For the Weight-Conscious Athlete

If you’re a cheerleader, a dancer or someone whose active lifestyle demands a lot of cardiovascular exercises and muscular training, heed these orders from the doctor.

A young, sports-oriented adult should follow a balanced diet – her meals should include each food group as often as possible:

• Carbohydrate (CHO) as her main source of fuel. It should comprise about 60% of her diet. CHO is extremely important for athletes or even regular active people, since it’s the most readily available energy for use in any physical activity. Good sources of CHO are grain products (i.e. rice, pasta, noodles, bread) as well as fruits, vegetables, and simple sugar.

Note that all COH are nutritionally dense such as refined starches and sugars which are found mostly in our “feel good” food: cakes, pies, pastries, powdered juices, chocolates, etc.

Choose less process products such as whole grains (dark grains) over highly refined or processed grains (white grains).

• Protein should make up around 30% of her diet, as these are the tissue-building source of nutrients. These help in proper calorie counting and in efficiently metabolizing energy for use in bodily processes – complementing CHO. Good, natural sources are meat (beef, pork or poultry products), seafood, beans, legumes, and dairy products (cheese, yogurt, and milk).

However, one should note that protein products are sometimes high in saturated fat.

• Fat should make up about 10% of the diet. This food group has long been misunderstood, but just like every motor needs oil, they are essential in keeping one’s body “oiled” or lubricated. However, one should note that oil coming from plant sources (olive oil, canola oil, safflower, etc) is still a healthier choice over oil from animal sources (butter, fresh cream, margarine).

Running twice a week, dancing and stretching, keeping a calorie counter, and weight-lifting is not really enough. Healthy diet is a key to staying fit, and breakfast really is the most important meal of the day. As an athlete, you could definitely benefit from the discipline and control in food you adhere to. However, there’s probably one major flaw in your daily diet. It might lack vitamin, minerals, and fiber, which one can normally find in plant sources such as fruits and vegetables.

Make sure your daily caloric intake is more than what”s required for someone whose activity level is moderately high. For free calorie counter, there’s one available online.