The Importance Of Nutrition On Athletic Performance

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I am an athlete and nutrition plays a very important role in my abilities to perform. It has been well documented that optimal nutrition can lead to an enhancement in an athlete’s physical activity, athletic performance, and recovery from exhaustive exercise (Clark, M., Reed, D. B., Crouse, S. F., and Armstrong, R. B., 2003). Also, athletes are expending more energy so therefore they need more calories for this extra expenditure of energy (Clark, M., Reed, D. B., Crouse, S. F., and Armstrong, R. B., 2003). I am a soccer player and this sport comes with specific needs. Due to all of the increase in accelerating, stopping, turning, jumping, tackling, and irregular feigned movements the athletes who participate in them have an increased in their …show more content…

It is very common for female athletes typically consume less than 2000 kcal/day during training a completion, which will not support the recommendations to maintain optimal muscle glycogen stores (Clark, M., Reed, D. B., Crouse, S. F., and Armstrong, R. B., 2003). There was only one day in the week in which I got the recommended calorie intake of 1865 ± 530 during the off-season (Clark, M., Reed, D. B., Crouse, S. F., and Armstrong, R. B., 2003). This is a very worrying thought because I weight lift on Wednesdays and Fridays and I have soccer practice on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I also have athletic training clinical five days a week and that is a very active time of my day with a lot of exertion. I really need to make sure that I am getting enough calories because my body will not be able to run on this little …show more content…

There are a vast variety of vitamins and it is very difficult to get all the levels of micronutrients you actually need and I particularly have found this difficult. When female soccer players get out of pre-season their micronutrient levels drastically decrease and the variation of them also shrink (Clark, M., Reed, D. B., Crouse, S. F., and Armstrong, R. B., 2003). The only levels that stay constantly low are Biotin and vitamin D (Clark, M., Reed, D. B., Crouse, S. F., and Armstrong, R. B., 2003). These two things a very important for me to keep in mind when It comes to what I eat because you can see in my diet for the past week a lack of variety and quantity when it comes to micronutrients. I fall under the same tendencies that are shown with other female soccer players and I must try to correct the problem that is seen constantly with the population group I have fallen under. (Below are the recommended levels for female collegiate soccer athletes for micronutrients.) (Clark, M., Reed, D. B., Crouse, S. F., and Armstrong, R. B.,

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