerksick CM, Wilborn CD, Roberts MD, Smith-Ryan A, Kleiner SM, Jäger R, et al. ISSN exercise & sports nutrition review update: research & recommendations. Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition. 2018 Jan 5;15(1):38.

3. Tipton, K., and Wolfe, R.R. (2001). Exercise, protein metabolism, and muscle growth. International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism 11, 109–132.

4. Trommelen J, van Loon LJC. Pre-Sleep Protein Ingestion to Improve the Skeletal Muscle Adaptive Response to Exercise Training. Nutrients. 2016 Nov 28;8(12):763.

5. Morton RW, Murphy KT, McKellar SR, Schoenfeld BJ, Henselmans M, Helms E, et al. A systematic review, meta-analysis and meta-regression of the effect of protein supplementation on resistance training-induced gains in muscle mass and strength in healthy adults. Br J Sports Med. 2018 Mar;52(6):376–84.

6. Bergström J, Hermansen L, Hultman E, Saltin B. Diet, Muscle Glycogen and Physical Performance. Acta Physiologica Scandinavica. 1967;71(2–3):140–50.

7. Liu AG, Ford NA, Hu FB, Zelman KM, Mozaffarian D, Kris-Etherton PM. A healthy approach to dietary fats: understanding the science and taking action to reduce consumer confusion. Nutr J. 2017 Aug 30;16:53.

8. Venkatraman JT, Leddy J, Pendergast D. Dietary fats and immune status in athletes: clinical implications. Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise. 2000 Jul;32(7):S389.

9. Schwingshackl L, Zähringer J, Beyerbach J, Werner SS, Nagavci B, Heseker H, et al. A Scoping Review of Current Guidelines on Dietary Fat and Fat Quality. ANM. 2021;77(2):65–82.