The Fat Fix

BY JILL CASTLE, MS, RDN of  usaswimming.org

Fat gets a bad rap in the world today, its consumption associated with heart disease and obesity. But, fat has a beneficial role for humans, and for the growing swimmer, it can be a useful and strategic tool to manage weight. Whether the young athlete is trying to gain weight or lose a few pounds, fat is the single nutrient to manipulate, and here’s why:

• Fat is a concentrated source of calories, offering 9 calories for every gram (versus 4 calories per gram in protein and carbohydrate). Whether you add it or subtract it from the diet, the impact will be on total calories.
• Add it to the diet and help the underweight swimmer gain a few pounds.
• Trim it out of the diet that contains too many calories (usually from too much fat or sugar) and help the swimmer slim down.
• Target fat in the diet, protecting the more important nutrients for young athletes: carbohydrate and protein. Sports nutrition experts recommend adjustments in fat intake for the growing swimmer, rather than cutting out carbohydrates (fruit, veggies, whole grains or dairy foods) or protein foods.

Of course, if the young swimmer is underweight, this isn’t a license to consume a diet of mostly fat, or one that is extremely high in fat. Likewise, if overweight, going to an extreme diet of no fat isn’t helpful either. The delicate balance for growing athletes is about 30-35 percent of total calories from fat. That’s about 900 calories or 100 grams of fat (based on 3,000 calories per day) for the average, active 16 year-old male.

Many of the foods kids and teens enjoy eating tend to be fried, creamed or layered with fatty foods like cheese. In today’s food landscape, eating a diet containing moderate amounts of fat can be a challenge because kids and teens frequently overdo the fat in their diets.

In fact, the highest fat food items eaten by kids and teens today, according to a 2010 study in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics are:

• Grain-based foods: cake, pie, cookies, donuts, crisps, cobblers and granola bars
• Dairy-based foods: regular fat cheese, ice cream, cream, dairy-based desserts, whole milk
• Vegetables: French fries
• Meats: sausage, franks, ribs, bacon, regular ground beef, marbled meats, poultry skin
• Others: butter, chicken fat, pork fat; shortening, stick margarine.

Greasy cheeseburgers, French fries and ice cream, while rich in fat and calories, don’t encourage life-long healthy eating habits. Although many young swimmers may be able to eat these foods now and not see immediate or negative effects, eventually these eating habits have a way of hanging around through adulthood. The goal for the growing swimmer is to develop healthy eating habits for optimal athletic performance now, as well as for a lifetime of health. 

High-fat foods may also fail to offer the vitamins and minerals essential for growth and development, especially if you’re choosing the unhealthy ones like potato chips. Plant-based foods are chock-full of the vitamins and minerals the young athlete needs.

But what about the young swimmer who could use a few extra pounds on their frame? If the young swimmer needs to gain weight, adding fat in the form of healthy fat sources is best. These will add calories and contribute to the athlete’s overall health. And, it’s a quick (and delicious) way to get the job done.

Here are some sources of healthy fats (read: good for your heart and health) the young swimmer can add to his diet to boost calories:

• Plant-based fats: Nuts, seeds, avocado, olives, olive oil, other plant oils (vegetable, canola, sunflower, etc), peanut butter and other nut butters, and ground flax seed and flax seed oil
• Animal-based fats: fatty fish (salmon, tuna, mackerel) 

Make sure the type of fat in the swimmer’s diet is the healthy kind, whether needing to put on weight or trim down. Fat doesn't have to destroy your diet (or your weight) if you know how to balance it with other foods.

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Jill Castle, MS, RDN is a childhood nutrition expert and co-author of Fearless Feeding: How to Raise Healthy Eaters from High Chair to High School (www.fearlessfeeding.com). She is the creator of Just The Right Byte (www.justtherightbyte.com), a childhood nutrition blog. Jill lives with her husband and four children in New Canaan, CT. Questions? Contact her at Jill@JillCastle.com.

Three Easy Ways to Check for Dehydration

BY JILL CASTLE, MS, RDN

Staying hydrated is a constant effort for many swimmers, requiring a hydration plan around exercise and vigilance for signs of dehydration. In young athletes, a 1% dehydration can impair athletic performance (a one-pound weight loss in a 100# athlete).

A plan for drinking enough fluids throughout the day is the best defense against dehydration. For a recap on how much to drink and when, see this article.

What if you could monitor and correct your own hydration? Ultimately, that is the goal for a self-sufficient athlete—to know your body well enough to make adjustments when things are off.

Here are three easy ways to check your hydration status:

Thirst: “If you feel thirsty, you’re already dehydrated.” While the mechanism of thirst is complicated, it can be associated with the level of dehydration. Using a scale of one to nine, with one being not thirsty at all to a nine being very, very thirsty, researchers have found that young athletes falling between a three and five likely had a 1 to 2 % dehydration.

However, thirst may not always work for young athletes as a signal to drink. More recent research has shown that young athletes may not recognize thirst, or they may deny it, being distracted by other events. For this reason, it is important for parents and coaches to remind young swimmers to drink fluids.

Urine Color: Urine color charts have been developed to help young athletes know when they are dehydrated. Ideally, swimmers want their urine color to be a pale yellow (like fresh-squeezed lemonade or lemon juice), indicating adequate hydration. A strong yellow, orangey-yellow, or brownish green color (read: Mellow Yellow or Mountain Dew) means the athlete is dehydrated and drinking needs to begin pronto!

Researchers have used urine color charts in locker rooms to educate about hydration, and have found them to be effective reminders to drink fluids.

Weight: A pre- and post-exercise body weight is another method for identifying dehydration after exercise (no, the weight lost is not fat—it is water). For every pound lost, 500 milliliters (1/2 liter or 16 ounces) of fluid should be consumed to replenish your hydration state. For example, if you weigh 110 pounds before practice, and 108 pounds after practice, you have lost 2 pounds of water weight, and need to drink 32 ounces of fluid.

However, if you are following your drinking plan and drinking throughout exercise, you’re water weight loss will be less, and so will the amount needed to replenish your hydration status after practice. The goal is to maintain a stable weight after swimming, or to lose very little. This can be accomplished by drinking enough during exercise.

These three simple methods for checking hydration status can help the young swimmer stay hydrated and promote optimal performance in the pool, whether training or competing.

Jill Castle, MS, RDN is a childhood nutrition expert and co-author of Fearless Feeding: How to Raise Healthy Eaters from High Chair to High School. She is the creator of Just The Right Byte, a childhood nutrition blog. She lives with her husband and four children in New Canaan, CT. Questions? Contact her at Jill@JillCastle.com.

Article from usaswimming.org