Eating and Hydrating for Combat Sport Athletes Part 2

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Note: Understanding that a great deal of people may read this series who have not been following this blog, I am going to attempt to create a fairly in depth series. For those who have been following, I will attempt to provide new information to make them worth your while. Also, I will attempt to go through this stuff at mock speed, so we can get to the fun stuff.







The very basics: understanding nutrients and their function 
6 Classes of nutrients

• Carbohydrates
• Fats
• Proteins
• Vitamins
• Minerals
• Water

These nutrients are essential to provide energy and maintain ones health and bodily functions. Carbohydrates, fats, and proteins are the main components of the food we eat and provide the energy for our bodies. These three are commonly known as macronutrients. When we turn to vitamin and minerals, we see that no direct energy is produced from them, but they do play a very important role in the energy production pathway. For this reason, they are known as micronutrients. Likely the most important nutrient is water. Water makes up approximately 70% of the human body and is involved in nearly every physiological reaction in the body, including nutrient transport, waste removal, and body cooling.

The importance of carbohydrates 

• Critical role in fueling exercise
• Direct fuel glycolysis
• Gateway to oxidative phosphorylation
• Can only store limited of carbohydrates in muscle and liver
• In high intensity training which is typically performed by combat sport athletes, this can provide energy for a relatively short period of time 
• This makes it important to maximize the carbohydrate storage and replenishment 
• 2 types of carbohydrates (simple and complex)
• Simple are made up of 1 or 2 molecules
• Complex are made up of a chain of molecules
• This is related to the rate at which it can be absorbed (quick energy or gradual)

The importance of Fats

• Highly concentrated form of fuel
• Fat has unlimited availability
• During light to moderate exercise, fat produces the majority of the energy needs by free fatty acids released from the adipose sites around the body
• Free fatty acids bind to the protein albumin in the blood and is transported to the active muscles
• Longer an exercise lasts, the greater the reliance on fat
• If exercise exceeds an hour, carbohydrates are limited the utilisation of fat as an energy source further increases

The importance of Protein

• Composed of amino acids
• Major structural component of muscle and other tissues in the body
• Produce hormones, enzymes, and hemoglobin
• Can be used as source of energy 
• Not desirable source of energy generally means lean tissue is being metabolised to compensate for an energy deficit
• Main purpose of dietary protein is to stimulate anabolic processes in the body
• High protein intake in resistance trained individuals has been shown to have a positive correlation with lean muscle gains and increases in strength 
• You want to maintain a positive nitrogen balance
• Studies have demonstrated 1.4-2.4 g*kg*day will maintain a positive nitrogen balance in resistance trained athletes
• Daily protein for combat sport athletes, who are classified as strength/power athletes should ingest 2.0 g*kg*day
• high protein intake minimises the loss of lean tissue when losing weigh

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Part 1