An endurance athlete seeking better performance? You are in the right place.
Searching for the perfect diet can become overwhelming. What makes a 10/10 plan? How much food, how many calories, how much carbohydrate per kg? Fruit before or after exercise? Avoid nuts? Wholemeal bread or white?
So many questions.
So many opportunities for mistakes.
But also opportunities to give your body what it needs.
And to improve in endurance sports.
What should endurance athletes eat?
At INDYA, nutrition does not work in isolation: it belongs within each athlete’s complex life.
We see nutrition as individual and personal, something that changes with the athlete’s circumstances.
In nutrition, there is no single universal formula for success. Our approach is to understand the athlete’s context and learn through observation and adjustment.
Measure relevant variables as objectively as possible. Once the context is understood, explore how nutrition affects the athlete.
So what should an endurance athlete eat?
We avoid generalisations at INDYA.
Endurance athletes include cyclists, runners, swimmers, trail runners, triathletes and adventure racers; beginners and experts, amateurs and professionals, with different health conditions and resources.
A diet suited to your activity level needs to be personalised, ideally with a sports nutritionist.
Here are 10 common mistakes among Amapros.
Who are Amapros?
Amateurs who compete, take on demanding challenges, train consistently and monitor performance, often with Strava, Garmin and a coach. You know the type.
10 endurance nutrition mistakes
Years of working with endurance athletes have revealed recurring mistakes, although they do not apply to everyone.
Knowing them helps you avoid them.
1. Relying too heavily on theory
2. Relying too heavily on feelings
3. Investing more in equipment than in your body
4. Focusing on weight rather than watts
5. Overusing supplements and treating them as the foundation of performance
6. Underestimating rest and stress: sometimes more is less
7. Reading online and assuming years of competition mean you already know your nutritional needs
8. Chasing dietary trends and shortcuts: no salt, sugar, soya, processed foods or meat
9. Managing caffeine poorly
10. Underestimating hydration and body temperature
How can you assess calories used in training?
A common problem is that athletes do not fully understand their expenditure.
You may think: “But I check the calories on my Garmin!”
Heart-rate monitors provide energy estimates, but those figures do not fully explain how the athlete’s body uses fuel.
A set of equations can estimate an energy budget to help avoid underfuelling and keep resources available.
Factors affecting energy expenditure
- Basal metabolism: energy needed at complete rest.
- NEAT: daily activity such as work, walking the dog, moving around and cleaning.
- Diet-induced thermogenesis: energy used to digest food and absorb nutrients.
- Physical exercise: energy used in training and competition.
Understanding calories
Even with an estimate of total expenditure, we still need to know which fuels are used and how.
Imagine borrowing money for a new bicycle from a parent, a bank or a lender.
All 3 may lend the same amount, but repayment terms differ, affecting short-term needs and long-term consequences.
Likewise, understand calories and macronutrients. Protein, carbohydrate and fat can be oxidised to produce energy through metabolism.
The fuel used influences the performance response.
Start with our genetic inheritance. Gene expression can respond to the environment.
Training, rest, diet and climate all contribute to how that potential is expressed.
These factors change daily. Becoming a parent changes sleep and performance. A stressful period at work or a dietary change can affect performance too.
The body can be compared to a black-box system with inputs and outputs. We cannot observe every internal process, but mathematical relationships between inputs and outputs help us understand it.
How does technology help assess expenditure?
Applying this idea means measuring food intake, the inputs, alongside relevant performance indicators, the outputs.
Because the human body is complex, mathematics and systems theory can help explore relationships between nutrition changes and performance changes.
Nutritionists also have tools to explore fuel use across training zones.
This informs adjustments to nutrition planning so the athlete has the energy needed to give 100% and complete the intended training stimulus.
One method is an energy substrate test.
More real-time data and appropriate technology can help refine nutrition strategy for long-duration sports.
For a balanced diet adapted to your needs, explore our plans and work with our sports nutritionists.
