NUTRITION FUNDAMENTALS:

CALORIES

Calories…yawn.  Seems like something your great aunt Molly might worry about, not an active athlete like you.  But knowing about calories is a fundamental skill of your nutrition game plan.  Calories is to your body what gas is to you car- no gas, no go!

How many calories you need each day depends a lot on you body composition and how physically active you are.  The more muscle you have, the more calories you burn.  Muscle cells are calorie-burning factories.  So a person with 170 pounds of muscle burns more than a person with 120 pounds of muscle.  The more physically active you are, the more your muscles work, and that burns even more calories.

The chart below gives you an idea of how many calories per pound you burn in a day at different activity levels.

Sitting, standing, driving are very light activities.  Things like walking, bowling, and golfing are light.  Fast walking, cycling, dancing, jogging, swimming, tennis and weightlifting would fall under moderate.  Examples of heavy are walking up hill with a load, basketball, climbing, football, soccer, bicycle racing and marathon running.

To estimate how many calories you burn in a day, multiply your weight in pounds by one of the factors that best describes you activity level.  A common tendency is to overestimate your activity level.  For example, being heavily active for just an hour or two of the day would not put you in the heavy category for the whole day.  Use the factor that describes what you do most of you walking hours.

Example: Chris weighs 170 pounds and trains for a few hours on most days.  The rest of the day is spent walking to class, sitting in class, studying, working as a waiter and sleeping.  Chris would be in the light category.  His calorie estimate it 170 x 17 = 2,890 calories per day.

Using a mathematical formula to figure how many calories your body burns in a day gives you a ballpark estimate.  Your calories might be much higher or lower depending on how intensely you train, how much muscle mass you have, how many hours you sleep and even how much you fidget.

Since this isn’t math class, just remember this.  The exact number of calories you burn doesn’t matter.  Whether you burn 2000 calories or 5000 calories, the best gauge for calories is your weight.  Changes in your body weight over several weeks reflect you calorie intake.  If you eat more calories than you burn the calories are stored as fat or muscle and you gain weight.  If you eat fewer calories than you burn, you body burns its own fat or muscle and you lose weight.  If you are eating the number of calories equal to the number you burn, you stay at the same weight.

Note:  It is important to match your calorie intake to your body composition goal.  If you want to gain muscle mass, you need to eat more calories.  If you want to lose body fat, you need to eat fewer calories.

Getting the right number of calories seems like it should be a no- brainer, but it is a difficult fundamental skill to master.  In fact, eating too many calories or not eating enough calories is one of the most common problems for athletes. Having a general idea of how many calories you need is a fundamental nutrition skill.

 Adding muscle mass is hard work.   To get the most benefit from our hard work, you need to do three things: train right, get enough rest and eat right.

Follow a Good Training Program

Muscle growth results from progressive resistance training.  The resistance program for building muscle generally includes two to four sets of 8-12 repetitions.  To prevent injuries and maximize your efforts, practice safe and correct lifting techniques.  Guidance by a professional trained in strength and conditioning can help.

Get Enough Sleep

Muscles tend to “grow” during rest, and especially during sleep.  A hormone in your body that spurs muscle growth, called growth hormone, is highest when you sleep.

Getting enough sleep isn’t easy.  Saying no to going out, turning down extra hours at work, missing your favorite show, and doing homework early are the types of sacrifices you may have to make in order to get the rest you need.

Needs for sleep vary from person to person.  Nine hours a night on weeknights and more on weekends is a good place to start.  Signs that you are getting the right amount of sleep are that you fall asleep easily at night and wake up in the morning without an alarm clock.

Follow a Good Nutrition Program

The first nutrition goal is to eat enough calories to promote muscle growth.  To build about 1 pound of muscle in a week, most athletes need 300-400 extra calories a day.  You may need slightly more or less.

To know if you are eating the right amount, monitor your weight and body composition.  Gaining ½ to 1 pound per week is a sign that you are eating the right amount.  Faster weight gain might mean that you are eating too much, causing excess fat gain.  If you can, have your body composition checked each time you add 5-10 pounds.  Your calorie intake is on target if the measurement shows that most or all of your weight gain is lean tissue.

