CarbohydratesCarbohydrates are the most important energy type within the human body, because they can store up within your body and rather than be used all at once they can be sub-consciously saved by the body for the next time you do exercise.Carbohydrates usually come from starchy foods, such as potatoes, pasta’s, bread etc.you can always get carbohydrates from certain drinks as well like lucozade, because they contain glucose, which is a type of carbohydrate.The carbohydrate system is usually used for short bursts of energy, so for instance the system would be used for a maximal sprint.Carbohydrates are often divided into three sub-categories, these sub-categories are known as monosaccharide's, disaccharides and polysaccharides.Monosaccharide's are simply known as sugars, so glucose fructose and galactose, these particular types of carbohydrates cannot be broken down into smaller units, monosaccharide's can be used by the body immediately when energy is needed, because it is the quickest of the three systems within carbohydrates.Disaccharides such as sucrose, maltose and lactose are made up of two monosaccharide's , for example sugar is made of glucose and fructose.Polysaccharides these carbohydrates contain two or more monosaccharide's, and are known as either glycogen or starches. All carbohydrates have to be broken down into monosaccharide's before they are used by the body.Polysaccharides release energy over a long period of time because it takes longer for the bonds to be broken down.

Functions of carbohydratesThe functions of carbohydrates are the energy source which is where each gram of glucose and glycogen gives 4 calories of energy.Protein sparring , using carbohydrates means protein isn’t used for energy production and is therefore stored in the muscles, because if we started using it as an energy system we would lose muscle and become weak and fragile.Metabolic primer certain types of carbohydrates helps the breakdown of fats.Fuel for the central nervous system .

The two main parts of the body that glycogen is stored is in the muscles and the liver, the reason for this being when exercise begins, glycogen is the quickest form of energy to get around the body and doesn’t take very long after you start exercising at all.However, sportspersons will become fatigued after exercise if they do not replenish their muscular systems by eating or drinking.

Carbo loading:Everybody knows that after a while of exercising , an athlete will begin to fatigue, carbo loading is what helps the body catch up with the glycogen levels.Carbo loading would occur six days before you began a competition, for the first three days of the process the athlete tries to eat as little carbohydrate as they possibly can, so they would just stick to proteins like meat and fish and maybe vegetables that don’t contain many carbohydrates, the reason they eat as little as they can of carbohydrates is to push the bodies glycogen systems to the absolute maximum and try to deteriorate them so that the body is in a huge demand for them, then for the other three days the athlete will consume as many carbohydrates as they can within the food and drink that they consume, the reason for this is because the body will now be feeling relieved and after demanding carbohydrates for the other three days it now has them back in the system, this reduces the training load needed.The body worries after the first three days of having no carbohydrates so the reason it is relieved is because it hasn’t eaten them for a while, so the body very cleverly stores them in case they go another 3 days without them.In the first three days the athlete must eat some carbohydrates as they are responsible for the brain activity.

The two types of polysaccharideCarbohydrates are used when we do high intensity exercises', usually we use glucose to transfer into lactic acid as the main transformation, or we can do exercise aerobically and use glucose and oxygen.There are two categories that polysaccharide’s fall under, one being plant polysaccharides and the other being animal polysaccharides.So what’s the difference?:

plant polysaccharides contain starch, which is the main storage form of carbohydrates within plants, it is found in seeds, corns, beans , peas and grains .This is the most important source of dietary carbohydrates that there is.

Then there are fibre’s which are resistant to human digestion, you find fruit fibre’s in fruit and vegetable skins, like apply skin, or the skin of a sweet corn, now although fibre is technically not a nutrient it is very healthy and good for your digestive system because it rinses out all the bad things from our stomach, and stops things mixing whilst inside our digestive system.It has been proven that high fibre intake is linked with lower occurrence of obesity, diabetes and heart disease.

