The Football Diet
3 min read
Diet an nutrition play a vital role in improving a footballer, he or she can't perform without the right energy but can't pile on the pounds to store it. In society today we tend to eat all the wrong foods and wonder why we put on weight and quite frankly a lot of diets are a complete waste of time.
Eat the right food, in the right combinations at the right time and your body will burn your fat off. Football nutrition has advanced over the last 20 years and as you know I maintain if you train the body you should be training the head as well, but in this article we'll stick to diet.
The very foods that give you energy will help you store fat if you take them when your body doesn't need them or you take them at the wrong time. I'm no dietitian and you should always seek professional advice, one has to add that disclaimer in society today, but you can also research the various types of fat for instance for yourself and the effect they have on your body. You'll be better equipped to discuss matters with your doctor or other professional.
Nichola Whitehead, Specialist Dietician (www.nicsnutrition.com)
"Footballers should avoid having a large meal 3-4 hours before a match and keep small, carbohydrate-based meals or snacks such as porridge or a banana and yoghurt, to 1-2 hours before a match to allow time for digestion."
A professional footballer, on average, will consume around 3,800 calories per day and will run 5 to 6.5 miles per game. Our players of course use a high energy approach and Christian Eriksen consistently runs more than most. If the average footballer works the heart at 85% of its maximum rate then it can be assumed that Spurs midfielders have to work it even harder.
This equates to 7 Big Macs, 3 whole chickens or 31 protein shakes and is 1.5 times the normal male diet. Clearly footballers need a diet that contains nutrient-dense foods to obtain the calorie intake without overeating. A footballer needs to consume 20 to 27 calories for every pound of body weight each day to replace the energy they burn, that means an average 160-pound (72.5kg) player should have 3,200 to 4,320 calories per day, Premier League footballers even more.
Carbohydrates will make up 60 to 70& of that which is 4 grams of carbohydrates per pound (0.45kg) of bodyweight. Our 160 pound man would need around 2,444 calories (611 grams) from carbohydrates per day. This will be obtained from a variety of low-fat, low-sugar sources such as whole grains, fruits, vegetables and unsweetened juices.
The fat in a player's diet will focus on mono and polyunsaturated sources like seafood, nuts and nut butters, olives, avocados and vegetable oils such as olive oil. They will avoid trans fats from processed foods and the saturated fat found in butter, full-fat dairy and red meat.
Fats will form between 20-25% of while proteins will take up around 10%. Our 160 pound man may need around 100 to 130 grams of protein totaling 400 to 520 calories a day. This can be obtained from skinless poultry, lean cuts of beef or pork, fish, shellfish, beans and legumes, nuts, seeds, soy products and low- or nonfat dairy such as yogurt, milk or cheese.
Source of statistics John Williams, Virginia Tech.
For those that want to eat healthy for football this PDF may help.
Further Tottenham Reading
Berahino, Bolasie, Llorente, Rabiot - negotiations
VIDEO: Pass of the weekend - Christian Eriksen
Eat the right food, in the right combinations at the right time and your body will burn your fat off. Football nutrition has advanced over the last 20 years and as you know I maintain if you train the body you should be training the head as well, but in this article we'll stick to diet.
The very foods that give you energy will help you store fat if you take them when your body doesn't need them or you take them at the wrong time. I'm no dietitian and you should always seek professional advice, one has to add that disclaimer in society today, but you can also research the various types of fat for instance for yourself and the effect they have on your body. You'll be better equipped to discuss matters with your doctor or other professional.
Nichola Whitehead, Specialist Dietician (www.nicsnutrition.com)
"Footballers should avoid having a large meal 3-4 hours before a match and keep small, carbohydrate-based meals or snacks such as porridge or a banana and yoghurt, to 1-2 hours before a match to allow time for digestion."
A professional footballer, on average, will consume around 3,800 calories per day and will run 5 to 6.5 miles per game. Our players of course use a high energy approach and Christian Eriksen consistently runs more than most. If the average footballer works the heart at 85% of its maximum rate then it can be assumed that Spurs midfielders have to work it even harder.
This equates to 7 Big Macs, 3 whole chickens or 31 protein shakes and is 1.5 times the normal male diet. Clearly footballers need a diet that contains nutrient-dense foods to obtain the calorie intake without overeating. A footballer needs to consume 20 to 27 calories for every pound of body weight each day to replace the energy they burn, that means an average 160-pound (72.5kg) player should have 3,200 to 4,320 calories per day, Premier League footballers even more.
Carbohydrates will make up 60 to 70& of that which is 4 grams of carbohydrates per pound (0.45kg) of bodyweight. Our 160 pound man would need around 2,444 calories (611 grams) from carbohydrates per day. This will be obtained from a variety of low-fat, low-sugar sources such as whole grains, fruits, vegetables and unsweetened juices.
The fat in a player's diet will focus on mono and polyunsaturated sources like seafood, nuts and nut butters, olives, avocados and vegetable oils such as olive oil. They will avoid trans fats from processed foods and the saturated fat found in butter, full-fat dairy and red meat.
Fats will form between 20-25% of while proteins will take up around 10%. Our 160 pound man may need around 100 to 130 grams of protein totaling 400 to 520 calories a day. This can be obtained from skinless poultry, lean cuts of beef or pork, fish, shellfish, beans and legumes, nuts, seeds, soy products and low- or nonfat dairy such as yogurt, milk or cheese.
Source of statistics John Williams, Virginia Tech.
For those that want to eat healthy for football this PDF may help.
Further Tottenham Reading
Berahino, Bolasie, Llorente, Rabiot - negotiations
VIDEO: Pass of the weekend - Christian Eriksen
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