The Feed Zone – Fueling Athletic Performance

The Olympics have inspired, excited and enamored people across the World over the past couple of weeks and will continue to do so until the closing ceremonies. We have watched the realizations of dreams and the challenges of defeat, but all and all the performances of these incredible athletes are astounding. It was a comment made by the most decorated Olympian himself, Michael Phelps, about his 12,000 calorie daily diet that got us thinking about how athletes, in general, fuel themselves. There are so many fad diets these days for the general public, there must be myriad of ways for athletes to eat as well. A little research reveals the gamete goes from McDonald’s to strict vegan diets to Paleolithic regimens and every imaginable combination in between. We did find a very simple, interesting philosophy from a couple of guys just up the street in Boulder, Colorado who wrote a book called The Feed Zone: Fast and Flavorful Food for Athletes by Thomas and Lim. 
 

Dr. Allen Lim and Biju Thomas
What happens when you put a Doctor of Integrative Physiology with a passion for Asian cooking (Dr. Allen Lim) and an Indian, self-taught chef with a passion for cycling (Biju Thomas) in the same room, or the same team bus for a Tour de France?? Eventually you get an incredibly brilliant, accessible and effective nutritional philosophy and way of cooking. These two insightful gentleman crossed paths years ago and began to talk about, and experiment with ways of feeding endurance athletes, specifically cyclists. Lim’s famous quote states, “I watched one of the athletes I was coaching pour a bowl of cereal for dinner and I knew we all had to do better”.
 

Back to Basics
The goal of fueling athletes is to optimize their performance. This is obviously different for each individual but no matter what you eat, if you start with high quality, diverse ingredients that are minimally processed, grown locally and hopefully organic you are starting in the right place. Lim and Thomas said goodbye to highly process foods, especially sugars like gels and energy bars, even while training and competing. The body actually has a hard time digesting such foods causing stomach aches or “gut rot” towards the end of races or high intensity training. Instead they make Allen’s Rice Cakes and a number of other “home-made” portable snacks that can be consumed on the bike. Most are made with a base of white rice that is super easy to digest and assimilate into the body.
 
Food Timing
Performance can drastically increase simply by changing when you eat, not what you eat.

• Pre-workout – Most athletes find that eating about 3 hours before competition or about 2 hours before training works well. It is good to have a little snack or energy drink about 30 minutes before competition to keep blood sugar normal.
• Workout – They recommend replacing half of the calories burnt during training from solid food and a light sports drink.
• Post-workout – It is essential to consume carbohydrates within 30 minutes of finishing a workout. Our bodies are super sensitive to insulin (which brings carbs into the muscles to replenish glycogen) at this time so eating will speed refueling and recovery of the muscles. The length and intensity of the workout should determine the amount of carbs consumed. 4 grams per Kilogram of body weight for 4+ hour workouts and 2 grams per kilo for 2 hour workouts.
• Dinner – This is a great time to eat the bulk of your daily greens, fruits and vegetables. You don’t want to overeat or stuff yourself with proteins that will take away from recovery while sleeping, yet you don’t want to go to bed starving either. Follow Jamie’s recommendations on nutrition.

 
Macronutrients

• Carbohydrates – Foods like pasta, rice, potatoes, bread and whole grains consist of about 60% or so of calories. They like to think of carbs as being the “base” of a meal and the vegetables, meats and sauces being side-dishes or accompaniments.
• Protein – Most often they recommend eating chicken or beef, with pork and fish on occasion. This is due to the readily availability of these items and the ease of cooking. Eggs are also a large part of their diet. About 15% of calories.
• Fat – Many athletes shy away from fat but Lim and Thomas advocate for good fats like olive oil and butter for a variety of reasons that include satiation, helping vitamin absorption and the fact that fat plays a vital role in a number of important bodily functions. About 25% of calories.

 

Hydration
Obviously keeping your body hydrated is a big deal.  Lim states, “While we can live for weeks without food, we can only live for a few days without water. This same concepts applies to performance. We have enough glycogen and fat stored in our bodies to allow us to perform at a wide range of intensities and durations without eating, but we would not be able to sustain these same performances without drinking.” The team suggests drinking a 4% carbohydrate solution as a sports drink during workouts. This equates to 4 grams per 100 ml or 80 kcals per standard 500 ml cycling bottle. These guys are so passionate about hydration they actually started their own sports drink line called Scratch Labs.
 
What’s Right for You
We touched upon this earlier but Lim and Thomas strongly believe in trying their approach and seeing how it works for you. Maybe you are gluten-free so need to make modifications? Maybe you can’t wean yourself off the gels but want to eat this way on a daily basis. Whatever it is, they simply want to share their way of thinking about food with athletes so they can make their own decisions.
 
Caveat
The recipes in their book are for endurance athletes so are higher in carbohydrates, fat and salt than what they would recommend for non-athletes. Please note this if you are considering making meals from their cookbook.