ASC_5_429: Nutrition Strategies for a Triathlon Endurance Athlete

This report provides a comprehensive overview of the nutritional requirements for endurance athletes, focusing on a recreationally active male preparing for a triathlon. It emphasizes the importance of energy balance, ensuring adequate dietary energy to support physiological functions and training demands without unwanted weight gain. The report details the crucial role of carbohydrates as the primary fuel source, discussing optimal intake levels and strategies like carbohydrate loading to maximize glycogen stores. Furthermore, it highlights the significance of hydration in regulating body temperature, lubricating joints, and transporting nutrients, while also addressing the negative impacts of dehydration on performance and health. The report concludes with recommendations for athletes to maintain proper hydration and energy balance through appropriate dietary choices and fluid intake, ultimately enhancing their endurance and performance.

Preperation for and
Endurance training

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
Energy balance............................................................................................................................3
Carbohydrate...............................................................................................................................4
Hydration.....................................................................................................................................6
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................7

INTRODUCTION
Energy availability refers to amount of dietary energy which should be available for
sustaining physiological function by subtracting the energy cost of exercise. This can enable
every individual to perform various activity for energy. This can be highly essential for athlete
need to perform various activities during training and real performance. In this situation, there is
need to maintain their requirement of minimum calories which needed to gain through taking
proper nutritional food (Sollie et. al., (2018)). This can be effective and allow the individual to
perform effectively without getting any negative impact on health. There is the importance of
achieving energy availability which can help to ensure individuals not getting lack of energy that
can resist individuals for supporting their physiological function to maintain their optimal health.
This can create risk to experience dehydration or any other health consequences. There is also a
high importance of carbohydrates for exercising as a fuel which can help the to store energy as a
glycogen in muscles and liver (Burke et. al., (2018)). This can help to depend heavily on carb
intake. These glycogen convert into glucose which refers to a type of sugar that can be used by
muscle in the primary source of fuel during exercise. There is also the importance of hydration in
exercise which can enable individual to regulate body temperature and lubricates their joint. It
can also effective in transporting nutrients to provide energy and keeping healthy without getting
hydrated individual is not able to perform its highest level. In this report, there is a discussion
about the energy balance, carbohydrate, hydration which is necessary for any athlete to maintain
for performing its highest level (O'Hara et. al., (2019)).
MAIN BODY
Energy balance
According to Kamble et. al., (2020), it is highly important to take care about the energy
availability within individuals especially in athletic to perform various activity frequently. In
this, there is need to store some energy which can support individual in physiological function
for maintaining good health. In this, athlete need to require energy to provide fuel for working
training and competitive during practice and competition. It also need an increased energy
requirement which can help to maintain muscle mass. In running, swimming and covering
distance need to spend more energy than average person. In this, there is need for additional
energy to recover from intense physical activity (Afif et. al., (2019)). In this, there is need to

perform various energy availability through dietary intake. In this, there is need to calculate the
need of total calories which should be effective for every athlete to spend calories within day that
can be effective and not creating any weight gain and maintain good health. In this, there is need
to ensure that dietary energy should be taken in an appropriate way that can be consumed by
performing various exercises like swimming, running biking (Al‐Baz et. al., (2018)).
Here, equation for determining energy availability includes the expenditure of energy
during exercise from the total energy intake. The can be effective and allow athlete to perform
various activities without getting any compromise with the physical health-related to ensure the
proper intake of nutritional food. This can enable to perform various activities without creating
extra calories that can be used to create body weight gain (Koohi-Fayegh et. al., (2020)). It
should also ensure that there should not be reduction in energy availability that can create
negative impact on health. Through taking care of energy availability need to ensure that energy
intake should be higher than the energy expenditure. During exercise, this can be effective and
can provide energy even after a performance or activity.
According to Maughan et. al., (2018) energy balance includes the balancing of calories
which can be consumed through drinking fluids compared to calorie burn through performing
physical activity. Energy is calculated by eating and drinking and energy out and calculated by
burn calories through physical activity. This can be effective and can provide individuals to
maintain their energy balance.
Carbohydrate
According to Hadzalo et. al., (2020), for any athlete, there is need to consume
carbohydrate which depends on training routine. It may include 12 gram of carbohydrates per kg
of body weight. It is important to perform better and take place in extreme in the mental
condition that can help to provide energy for the body including brain muscles, nerves and other
body tissue. During performing any activity or help an individual in training. There are various
sources of carbohydrates which may include glucose or blood sugar, source of energy for the
individual (Noh et. al., (2020)).
According to Ghaleb et. al., (2020), Glucose can be used as instant energy and can be
stored in liver and muscles for later use. There are various sources of carbohydrates in food like
grains such like Pasta, noodles, bread crackers, serials and rice, fruits include banana, mangoes,
apples, melons, Orange, dairy product includes yogurt and milk, leguminous include Peas, beans,