The second nutrition goal is getting enough protein.  Research shows athletes need more than non-athletes do. The US Olympic Committees protein guideline for athletes in heavy training is 1.2 to2.0 grams per kilogram of body weight per day   One kilogram equals 2.2 pounds so a 220-pound athlete weighs 100 -kg.  A 100-kg athlete would require 120 to 200 grams of protein per day.  An athlete weighing 75-kg, or 165-pounds, would need 90 to 150 grams of protein per day.

Protein is important, but don’t ignore carbohydrate.  After intense strength training, eating carbohydrate to replenish the muscle glycogen may help you recover faster and train harder  Aim for a carbohydrate intake of at least 5 grams per kilogram.  That translates to 2.3 grams per pound.

The attached menu shows an example shows an example of a well-balanced, high calorie diet that provides generous amounts of protein and carbohydrate.

Eating Habits that Work

Here are some tried and true nutrition techniques to put on lean mass.

• ·Eat at least five times a day, such as three meals and two snacks.  Eating this often takes some planning.  Stock your backpack, locker or glove box with convenient, non-perishable snacks like bottled drinks, cereal bars, raisins, trail mix, dried fruit, peanut butter crackers, peanuts, muffing, bagels, canned or fresh fruits, sport bars, or liquid meals.

• ·Eat many different foods.  It’s easy to get burned out on eating extra calories if you limit yourself to just a few foods

• Eat breakfast, even if it’s a shake you drink while you dress, and even if it means setting your alarm a few minutes earlier.   On days when you can sleep in, set you alarm to get up to eat something, then go back to bed.

• Drink high calorie nutrient-rich beverages like shakes, smoothies or commercial liquid meals

 The Successful Formula

Your secret to success starts with a well-designed training program.  Next in line is getting enough rest.  Finally, you need a nutrition program to support your training and muscle growth.  With these factors in place, you have the successful formula for gaining muscle mass

HIGH CALORIE HIGH PROTEIN MENU

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FAT-HOW LOW CAN YOU GO?

How much fat should you eat? To answer that question, you’ll need to consider your health profile as well as you training.  Follow this chart:

Your Category: low fat Diet

See the chart on the back.

Check with you doctor or nutritionist for

specific information about how much and what kinds

of fat your diet should have, based on you health

history.

                                    See the chart on the back

Decreasing fat may help you decrease total calories

Be careful not to replace fat calories with calories from other foods.

To lose body fat you need to decrease TOTAL calories.

 Aerobic exercise increases you carbohydrate needs

If you currently eat a high fat diet, you may need to decrease

fat and increase carbohydrate intake.

Your category: Moderate fat.

If you have trouble keeping you weight up the problem is

inadequate calories.  One easy way to get more calories is to

add fat to your diet.  And it doesn’t have to be a big increase

See the chart below.

Your category: Increase to Minimum or low fat.

Just as too much fat can be a problem, not eating enough fat can be a

problem too.  A fat- deficient diet can lead to increased blood cholesterol

, nutrient deficiencies, inadequate calorie intake, a weak immune system

, and decreased hormones.  The chart below shows you how much fat

a healthy, high performance diet contains.

Fat in a Healthy, High Performance Diet

Protein Intake During Exercise

Many coaches, athletes and trainers recognize the importance of protein for posy-exercise recovery and as part of a well-balanced diet to support muscle mass.  However, little thought is usually given to protein intake during exercise.  When it comes to exercise nutrition, carbohydrates dominate, and for good scientific reason.  While carbohydrates should serve as the main fuel source for exercise, protein’s importance is just beginning to be recognized within the scientific community.

Carbohydrate Intake During Exercise

While carbohydrates in the form of sugar make for great-tasting exercises beverages, their importance for exercise performance goes far beyond palatability.  During exercise, muscle glycogen serves as the most efficient fuel source to support muscle contractions, especially when the exercise intensity is relatively high.  When muscle glycogen stores start to run low during exercise, performance may be compromised.  Carbohydrate intake during exercise can help spare muscle glycogen stores, which in turn can delay fatigue and allow exercise intensity to be sustained.

