Swimmers should plan to have proper nutrition to gain the right kind of performance. Achieving optimal nutrition for good swimming performance is more about eating healthy ingredients. In general, we should know how to achieve peak performance level and we may need to get advice from expert nutritionists who know how to deal with swimmers. In general, swimming can be considered as endurance sports and we should know how to get proper dietary habits. Food is fuel for professional swimmers and nutrients are needed to maintain our overall health. Professional swimmers should know when to eat and what to eat. Swimmers should know about basic nutritional needs. Swimmers should know about the proper mixture of carbohydrates, fats and protein. In this case, carbohydrates is good to provide fuel for high intensity exercise, fats can provide us with extended endurance while protein is needed for recovery, because it’s essential for muscle repair and development. For swimmers, it is important that about 60 percent of the calories is obtained from carbohydrates, 25 percent from good fats and 15 percent from protein. However, depending on the training style, the composition may still vary.
Swimmers should know the amount of nutrition that they should get during training sessions. Depending on the intensity of training session, the daily food intake could be anywhere between 3,000 and 6,000 calories. Again, much of the calories should be delivered from carbohydrates, up to 3.5 grams of carbs for each pound of swimmer’s body weight. Other than from food, protein intake during training can be obtained from protein powder made from green pea and good quality rice. Much of the fats intake should be derived from polyunsaturated or monounsaturated sources, such as nuts and canola oil. Proper hydration is also essential and it is important to drink two glasses of water within two hours of practice. Depending on the nutritionists, swimmers could also be prescribed with pharmaceutical grade multivitamin supplements to further improve their conditions. It is important that swimmers have adequate carbohydrate loading. It is a good way to improve the whole performance. Carbohydrate loading is essential for endurance athletes, such as swimmers, especially if they need to compete for 90 minutes. Proper nutrition is remarkably useful in improving our overall conditions.
There are ways that we can do to perform carbohydrate loading. One week before the competition begins, it is important that we reduce the overall consumption of carbohydrate by about 55 percent, which is compensated by higher fat and protein consumption. Through repeated training, the stored carbohydrate in swimmer’s body will be depleted. Four days before the competition, the carbohydrate consumption is made 70 percent higher than the normal consumption, followed by much reduce consumption of protein and fat. One day before the match, the athlete needs to rest completely. 45 minutes after the competition, athletes should consume a mixture of protein and carbohydrate. Much of the carbohydrate should be taken from sweet colorful fruits and whole grain bread. Protein can be obtained mostly from high quality powder, nuts and peanut butter.