Answering the "What Should I Eat Today?" Question

In addition to asking "What should I do today?", athletes often wonder "What should I eat today?"  At TFI, we strive to answer both of those questions.

What you eat should vary with the duration and intensity of your workout(s) for that day.  There's a reason why you find yourself in the kitchen after a long ride eating everything in sight.  Your body needs fuel to repair itself and replace the energy stores you've used.  As long as you are careful about your choices (no, that whole 4 meat pizza is not a good post ride choice) you no longer need feel guilty about your post ride feeding frenzy.

We prepare macro-nutrient (carbohydrates, protein and fat) guidelines for our athletes taking into account their weight and training load.  Here's an example of one prepared for Coach Rich during the preparation (base) training cycle:

Once you get over the seemingly ridiculously high calorie amounts (one of the few advantages to weighing 100 kg),  you'll notice that only the carbohydrate values change based upon the training volume.   If the intensity or strength workload increased the protein intake would also increase.  These guidelines assume that weight maintenance is one of the athlete's goals.

With their macro-nutrient guidelines, the athlete can modify their food choices and volume to fit the guidelines.  Initially it does take some effort to track the carbs, protein and fat, but eventually it becomes easier.  The athlete begins to think about food as fuel for performance.