lentils. These are some of the source of food which can provide carbohydrates to an individual.
Snacks food and sweets like cookies, cake, dessert and candies, juice, fruit drink, energy drink.
Regular soda also contain sugar, vegetables like potatoes are some of the sources of
carbohydrates.
Body Store carbohydrates within cells as glycogen which can convert the rest to fat.
Glycogen refers to a complex carbohydrate within the day that can be rapidly converted to
energy when it needed it can be stored in liver and muscles. Carbohydrate play an important role
in providing energy source during exercise. This can be effective and help during short and
heavy exercise. It can produce energy sources for working muscles which can exclusively help
individual to get energy from glycogen which has stored within muscles fibre. Carbohydrates
provide energy to the individual that play a key fuel for central nervous system and brain.
Glycogen is the main source of energy that is stored in muscle and liver.
Exercise intensity implies how hard an individual is working as physical activity. It
provide fitness goals and current level of fitness that can help to determine exercise intensity for
the individual like an athlete. Every individual need about 2000 calories a day where 900 to 1300
calories should be form carbohydrate. This can be effective and can provide normal human
health but for the athlete. This can be increased to 3260-gram carbohydrate power that can help
to maintain blood glucose level. Due to reduced in carbohydrates can lead to create a lower
energy and create the impact of dehydration for the individual. This may also impact on
individual activity performance and during endurance of athletes. This can create a negative
impact and individual may get health-related (Prins et. al., (2019)).
In this there is need for carbohydrate loading which can be done the week before high
endurance activity during performing as an athlete. There is a need to ensure about carbohydrate
loading which can help to increase the carbohydrate intake for compensating it during extra
performance as activity during running, swimming and biking (Kerksick et. al., (2018)). There is
need to tell athlete that carbohydrate loading before athletics can be effective and can provide
individual to use that energy during performing activity during exercise. There is need to ensure
that athletes should perform an intake of proper calories along with amount of hydrated
carbohydrates that can be unable to perform better and proper conjunction of energy.

Hydration
According to Kostelnik et. al., (2021), euhydration refers to the appropriate level of
hydration which can help to increase performance during aerobic and anaerobic exercise and
provide power and strength and allows the athlete to maintain lower body temperature and heart
rate (Campa et. al., (2020)). It can also provide improvement in cognitive function to enhance
immunological function. Dehydration refers to loss of fluid in body and can create a was serious
problem for individuals especially in athletes.
According to Illidge et. al., (2021), it is important to maintain hydration in the individual
body especially during exercise. It can help to regulate body temperature and lubrication in joint
more effectively and help in transporting nutrition to provide energy. When an individual is
euhydrated then blood volume can be decreased and drop in blood pressure can be observed.
This can create a need of nutrients and organ can get less amount of oxygen and this is not good
for athlete health. Due to dehydration individuals may not able to maintain their body
temperature and gradual reduction in mental and physical performance can be observed.
Dehydration thermoregulation and reduced vasodilation and sweating with an individual and
decrease in blood volume. Due to this, there is risk of muscle or organ cramps and spasms
(Aerenhouts et. al., (2021)).
In this, it is recommended to the athlete to get hydrated during and before exercise which
can be effective hydration strategy should be applied through taking fluid on time. It also needs
to include the body mass for the athlete to maintain which can be effective and enable to
maintain volume of fluid to consume which can enable athlete to get hydrated every time.
CONCLUSION
From above discussion, it can be concluded that athlete need to ensure about their body
temperature by maintaining their hydration level. It is also essential to maintain the energy
balance which can allow through taking adequate diet for energy which can be taken in the
correct amount for not getting weight gain. In this report, there is a discussion about the different
sources of carbohydrates and its intensity of exercise and problems associated where there is low
level of carbohydrates. There is also a discussion about the euhydration you dehydration and its
impact on blood volume, thermoregulation, exercise intensity and fluid loss.

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