Perhaps you just crushed your first marathon or wrapped up the play-off season, and you think to yourself, “Wow, I did it; now I get to have a break until next season.”
Not so quick.
Did you know that what you do during the off-season has a HUGE impact on your performance? Or at least it can.
Yes, it is important to give our bodies and minds the time to take a much-needed break, but what you do during the off-season can set you up for even more success in the on-season, especially when it comes to nutrition.
Whether you are a weekend warrior, a professional athlete or a parent of an aspiring pro, knowing a thing or two about sports nutrition is important for overall health and performance, and this includes knowing about off-season nutrition.
Off-season sports nutrition is important for two main reasons:
1. Support health needs, including growth and immune health. Sometimes, these needs are overlooked during gruelling performance schedules, and the off-season is a perfect time to refocus.
2. Performance needs, including needs for training, recovery, and preparation. Whether you are fueling yourself or fuelling another athlete, knowing what and when to eat and drink is critical to sports performance, in and off-season so that you perform your best in the next season.
Off-Season Nutrition Pitfalls And How To Avoid Them
- Keeping the same nutrition all season long
- Variation in diet is important for micronutrient intake, as our needs change on and off-season. We will cover how to make these changes. Additionally, perhaps the off-season is a good time to be a bit flexible and include foods you wouldn’t include during the season. If you crave pizza, perhaps make Friday night pizza night and have a few slices.
- Opposite: Thinking ‘I’m off-season so nutrition doesn’t matter’
- It does matter! Nutrition is not an off-and-on switch. What you do in the off-season sets you up for the best season possible. Remember this when you’re making food choices. Pay attention to how you feel in training and in general when you eat well versus going overboard with treats or junk food.
- Following a schedule or eating foods that aren’t realistic during the on-season
- This is the ‘running a marathon in brand new shoes’ analogy I’ll mention later. I would also like to point out for young athletes it is important to KNOW how to make and eat the foods you’re eating off-season so that you have them available on-season, especially for athletes who move away during the season. Ask your parents for help or speak with a sports dietitian.
Good Nutrition For Health
Nutrition plays a huge role in how you feel and perform on a daily basis. By eating well on a daily basis, you’ll get more out of each training session, which will translate into better performance on game day.
Top two areas of nutrition health for off-season athletes:
- Nutrients for growth. Younger athletes who are still growing and accumulating bone density have a double whammy of increased nutrient needs for growth and sport. Additionally, many athletes have the goal of increasing mass and/or lean mass in the off-season. Not fueling properly can have long-term effects on their health, including increased risk of bone fracture and hormonal disturbances, as well as affecting growth and mass gain.
- Nutrients for immune health. This is for all athletes and is especially going into your next season. Teams stay in close quarters and, well, share things they shouldn’t be sharing (water bottles, etc). Additionally, the physical stress of training can damper our immune systems, especially if nutrients are lacking. In general, physical activity is good for our immune function, but I’m talking about high levels of training here. We see it happen every year – training hard in the off-season, going into the season strong, and then missing events due to illness at a time that really matters. It sucks. So let’s avoid it.
Basics of healthy eating for athletes
In terms of good nutrition for daily health and training, the basics apply to athletes:
- Eat lots of veg and fruit for fibre, carbs and vitamins.
- Focus on whole grains for carbs and B vitamins, which are essential for energy production.
- Always include protein at each meal and most snacks, whether animal-based like chicken or eggs or dairy or plant-based like tofu and legumes, to help build and repair muscle and supply minerals and B vitamins. The only snack that doesn’t have to include protein would be a snack right before training.
- Choose healthy fats, like avocado, nuts and seeds, vegetable and olive oil and fatty fish, over fat you should limit, like fried foods and fatty meats.
- Make most of your food yourself, limiting processed foods.
In general, athletes need more carbs and protein than non-athletes, as well as need more of the B vitamins that you’ll get through choosing healthier versions of these foods, as I mentioned. Some athletes do need more iron but have your levels measured before supplementation. Especially for young athletes, ensure you’re getting enough calcium and vitamin D as well.
Let’s now dive into performance nutrition, which includes on and off-season nutrition needs.