Now animal polysaccharides contain and store glycogen, which is inside the meat that we eat, now the reason for this being, for instance when a cow eats' grass it is pumping glycogen into the body ,the animal will then reserve the glycogen if it needs to sustain it for a long period of exercise, but because we come along and kill the cow, the glycogen is still inside it’s body. when it’s sold and eaten by the consumer it goes into us and acts as part of our energy system, so theoretically we steal cows glycogen systems by eating their meat.Once inside our bodies, the glycogen is stored in either the muscles or the liver, and can be used as either glucose, or saved up as glycogen.When glycogen is needed by our bodies for exercise then it has to be broken down into glucose to be able to provide energy, the transformation that takes place is known as gluconeogenesis .

FatsThe most basic unit of fats are the fatty acids, fatty acids are the part that is used for energy production.There are two types of fatty acids, Saturated which are particularly bad for you and can be pumped with hydrogen which isn’t good for the body, hydrogen is usually found in the meat of an animal, these fats are solid at room temperature. Fatty acids are stored as long chains within the body known as triglycerides.Saturated fats used to be used for things like butter in 1970’s and 80’s and before, because people didn’t realise how high in cholesterol they were or quite how bad for you they were, the same way people never used to realise smoking was bad. They also used to make crisps out of hydrogen and pump as much as they could into the crisp, which would therefore make them a hydrogenated fat, which are extremely harmful for the body.Or there are un-saturated fats, which are generally better for you and contain much less hydrogen, they are most often found in vegetables and are always found as a liquid at room temperature, an un-saturated fat would be olive oil, or sunflower oil.

Fats are an essential component of cell membranes and nerve fibres.Fat is the most important energy system whilst at rest, it gives us up to 70% maximum while we are resting, each gram of fat produces 9 calories.All vital organs are surrounded and protected by fat, so if someone was to pierce their skin with a sharp object hopefully the fat would protect it from reaching vital organs, or even if you get punched, that’s why your skin get’s bruised, because the veins are surrounded by fat when the veins burst it goes a different colour, so without the fat you will just kill your organs every time you got punched.In the body there are such things known as steroid hormones, all of which are produced from fat.Body fat also keeps you warm, and there are particular examples form the 1800’s and before from when people used to go climbing mountains, rather than putting on extra layers of clothes they would just simply eat loads and loads of food and get fatter until they couldn’t eat anymore, then they’d climb the mountain and after a few weeks when they ate less and did exercise they would go back to norm al size, so by the time they came back from the mountain they'd be back to original shape.Another great thing about fat is that it makes your brain think that you are full up and helps you get full up, so therefore meaning you eat less and put on less weight.

FatsFats are important for athletes because they use them as a fuel storage system, this is very effective for athletes, especially those involved within endurance activities.The more an athlete trains, the more they are able to use fats as a fuel, because they get used to using it, this is extremely beneficial as fats produce more than twice the amount of energy that carbohydrates produce per gram of fuel.It’s easier for the athlete to use fats as free fatty acids, because more of them are available to be used within our bodies and our systems as tri-glycerides get broken down easier and quicker.In relation to exercise fats are used quite regularly, as they are known as tri-glyceride which burns when we exercise, unless it burns off as glucose before hand, which would be a carbohydrate.Fats are used when we do high intensity exercise because the tri-glyceride’s only start being burnt after a certain amount of time.

ProteinProteins consist of 20 amino acids, 12 amino acids out of the 20 are said to be non-essential, the term non essential means that they are made through our body and are not obtained through food like the other 8 amino acids.One of the best meals that you can get the other 8 amino acids from is in beans on toast, because they deliver all the other 8 that our bodies don’t produce, these eight are known to be the essential amino acids.

A diet that contains all of the essential amino acids is called a complete protein. This is usually when you eat a lot of, or a healthy amount of meat, fish , poultry or eggs.

