Nutrition for Energy – Maximising Your Performance Outside of Training

As The Adventure Coach, I help people unlock their true potential through fitness, mindset, and nutrition. Proper nutrition outside of training can make all the difference in maintaining energy, recovering effectively, and performing at your best. Whether you’re gearing up for a trail run, a mountain climb, or just an active day, your daily eating habits are the cornerstone of your success. Together with Voom, we’ll simplify the science of nutrition, helping you create an approach that’s as effective as it is sustainable.

What Does It Mean to Maximise Performance with Nutrition?

Maximising performance with nutrition goes beyond the basics of healthy eating. It’s about fine-tuning your diet to support peak energy levels, endurance, and recovery. This often involves sacrifices or adjustments that may differ from a more holistic, everyday approach to eating.

When performance is your focus, there may be compromises in favour of optimal results. This can mean adjusting macronutrient ratios, timing meals more precisely, or prioritizing nutrient-dense options over convenience. But the payoff is undeniable: better performance, faster recovery, and a stronger, more resilient body.

The Body’s Energy Systems

To understand how to maximise performance, it’s essential to know the energy systems your body uses:

• Phosphagen System (ATP-PC): Used for short, explosive efforts like sprinting or lifting. This system relies on immediate energy stored in your muscles.
• Glycolytic System: Powers moderate to high-intensity activities lasting up to a couple of minutes, like steep hill climbs or hard intervals.
• Aerobic System: Dominates during prolonged, lower-intensity efforts, such as trail running, cycling, or mountaineering. This system relies on a steady supply of oxygen, carbohydrates, and fats.

Each system plays a role in activities like trail running, cycling, and mountaineering. For example, a steep scramble up a ridge taps into your glycolytic system, while the aerobic system takes over on a long approach hike.

Understanding Energy Availability and RED-S (Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport)

Energy availability (EA) is crucial for both men and women. This concept refers to the amount of energy left for your body to function after accounting for exercise. Low EA can lead to fatigue, poor recovery, and long-term health issues, including Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport (RED-S).

RED-S is a condition that occurs when there is an imbalance between energy intake (calories consumed) and energy expenditure (calories burned, especially through exercise). When the body is in a state of low energy availability (EA), it compensates by reducing non-essential functions, such as reproduction, bone health, and immune function.

Although RED-S is often associated with female athletes, it affects both men and women and is an increasing concern in multiple sports. It’s not just about consuming too few calories; the timing and quality of food also play a crucial role. If your body is constantly in a state of low energy availability, it can lead to long-term complications, including:

• Hormonal imbalances: Lower levels of key hormones like oestrogen and testosterone, which can disrupt the menstrual cycle in women and impair muscle recovery in both men and women.
• Decreased bone density: An increased risk of bone fractures and long-term osteoporosis due to lack of essential nutrients.
• Impaired immune function: The body prioritises survival over immune health, increasing the risk of illness and injury.

Signs of RED-S can include fatigue, irritability, poor performance, and difficulty recovering from training. These symptoms are sometimes mistaken for iron deficiency, overtraining, vitamin D deficiency, lack of sleep, or stress, highlighting the importance of understanding your body’s signals.

Prevention of RED-S involves consuming a healthy, well-balanced diet and allowing sufficient time for recovery, particularly during intense training or adventure periods. Monitoring energy levels, sleep, and mood can help detect early signs of RED-S, enabling timely intervention.  Tools like food diaries or apps can help track your energy intake and expenditure, ensuring that you're eating enough to support your activity level.  Ultimately, coaches, nutritionists and dietitians that specialise in your chosen sporting endeavours are your best port of call.

Understanding Fibre and Digestive Considerations

Fibre is an essential component of a healthy diet, aiding digestion, regulating blood sugar levels, and contributing to long-term health. However, for athletes, timing and type of fibre consumption are critical.

High-fibre foods consumed too close to intensive exercise can cause gastrointestinal discomfort, including bloating and cramping. This is because fibre slows gastric emptying, which can hinder the absorption of quick-acting energy sources during physical activity. For activities requiring sustained effort or high intensity, opt for simple, easily digestible carbohydrates like a banana, white bread with jam, or an energy gel. These provide immediate energy without overburdening the digestive system.

Reserve high-fibre and nutrient-dense foods—such as whole grains, fruits, vegetables, nuts, and seeds—for other meals throughout the day. These choices support gut health, maintain steady energy levels, and contribute to overall dietary balance. Spacing out fibre intake also ensures that your digestive system is primed for performance without unnecessary strain during exercise.

Understanding Fats as Fuel and Fat Adaptation

Fats are an indispensable energy source, particularly during prolonged, low- to moderate-intensity efforts where the aerobic energy system is dominant. Unlike carbohydrates, fats provide a large energy reserve, making them a critical component for endurance athletes.

Fat adaptation refers to the body's ability to increase its reliance on fat as a fuel source, reducing dependence on carbohydrates during exercise. This metabolic flexibility can extend endurance and preserve glycogen stores for high-intensity efforts. Importantly, fat adaptation does not necessitate a ketogenic diet. Instead, it can be achieved through strategic training and dietary approaches, such as Sleep Low and Train Low protocols.

