Understanding Sports Nutrition Basics

No matter what your level of physical fitness or activity, you need to feed your body properly.  For those that are physically active whether through sports or workout routines, it's even more important to understand sports nutrition basics as increased levels of physical activity mean that you're burning more calories and are depleting more levels of important elements in your body as well.  You don't need to be a nutritionist or dietician to understand this; just a few sports nutrition basics are all that's needed to keep yourself healthy while working out and when active.

One of the most important aspects of sports nutrition basics has to do with the amount of water and hydration you get when you're active.  Most people are dehydrated no matter how active or inactive they are, because today we rely on sugary sodas and coffee for our beverages rather than water.  Both sugar and caffeine are a mild diuretic causing the body to lose fluid, so we're actually doing damage rather than hydrating ourselves.

People often forget about water when they think about sports nutrition basics but without adequate hydration the muscles become starved and stiff and ligaments also suffer, all of which are serious problems when trying to exercise or be active.  We also need quite a bit of water for the brain, eyes, skin, and everything else in our system, but when we're active that means we're just leeching this hydration from our system.  There's probably nothing else as important to sports nutrition basics as the amount of water you drink.

You can loose up to two percent of your body weight due to sweating.  With this loss of fluids the blood becomes thicker causing the heart to work harder.  The lack of oxygen being delivered to the body can cause cramps, dizziness and fatigue.  In extreme cases the decreased delivery of blood can even cause heat exhaustion and heat stroke.

Carbs and protein are also important parts of sports nutrition basics.  The low- Carbohydrates diet craze has helped many people to lose weight but it's also typically left them tired and listless.  The body needs Carbohydrates for energy, especially when you're more physically active.

Carbohydrates are the main energy source used in moderate to high intensity exercise routines.  Fats are used during low intensity exercise routines that last for long periods of time.  You also need adequate amounts of protein to feed your muscles; it does no good to lift weights to make your muscles grow if you don't feed them so they can do just that.

But of course it does no good to get your protein from fatty red meats if you're exercising to lose weight.  Most sports nutrition basics include using lean protein such as chicken, turkey and fish as your protein sources with red meat being consumed only on occasion if at all.  Your Carbohydrates should also be complex Carbohydrates, meaning whole grains, rather than simple Carbohydrates such as white flour products which just break down into sugar in the body and provide little energy. 

So you see that sports nutrition basics are very simple and typically very easy to understand.  There's nothing complicated about eating lean protein, complex carbs, and getting plenty of water.  Of course you want to have a balanced diet with plenty of fruits and vegetables and very few sugars as well; if you keep these sports nutrition basics and simple instructions in mind, you're sure to be in the best shape and as healthy as you can be.