To improve your sports performance, there are three elements to take into consideration: your diet, your training and your recovery. Whether you are a high-level athlete or an amateur, adapting your diet around your training has many advantages. What foods to avoid before your workout? How to optimize your recovery and muscle growth through nutrition after your sporting effort?

Nutrition before sports practice.

Why eat before sport?

Eating before sport allows you to have the energy necessary to successfully complete your physical exercise. However, you should not eat just anything. As a general rule, it is recommended to eat 2 to 3 hours before your workout. Indeed, if you fill your stomach too shortly before your sports session, digestion or gastric emptying will not be completed, which could lead to digestive discomfort (nausea, stomach cramp) and cause a drop in your performance.

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However, if you want to eat something before your workout, opt for fruit. The nutritional quality of bananas is particularly interesting to give you energy for your session.

Foods to avoid before your workout.

Some foods are easier to digest than others. For example, foods high in fat are digested slowly by the body. It is therefore preferable to avoid, for example, consuming cheese, cold meats, pastries or even biscuits with a fat content greater than 10%. It is also recommended to limit your consumption of foods that are too rich in fiber before any physical activity. Since fruits and vegetables are foods rich in fiber, it is advisable to favor very ripe fruits and cooked vegetables, without skin or seeds. This will limit your fiber intake.

In summary.

Before exercising, you should consider consuming foods with high digestibility. This will limit digestive discomfort during your sports session and optimize your performance.

Nutrition during sports practice.

Goal of food intake during your workout.

The objective of eating during physical exercise is to avoid becoming dehydrated and to limit the depletion of glycogen reserves mainly. In fact, using food during physical activity allows you to quickly increase, preserve and replenish muscle glycogen, while conserving your water capital.

What foods should you choose during your workout?

If your exercise lasts more than 1h30, it is strongly recommended to provide a carbohydrate intake. This makes it possible to compensate for muscle glycogenic depletion, save blood sugars, maintain basal blood sugar levels and therefore limit the risk of the appearance of hypoglycemia, synonymous with a reduction in performance. You will therefore need to favor simple carbohydrates with a medium to high glycemic index in order to have this energy quickly and without putting too much strain on the digestion mechanisms (for example fruit jellies, energy gels, etc.)

Hydration.

Sports practice leads to more or less significant water loss depending on the duration, the intensity of the effort or the ambient temperature. Be careful, in the event of a large water loss, you risk encountering certain difficulties during your exercise such as fatigue or a reduction in reflexes.

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Studies show that a 1% weight loss linked to dehydration results in a 10% drop in performance.

For any effort not exceeding 1 hour, water will be sufficient to hydrate you well.

If the exercise lasts more than 1h30, you can consume an exercise drink with carbohydrate intake (BEAG). In fact, the longer the effort, the more your glycogen stores are depleted and the greater the loss of sodium and magnesium through sweating. A BEAG is a drink that contains minerals and carbohydrates and therefore the composition can vary depending on the ambient temperature. These differences in composition make it possible to compensate for the different degrees of perspiration:

• If the outside temperature is above 20°C, the drink should contain around 20g of carbohydrates per liter of water and 1g of salt per liter in case of excessive sweating.
• If the temperature is below 10°C, the carbohydrate concentration should be higher with 60 gr/l and a maximum of 1.2 gr of salt per liter of water.

There are many preparations on the market for making BEAG but the “homemade” option is entirely possible. Grape juice, for example, contains on average 15 grams of sugar per 100 ml and is often used in BEAG.

Water loss is different for each athlete. This is why it is important to take your own needs into account. To do this, weigh yourself before and after your exercise. As the weight lost is often linked to dehydration, you may realize the need to consume a BEAG during your training. In order to optimize your sporting performance, try to limit this weight loss as much as possible during exercise.

Nutrition after sports practice.

Why eat after sport?

Often overlooked, recovery is the most important aspect of improving your sports performance. Recovery includes your diet, sleep and hydration after exercise. Indeed, a poor diet after sports practice can, in the long term, compromise your next training sessions and your progress curve. During a sporting activity, your body draws its energy from circulating, hepatic and muscular carbohydrates. When carbohydrate reserves are depleted, your body will transform circulating lipids and those in body fat into energy. If necessary, even protein reserves will be called upon to provide this energy. However, this step is your body's last resort to provide itself with energy because this phenomenon results in muscle wasting. After exercise, your glycogen reserves must be restored to ensure the proper functioning of the organs. Without food intake, body fats and muscle proteins will be used to fill these reserves.

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The purpose of recovery is to:

• Repair muscle tissue damaged during physical activity.

• Quickly replenish muscle and liver glycogen stores.

• Rehydrate properly according to your needs.

• Quickly eliminate metabolic waste induced during exercise.

What to eat after sport?

For optimal recovery, the meal following the sports session must contain fruits and vegetables rich in vitamins and minerals, complex carbohydrates to allow the reconstitution of glycogenic reserves and proteins for muscle repair. Example of menu: Mixed vegetable soup Lean fish with rice and ratatouille Plain yogurt with fresh fruit For those who don't have the time to prepare such a meal, there is the Feed range. SPORT which offers meals with 50g of vegetable proteins, low glycemic index carbohydrates, quality lipids and 33% of the recommended daily intake of 24 vitamins and minerals.

In summary.

Diet plays a vital role in improving sports performance. Before, during and after exercise, nutrition and hydration will allow optimal recovery and therefore see your performance improve.