This week, we examine the key factors that predict fat loss success. It’s evident that all individuals can lose body fat through following a calorie restricted diet. Successful weight loss is defined as intentionally losing 10% of body mass and maintaining it for one year. However, more than 80% of successful individuals experience weight gain after 1
This week, we examine the impact of collagen supplementation on an athletes ability to generate force and power. Rate of force development (RFD) is highly correlated with sporting performances that require maximal power and speed. So, if your sport involves sprinting, jumping, lifting explosively and throwing, this should be an area of interest. There’s many components to
This week, we explore how athletes can best preserve muscle mass and strength whilst attempting to drop body fat. As many athletes will be aware, large energy deficits come with an array of physiological, psychological and emotional compromises. Therefore, the magnitude of the energy deficit dictates KPI outcomes. From a muscle centric view, a recent analysis by
Last week, we explored how an elite footballer can best prepare for match day. Today, we investigate how they can accelerate recovery and reduce the time needed to return to baseline…and therefore be better prepared for their next match (Collins et al, 2021). From a nutrition perspective, one of the primary objectives is to rapidly replenish carbohydrate
Today, we explore how to fuel the elite football player to maximise physical output and skillset (Collins et al, 2021). A 90 minute football match consists of a wide range of modalities; from walking to sprinting, to changing direction, striking the ball and jumping.It’s been reported that players don’t significantly cover more ground than previous, but
Today, we explore why intermittent fasting is potentially sub-optimal for muscle growth, remodelling and recovery. Intermittent fasting (IF) comes in many shapes and forms. Whether that’s your classic 16:8 fast, 24h or 36h fast. Either way, the dietary approach causes you to restrict your meals to smaller eating windows within a day. For many, IF allows individuals
Today we examine the impact of two different meal frequencies in athletes looking to gain mass! Ultimately, athletes require an energy surplus to maximise their muscle growth potential. A common problem in athletes (not all) is being able to consume adequate calories to (1) support day-day movement, (2) fuel their sport specific training, and to (3)
Today, we look at nutrition for the prevention and treatment of injuries in athletes. It’s been reported that most athletes will unfortunately sustain Injuries to the muscle, bone, tendon and ligaments over the course of their career. Knowing this, it’s important that we put interventions in motion to reduce the likeliness of injury, and to have strategies
Today, we explore the putative role of Omega-3 fatty acids as a neuroprotective strategy to mitigate brain damage and promote recovery from head injury in contact based sports. As the demand and physicality of contact based sports such as rugby and American football increase, head injuries (concussion) and exposure to repetitive sub-concussive head impacts (RHI) are
This week, we look at the latest recommendations from Ruiz-Castellano (2021) for athletes who wish to drop body fat whilst retaining fat free mass (FFM – i.e. weight that isn’t fat). 1) Calorie intake: The aggressiveness of a calorie deficit will dictate how an athlete performs. In light of this, evidence suggests that larger calorie deficits
As we know, carbohydrates drive physical performance and having low carbohydrate availability, i.e. low amount of carbs in the diet and carbs stored within the muscle, liver and blood can be detrimental to performance.In footballers, carb intake on game day is very much dependent on two main factors:1) Intensity of the game.2) Number of minutes
Previously, we discovered that rugby players have a heightened caloric demand after game day (GD). More precisely, it was shown that a players resting metabolic rate increase by ~10% from GD-1 to GD+3 (~231kcal). The players increase in RMR was a result of elevated muscle damage that’d been caused by contact. i.e. the breakdown of muscle
Muscle growth can be broken down into three simple factors: 1) Progressive weight training.2) An energy surplus.3) Adequate protein. If one of these three factors is not met, it can be said that rates of muscle growth will become blunted. However, athletes have the pursuit of gaining the maximum amount of muscle mass whilst minimising gains in fat
This week, we explore the best approach to build your custom nutrition programme to drop body fat. With regards to the approaches, the two common methods are: 1) Flexible dieting (IIFYM)2) Rigid Dieting (Diet Plans) There’s been much debate as to what method is considered to be the most effective for fat loss success whilst being able to
Offsetting fluid loss during exercise is believed to be an important recommendation to maintain athletic performance.There’s much debate as to whether an athlete should drink to thirst or whether a prescribed hydration strategy is warranted to negate dehydration. To add further insight to this question (drinking to thirst vs prescribed), de Melo-Marins et al (2018) examined
