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Friday, April 10, 2009

Soccer Nutrition- Eat Your Way To The Top

By Steve Miles

Few people know what strenuous sport soccer really is and do not realise how important it is to pay proper attention to soccer nutrition. Referring to nutritional needs, you can draw a strong resemblance between marathon runners' needs and those of soccer players' nutrition.

Soccer involves rapid sprints and eruptions of energy where marathon running is continuous running with moderate intensity. The comparison is not all that far fetched if you keep in mind that soccer players run for a total of about 11 kilometers at a reasonable speed throughout the match and sprint for about 1 kilometer. They accelerate their tempo more or less 50 times and change direction at an average of every five seconds.

Actually, you need to consider every little bit of detail that can influence your performance if you are serious about your game. Soccer nutrition plays a significant role in the success of any soccer player and it is important to know what influence macronutrients, micronutrients, diets, fats, proteins and hydration have on your performance as a soccer player.

The nutritional needs of a general soccer player are underestimated badly. In general, a soccer player needs in the region of 2500 carbohydrate calories per day but only takes in about 1300 calories per day. Carbohydrates, apart from water, are regarded as the key nutrient for soccer players feeing program.

Carbohydrates such as pasta, bread, milk, apples and bananas produce Glycogen that serves as an energy source for your muscles. In order for a soccer player to deliver top performance throughout the whole game, satisfactory levels of Glycogen is essential. Consequences of deficient Glycogen levels will be noticed by poor concentration, fatigue and difficulty to regain strength after a practice session or a soccer match.

By playing soccer, you burn a lot of calories. When it comes to fat in your diet, you should still try to keep your fat intake to the minimum because fat is not a good provider of energy. As for protein you need to eat about 1,4 to 1,7 grams of protein for every kilogram of body mass per day. Protein is essential to repair your muscles and to assist in the maintenance of your immune system. Protein such as milk, cheese, chicken and fish is good to nourish your body before practice or a match, however it will not provide you with the same energy that you would have get from carbohydrates.

Water is vital to keep the body hydrated. It is highly recommended that small rations of water are consumed during practices and matches and more so in hot weather. It is commonly known that sports drinks manufacturers claim that this beverage will assist you in obtaining the desired performance. The only part of that which is true is that it contains carbohydrates that your body takes up faster than other more complex carbohydrates. This result in a rise in your hypoglycaemic levels making you feels more energetic for a short period. Using sports drinks to substitute a meal before a match is strongly discouraged and should be used as an absolute last resort.

It is advantageous to eat about 700 counts of carbohydrates 4 hours before the start of the match and after a match has finished you must consume carbohydrates and fluids to replenish your body as soon as possible. - 17273

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