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“What should we eat during a tournament? I mean, we’ve figured out that we should eat something, but beyond that….”
Well, never fear, your tournament nutrition guide is here! This week, we take a look at what you should be eating before and during a tournament.
Part 1: What am I actually putting in my body?
Everything you eat can be looked at in terms of three macronutrient groups: carbohydrates (CHO), proteins, and fats. “But Rebecca,” you say, “That chocolate bar I just ate was entirely sugar. And what about the 5 food groups?”
The 5 food groups are a really good way to get you eating a balanced mix of CHO, protein, and fat. These three groups (CHO/protein/fat) have to do with what foods get broken down into once they’re digested.
CHO, including any processed sugars (like that chocolate bar), are broken down into glucose. The glucose then is used by the mitochondria to create ATP, which your muscles use to contract and therefore move your body. CHO is digested fastest of all the food groups. Simple CHO (sugars, fruits, milk, etc) will be digested most quickly, while complex CHO (cereals, grains, etc) will still be digested easily but will provide you with longer-lasting energy. CHO will remain in your stomach for up to an hour or so after eating, and provides the biggest increase in blood sugar for your body.
Once protein enters your body, it’s broken down into amino acids which are used as the building blocks of cells. Amino acids can also be metabolized to energy, but this means your body is disassembling structures to power the rest of you, and is something we want to avoid. Proteins take longer to digest, and will remain in your stomach for 2-3 hours after eating; once digested, they provide less energy for your body than CHO.
Fat is used primarily as a fuel storage source for your body – any unused CHO or protein will be converted to fat, to keep it for later (yes, your body may belong on “Hoarders”). However, if you need to use it as energy, the fat will be broken into glycerol and fatty acid, and that glycerol is then turned into glucose by your liver. Fat takes the longest of all to digest, and can remain in the stomach for 3+ hours after eating, and provides a fairly low release of energy.
Part 2: What does this have to do with a tournament?
Each of these macronutrients is digested differently, and impacts your muscles and performance differently. Learning about the function of each one will help you make better choices about nutrition in general, as well as understand why you should avoid eating certain foods during a tournament.
Before a tournament, you can consider carb-loading (as mentioned in our Tuesday Tip a few weeks ago). Try to avoid fats, like you usually do. Make sure you’re eating foods you’re comfortable with, as well: you don’t want to be making yourself sick by trying something new right before you have to perform!
During a tournament, this becomes even more important. You want to plan your meals so your stomach is mostly empty when you have games. Ever had those terrible stomach cramps when you ate too much before a tough practice? The reason is that when you exercise, your body directs blood away from your stomach, and towards the muscles that need it more. This results in a ball of food in your stomach that is just kind of sitting there not digesting and just making you feel gross.
In order to avoid that during a tournament, plan out when you’ll be eating, as well as what you’ll be eating. Avoid fats in general – they take longer to digest than anything else, and the energy you’ll get isn’t worth the stomach ache. If you have a longer break (2-3 hours), you can eat some lean protein. It’ll keep you full for longer and prevent the crash when your body’s out of sugars. If you’ve only got an hour between games, go for some simple carbohydrates or a liquid supplement (chocolate milk or a smoothie are both great ways to get quick, easily digestible carbohydrates).
In general, you also want to eat within 30 minutes of exercise. When you work out, your muscle cells become more able to absorb glucose from your blood (think of it like a power-up for your mitochondria). Your body is, however, a little bit stupid, and retains that power-up for a bit over half an hour after you’re done working out. By eating carbohydrates in that half-hour window, you’re allowing your cells to gobble up the glucose you just ate and be more ready to start exercise the next time you do something. On a tournament day, this is invaluable.
Part 3: I don’t care about what my body is doing, tell me what to eat already.
Putting these principles together in a list gives us our Golden Rules of Tournament Nutrition:
Let’s take a look at what these rules might look like in a real tournament. Our hypothetical player is staying at a hotel 15 minutes away from the pitch, has to get there at 8:30am for the opening ceremony at 9am, and then has games at 9:30, 11:30, and 3:30.
7:30AM: Breakfast. We have about an hour and a half until our player starts warming up, so they will eat mostly carbohydrates with some lean protein to keep them going until the lunch break. Here are some good meal choices to make:
10:10AM: Snack 1. Our player just finished playing their first game. They have about an hour until they have to start warming up again. We want something with carbohydrates to help them recover and not feel too heavy when they have to play again.
12:10: Lunch. Game two has hopefully gone well, and our player needs to be ready again in about 2 hours. This is a good chance to recharge on that lean protein a little bit, and get some more carbohydrates.
4:10: Snack 2. Game 3 went great, and now our hypothetical player needs to get themself ready for bracket play tomorrow. We’ll suggest a snack similar to snack 1, to recharge their muscles before they get back to the hotel and have dinner with their team.
*Be smart when choosing granola bars. Often they have a lot of sugar and not a lot of anything else valuable. Look on the ingredient list and nutrition facts for whole grains, low sugar content, and not too much fat.
**Be smart with sandwiches too. Things like mayonnaise and cheese contain a lot of fat; some is okay, especially if you won’t eat otherwise, but make sure you don’t have too much. Store bought sandwiches are often incredibly guilty of piling on the mayonnaise.
***Pay attention to eating legumes on tournament day. If you aren’t used to eating them, you may want to eat something else, as they often upset stomachs or make you feel bloated.
Part 4: But I’m three time zones away from home and can’t cook myself food!
Keep in mind that this is not an exhaustive list. Use what you learned in the rest of this article, and you should be able to make good choices and fuel your body well for your next tournament.
And, the best part of all this healthy eating? As soon as the tournament’s done, you can eat all the sugar, cheese, and fat you want – at least for one night, until you start training for the next one!
Next week, we take a look at tournament-specific hydration. As always, questions about it can be directed to , and I’ll do my level best to answer everything you throw my way!
Sources:
Human Anatomy & Physiology, 8th Edition – Marieb & Hoehn
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