Track Shoes For Sprinters

     If you’re confused about the perfect diet plan, you’re not alone. Essentially, if we don’t understand the subject, we can be convinced of nearly anything, even if it's completely wrong!

     It's always wise to consider the sources of your information. If you know the facts, you are much less likely to be fed the wrong food!

Marketing Convinces Us To Need Their Products! Often the wrong foods.

     A sprinters diet plan is good simple nutrition. Sprinters just eat more than most people, then we burn it off. Every athlete is different, but we all need certain nutrients. Any healthy eating diet plan needs to be tunable to the individual.

     Some differences are genetic, some environmental. Some people are just finicky eaters. Some people eat everything in sight, and still never gain an ounce. Others seem to gain weight simply looking at food. Most vegetarians are happy without meat, while others can’t imagine life without meat.

     It's OK. Regardless of these differences, everyone can still eat healthy. Accomodations can be made for anybody.

     Starvation dieters lose weight, but usually gain it back (and more) once they start eating again. Eating fewer calories should mean losing weight. Why doesn't this work?

     Sometimes, I like to think "caveman" in order to understand how we function. Our early ancestors physically weren’t much different from us. A successful caveman consistently found food and ate. The unsuccessful caveman went through long periods of starvation.

     The human body is truly amazing in its adaptations. If you have been starving, the body stores anything extra for times of famine, in the form of fat. Fat storage is simply a survival tactic.

     Today, we go to the store and pick up something like a Mango and think nothing of it. The caveman had to live off the vegetation and game of the local land. Imagine no refrigerators, no air-flight foods from around the world.

     This forced people to eat a local variety of food, only when it's ready. They didn’t eat the variety we do, because grocery stores weren't invented yet. Today, we have huge fields of grain and huge machinery to process it. Our ancestors found grains to be a difficult commodity. They spent a day processing it by hand. They didn't make bread or pasta, but something more like a whole grain porridge.

The Sprinters Diet Plan

     A sprinters diet plan should be based on our actual food requirements. Commercials claim to use science to determine some pretty wild nutritional requirements. Ever see the food pyramid on anything but grain products? Notice which industry benefits the most?

Basics of Nutrition Facts

     Let's just get to the nutritional facts. The basic building blocks of proper nutrition for athletes include the following:

Water Protein (7g) Carbohydrates (9g) Fat (1.5g) Fiber (2g)

     These measurements (next to each item) could be a small snack for the sprinters diet plan. Every snack should include protein!

     You could calculate your daily nutritional requirements with the Lean Body Mass Calculator.

     A meal would include several of these portions. About 3 (for women) or 4 (for men) might be the correct portions for a meal. It's important to mix your food in these ratios. You can use the Zone Diet Calculator to help figure this out.

     Some people might call this a "high protein low carb diet," but really, it's the right ratios. Don't zero your carbs, you need them too. I added fiber to the list because it's necessary and very difficult to get in sufficient amounts.

     The Food and Drug Administration developed and requires food products to include this little Nutrition Facts Label to help us through the confusion. If you eat out at a restaurant, they are required to provide restaurant nutrition facts upon request. Even the produce and meat sections at your grocer should have the label available for each item they carry. Otherwise (or for your convenience), you can pick up a little book called The Complete Book of Food Counts.

Start a Food Log

     It looks a little complicated at first. The easiest way is to start a food log. Write down everything you eat for the day, including (especially) snacks. At the end of the day, calculate your numbers and see what they look like. You might have it just right or (like most people) be totally shocked.

Enter The Zone (Diet)    A healthy diet should feel so good, you'll want to keep eating it for a lifetime! Zone: A Dietary Roadmap

     Knowing what you eat, gives you control. Counting and getting our protein/carb ratios correct is the first step to a healthy eating diet plan. Each person is different. This is why tuning is so important. It works like your fuel/air mixture in your car. Too much of either fuel or air, makes your car sluggish and inefficient. The runners diet plan should make you faster!

     A food block consists of 9g of carbohydrates, 7g of protein, 1.5g of fat and 2g of fiber. A meal is usually about 3-4 blocks of food. Each block of food should last us about an hour.

     If you eat 4 blocks of food, you should get hungry in about 4 hours. If you get hungry sooner, then you didn't get the protein/carb ratios right. If you are hungry and sleepy, then you ate too many carbohydrates. If you're hungry and alert, then you ate too much protein.

     OK... if this is true, what about eating breakfast at that great restaurant? They serve a huge mound of hash browns, which pushes the carb level way too high. If you only eat a third of the spuds, then it'll take longer before you get hungry? Get prepared for a surprise. Try it for yourself!

     It doesn't take long to develop good meal plans with the Zone Diet Calculator. Keep track of the ones that work. Eat them often. If you get bored, make some more. After you've eaten like this for a few weeks, eating a high carb meal like you used to, makes you feel just awful and tired. Then you really appreciate how much better a good sprinters diet plan really works.

... Specific Nutritional Details