Nutrition for Periodization.

So I was hoping to find one good post on this from somewhere I’ve read before that summarizes the general consensus I’ve seen but striking out so far so here’s a few things.

If you eat like most people you should probably consume more protein all the time than you are now. A common recommendation for athletes or bodybuilders (or just people looking to improve physique) is 1g/lb of bodyweight. Maybe a little lower if you’re just looking to maintain weight but certainly during hypertrophy or fat loss phases you want protein intake to be quite high.

You should always consume a moderate amount of fat, probably 20-30% of calories depending what your total intake and goals are. Fat isn’t bad per se but protein and carbs are generally the key macros for athletic performance. Which leads to…

What you want to cycle is probably carbs. A recommendation I’ve seen from a few good sources is that a good plan generally is keeping your protein and fat intake relatively fixed (high and moderate, respectively) and increase or decrease carbs depending on activity and goal. Cut carbs if you’re trying to lose weight or if you’re not very active (if, say, during early off-season your only activity is lifting 3x a week). Increase carbs, maybe significantly, if you’re in season or training hard almost every day, and also if you’re in a hypertrophy phase. Some people find success using more fat as fuel but for athletes this is usually only endurance sports at best. Explosive sport athletes pretty much need lots of carbs to perform at a high level.

Here’s an article from Outside magazine about how the US Olympic Training Center handles nutrition with their athletes and what they recommend: https://www.outsideonline.com/1914301/secret-food-athletes-inside-olympic-training-centers-nutrition-lab

Here’s a pretty good overview of sports nutrition from the University of Colorado with a bit more of a focus on the science and research: https://extension.colostate.edu/topic-areas/nutrition-food-safety-health/nutrition-for-the-athlete-9-362/. Includes more detail and citations for the protein estimates.

And for more practical application here’s a post/infographic from Precision Nutrition (slightly less focused on elite athletes but a good and reliable site) about how to build good meals: https://www.precisionnutrition.com/create-the-perfect-meal-infographic. Portion sizes are recommended through visual cues rather than numbers but I think implies a pretty high protein intake. Their clients tend to be primarily concerned about physique so the carb intake might be low for some training days.

Wow that blockquote really jumps out, huh?