Articles

This week, we examine the short term changes in body composition following a three day ‘refeed’ diet. Many athletes include either planned or ‘social’ refeeds into their diet –this is sometimes aimed to rescue performance and psychological strain of low calorie dieting, or sometimes because they’ve ‘gone large’ on the weekend and over-consumed calories. Either

This week, we take another look at low energy availability (LEA) with a particular interest in male endurance athletes. Energy Availability (EA) = the energy available for normal physiological functioning once exercise energy expenditure has been accounted for. i.e. if you consume 2500kcal, burn 1,000kcal in training, you have 1,500kcal left ‘available’. LEA is the

This week, we review the impact of low energy availability (EA) in athletes and its consequences to the body, mind and sporting performance. The issue arises when insufficient calories are consumed to meet the body’s demands. Therefore, the mismatch between calorie expenditure and calorie intake becomes too high. Energy availability = the amount of energy

This week, we explore the impact of glucosamine supplementation on cartilage health in athletes. The nature of training and competition causes large amounts of repetitive mechanical loading on the joint which may lead to degradation (breakdown) and function loss of cartilage over time. Nutrition supplements such as collagen, chondroitin and glucosamine have been used in

Today, we explore whether a food first approach is better than a supplemental approach to fuelling endurance based exercise. Carbohydrate (CHO) recommendations during endurance based sports are based on duration and intensity. Of which, the greater the duration or intensity, the greater amount of carbohydrates needed to maintain work capacity. Current guidelines are as follows:

This week, we explore ‘lean mass sparing’ during periods of calorie restriction (CR) in athletes. CR creates a catabolic environment (breakdown), where weight training creates an anabolic environment (growth). It’s been recommended to reduce training load during CR to better support recovery as there’s less energy available, which makes sense… However, is it wise to

This week, we explore the compensatory effects in total daily energy expenditure (TDEE) in relation to the amount of exercise performed.⁣ In other words, if you burn 1,000kcal through daily training, do you actually burn 1,000kcal more within that day?⁣ You would expect so, however humans are highly adaptive. Perhaps this stems back to certain

This week, we examine whether intermittent fasting is superior for both fat loss and health when compared to a typical calorie restricted diet. It’s hypothesized that fasting imparts health related benefits such as improved cardiovascular health and insulin sensitivity. These health benefits are suggested to be independent of weight loss and a calorie restricted diet

This week, we explore the link between diet and mental well-being. From an athlete’s perspective, performing with excellence is mostly biased towards having the correct body composition, meeting fuelling demands and accelerating recovery. Although these are fundamental to success, we can’t maximise athletic performance without health and well-being acting as the foundation. Although the link

This week, we’re continuing our theme of ‘ultra-fast recovery’ and exploring the impact of fruit supplementation on indices of muscle damage. During periods of strenuous training and competition, the muscle is placed under a high degree of strain, especially when loaded eccentrically. As a result, exercise-induced muscle damage (EIMD) occurs. This results in delayed onset

This week, we explore the ‘4R’ framework to enhance post-exercise recovery in the hours and days following hard training and competition.Your recovery strategies increase in importance as the proximity to the next session decreases and the physiological stress increases. For timely recovery to occur there’s a strong relationship between nutrition and the restoration of physical

This week, we examine a delicious recovery tool for the athlete’s toolbox: Cereal! Following depleting exercise, there’s an opportunity to accelerate glycogen replenishment when high amounts of carbohydrate are provided. Taking advantage of this first phase of glycogen replenishment increases in importance when an athletes next session is within close proximity – same day or

There’s a strong belief amongst combat sport athletes that having a higher body mass than their opponent provides a competitive advantage, and therefore increases their likeliness to win. There’s emerging evidence that this theory may hold true in non-striking, grappling based sports such as judo when done safely (Reale et al, 2016), but is less apparent

This week we explore the physiological differences between amateur and elite Ironman athletes and how it’s recommended they eat to best prepare for race day. A 2018 paper by Maunder et al named ‘Different Horses on the Same Courses’ has highlighted the following key considerations: 1) Top Ironman triathletes finish the ultra-endurance race in ~8hrs. The amount

This week, we explore how daily carbohydrate manipulation can enhance endurance training adaptations in trained cyclists. More specifically, can cyclists increase their FTP (functional threshold power) by eating the same amount of daily carbohydrate, but timing intake differently? The concept of ‘train low’ has been around for a little while: The depletion in muscle glycogen during exercise