Macro... what? A Swimmer's Cheat Sheet to Proteins, Fats and Carbohydrates
Macro…what? A Swimmer’s Cheat Sheet to Proteins, Fats and Carbohydrates
At some point, we’ve all heard from friends, parents, or even thought ourselves that it doesn’t matter what you eat when you’re a swimmer training at high volume, because you’ll just burn it off, right? So why do we need to talk about nutrition? Michael Phelps eats 12k calories a day worth of McDonald’s burgers and fries and can still win 8 golds at one Olympics, right? WRONG. First of all, Phelps doesn’t do that, and if he did, he would probably swim like garbage compared to what he would be able to do eating a healthier diet. Food is energy, and at this high of a training volume, you’re probably going to burn it all off. But that doesn’t mean putting all kinds of junk food in your body is going to be doing you any favors, in the pool or out of the pool. If you eat tons of junk food, you’re going to 1) feel like junk and 2) swim like junk, compared to what you could do if you were fueling your body with real, healthier foods.
To understand how to best fuel your training, you need to understand the basics of proteins, fats and carbohydrates.
