What Pro Athletes Eat For Breakfast vs. What You Should Eat

The Olympics are here, and as we watch the elite (known as professional athletes) perform amazing physical feats, you might be wondering what exactly they eat to be able to do these amazing things. To find the answers, we talked to two experts who have spent years working with elite athletes to find foods that fuel their intense workouts and work at their game day speeds.

Short answer: It depends. Brittany Dunnnutritionist and chef for the Philadelphia Eagles, has found that what professional athletes eat varies greatly among athletes and the sports they play.

“I’ve worked with an athlete who likes two scrambled eggs on peanut butter toast and coffee, an athlete who likes an acai bowl and sauteed veggies, and an athlete who orders two breakfast sandwiches and tater tots. tots,” he told HuffPost.

As far as macronutrients and micronutrients go, Dunn notes that all of these breakfast foods provide nutritional benefits to every athlete. “The different characteristics of an athlete’s breakfast are greatly influenced by a person’s preferences and his diet, the time between eating and the next training session, body type and sports,” he said. we.

Come game day, race day or competition day, athletes don’t take advantage of their breakfast. Consistency is the name of the game, and the last thing a professional athlete needs is an upset stomach. “What I’ve found is that most athletes have a game day meal plan,” Dunn said. In his experience, many athletes eat the same breakfast before every competition. “Game day is not a day to try new foods. Additionally, having a consistent breakfast schedule can help professional athletes feel mentally prepared for the day ahead,” he said.

As for calorie requirements in general, professional athletes need to eat more than the average person given the energy they use in their sports, and to help recovery. Dunn said that even though he has never worked directly with an athlete who eats as strangely as Michael Phelps’ (who is said to have eaten 12,000 calories a day when you exercise), worked with an athlete who needed a 1,000-calorie recovery smoothie post-training, along with three to four other meals throughout the day. “The goal here was for the athlete to maintain body shape and provide fuel to support training and strength needs,” he said.

Considering the high calorie needs of professional athletes, it is common for them to eat five, six or eight meals a day, with a mix of whole foods, shakes and snacks. Because they need to eat more calories (mainly carbohydrates), professional athletes get more from simple sugars, since they are easier to digest.

“We need to fuel the athletes, so we can give them things like juice or candy to make them feel more hungry,” Dr. Marc Bubbsnutritionist with a portfolio of professional and Olympic athletes and author of “Top 40,” said HuffPost. “For the general population, we don’t want them to eat these foods that make them hungry more often or have more energy for them.”

Bubbs explained that the more intense your workout, the more you rely on carbohydrates, so professional athletes simply need more carbohydrates in their system. “It’s almost like a fire: If you have a very hot fire, you can put all kinds of wood in there and the fire will still burn well and stay hot, like metabolism and exercise and performance of athletes,” he said. But put too many logs in the fire and the fire goes out, it’s like the average person eating more calories than they need, which eventually leads to weight gain.” bodies, high blood sugar and inflammation.Male athletes need about 4,000 calories a day while the general recommendation for the average person is about 2,000 calories a day.

“The total number of calories depends on the energy requirements of the sport,” Bubbs said. “A cyclist or swimmer may need 6,000 to 8,000 calories per day (due to intense training), while athletes in team sports such as basketball and football will get between 3,500 and 5,000 calories (which will vary according to the needs of the day).” She added that since women are, in general, smaller and lighter, they may (but not always) need fewer calories.

While the average person might make a smoothie for breakfast with water, protein powder and berries, a professional athlete might substitute fruit juice for water and add mangoes, pineapples and bananas to boost the levels. Carbohydrate. Another example Bubbs gave was a bowl of plain yogurt with berries and nuts, which makes a solid breakfast for the average person (not high in carbs or fat, and high protein). To increase the carb content, the professional athlete can add sliced ​​banana, muesli and maple syrup. The key idea here, Bubbs explained, is carbohydrate timing: fueling an athlete’s daily needs, whether it’s competition, practice or rest.

When creating meal plans for his clients, Dunn’s primary goal is to ensure he is providing the right calories and nutrients based on the athlete’s needs and sport. By doing this, you take into account which foods are compatible with any dietary restrictions and preferences of athletes. It is important for athletes to like what they eat in order to complete their diet and get the fuel they need to perform.

A professional athlete’s breakfast is, by necessity, more consistent than the average person’s in terms of consumption, timing and nutrition. Skipping breakfast is a trivial choice for the average person who goes to his desk job, but for the athlete who is going to exercise intensively for several hours, skipping breakfast can lead to dangerous consequences. . “One of the main differences is that my work with professional athletes can be very sensitive, since I am often very involved with them every day, with frequent access to laboratories and analysis of the structure of’ bodies, to make the necessary changes,” said Dunn.

For the active person who is not a professional athlete, there are general guidelines to follow to help boost your fitness and help you reach your health and fitness goals. Dunn recommends making sure your breakfast includes healthy fats, protein and complex carbohydrates that are full of fiber. “These nutrients not only support muscles, fight inflammation and help get vitamins and minerals, but they also help maintain a feeling of fullness until the next meal.”

Some of the breakfasts she recommends are yogurt with granola and berries, whole grains and milk or a protein-rich milk substitute, oatmeal with nut butters and fruit, cottage cheese and toast. whole grain, veggie omelet with toast. , and a waffle with nut butter and milk.

Bubbs recommends starting with protein when building your diet, at least 20 grams of protein for active people. “Breakfast is the meal of the day where people typically get the least amount of protein, so it should be a priority,” he said. He said 30 to 40 grams of protein per meal for men and 20 to 30 grams of protein per meal for women are ideal amounts to hit. This number will vary from person to person depending on their level of activity and weight. For reference, the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics recommends 1.2 to 2.0 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight per day for active people.

Next are carbohydrates, which Bubbs recommends reducing for people who want to lose weight or improve their blood sugar. “Have more berries instead of bananas, and have a slice of bread instead of three or four,” he said. The last one is fat. Also, if you’re trying to lose weight, this is a place to keep it steady: a drizzle of olive oil or a quarter or half of an avocado.

If you’re the type of person who needs to exercise in the morning, Bubbs’ recommendation varies depending on the type of exercise you do. For aerobic exercise, he recommends fasting or eating a low-carb breakfast, but for an intense training session he recommends eating a pre-filled breakfast with adequate carbohydrates. He said: “If you are exercising hard, make sure you have enough fuel.”