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Performance Nutrition
Let’s dig into how to adjust nutrition intake for on and off-season, as well as different training blocks, starting with the elephant in the room – off-season weight gain. Okay, for the most part, it’s going to happen, and that’s fine as long as you keep it in check. For females, this can actually be important to correct the female athlete triad, which is common during the season and often corrected with body fat gain. What’s an ‘okay’ or ‘normal’ amount? There are no real recommendations there, but I usually recommend hovering within 5 lbs of where you want to be going into the on-season.
Top two areas to address when going into the offseason:
- Recovery needs – this includes recovering from the previous season, which for some can include regaining weight or lean mass lost in season
- A decrease in energy expenditure
Recovery needs
For recovery needs, be sure to keep your micronutrient and protein intake high, while allowing for some ‘treat’ foods that perhaps you cut out during the on season. Use the 80:20 guideline: eating for your physiological needs 80% of the time, and eating for other reasons, like enjoyment, 20% of the time.
Recovery nutrition needs vary greatly, so I recommend speaking with a health professional or dietitian if this is an area of concern for you.
Adjusting for a decrease in energy needs
For the most part, micronutrients, essential fat and protein needs remain constant on and offseason. Keep eating a high nutrient density diet as I mentioned previously, but what changes are:
Carbohydrate needs:
- To address carb needs, change the proportion of starch on your plate at meals by increasing vegetable intake. If your training load decreases in the off-season, decrease from½ of your plate as rice, potatoes, pasta, decrease it to ¼ of your plate. Do not cut them out altogether! Replace the rest of the plate with more veggies 🙂
At snacks, try replacing higher carbohydrate foods with lower carb foods:
- Choose whole fruit over juices or dried fruit
- Swap out crackers and hummus for veggie sticks and hummus
- Instead of yogurt, fruit and granola, choose either the granola or fruit (not both)
Lastly, ensure that you’re not drinking your carb calories. Reduce or eliminate juices, sports drinks, sweetened dairy and alternatives, and please do not drink pop (that one goes during the on-season as well).
For fats:
- Our essential fats—omega-6s and omega-3s—need to remain the same, so continue to focus on getting in high-quality fats such as nuts, seeds, and fatty fish. Because fat is very energy-dense, and energy needs often decrease during the offseason, decrease the amount of other fats you add to your meals and snacks. Again, don’t cut them out altogether!
Examples of how to reduce carbohydrates and fats at meals and snacks:
- In your trail mix, add some high-fibre cereal and roasted chickpeas to reduce energy density.
- Watch how much oil you’re using in cooking. Continue to use healthy oils, such as olive oil and avocado oil, but measure how much you’re using.
- Add lower-fat condiments like salsa, hummus, mustard and hot sauce instead of mayo, too much guacamole (yes, that is a thing), and Caesar and ranch sauces.
- Choose fish or lean poultry instead of red meat, or try switching to some plant-based options, such as tofu, tempeh or legumes.
To recap, during the off-season or lower training intensity and volume blocks, keep your protein intake the same and reduce energy from carbs and extra added fats.
As the offseason progresses, athletes must shift to working on offseason goals, which may include gaining lean mass, losing body fat, increasing strength-to-weight ratio, increasing endurance, and so on.
As we progress into pre-season, it’s important to match what you eat during training to what you’ll be eating during the on-season. I like to use the analogy of heading into a marathon by putting on a brand-new pair of runners from a brand you’ve never tried before. Not a good idea.
How To Fuel For Training, Performance, And Recovery
For most athletes, off-season still includes some training and perhaps performance -think training camps, time trials, and so on.
For times like this, follow proper sports nutrition by fueling your body with healthy foods, increasing carbohydrate intake, especially leading up to training or competition time, hydrating during your sport and making sure that you include recovery nutrition. Getting in a mix of carbs and protein after training and performance is key. 🔻
Download example pre-training meals and snacks for optimal performance: Includes proportions and timing!
No matter what type of athlete you are, addressing off-season nutrition will put you a step ahead in the on-season. Working with a sports-focused registered dietitian is a great way to ensure you are fueling and performing your best.
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