The "Sleep Low" strategy involves performing a high-intensity, glycogen-depleting workout later in the day, followed by a recovery meal low in carbohydrates but rich in protein and fats. This approach prepares the body for training in a glycogen-depleted state the next morning, with the goal of enhancing mitochondrial efficiency and improving the body’s ability to metabolise fats for energy during subsequent workouts.

Similarly, the "Train Low" strategy entails training with low carbohydrate availability, achieved by avoiding carbohydrate intake pre- and during exercise, now through fasting or limiting calorie intake. Train Low sessions are best kept to low-intensity efforts, as fats cannot be efficiently metabolised at higher intensities. High-intensity training in a carb-depleted state risks triggering gluconeogenesis, where the body breaks down muscle tissue to produce glucose, which can impair performance and recovery.

The benefits of fat adaptation are significant for endurance athletes. It improves endurance by enhancing the body’s ability to use fat as a primary fuel source during prolonged efforts, reducing reliance on carbohydrates. This adaptation delays glycogen depletion, preserving carbohydrate stores for critical high-intensity segments of an event. Additionally, fat adaptation promotes metabolic flexibility, enabling the body to efficiently switch between fat and carbohydrate metabolism based on the intensity and duration of activity, optimizing performance across a range of physical demands.

Balancing Fat Adaptation and Carbohydrate Intake

While fat adaptation offers benefits to specific endurance training, carbohydrates remain crucial for peak performance on race/event day, especially during high-intensity efforts or competitions. Incorporate carbohydrates strategically:

• Before Events: Prioritise carbohydrate loading in the days leading up to an event or adventure.
• During High-Intensity Efforts: Consume quick-digesting carbs to sustain performance and delay fatigue.

By strategically incorporating fat adaptation protocols while maintaining sufficient carbohydrate intake, you can achieve the metabolic flexibility necessary to excel in both endurance and high-intensity scenarios. This balanced approach ensures optimal performance, recovery, and long-term health.

Protein and Its Necessity for Performance

Protein is a key macronutrient that supports muscle growth, recovery, and repair. When you exercise, your muscles undergo stress and micro-tears, which require adequate protein for repair and rebuilding. Protein is also vital for the immune system and hormone regulation.

Leucine Threshold: Leucine, an essential amino acid, plays a pivotal role in stimulating muscle protein synthesis (MPS). The concept of the "leucine threshold" suggests that a certain amount of leucine is needed to trigger the optimal MPS response. This threshold typically lies around 2.5g of leucine per meal.  To ensure you're meeting the leucine threshold, a minimum portion of 30g of protein per meal is necessary for most people. For those following plant-based diets, it's important to combine different sources of protein to ensure you're getting all the essential amino acids in adequate amounts for optimal muscle repair and growth.

Supplements for Endurance and Mountain Athletes

• Creatine Monohydrate
  1. Function: Creatine is a naturally occurring compound that helps produce ATP, the energy currency of the cell. It’s especially beneficial for short bursts of intense activity, such as sprinting or lifting.
  2. Benefits: Creatine enhances strength, power, and endurance, improves recovery, and reduces muscle damage.
  3. Dosage: Current research suggests a daily dose of 3-5g per day is effective in increasing muscle creatine stores and enhancing performance.
     
     
• Vitamin D
  1. Function: Vitamin D is essential for bone health, immune function, and muscle performance. It aids in calcium absorption and muscle function, crucial for endurance athletes.
  2. Benefits: Vitamin D can reduce the risk of injury, improve muscle strength, and support overall immune health.
  3. Dosage: 3,000-4,000 IU per day is recommended in the winter months, especially for athletes in low-sunlight environments. In the summer, this can be reduced to 1,000-2,000 IU per day.
     
     
• Omega-3 Fatty Acids
  1. Function: Omega-3s support cardiovascular health, reduce inflammation, and improve recovery.
  2. Benefits: Omega-3 supplementation helps reduce delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS), supports joint health, and aids in overall recovery.
  3. Dosage: 1,000-1,500mg of combined EPA and DHA per day is recommended for athletes to support recovery and general health.
     
     
• Beta-Alanine
  1. Function: Beta-alanine buffers lactic acid buildup in muscles during high-intensity exercise, which helps delay fatigue.
  2. Benefits: It improves performance during high-intensity activities by enhancing muscular endurance.
  3. Dosage: A typical dosage is 3-6g per day, split throughout the day to avoid the tingling sensation that can occur with higher doses.
     
     
• Caffeine
  1. Function: Caffeine stimulates the central nervous system, increasing alertness and focus.
  2. Benefits: Caffeine enhances endurance performance by reducing perceived effort and improving time to exhaustion.
  3. Dosage: 3-6mg per kg of body weight is typically recommended, taken 30-60 minutes before exercise.
     
     

Putting It All Together

Maximising performance with nutrition is not just about what you eat but when and how you fuel your body. By understanding your energy systems, prioritising energy availability, and adjusting your macronutrient intake, you can create a personalised approach to support peak performance, endurance, and recovery. With the right nutrition strategy, you’ll be ready to tackle your next adventure with energy, resilience, and confidence.