North Carolina Certified Sports Nutritionist: How to Optimize Nutrition for Sports

How to Optimize Nutrition for Sports

For many athletes, training is (rightly so) the primary focus.  However, nutrition plays a powerful role in sports performance, and is under-utilized by many athletes.  

Reaching peak sports performance requires not just a great training plan, but also a great nutrition plan.  This plan should include seasonal changes based on competitions, training nutrition, pre-competition, during-competition, and post-competition nutrition.  Pre and post-workout nutrition should also be carefully planned.

Some of the critical elements of an individualized sports nutrition plan include:

• Optimizing energy intake
• Specific diet plans for the quantity and quality of food
• Also, specific timing of consuming carbohydrates, proteins, and fats, before and after training for a competition
• Hydration, fiber, antioxidants, nutrients, and food sourcing should also be considered  
• Travel should never be overlooked and should be carefully planned for as.
• Finally, for weight-specific sports, a highly individualized and safe nutrition plan is needed

All of these elements are hard to balance on your own, so working with a Certified Sports Nutritionist can take the guesswork out of your nutrition plan to optimize your sports performance.

Why Work with a Certified Sports Nutritionist to Develop a Nutrition Plan?

Often, athletes have the impression that they can eat without much planning or thought.  In fact, athletes with a professional sports nutrition plan, improve performance and recovery while minimizing chance of injury.  Sports nutrition is also critical for optimizing lean mass, achieving the correct body composition for sport, and avoiding dangerous hormone imbalances that are common in athletes.  

These hormone imbalances are especially common in female athletes.  The combination of disordered eating, amenorrhea (loss or irregular menstrual cycles), and osteoporosis is most common in sports that emphasize      leanness, but these health issues can impact girls and women in any sport.  

Male athletes are also not immune to the adverse health impacts of under-nutrition related to sports competition.

Athletes That Benefit from Sports Nutrition

• CrossFit nutrition
• Running nutrition (sprinting, marathon, etc.)
• Triathlon nutrition
• Cycling nutrition 
• Powerlifting and Olympic lifting
• Golf nutrition
• Nutrition for adding lean mass and gaining weight

Sports Nutrition Plan Components

One of the Certified Sports Nutritionists on our team will tailor a diet plan to fit your needs. A professional sports nutrition plan should include:

• Energy targets
• Macronutrient calculations
• Diet quality
• Timing around training and competitions
• Recovery nutrition
• A hydration plan
• Different plans for training, competition, and rest days
• Anti-inflammatory and tissue-supporting components
• Specific meal plans and recipes, to make the plan easy to implement
• Advisement on what supplements (and amounts) to take for effectiveness and safety

Most athletes are eating whatever they want, whenever they feel like it, especially when they travel.  Refining sports nutrition with a complete plan can make a dramatic difference when it comes to performance, recovery, and injury avoidance.

Sports Nutrition Experts

We’ll provide you with a plan that optimizes your sports nutrition. First, we’ll start with a full diet and environment assessment. You’ll also have the option of getting a full micronutrient panel (link to testing page), so that you know exactly what nutrients you may be low in.

Then, we’ll develop a specific, realistic, and effective dietary plan that optimizes your performance. You’ll have access to meal plans, recipes, and support from us, so that implementing our plan is stress-free.

Also, we don’t just give you a plan and send you out the door. We’ll make sure you’re supported throughout your training and competition season.

Finally, our goal is to get you to where you don’t need us! We teach you how to follow our process on your own, so that you can have ongoing, independent success with sports performance.

Are You Fueling for Performance? Take our Free Quiz!

Here’s an Overview of Our Results-Driven Process

Peak performance depends on peak nutrition. Contact us for a free call to discuss how one of our Certified Sports Nutritionists can help you with a plan to optimize your sports nutrition.