A diet of protein that doesn’t contain all of the essential amino acids is called an incomplete protein diet, vegetables and grains are what are known as an incomplete protein.Protein is what makes up your muscles, i.e. your quadriceps and biceps etc. so they are not used for energy, but if somebody doesn’t eat any fats or carbohydrates for a certain amount of time, then protein would kick in as their main energy system, they’d then become skinnier and less muscular and most likely weaker as well.Protein is used mainly to build up a single cell, it’s used for growth repair and maintenance of the body tissue, so if you cut yourself, graze your skin or ruin your skin like burning it, it is partially protein that fixes it, this is called anabolism.Haemoglobin, enzymes and many hormones are produced from it.Antibodies that fight different diseases or illnesses are made from protein, and energy can be produced from proteins. In relation to exercise intensity, protein would very rarely be used, unless it was a dire situation for your body. It would usually be used when we do extreme amounts of exercise, and when there is no carbohydrates or fats left to use.

Effects of proteinAn athlete needs high levels of protein’s in there diet, as protein is used to repair muscles that are damaged by training, so protein cuts as the ultimate healer, it tries to fix your damaged muscles, it helps fix your skin that you have cut or grazed, and it tries to fight off disease and illness.When you are exercising and you use all of your fat and carbohydrates, the body uses protein which as mentioned on the page before is stored in your muscles, the process is called catabolism, and this would result in you becoming weaker as your muscles would waste away.If you were an athlete participating in an activity that uses a lot of strength or is required to have a lot of power, then you will need to consume 2.5 times more of the RDA that you’d usually have of protein, whereas if it was an endurance activity then you only have to use 1.5 times more that the RDA of protein.This is because the strength athlete needs the extra amino acids to use as a building block for muscle development.Any more than 2.5 times the RDA of protein places extra demands on the kidneys which will need to remove the amino acids through urine.

What the athlete should avoid at all costs, is consuming fats and proteins during the pre match meal as these are more difficult to digest and could cause the athlete to feel bloated.

The athlete should also refrain from eating too much simple sugars for example disaccharides or monosaccharide's this would cause blood sugar levels to rise quickly.

High sugar drinks can however be taken in the last 30 minutes before a game when the athlete will actually be burning them during the warm up etc.

Straight after a game or race the athlete needs to replenish the glycogen stores and he or she should do this as quickly as possible. Athletes can sometime find it difficult to eat a lot of carbohydrates straight after a game and therefore the best ways of getting carbohydrates into the body is through an isotonic drink for example Lucozade or Red Bull.

Now Remember!

You should eat a meal 1 to 4 hours prior to your exercise because otherwise it may not digest properly and cause you cramps and nausea.

Suggested Foods for Exercise:

1 hour or less before competition •fresh fruit such as apples, watermelon, peaches, grapes, or oranges and/or •Energy gels •up to 1 1/2 cups of a sports drink.

2 to 3 hours before competition •fresh fruits •bread, bagels, pasta •yogurt •water

3 to 4 hours before competition •fresh fruit •bread, bagels •pasta with tomato sauce •baked potatoes •energy bar •cereal with milk •yogurt •toast/bread with a bit of peanut butter, lean meat, or cheese •water

When to eat1 hour or less before competition •fresh fruit such as apples, watermelon, peaches, grapes, or oranges and/or •Energy gels •up to 1 1/2 cups of a sports drink.

2 to 3 hours before competition •fresh fruits •bread, bagels, pasta •yogurt •water

3 to 4 hours before competition •fresh fruit •bread, bagels •pasta with tomato sauce •baked potatoes •energy bar •cereal with milk •yogurt •bread with a bit of cheese or lean meat•water

Carbohydrates: Suggested Foods for Exercise:

You should eat protein both before and after your workout, but it is particularly essential that you eat them after your workout because this is when the window of opportunity opens for your muscles to increase their strength, it is basically when your muscles are starving for protein.Within these three hours you should try to consume a meal of at least 30 grams of protein and 50 grams of carbohydrates, protein shakes are often recommended as the most effective protein re-producing consumable product. You should drink this before and during but not after exercise.

Protein: suggested foods for exercise: