Mini Mikkipedia - The mistakes athletes make

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Host

Mikki Williden

What is Mikkipedia?

Mikkipedia is an exploration in all things health, well being, fitness, food and nutrition. I sit down with scientists, doctors, professors, practitioners and people who have a wealth of experience and have a conversation that takes a deep dive into their area of expertise. I love translating science into a language that people understand, so while some of the conversations will be pretty in-depth, you will come away with some practical tips that can be instigated into your everyday life. I hope you enjoy the show!

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you

00:07
Hey everyone, it's Mikki here. You're listening to Mini Mikkipedia on Monday. And today I wanna chat about mistakes athletes make. I mean, we all make mistakes, right? And it's by no fault of theirs necessarily. And it's in relation to body composition because of course with Monday's matter launching today, I have received several inquiries about how best to fuel around training and can you...

00:34
improve body composition, drop body weight and train for an event at the same time. And I suppose that brings me to the very first mistake is actually trying to chase two rabbits at once. So first and foremost there is of course a sensible and safe way to improve body composition when training for an event even. I mean ideally you would do it in an off season

00:59
And in fact, I was just thinking, well, you know, sort of off season for us in New Zealand, but one, it really depends on what sport you're in. Like, and even if you're in something like triathlon, where the New Zealand season is over, there are still events that people travel to internationally. And also just to our mates across the ditch over in Australia, we've got Cairns coming up in June. So, you know, an off season for an endurance athlete might even just be a few weeks, right? So.

01:25
It means that the challenge of dropping body weight, which is something I think a lot of people could benefit from and do benefit from, has to be negotiated within the training for an event. And there is always a better time to do it. And I can tell you when it's not a great time to focus on it, because I have a lot of athletes in this camp right now. And that's in like the six weeks leading up to your A-race. But that is not the time that you want to be thinking about or...

01:54
actively pursuing a fat loss goal. By virtue of the training you might unintentionally lean out and because the type of training you're doing is higher intensity, there's a greater metabolic cost, you may have ramped up some of the volume as well. So obviously these things are going to contribute to a higher energy expenditure overall. But to actively pursue fat loss at this time means that you could very well negatively impact

02:23
your performance goals and your training goals. And the very notion of entering a race, for most people means that they wanna go and give it their all and be their best. And you can't do that if you are under fueled. So one of the first mistakes I see people make, which I wanna highlight is to pursue fat loss in the lead up to their A race. And instead of doing so, they're much better served to just focus on performing. And even if you aren't,

02:52
in a place where you would like to be with your body composition, even if you don't experience unintended benefits or consequences of dropping body fat during that time, that you've got way more to gain from focusing on your performance. And then once the dust has settled on that race, you can then look to help improve your body composition, however that looks, and depending on the racing and stuff that you've got coming up. So...

03:17
That's certainly one area where I feel a lot of people could improve. And yes, a lot of the time, particularly if I'm speaking to cyclists or triathletes, they're concerned or worried about not having a great power to weight ratio on the bike or they're a few too many kilos heavy for the run, that kind of thing. But the flip side is that you put yourself into a calorie deficit and you can't recover from the training that you're trying to do. You can't hit your power or pace.

03:46
metrics that you're trying to hit. And so you are unable to be as fit as you can leading into that race. So you will absolutely be better served holding off and waiting until you've got some downtime in your racing schedule, if there is such a thing for you. And there will be, you know, and I suppose that if it, you know, if your body composition is a really important part,

04:10
or piece of your overall sort of lifestyle goals, because a lot of us are in the sports that we do for our lifestyle, then what you might need to do is dial back the performance expectations and think, right, well, you know, I've just ticked off that race, super happy with it. Yes, I've got some events coming up, but actually my main focus now is to lean out, improve body composition, drop a few kegs, and you just take the hit from a performance standpoint. So...

04:39
That's the first thing I would say. Now, for those people who are not in that space and they are actively trying to drop a few kilos because it's a perfect timing for them, you can still make mistakes, right? And your performance and your training can be compromised because what you don't want is to just be bloody miserable when you're out there training.

05:03
and trying to lose body fat. I talk to people about this all the time in my Mondays Matter program and in my other fat loss programs and just with fat loss clients is that you still want to feel pretty awesome when you're out there training as much as you can. I mean, we're not going to hit every training session and feel great, but 95% of the time, that's how you want it to be. It can be that way when you are chasing a calorie deficit and improving body composition, but you just have to be smart.

