In this report, will discuss the nutrition of Pro Athlete Boxers. The reason why an athletic boxer is chosen is that they are an endurance athlete. Endurance means to endure an activity for a long period of time. Boxing is a high-intensity sport which uses the athlete VO2 Max. Pro athlete boxers need a good diet to last twelve three minute rounds.
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As a sport that continues to evolve around the scales and numbers, boxing, unfortunately, one of many sports that continues to always make weight. Due to always making weight there have been unsafe practices within the boxing industry that promotes fasting, laxatives or rushing to lose weight in minimal days. This is usually seen a couple of days before a fight. Even though these methods cause effective weight loss, the athletes lose water, muscles and glycogen stores which is needed for while competing. Further, we will discuss the three macronutrients that a boxer will need while training for endurance and another important aspect of a pro athlete boxer.
0.1 Overview of how different macronutrients utilized during endurance training:
Carbohydrates:
Carbohydrates are a mixture of three chemicals. Carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen. There are simple and complex carbohydrates. They are broken down and are used to feed cells. Carbohydrates are measured on the basis of muscle glycogen that needs to replace the fuel that is burned in exercise this is called glycogen re-synthesis. Glycogen is stored in muscles and our liver. This is dependant on the amount of training or competition.
Endurance training takes up to 50-70% of total energy.
8-10 kg of carbohydrates for each kg they weigh (Burke,1995).
-Closer to the competition the athlete will need to increase carbohydrates and lower fats.
Fats/Healthy Fats
There are two types of fats that the body stores. Body fat and stored fat or adipose tissue. Adipose fat is mainly used in endurance training. Body fat is what we store when consuming too much food and the body does not use. In simple words energy that is not used. When the body breaks down fat it transports to the working muscles so it can be used as energy. Adipose tissue is store energy that we can use as fat. Fats is one of the main fueling sources for energy. Fat is used for low to moderate resting activities. That is why carbohydrates are easier to use when exercising. Fats do not break down fast enough for humans to use.
And is needed to get entry to the glycogen store-stored carbohydrates. According to Alegra Burnton athletes shall consume 30% of calories in fat.
Protein
Protein is needed to repair, maintain, constant stress in the adipose tissues and help in body growth. Studies suggest that a deficiency in protein can cause weakness in the muscles. This also means being vulnerable to fatigue, anemia, and other protein deficient symptoms or disorders. Protein is also involved with oxygen-transporting hemoglobin and myoglobin (Kato, Suzuki, Bannai & Moore ,2016). Endurance athletes need 1.2-1.4g/kgwb/day of protein, Protein should also part take in 12-15% of calories per day(Burton ,2019).
0.2 Dietary requirements of an endurance athlete
All endurance sports are different in their own way because of the energy requirements. The total energy expenditure varys on the boxers body mass, which as endurance athlete should have a low body fat percentage. Also varys on body composition, the boxer’s age, and gender.Also the duration of the training(Carlsohn ,2016).According to Louise (1995), Carbohydrate-rich foods like cereal, vegetables, legumes, fruit, dairy products consider to be the major source of energy.
Commonly, carbohydrate foods have been stated in terms of the chemical structure of the carbohydrate molecule. Known as ’simple;’ sugars and ‘complex’ carbohydrates which are two molecules together. Simple sugar foods are less nutritious because they do not hold many vitamins or much nutrients. On the other hand complex carbohydrates contain plentiful nutrients that the body needs. ‘Simple” carbohydrate foods cause rapid highs and low blood sugar whereas “complex “ foods keep blood sugar levels even. Each carbohydrate-rich food has an effect on blood glucose and other body metabolism. Blood glucose changes after eating food that is related to the speed with which the food is digested and absorbed.
On the other hand, a ranking order has been made. Which is called a glycemic index. Which is a table representing the ability of carbohydrate foods that heighten the level of the human’s blood glucose? A low Glycemic index food has a GI off 5o or less. This is like fructose, Porridge, White pasta, lentils, kidney beans, oranges, apples. Carbohydrate foods with a low GI means that they are slowly absorbed foods and cause a slow rise in blood glucose. There are moderate Glycemic index foods which have a GI of 50-70 (Burke, 1995). These are foods like sucrose, honey, bananas, orange juice, weet bix, honey, watermelon, boiled potatoes. High glycemic index foods are glucose, cornflakes, white rice, sports drinks, jelly beans (Burke,1995). On the other hand, boxers will need to consume more carbohydrates when training at a high intensity. This increases to 8-12 g/kg/d whilst in training mode(Carlsohn, 2016). As boxers train at a low to moderate intensity their carbohydrate intake lowers down to 3-5 k/kg/d as an endurance athlete.
