Struggling for Energy in Training (and maybe life)?

Are you not hitting the PR’s in your weights & runs that you KNOW are available to you?

9 times out of 10 I see athletes under eating. In yesterday’s post I spoke about the dangers of dieting (I categorize a caloric deficit as dieting… And you may be doing this unintentionally!) so we won’t go into that here but I will add this:

Keep in mind that your training is catabolic. This means that training hard (And physique goals are included in this!), hard racing, heavy training, etc are WASTING events. Your muscle is broken down. It is the non exercise times that build up the muscle and allow your recovery. Your rest & recovery is what is called ANABOLIC.

Inadequate energy intake, on top of the dangers discussed yesterday, can cause inadequate repair, loss of skeletal muscle (remember how I always say you can’t gain muscle in a deficit and how the goal is to NOT lose muscle??) and lack of energy for training the next day…

Which then, of course, impacts your energy and gains the next day.

The chart provides numbers for someone to maintain their mass and hit their daily energy needs therefore I would adjust calories if an athlete is looking to gain more muscle or lose weight, and for weight loss physique goals. I will add those numbers in my closed Facebook group for the community to access, strong.ER Fitness (https://www.facebook.com/groups/3255673324527323) .

An example of this chart would be a 130 pound female would divide her weight by 2.2. This equals 59 KG. 59 KG, for a heavy training athlete, x 44= 2596 calories per day simply to maintain her weight and meet MINIMUM energy needs.

Note: This chart does not include ultra endurance athletes.

There tends to be resistance around tracking calories, and I get it. It can be a pain in the arse in the beginning but my mindset hack is this:

Instead of seeing it as I HAVE TO track my calories.

Reframe this to:

I get to track my calories to ensure I am adequately fueling my body and can perform optimally in sport, life, relationships & business.

Because, as I said, even if you are unintentionally under eating it still has detrimental effects.

If you are struggling to meet your calories while switching, or on, a vegan/ plant based diet here are some snack tips:

• Granola bar (There are homemade options that are DELICIOUS!!!)
• 2 large or 4 small pieces of fruit.
• 1 large apple or banana with 1 tbsp of nut butter.
• One peanut butter & jelly sandwich with a protein shake.
• 2 ounces of pretzels with hummus (There are also some killer homemade hummus recipes!). This is one of my FAV snacks!
• 1 slice of vegan cheese with 1 ounce of whole grain crackers.
• Protein oats, mixing ½ scoop protein powder with oats.
• A 300 calorie smoothie with almond milk, fruit, flax seeds & protein powder.
• 3 slices of vegan deli slices with 1 apple.

I am also going to create an AMAZING plant based recipe book, and I will be launching the recipes AS I GO in my closed community!!!!! So if you want access to some bomb recipes make sure to join strong.ER Fitness. On Instagram you can find the link in my bio!

💥Training tip/ Case study for CARBS!!! Dun dun dun. Yes, Carbs!💥

I had an OCR athlete come to me. During off season she was performing at the top of her sport and consistently seeing incredible gains in training. When competition season came on all of a sudden running required much more of an effort. She seemed exhausted doing things like doing stairs and every morning she still felt tired after a great night sleep.

She explained that she had been experiencing tiredness and fatigue but NOT delayed onset muscle soreness. She appeared to be recovering well. She just didn’t have energy. When we broke down her nutrition it was very clear that she was eating enough carbs in off season BUT cut back as soon as her training went up.

She was eating about 200 grams of carbs a day but training at what, based on what I laid out for you guys in the chart, is a “heavy” level of training she should have been eating 8-9 times her bodyweight in carbs per day! Her carb intake should have been a minimum of 472 grams per day!!!

Her issue was a classic bout of glycogen depletion. We upped her carbs and she went back to slaying PR’s.

In my closed community I will provide details for weight loss as well! Make sure to hit the join button!

This is a safe place and community of incredible badasses from all background in training & plant based nutrition!

You can join the free community here:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/3255673324527323/

xoAE