Hey, this is Dr. Gangemi.
In this SockDoc video I want to talk about diet and nutrition for athletes.
There's so much information out there today about what type of diet is going to work better
for an athlete to help you develop your fitness and adapt to whatever sport you're dealing
with and to become a faster, stronger, more efficient athlete.
Now gluten-free diets, Paleo diets, vegan diets, high carbohydrate, low fat, ketogenic
diets, all these different types of diets, but in this video I want to talk primarily
about how to fuel your body based off the type of activity that you're doing.
We need to eat based off how much we move during the day.
We need to basically adjust our diet, our carbohydrate, protein, and fat ratio dependent
upon our activity levels.
If we're training really hard, we typically are going to need to eat more food.
If we are not training as hard, we can go about eating less food.
Let's talk about also how to develop your aerobic system and your anaerobic system in
relationship to the food that we're eating.
So think about aerobic and fat and think about anaerobic as carbohydrates and sugar.
There's lots of discussion on this on the SockDoc site where I talk about developing
an aerobic system as well as developing your anaerobic system too.
Aerobic, more fat burning, okay?
So you're able to go longer at a harder intensity but longer at a lower heart rate.
In other words, you're becoming a more and more efficient athlete.
That's the benefit to developing your aerobic system.
You can train longer and harder at a lower or the same heart rate than what you were
able to do otherwise.
And the way you fuel your aerobic system is by eating more fat.
Maybe even 60-70% of your diet should be fat.
I'm a big proponent of when someone wants to really develop their aerobic system is
to do that at the fastest state.
Get up in the morning, go for a run, go for a kayak or a paddle board or whatever you're
into, and do that at an aerobic heart rate typically around that 180 minus your age heart
rate that I talk about on the site but without eating food because if you eat a carbohydrate
food you're going to change your lactate levels at that time and you're going to be less aerobic.
You're going to have more difficulty developing your aerobic system.
So for fats, of course, grass fed beef, pasture raised pork, wild caught fish, free range
eggs, bacon, butter, other healthy dairy products like heavy cream, really good fats, olive
oil, nut and seeds, you know the rest.
So think really high quality fats when you're developing your aerobic system, okay?
Now, carbohydrates, those have a place too.
I've seen a lot of issues with athletes doing ketogenic diets and eating typically less
than 25 grams of carbohydrates per day and trying to train hard too.
I'm not saying it doesn't work sometimes.
It can really help you develop your aerobic system and become a better athlete but if
you're training hard, high intensity, heavy strength, and really pushing yourself, especially
after racing, think about eating some carbohydrates, especially within that 30 to 60 minutes after
you train.
Really you need some protein in there too.
There's nothing wrong with some carbohydrates, starchy carbs - plantains, sweet potatoes,
even white potatoes if you metabolize them well.
Of course, you got some fruits, good carbohydrates.
Just pay attention to how well you metabolize them.
Even chocolate and some really good treats, 85% cacao or more, think more honey and maple
syrup rather than white refined sugar.
Don't be afraid of the carbohydrates, you do need them to recover when you're pushing
yourself hard.
Proteins?
Athletes typically need about 1.5 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight, if not
up to two, two and a half grams if you're really intense at certain times of your training
cycle as well as if you are recovering from an injury.
So, again, the harder your training the more carbohydrates and protein you need typically,
the easier you're training in developing your aerobic system.
You should be able to get by with less carbohydrates and more fats.
So always adjust your diet, always think about what you're doing in relationship to how your
training, and you'll become a much more efficient athlete and a much healthier individual.
Hope you like this video.
There's lots more information on the SockDoc site about diet and nutrition and, of course,
injury treatment and prevention.
A lot of other health topics on there and it's all natural, 100% holistic.
Stay away from NSAIDs and all those other drugs on the SockDoc site and a lot of information
about barefoot and minimalist running.
So check us out, hope to see you next time.