Introduction to sports nutrition

When we think about nutrition very limited concepts come to our mind. Mostly it revolves around clinical nutrition or weight loss nutrition. But nutrition in reality is a vast concept which involves everyone. You might be completely healthy, in ideal weight category or you might have some health condition, you can be sedentary, active and even an athlete, you can be anyone and you need nutrition. Just like we have organ or disease specific doctors, there is specialization in nutrition as well. Nutritionists, clinical dieticians, registered dieticians who are called doctor, and sports nutritionist.



Now why do we need a special nutritionist for sports? And first of all since we think the fittest amongst us are athletes then why do they need a dietician in the first place? Let’s understand

Your body needs energy for everything it does including breathing and thinking. When someone is doing more activity than usual or recommended ideal activity level then that person’s need for energy and nutrients grows. There are routine things for which an athlete needs a proper diet, which are –

• Energy to practice, compete, and do routine things
  
  
• To get nutrients in right quantity at the right time
  
  
• To ensure general health
  
  
• To ensure additional needs of the body which develops with sports
  
  
• To replenish nutrient stores which deplete faster in players
  
  
• To avoid injuries and recover from them fast. Since injuries are common in sports.
  
  
• To maintain good mental health
  
  
• To manage sports specific needs

Doing workout for general health on a regular basis doesn’t make you a sports person. A real athlete in his life has to take care of number of things like sports practice, fitness session, school/ college/ office, and all other daily activities. This person is doing 3X, 4X than a normal person does thus his body’s need for energy and nutrients is far higher. Also each sport need a unique skill which is developed through practice but it also needs the physical capacity to learn the skill for example, in marathon one has to be agile, strong, for this one needs ideal body weight, constant supply of energy, good cardio capacity and muscular strength. And to develop this, of course you need correct nutrition.

What do sports nutritionists do? They give customized diet plans based on sport, other personal details, areas of improvement in sports, any specific complaints. For this they work with coaches, athletes, their parents, their fitness coaches and any other person concerned. Diet plan is changed according to the training phase as that changes the activity level, energy expenditure, etc.

If an athlete is not following the correct nutrition plan then –

• His performance drops by 20% on a daily basis
  
  
• Doesn’t get enough energy so early fatigue is seen
  
  
• Lack of nutrients causes many problems
  
  
• Low hemoglobin levels, low strength, infections, low immunity, headache, are some of the common complaints
  
  
• Dehydration. This could lead mild to severe effect on health.
  
  
• Mental health issues like irritability, confusion, anxiety, etc.
  
  
• Focus is lost from other things and reduced from sports
  
  
• Frequent muscle cramps and muscle related injuries
  
  
• Damaged bone health
  
  
• Damaged liver health
  
  
• Prone to injuries

And no matter what effect happens, final impact is going to be on his performance only. Hence let’s take this seriously and all those willing to perform well in sports should correct their nutrition since it is not a fad or supportive thing but it’s the very base on which all the other things depend on.