Food fit for a champion

chicken breast_pasta_11_10_12When you?re training to compete in the event of your life, your sport will dictate what you put on your plate?

Michael Phelps, 27, swimmer
The American 14 times gold medallist is a fan of carb-loading (essentially, consuming a lot of carbs). Also, he was eating between 8,000 and 10,000 calories a day when training for the Beijing Olympics, where he won an incredible eight gold medals. This carbohydrate-heavy diet is a response to the sheer amount of weight he loses through swimming and training (it can amount to several pounds a week). If only the rest of us had that problem!

What he has for?

?breakfast
Three fried-egg sandwiches with cheese, tomatoes, lettuce, fried onions and mayonnaise, followed by three chocolate-chip pancakes; a 5-egg omelette; three sugar-coated slices of French toast and a bowl of grits (a maize-based porridge), washed down with 2 cups of strong coffee. It starts the day off perfectly.

?lunch
Around 1lb of enriched pasta; 2 large ham and cheese sandwiches on white bread smothered with mayonnaise, and washed down with several energy drinks.

?dinner
Another 1lb of pasta, perhaps with a creamy carbonara sauce, followed by a large pizza and more energy drinks.


Dai Greene, 26, hurdler

Welsh hurdler, Dai, admits to being ignorant about diet and nutrition until he became dedicated to his athletics. ?Eating right just helps your capacity to train; the more recovered my body is, the better I perform. You wouldn?t put the wrong fuel in a car and expect to get a quality performance out of it. The same applies to me ? if I eat badly, I have poor concentration and I feel lethargic ? and the stopwatch never lies.?

What he has for...

?breakfast
Two slices of toast with peanut butter and a cup of tea, as well as a protein shake. As a treat: a bagel packed full of bacon, with ketchup.

?lunch
Generally, a pasta dish with lots of veg, but if it?s the day of a race, the menu will include rice or pasta, a small amount of veg and a small amount of protein (either chicken or turkey).

?dinner
Usually a pasta bake or a lasagne, and then a light meal such as eggs on toast, either poached or scrambled, later in the evening.

?snacks
Throughout the day, Dai will have peanut butter or Nutella on toast for a carbohydrate hit, as well as different kinds of fruit.


What makes a good diet

Dr Samantha Stear, national lead for performance nutrition at the English Institute of Sport, reveals all

?A good diet isn?t going to turn a mediocre athlete into a champion, but a champion eating a bad diet may just miss out,? says Dr Stear. ?Sprinters need around 5g of carbs per kilo of their body weight each and every day. And, for endurance athletes, this increases to 7g!?


Picture credit: Shutterstock


Source: http://www.athomemagazine.co.uk/more-celeb/sally-gunnell/6123-food-fit-for-a-champion

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