Off-Season Fueling
Offseason is great time for athletes to work on certain goals such as maintaining, gaining, or losing weight. Nutrient intake plays a huge role in those processes. Here are some tips regarding maintaining, gaining, or losing weight as a college athlete.
Maintaining Weight
- Cut back on portion sizes at meals, but still eat often throughout the day.
- Reach for unsweetened beverages and water for hydration.
- Avoid eating extra high calorie foods such as desserts, salad dressing, and creamy sauces.
- Match carbohydrate intake with your activity level. So, on off-days reduce carbohydrate intake compared to high-intensity
Losing Weight
- Have your biggest meal at the beginning of day then reduce your meal size as the day goes on.
- Eat every 3 to 4 hours to prevent you from becoming too hungry and overeating.
- For carbohydrate requirements eat more whole-grain foods, fruits and low-fat dairy products.
- Avoid sugary beverages like energy drinks and soft drinks.
- Include lean protein at every meal and snack like Greek yogurt, eggs, cottage cheese, nuts, and lean meat.
Gaining Weight
- Have a meal or snack every two or three hours to ensure you're getting enough calories throughout the day.
- Add calorie dense foods like olive oil, avocado, nuts, granola, and nut butters because they can help increase calories with little increase in food volume.
- Includes beverages like 100 percent juice or low-fat milk with all meals.
- Use olive oil when preparing foods to add some additional calories from healthy fats.