What Should I Eat?

Sean is an eighteen year old Academy player with ambtition to become a full time player he asks Ruckingball.com the following question.

“I play for an Academy team and try to combine my playing and training commitments with my school work. I spend a lot of time travelling to training and find myself struggling to eat properly. Can you advise me as to what I should do?”

With the ever increasing physical demands of Rugby Union, it is essential that as a player you adequately fuel up yourself so that they you are able to perform to your maximum potential. Players can be asked to train up to 10 sessions in 5-6 days throughout a long off-season, while during the season, most players will average one, at the most two days free from training. Due to these demands, it is essential that players eat correctly in their efforts to increase muscular growth and size; lose body fat; increase lean body weight allowing them to play to their potential. Combine the above with school work; if a player does not eat correctly he can quite easily become run down.

To prevent being run down, you must eat regular, plan meals and combine this with a sensible hydration programme. Your diet should come from 60% – 70% of wholesome carbohydrates, such as fruit, vegetables, breads, pastas and rice dishes.

Carbohydrates are the number one fuel source for training and competition and if the body’s stores are inadequate, fatigue sets in and performance suffers. They also provide you with a wide variety of nutrients, they are low in fat and are terrific sources of dieting fibre.

How much carbohydrates do you need?

Basically, to work out your carbohydrate requirements, multiply body weight by 7. E.G. A player weighs 90 kg, daily carbohydrate intake should be 90 x 7 = 630 grams of carbohydrates each day. To eat this amount is quite difficult so you need to eat 5 – 6 smaller meals a day (eat every 2 1/2 -3 hours). Eating only 3 times a day will not meet your energy requirements.

You should also take care to eat protein with your meals which is essential for the regeneration of muscle tissue that is broken down in training and games.
Excellent sources of protein are lean meat, fish, eggs and low fat milk.
Fat should be minimised in a players diet as too much fat just adds unwanted weight which will make optimum
performance much more difficult. Some suggestions to reduce fat intake are:

• Minimize cakes, biscuits, confectionary, pies, pastries and fast foods – all high in fat.
• Use non-fat dairy products.
• Cut fat off meat and remove the skin from chicken.
• Use nonstick fry-pans or woks rather than use oil in cooking.
• Limit high fat snacks such as potato chips, chocolate etc. to one day per week.
• Stop using butter or margarine.
• Snack of breads fruits and cereals instead of biscuits and cakes.

Whilst minimizing fat is important, some players, due to their naturally very efficient metabolism will have no problems in doing this. However, before embarking on obtaining the lowest bodyfat levels possible,you should understand that too little body fat can lead to early ftigue, an increased risk of infections and viruses and the development of intolerance to colds. So you should not get carried away with losing fat for the sake of it. A reading of between 10% – 15% body fat for forwards and 8% – 12% fat for backs is good.

You should also understand the role water plays in their quest for peak performance. Water is our most important nutrient; heavy fluid loss will greatly effect a players performance and bring on fatigue. However, being well hydrated helps recovery and prevents you becoming lethargic. It is important to monitor fluid loss during training and the way to do this is to weigh yourself before and after each session: each kilogram lost is roughly equal to a litre of water which must be replaced. To make sure you are well hydrated you should drink at least 2 litres of water a day before training. These drinks should be spread out into smaller manageable amounts.

E.G. drink at least two large glasses with every meal.

You should not wait until he is thirsty before you drink as dehydration may have already set in; dehydration reduces muscle endurance, aerobic capacity and mental function.

A suggested daily menu that may help you could look like:

BREAKFAST

Rolled oats with chopped banana
2 slices toast with honey
2 large glasses of water

SNACK

1 Muffin
1 piece of fruit
Water

LUNCH

Chicken breast with steamed vegetables
plus rice

Water/100% fruit juice

SNACK

2 pieces of fruit
Water

DINNER

Diced chicken, veal or beef

Vegetables (cooked in a wok)
1 -2 cups of pasta or fattacin
Water
Fruit Salad and low fat yoghurt

SNACK

2 – 4 pieces of raisin toast

Water