Developing Optimal Body Composition for the Athlete
Whether you’re a 6’4” 275-pound offensive lineman or a 5’6” 120-pound soccer player, we all have different body types. Your goal is to take the body type that you have and make it more advantageous for the sport you play. Regardless of what sport you play, developing your body composition to meet the physical demands of sport is crucial for success.
Surely we’ve all heard that nutrition accounts for 60–80% of our results. The percentage doesn’t really matter. What does matter is that it’s MAJORITY of your results.
If you’re an athlete and you haven’t prioritized something that can make that big of a difference, what are you doing?
Now, when I say body composition I am strictly talking about two things:
- Body Fat
- Skeletal Muscle Mass
Before we go further, let me first say that if you have hormone imbalances, insulin resistance or other health problems that affect metabolism, this article is not for you. You’ll want to see a health professional that specializes in those things.
For everyone else, there are a lot of nutrition fads out there to get you lost in the sauce. Pun intended. Let me make this as simple as possible.
Losing and Gaining Weight:
To lose weight, you must be in a caloric deficit.
To gain weight, you must be in a caloric surplus
Caloric Deficit — intake less calories than you burn.
Caloric Surplus — intake more calories than you burn.
In order to calculate both, we have to figure out how much we burn.
Now you’ve probably heard your parents or grandparents say, “You kids can just eat eat eat and still be skinny.” Let me explain why.
Everyone has a basal metabolic rate (BMR), which is the calories you would burn every day if you did nothing at all. BMR in short is your metabolism or how many calories you burn daily. To determine what your BMR is, you use a fairly long equation based on age, gender, height and weight to calculate it.
If you’re really committed, I would write this out on scratch paper.
BMR x Activity Factor = Calories burned
To give you an example, and to make the math easy, let’s use these numbers. Let’s say your BMR is 2000. In order to factor in your activity calories, we use the chart below. Yes, it’s an estimate, but it will give you a good idea of how much you need to eat. Let’s assume you were moderately active that day.
2000 x 1.55 = 3100 calories burned
Here’s where it gets really simple: Just eat less calories than 3100 to lose weight and more calories than 3100 to gain weight.
To get a better idea of how you eat more or less, look at the picture below.
High Calorie Dense Food vs Low Calorie Dense Food
The calories are the exact same, but two totally different sides. The United States has become so accustomed to eating fast/junk food that is high calorie and low nutrient dense, which has resulted in a lot of people struggling to lose weight when they don’t understand the picture above. In the world today, it’s pretty easy to gain weight.
In order to get into that caloric deficit, eat more on the right side. I know the last thing you wanted to hear was “eat more vegetables.”
To get into a calorie surplus, you’re probably thinking I’m going to tell you to eat on the left side.
WRONG.
Eat on the right side as much as possible, and go back for seconds and thirds. :)
Below are 6 quick tips that will greatly impact your nutrition which in turn will help you develop the body you want for your sport:
1. Surplus = Drink Calories | Deficit = DO NOT Drink Calories
Nothing can bust a calorie deficit faster than drinking calories. I recommend drinking water if you are struggling, since it is zero calories :)
On the other hand, if you are looking to add weight, drinking your calories may be the difference in you achieving your surplus if you are not eating enough.
I’m talking about smoothies or protein shakes. There are hundreds of great recipes online that can pack a huge calorie boost. Go find them if this is you. Just make sure they follow the tips below.
2. Limit Sugar
The recommended daily amount of sugar is 6–9 teaspoons. Yet, the average American consumes approximately 19.5 teaspoons (82 grams) every day. Which is way too much. That translates into about 66 pounds of added sugar consumed each year, per person.
There are so many negative effects of excess sugar, weight gain being one of them, but I will let you look those up for yourself. I can promise you that it won’t be hard to find.
3. Use an App to Track Calories
I’ve watched many people do this right after their meal. All you do is type the meal you had in the app, and it will spit out the total calories of that meal.
Save yourself some time counting calories the old fashion way. You can work on math in math class.
4. Limit Processed Food
Processed foods are any food that has been altered in some way during preparation (Ex. freezing, canning, baking, drying). Anything in a package usually.
Not all are bad, but majority may contain high levels of salt, sugar and fat.
5. Get Your Protein Intake
Protein has been shown to build muscle, reduce body fat, increase satiety, and help stabilize blood sugar.
For most athletes, the benefits of building muscle by utilizing the amino acids found in protein are the most common. Amino acids are the building blocks for the muscle tissue in your body and will lead to increased muscle mass and a decrease in recovery time between training.
We normally recommend between .8–1 gram of protein per pound of body weight. This would mean a 200-pound athlete would consume between 160–200 grams per day. Research has shown the body can utilize between 20–30 grams during feedings, so these should be spread out over 5–6 meals throughout the day.
6. Prioritize Whole Foods
Whole foods are foods that has been processed or refined as little as possible and are free from additives or other artificial substances. They are foods that will actually expire and not stay in your pantry for 3 years. Now let’s think… Do I really want to put something in my body that will stay good for that long? Please say no.
Below is a list of excellent whole foods choices to help you dominate your next grocery store run.
I’d like to point out that I had to use the term “weight” instead of body fat and skeletal muscle mass. When talking about calories, I couldn’t assume what the weight consisted of because I do not know how the human reading this is exercising.
A lot of what our body composition develops into is directly reflected by the physical activity we participate in. Especially when it comes to skeletal muscles gain.
If an athlete strength trains and sprints frequently while eating in a calorie surplus, I can guarantee you they are gaining skeletal muscle mass. They’re possibly gaining a little body fat too. Just depends on the surplus.
If they are in a deficit, they still might be gaining muscle mass while losing body fat. Just depends on the deficit.
So, I chose to keep it relative and used the word “weight.”
In conclusion, developing the body composition you want for your sport takes discipline and consistency. No human is the same, so there will never be a perfect eating plan. It’s all about finding out what works best for you. Go through some trial and error. Try new things,
Hopefully you’re finishing this knowing approximately how many calories you burn and how you need to eat to achieve the body composition you desire.
Good luck!
