For athletes attempting to decrease body fat, however, it has been recommended that they consume 0.5 to 1 g/kg/d of fat [1]. The reason for this is that some weight loss studies indicate that people who are most successful in losing

weight and maintaining the weight loss are those who ingest less than 40 g/d of fat in their diet [45, 46] although this is not always the case [47]. Certainly, the type of dietary fat (e.g. n-6 versus n-3; saturation state) is a factor in such research and could play an important role in any discrepancies [48, 49]. Strategies to help athletes manage dietary fat intake include teaching them which foods contain various types of fat so that they can make better food choices and how to count fat grams [1, 7]. Strategic Eating Ilomastat supplier and Refueling In addition to the general nutritional guidelines described above, research has also demonstrated that timing and composition of meals consumed may play a role in optimizing performance, training adaptations, and preventing overtraining [1, 6, 33, 50]. In this regard, it takes about 4 hours selleck chemicals llc for carbohydrate to be digested and begin being stored as muscle and liver glycogen. Consequently, pre-exercise meals should be consumed about 4 to 6 h before exercise [6]. This means that if an athlete trains in the afternoon, breakfast is the most important

meal to top off muscle and liver glycogen levels. Research has also indicated that ingesting a light carbohydrate and protein snack 30 to 60 min prior to exercise (e.g., 50 g of carbohydrate and 5 to 10 g of protein) serves to increase carbohydrate

availability toward the end of an intense exercise bout [51, 52]. This also serves to increase availability of amino acids and decrease exercise-induced catabolism of protein [33, 51, 52]. When exercise lasts more than one hour, athletes should ingest glucose/electrolyte solution (GES) drinks in order to maintain blood glucose levels, help prevent dehydration, and reduce the immunosuppressive effects of intense exercise [6, 53–58]. Following intense exercise, athletes selleck chemical should consume carbohydrate and protein (e.g., 1 g/kg of carbohydrate and 0.5 g/kg of protein) within 30 min after exercise as well as consume a high carbohydrate meal within two hours following exercise [1, 31, 50]. This nutritional strategy has been found to accelerate glycogen resynthesis as well as promote a more anabolic hormonal profile that may hasten recovery [59–61]. Finally, for 2 to 3 days prior to competition, athletes should taper training by 30 to 50% and consume 200 to 300 g/d of extra carbohydrate in their diet. This carbohydrate loading technique has been shown to supersaturate carbohydrate stores prior to competition and MCC-950 improve endurance exercise capacity [1, 6, 50]. Thus, the type of meal and timing of eating are important factors in maintaining carbohydrate availability during training and potentially decreasing the incidence of overtraining.