Food Diary of an Olympic Athlete

In my previous post, I talked about how Olympic dieitians work with the athletes to provide optimal nutrition for their individual sport. Every wonder what a typical day of eating looks like for a high level athlete?

Today we get a sneak peek into Speedskater Maria Lamb's food diary. She will contest the 5,000-meter distance in Vancouver (she also raced in Turin in 2006). Her team's nutritionist, Nanna Meyer, shared a typical food diary, and her nutritional analysis, with US News. Here's what this 24-year-old Olympian ate one Tuesday in July while in off-season training:

Breakfast:

Oatmeal: 1 cup rolled oats cooked in water with ¼ cup raisins, cinnamon, sea salt, and 1 teaspoon of honey.
Banana smoothie: 1 medium banana, ½ cup skim milk, ½ cup low-fat plain yogurt, 1 tablespoon flaxseed meal, and ice

Workout nutrition (during 2½-hour roller ski session): 2 Clif Shots (energy gels)

Lunch:

Sandwich: 2 slices whole-grain mountain rye bread and 2 tablespoons hummus.
Soup: 2 cups of carrot cilantro soup.
Smoothie: 1 medium banana, ½ cup nonfat plain yogurt, 1 scoop soy protein powder, 1 teaspoon virgin coconut oil, cinnamon, water, and ice.
Fruit: 1 apricot, handful of cherries

Snack (midway through her noon-to-4 shift at Home Depot): Medium apple
Snack (at end of shift): Clif Nectar bar, cherry pomegranate flavor

Workout nutrition (during 2½-hour strength training session): ½ Clif Bar, banana nut bread flavor

Recovery nutrition (after workout): Other half of Clif Bar, medium banana

Dinner:

Pasta: whole-wheat pasta tossed with sautéed zucchini, mushrooms, tomatoes, corn, onion, garlic, oregano, fresh basil, and olive oil. One egg. Glass of milk. Handful of almonds

Snack: ¾ cup homemade granola (includes rolled oats, rye, whole-wheat flour, wheat bran, buckwheat groats, flaxseed meal, soy protein powder, walnuts, cinnamon, salt, honey, vanilla, and applesauce)

Total: 4,067 calories, including about 141 grams of protein, 685 grams of carbohydrates, and 102 grams of fat. (Numbers may be rounded.)

Winter Olympic Nutrition

Have you been watching the Winter Olympics as much as I have since the games have started? Do you watch the athletes with admiration and possibly envy, thinking: "I bet they get to eat whatever they want and not worry about it."

While in theory the quantity part may be true for some of the endurance sports such as the cross country skiers who burn 4,000-5,000 calories, they are still mindful of the quality of food choices they're making to enhance performance. In explosive power sports, such as ski jumping, the athletes have to be conscious of quantity and quality as their calorie needs are much lower since they're not engaged in hours and hours of fat-burning aerobic endurance activity. Being calorie conscious is especially important in a sport where body weight can mean the difference of a few extra feet in the air.

Here's an interesting article from U.S. News that talks about what the athletes eat to prepare for the Olympic games. Besides my love for sports nutrition, this article was exciting for me to read since I got to meet the dietitians mentioned in the article when I attended a sports nutrition seminar at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs back in October. Here's a link to my blog entry where I highlighted what I learned.

Whether you're a weekend warrior or competitive athlete, the important thing to keep in mind is that your nutrition needs to match up with the length, frequency, and intensity of your training. It also needs to take into account your weight and body composition goals. And finally, while carbohydrates have gotten a bit of a bad rap lately, carbohydrates are the main fuel for performance. Carbohydrates should not be eliminated but need to be matched to an athlete's training demands.

Need help matching your nutrition to your training needs? Contact me for an appointment today.