05:32
about how you fuel. And I guess the other major mistakes around pre, during and post exercise all fall under that sort of fueling umbrella. So first of all, that age old question of should you do fasted training? I think if you are in an aggressive fat loss phase, you are better served to fuel that training session than you are to go fasted. It's very difficult to perform at

06:02
if you were coming out, particularly if you get up and train in the morning, when you were coming out of that catabolic state that could be occurring overnight because you're in that calorie deficit state, without any fuel on board, and then you hit a training session further breaking down that lean tissue. Yes, you might lose weight, but you could very well be losing muscle mass and lean mass. That's obviously going against what you really want to do.

06:30
to achieve, which is improving your body composition. Breaking down muscle is not improving your body composition. If it is like a super light jog or a super easy, you know, 30 minute swim or a super easy spin, it's probably no big deal. If you're not in a fat loss phase and your calorie's sufficient, it's probably not a big deal actually. Despite what you hear, my clinical experience and personal experience is that

06:58
Fasted training isn't dangerous by any stretch of the imagination as long as your nutrients are accounted for across the day. However, when you're in a calorie deficit, you're placing your body under more stress than what training itself does. Therefore, when you layer stress on stress, you can just end up not performing the way you want to in a training session, not recovering the way you want to after a training session,

07:27
and they're not feeling good for it either. And because we wanna be feeling good in training, you're better served having something before that session. Now, what that something is, again, depends on the training goal. Like if you are in a base type training phase, and you're not really hitting high intensity, then it's a perfect opportunity for you to work on those endurance adaptations that can occur when you go into training with just protein and or fat on board.

07:55
So you might have a protein shake with some peanut butter in it. You might just have a protein shake. You might have an S-Fuels Life Bar. You might just have a protein bar, something that will not spike your glucose and will not suppress fat oxidation. That's your goal. And in a calorie deficit space, you're probably after just maybe 150 calories because you have to be mindful of the number of calories that you're taking in. Now, obviously,

08:24
I'm saying 150 calories. If you're an 85-kilo triathlete and you train 15 hours a week, you'll probably get away with a bit more than that, but just be mindful that all of the calories that you're having still count towards your overall calorie intake. 150 calories is enough for about 20 grams of protein, helps put those amino acids into your bloodstream, helps potentially lower that catabolic state, and allows you to train increasing those fat oxidation enzymes.

08:54
and getting the most of that training benefit. And it's also not going to negatively impact your hunger the way that carbs could potentially do if you were to have them beforehand. Now of course the caveat to this is if you are going into a higher intensity session like an f45, like interval training for running or cycling or something like that, then have a small amount of carbohydrate before going in. Because you're

09:23
you're coming out of that catabolic state, you do need a little bit of supply of glucose to help sort of hit those training metrics, but you don't need a ton actually. When you look at the research around carbohydrate and training, like even doing something like the carb rinsing model, whereby you have a small amount of carbohydrate beforehand, and then you're headed out. I'm thinking on a bike or you're doing intervals at the track or something like that.

09:50
then what you can do is take like a full strength sports drink and you can swirl it around your mouth maybe five or ten minutes before you're starting the interval when you warm up, then you spit it out. Your taste buds get this sensation or get the message that carbohydrate is on board that sends signals to your brain to increase motor output. So that's called carb rinsing and it was a technique that was studied in cyclists to help improve the performance of that particular training session.

10:20
that they were studied in. And so you too can use that by getting the bang for your butt from having carbs on board, but not impacting negatively on overall calorie balance, because this is that energy balance model, if you like, which I don't love in itself, but it's a, I don't hate it, but it's probably a little bit simplistic to describe what goes on with eating calories and burning calories, et cetera.

10:47
Anyway, but that carb rinsing model can be super helpful if you've got a higher intensity session but you don't want to be chugging two or three gels throughout. The next mistake that athletes make is avoiding fueling during long training. Now, I understand why people do it because they're thinking that they're saving calories because they're burning calories, they're going for a couple of hours, it's a couple of hours they're not eating. And if they can do it, then why not? Well...

11:16
Again, it's because you're placing that stress on your body and your body is already stressed because of the calorie deficit. If you then go and place a few long sessions on there, which you don't adequately fuel, then you run the risk of putting yourself in a metabolic hole. Now, I'll just will say, dieting is a state of low energy availability. So you are in low energy availability, right? I mean, that is just par for the course. It's the crux.

11:43
chronic low energy availability state that can impact and lead to relative energy deficiency in sport. There is a difference between acute and chronic and therefore with any athlete that's dieting, that's one of the reasons why we do it in Monday's Matter. We really encourage having diet breaks where you are lifted out of that low energy state. Anyway, you can mitigate some of the challenges there by

12:10
fueling during your long training sessions. Now, you don't have to have a lot. You do not need 90 grams of carbohydrate an hour, but even having 30 to 40 grams of carbs an hour during training, leaving the first hour of just having electrolytes and water, one, it allows for those fat oxidation benefits that I was mentioning earlier. And two, you then have that...