Studies recommend to athletes to construct the arrangement and timeframe of carbohydrate.As mentioned before High glycemic carbohydrate foods make themselves available to use. High glycemic carbohydrate foods should be consumed in meals for recovery(Burke, Kiens & Ivy, 2007).
Fats
Proteins
As mentioned briefly before protein is needed to repair and muscle development. Protein is needed for muscle breakdown and synthesizes so the boxers avoid injury and strengthen muscle repair. As a pro-athlete boxer, they should try to aim for 1.4g-1.6/kg/d of protein per day. Protein foods such as meat, eggs, dairy products.
Electrolytes
Electrolyte is salt and other chemicals like potassium, magnesium. Salt is sodium chloride. Sodium is one of the most important electrolytes found outside the cell. The sodium concentration helps to regulate blood pressure and volume, it also helps in balancing fluids and nutrients between inside and outside cells. When the sodium concentration falls outside its normal range, the balance is compromised and the cell activity can be damaged.
Electrolytes like sodium are adrift in other body fluids.,such as sweat. Huge losses of sweat can likely drain the body’s electrolyte stores. But the body can intelligently accustom-with exercising and adapting to a warm to a hot environment, by decreasing sweat in such a this maintains electrolytes. Therefore the body expects to replace the electrolyte through food.
However, As the body will face extreme stress on the body. Electrolyte balance can be compromised by too many electrolytes or intense losses. One of the main electrolyte problems is over consuming sodium. There is a small chance that salt-deprived will appear if sweat and sodium loss are not replaced. This will technically happen if the athlete exercising in the hot climate. Boxers need to replace sodium and electrolytes during training. Sports drinks during and after intense training or salt in meals will help restore fluid and electrolyte stores(Burke,1995).
Fluid intake-Water
Water is the most needed nutrient in the body. The body is made up of 60% of water(usgs, n.d).
Water is a fundamental aspect of a boxer’s training to help with a normal living of fluid balance.
Depending on the duration or how vigorous the training sessions are, the adaption of the athlete and the environment can be noteworthy(Burke,1995). Boxers should be drinking fluids that contain electrolytes. Studies also suggest that drinks should also hold sodium and carbohydrate(Brouns & Kovaks ,1997).Boxers should be drinking fluids to restore loss of sweat.Having adequate hydration before, during and after training or a fight will improve action but will also avoid injuries relating to the loss of sweat and parchedness( Von Duvilla et al, 2004), On the other hand, having too much fluid -electrolytes can lead to hyponatremia.Hyponatremia is the consumption of too much water.Causing the sodium in the body to become watered down (Von Duvilla et al, 2004). It is suggested that endurance should consume 600ml of fluid for endurance athletes.
Nutrient requirement for pre,during and post event.
Having a suitable nutrient schedule intertwines the analytical planning and consuming whole foods and also dietary supplements, the time of fuel intake and particular macronutrients can improve recovery from muscle tears and so forth.
Pre-event
Research suggests that carbohydrates deficiency and lack of fluids are one of the problems for bad performance. (Tarnopolsky, Gibala,Jeukendrup & Phillips, 2006).A meal should be consumed an hour to four hours before the event. With high carbohydrates. This is very important amongst athletes to avoid low glycogen stores(Masters athletes, 2019). Some studies show that two hundred to three hundred of carbohydrates in meals have shown to improve performance.
Examples of pre-event foods are fruit salad, cereal,toast,pasta,bread rolls(Burke,1995).
During the event
Numerous studies have shown that consuming carbohydrates throughout training longer than 1 hour will enhance performance(Masters athlete.com, 2019).Studies suggest that carbohydrates can be utilized as energy or fuel at sixty grams-max rate of carbohydrate for every hour of physical activity.
Post-event
3 relevant supplements may assist endurance athletes:
Risks
Rewards
References
- Protein Requirements Are Elevated in Endurance Athletes after Exercise as Determined by the Indicator Amino Acid Oxidation Method.
- Kato H, Suzuki K, Bannai M, Moore DR
- PLoS One. 2016; 11(6):e0157406.
- http://www.marathonguide.com/training/articles/Nutrition.cfm
- https://www.usgs.gov/special-topic/water-science-school/science/water-you-water-and-human-body?qt-science_center_objects=0#qt-science_center_objects
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15212747
- https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/0264041031000140527?scroll=top&needAccess=true
- Brouns, F., & Kovacs, E. (1997). Functional drinks for athletes. Trends in Food Science & Technology, 8(12), 414-421.
- Mark A. Tarnopolsky MD, PhD, Martin Gibala, Asker E. Jeukendrup & Stuart M. Phillips (2005) Nutritional needs of elite endurance athletes. Part I: Carbohydrate and fluid requirements, European Journal of Sport Science, 5:1, 3-14,
- http://www.mastersathlete.com.au/sidebar/endurance/nutrition/pre-event-nutrition-strategies/
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