Protein Intake During Exercise

Protein’s contribution to exercise performance has been generally ignored.  Common measurements designed to look at what type of fuel is being used during exercise, such as the Respiratory Exchange Ratio and Respiratory Quotient, generally don’t even consider protein and only consider carbohydrates and fats.  One of the reasons protein is usually treated like the plague during exercise is that the amino acids within protein have to undergo more processing the carbohydrates before they can be used for energy.  The nitrogen group of amino acids must first be removed, which then leaves a carbon skeleton that can be used for energy production within muscles.  Because of this less efficient process, protein drinks are generally considered best for recovery and not for performance enhancement.

Groundbreaking Protein Research

New studies are beginning to cast doubt on the traditional belief that protein intake during exercise is a big waster of time.  A recent study by Ivy gave athletes a drink containing approximately 15 grams of carbohydrates every 20 minutes during cycling exercise or the same drink with about 4 grams of protein added in.  To the surprise of protein nay-sayers everywhere, the carb/protein drink extended exercise time untilfatigue by a whopping 36% compared to the carb-only trial.

A more recent study by Saunders extended on the findings of Ivy.  This study found that carbohydrate/protein beverages consumed during exercise not only improved exercise performance, but helped improve exercise performance 12-15 hours later as well.  IN the first cycling exercise session, carb/protein beverages improved time until fatigue by 29% over carb-only beverages.  An even greater effect (40% increase in time until fatigue when consuming carb/protein beverages) was found during the following exercise session.  This study has practical implications for hard-training athletes that practice twice a day or for those who may hit the weight room in the morning and then have practice later in the day.

Conclusion

While recent evidence suggests protein can extend the benefits of carbohydrate supplements during exercise, more studies are needed to determine exalt how this occurs.  In the meal time, many athletes may have much to gain by ingesting 2-4 grams of protein every 15-20 minutes during the exercise.   At worst, they will be supplying their bodies with amino acids to help jump-start the recovery process.  At best, they may find themselves able to practice harder and longer, cross the finish line faster or even perform better late in the game.

1. Ivy,J.etc al. Effect of a carbohydrate-protein supplement on endurance performance during exercise of varying intensity.  Int J Sport Nutr Exerc Metab. 2003 Sep;13(3):382-95

2. Saunders, M. et al. Effects of a carbohydrate-protein beverage on cycling endurance and muscle damage. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2004 Jul:36(7):1233-8.

About the Author:

Cory Davidson earned a Bachelors degree in Exercise and Sports Science from the University of Delaware and a Masters in Exercise Physiology from Adelphi University.  He works as a researcher in the Nutrition Department for Us Nutrition Inc.

What Are Tendinitis, Bursitis, and Impingement Syndrome of the Shoulder?

Tendinitis, Bursitis and Impingement Syndrome are closely related and may appear alone or together. If the rotator cuff and bursa are irritated, inflamed, and swollen, they may become squeezed between the head of the humerus and the acromion and cause pain. Over many years, repeated motion involving the arms, or the aging process involving shoulder motion, may also irritate and wear down the tendons, muscles, and surrounding structures.

Tendinitis is inflammation (redness, soreness, and swelling) of a tendon. In tendinitis of the shoulder, the rotator cuff and/or biceps tendon become inflamed, usually as a result of being pinched by surrounding structures. The injury may vary from mild inflammation to involvement of most of the rotator cuff. When the rotator cuff tendon becomes inflamed and thickened, it may get trapped under the acromion. Squeezing of the rotator cuff is called impingement syndrome.

Tendinitis and impingement syndrome often come with inflammation of the bursa sacs (protect the shoulder). An inflamed bursa is called bursitis.

Inflammation caused by a disease such as rheumatoid arthritis may cause rotator cuff tendinitis and bursitis. Sports involving overuse of the shoulder and occupations requiring frequent overhead reaching are other potential causes of irritation to the rotator cuff or bursa and may lead to inflammation and impingement.

What Are the Signs of Tendinitis and Bursitis?

Signs of these conditions include:

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Bobby Reisz has traveled to Russia several times and other European countries to assist athletes every year for the last 10 years in the areas of wellness and sports medicine.