TORONTO –The athletes competing at the 2012 London Games train for months and years in preparation for that big Olympic performance – requiring an equally big diet.
Dylan Armstrong, the Canadian shotputter who was a medal hopeful, has to eat approximately 9000 calories a day to fuel his large physique during his training and competition.
For athletes like Armstrong, food is not about satiating hunger or an enjoyable dining experience, food for an Olympian is simply fuel.
“Fuel is crucial for an Olympic athlete,” said Jen Sygo, the Director of Nutrition for the Cleveland Clinic of Canada. “The fuel is what allows an athlete to perform at their highest level in training.”
Michael Phelps, arguably the greatest Olympian to ever compete at the games, has an infamous diet – reportedly taking in 12,000 calories a day.
“The swimmers, the triathletes, the runners, the cyclists, they are going to have energy needs that are going to be double or triple what an average cdn would need – that might be 4 to 6 thousand calories a day,” said Sygo.
Get breaking National news
So what does an endurance athlete at the Olympics eat for breakfast? Mostly the same healthy breakfast as an average person, but the serving size is vastly different.
“Oatmeal but in this case, it’s a triple serving of oatmeal with some milk and some berries and then they are going to have a large amount of juice,” Sygo said.
The increased portions continue throughout the day Sygo said, allowing endurance athletes sufficient fuel to get through the long competitions.
Other athletes such as gymnasts and divers have lower caloric needs than the monster diets consumed by Phelps, or Armstrong.
The diets of smaller athletes are much closer to that of the average Canadian, approximately 2000 calories a day according to Sygo.
Sports drinks are a supplement used in the diets of elite athletes that help keep them hydrated throughout a training session, or long competition – but Sygo warns – a person not competing in long, competitive exercises simply doesn’t need the extra sugar.
“It takes about 90 minutes to 2 hours of fairly high-intensity, steady activity to do that, if you’re not in danger of doing that, you don’t need the extra sugar to replenish those stores during the workout. It’s just extra calories and sugar you don’t need so stick to water.”
Comments
Want to discuss? Please read our Commenting Policy first.