12:36
just a small amount of carbohydrate on board to help get you through those subsequent sort of sessions. Now, it doesn't necessarily have to be carbohydrate. If you were doing zone two exercise, then you probably just need the similar amount of calories, like about maybe, you know, anywhere from 120 to 160 calories an hour, coming from a protein or fat source. So you've still got calories coming in, but they're not necessarily carbohydrate calories. So you can absolutely play around with that.

13:04
after the first hour of training. So don't think of training as this excellent opportunity to burn through a ton of calories. You still need some support there to help avoid a super catabolic state because your body is just breaking down amino acids, breaking down lean tissue to help fuel that training session.

13:29
And if you are a lower carbohydrate athlete, or you're following a lower carbohydrate diet, which you probably will be, and it is relative, even if you're having, say, 180 to 220 grams of carbs a day, for an athlete, that's still like lower percentage of their energy coming from carbohydrate. Your protein and fat requirements, or particularly protein requirements, are certainly gonna be higher, and particularly during training, because we are breaking down those essential amino acids.

13:57
So you could have carbohydrate or in that zone two session, you could have a fuel like S fuels, which has that extended substrate, just a bit of a plug here for S fuels. It does have MCTs, it does have those branch chain amino acids, it does provide fuel and it has glutamine, which isn't carbohydrate based. So it's going to help. Can you continue to oxidize fat during that session, which is a healthier state to be in. So make sure you fuel beforehand.

14:27
Make sure where appropriate you fuel during, either using carb rinsing for that higher intensity or using a protein fat mix for that lower intensity. And then after training, that is another key place for an athlete who is chasing body composition as well. Because when you are not in the calorie deficit and you do your training, it doesn't matter as much for you to...

14:53
actively get in your protein or actively get in carbohydrate to start that recovery process. Because the reality is it's more about the overall daily intake that matters most rather than timing. But I think timing is absolutely critical for any athlete in a calorie deficit. Because you have fewer calories to draw on and we want to make sure that post-training we're able to get you the energy you need to help stock it back into your muscle glycogen stores.

15:21
to help the repair of that muscle tissue, to help you recover appropriately for the next session because you can't rely on an abundance of calories to let you do that. So by ensuring you're having 20 to 40 grams of protein, depending on when the next meal is, and you're having 50 grams of carbohydrate, again, depending on when your next meal is, it might be 30 to 50 grams of carbohydrate, but it's just something there to help.

15:50
start that recovery process. And then if required, later on in the day, that's when you take energy out of your diet because you don't need it, because you've trained, you've recovered, you've adequately fueled, and your body is in more of that sort of rest and recovery state. The time that you want to have your calories is in and around that training. The mistake that people make is that take all of the calories out around training, and then they get

16:19
super hungry and they end up overeating later on in the day and they feel wrecked because they haven't accounted for their recovery. So that's the model that I like to use. And it makes sense, right? Like you utilize the energy when you need it and then you offset it where required in those other time periods. I mean, let's face it, we're all human. Athletes make a ton of mistakes, but these are ones that immediately spring to mind for athletes sort of pushing

16:49
goals. But it can absolutely be done. You can absolutely lose body fat and train effectively. I think one of the big ones is hunger for an athlete. So ensuring that you take care of your nutrition around training really does make your hunger and appetite way better regulated after training. If you recall what Jose Antonio chatted about with me on his podcast a few weeks ago, we were often, as athletes, chase carbohydrate.

17:19
after training because we think that's what we need, but actually it's probably more protein. So get the carbs post-training for sure, but then for the rest of the day, that's your opportunity to ensure that your nutrients are taken care of with that really good amount of protein, appropriate sort of fat depending on your energy goals, and a small amount of carbohydrate we need be. What I will also say is that for athletes going into a heavy training weekend,

17:46
Most of them are going to benefit from having carbs in their evening meal, just having a little bit of a carb up. So when they're getting up and they're having their protein fat source before going up for long extended training, their muscle glycogen stores are a little bit topped up. So that's the other thing as well. And that might even just be sort of 80 grams of carbohydrate. It doesn't have to be a ton of carbohydrate in that meal, but it's just ensuring that you've got some stores on board.

18:15
because most calorie deficits are just going to limit the amount of carbohydrate you've got available. So there you go. I'm sure that you make more mistakes than that because, like I say, we are all human, but they are top of mind for me right now as I'm chatting to athletes. If you've got any questions, comments, queries, you want to hook up on a consultation to discuss your fueling requirements with your goals, head to my website, mikkiwilliden.com.

18:44
You'll find me on Twitter and threads @mikkiwilliden Not that active on threads, just keep forgetting about it actually. And also over on Facebook, mikkiwillidenNutrition. All right team, you have the best week. See you later.