What is the best diet for a competitive swimmer?

Question

I am looking for something which will ensure a 14 year old male eats enough to keep up his energy for training and competing, he often doesn't eat enough and is quite slack about breakfast and eating at school....any ideas?

Answer 1

Try to eat some lean meat and a ton of fiber. You definitely need carbs so i would go with multi wheat bread because it is not too filling and it has tons of fiber and is a great source of carbs. I would go with an odwalla bar after you have finished your workout becase it has omega 3's and lots of fiber. It is also a good source of carbs.

Answer 2

Lots of carbs!

Answer 3

The night before a compeition eat PASTA! Carbs in general are needed. Potatoes chips are not good, as they are fried.

Answer 4

I used to eat lots of pasta, fruit (banana's especially, but not straight before swimming) and at night if I had training the following morning, I would eat a bowl of 10 Wheatabix ! lol, no joke (lots of fibre, filling but goes straight through), as it was too much of a rush to get anything in the morning.

At 14 I would not worry too much, I never really watched my diet at that age as the training takes care of everything if you push yourself hard enough.

I won the National age groups at 16 then 17/18, making the England Junior/Youth squads then thats when I started looking at my diet more, for now just enjoy but make sure he does eat breakfast even if its a bacon and egg sarnie, won't have any energy for training later on with no breakfast

Answer 5

Eat some carbohydrates before going to train, as your body will need it as sources of energy.

After a hard training, you will usually feels hungry, i suggest you to eat little carbs and take a lot of fibres.

Eat a lot of protein, as it will be needed to build muscles. One of the best sources of protein is fish.

Fish has a lot of protein and omega 3 and omega 6. It is very healthy!

Eat less junk food, a lot of fibres, and remember to drink enough water (at least 8 glasses per day).