Hydration for Runners Essay

Submitted By lmassie
Words: 354
Pages: 2

An athlete assumes that if his or her diet has the right amount of calories to maintain an appropriate body composition, then the amount of fat they are consuming must be appropriate. In approximately 2-4 paragraphs discuss why this may be erroneous thinking.

It would have to be explained to the athlete that not all foods and calories are created equal. Hitting a caloric requirement is not the same as hitting macronutrient requirement. For example, if the caloric requirement is 3000 calories, the athlete can make that requirement by only eating ice cream however; they would not meet the recommended macronutrient requirements. The AMDR recommends that an athlete’s diet contain 55-65% carbohydrates, 20-30%fats, and around 15% protein. By only eating ice cream, the athlete hits the caloric requirement, but has a diet high in fat and insufficient in the other two macronutrients. The athlete also needs to understand that there diet needs to consist more of certain types of fats than others. Saturated fats, which are prevalent in the animal fats, and trans fats, found in processed foods, should only be consumed sparingly. These types of fats have been linked to several types of diseases, as well as, high cholesterol. When consuming fat, the athlete needs to focus more consuming unsaturated, polyunsaturated, and monounsaturated fats for they all are beneficial to energy supply and function of the athlete’s body. Most of these fats lower total cholesterol and LDL