Nutrition Considerations for Hybrid Athletes

What is a hybrid athlete?

Alex Viada provides, what I would consider, the best definition available.

“An individual who pursues two different athletic endeavors that don’t directly support each other.”

Most commonly, hybrid athletes are individuals who seek to build strength and endurance at the same time.

Each of these pursuits require unique nutrition considerations, and nailing these pieces of nutrition is paramount to your success as a hybrid athlete.

So, the aim of this article is to outline what you need to know about nutrition for the hybrid athlete.

I will cover the topics in order of their relative importance.

Note: supplementation will not be covered here, as I have written another article on that topic. You can find that here.

If you feel you have any questions left unanswered, you are welcome to email me at info@fitnesssimplified.org.

1) Energy intake

The absolute first thing you need to get right: eating enough calories.

Of course, there are times where you may intentionally go into a deficit of calories; particularly if you have physique or weight-class related ambitions.

However, the time spent in a deficit will undoubtedly take up a minority of your time.

~90% of the time, fueling sufficiently is the goal.

Energy demands are higher when you are training for strength & endurance.

Not only to fuel the training, but to fuel the recovery from training.

Furthermore, there are numerous complications from consistently being in a state of low energy availability [1].

Some of these include:

• decreased mitochondrial synthesis

• decreased muscle protein synthesis

• decreased bone mineral density

• decreased sleep quality

• greatly increased risk of injury

How to know how many calories you need each day:

An easy starting point is to use a total daily energy expenditure (TDEE) calculator, such as the one at tdeecalculator.net.

I want to be clear that the number you get from such a calculator is a starting point, not a number set in stone.

Many people of the same height, weight, sex, and activity level can still very greatly in how many calories they burn each day.

This is largely due to differing organ sizes, different NEAT responses to food intake (some people fidget more), differences in energy lost through defecation, etc. [2,3,4].

So, what you can do to alleviate this problem is the following:

• Eat this number of calories and weigh yourself each morning

• Use the changes in bodyweight as a metric to assess if this number of calories is in line with your goals

Even though such calorie calculators aren’t perfect, they can make some decently educated guesses.

Which is why I recommend them as a starting point.

2) Macronutrient intake

As you may already know, calories are derived from macronutrients: carbohydrates, fats, & protein.

A secondary consideration once total calorie goals are being met is the macronutrient composition of those calories.

It’s worth noting that there is a necessary degree of individualization here. However, the following amounts will work for the majority of people:

Protein intake:

The intake to aim for here is 1.6 grams per kilogram body mass [5].

Said differently, this is 0.72 grams of protein per pound bodyweight.

It’s worth noting that this is the minimum to aim for. It is always better to eat more protein than you need than it is to eat less protein than you need.

It’s also worth noting that this is arguably equally as important as energy intake.

Under-eating protein will result in you making much less progress than you’d like.

Fat intake

There are varying recommendations you’ll find for this if you scour the internet long enough.

I recommend 20-30% of total caloric intake. The minimum fat intake before hormone deficiency can set in is ~15% of total calories. So, eating in this range ensures there is no risk of that, but also allows sufficient carbohydrate intake. [7]

It is also important to eat a diversity of fats. Particularly numerous types of polyunsaturated fats (omega-3s and omega-6s) as well as monounsaturated fats.

Carbohydrate intake

Carbs are the fuel that will drive most of your training. Eating enough is crucial.

This will vary primarily on how much training time you are incurring each week [6].

If you have a weekly training time of <6 hours, then you will be best off with 3-5 grams of carbohydrate per kilogram body mass.

If you have a training time of 6-12 hours, you will be best off with 5-8 grams of carbohydrate per kilogram body mass.

If you have a training time of 12+ hours per week, then between 8-12 grams per kilogram is the range to aim for.

3) Food quality & micronutrient intake

These two go hand-in-hand, so I thought it appropriate to combine them.

The reason for this: a food is often considered ‘high-quality’ when it comes with a high concentration of micronutrients relative to the calories it provides.

This is what it means to be a ‘nutrient-dense’ food.

Food quality for the hybrid athlete is important for two reasons:

1. Recovery from training

2. Maintenance of health throughout training

Sufficient vitamin & mineral intake won’t likely directly influence performance.

However, if your usual day’s eating is lacking a sufficient amount of vitamins, minerals, phytonutrients, prebiotics, etc., then it is likely that you will experience worse health and impaired recovery.

The better health you are in, the the more training you can endure, and the more likely you will not experience gaps in training due to illness.

I want to be clear: food quality DOES NOT mean buying inorganic versus organic.

It DOES mean eating plenty of unprocessed, whole-foods.

What does this mean in practice?

• Having diversity in your protein sources each day

• Eating at least 2 servings of fruits each day

• Eating at least 2 servings of vegetables each day

• Eating whole grains & legumes such as whole wheat bread, oatmeal, quinoa, legumes, among others

• etc.

Note: a multivitamin supplement can certainly help in this regard. However, there are health-promoting nutrients found in fruits & vegetables other than vitamins & minerals; such as phytonutrients, isoflavones, carotenoids, resveratrol, etc. Missing out on these will leave you feeling worse than you should be.

Nuance:

For hybrid athletes, there certainly is a place for less nutrient dense foods. It is likely you need a large number of calories daily to properly fuel yourself. To meet this number of calories with ONLY ‘high-quality’ foods might make the process more difficult than it needs to be.

A focus on high-quality foods doesn’t mean you never eat any calorie-dense foods that are low in vitamins in minerals. It means that you are eating a sufficient amount of high-quality foods to meet your vitamin & mineral needs.

If you need more calories in your day and have already eaten enough protein, fiber, and vitamins & minerals, then it is more than okay to include some foods that might be considered ‘low-quality’ to meet those calorie goals.

4) Food timing

The final consideration we are going to cover today is the timing of your meals, food, and nutrients.

This is the final consideration because if you HAD to choose between the timing of your nutrients or eating enough of them in a day,

then eating enough of them will make a bigger difference every time.

Pre-training meal

The following are appropriate guidelines for an optimal pre-workout meal [6]:

• 1-4 hours before training

  • The closer you are to training, the smaller the meal should be; and vice versa.

  • In regard to endurance training, most people do better with a longer time gap between the meal & training.

• 1-4 grams of carbohydrate per kilogram body mass

  • Note: this is a wide range of carbs. This will vary based on your overall daily needs and how many carbs are in your other meals.

• ~0.4 grams of protein per kilogram body mass

  • This is a fourth of your daily protein needs.

• Minimal fat & fiber

  • these both take extra long to digest, and can cause you to feel sluggish during your training.

• Fluid intake

  • ‘Fluid’ refers to water or sports drinks containing electrolytes.

  • Amounts vary greatly depending on the person & the activity being performed.

  • Somewhere in the ball park of 16 fluid ounces will work for most people.

• Electrolyte intake

  • This is most important prior to endurance training, or other training in which you will sweat a lot.

  • Again, this varies.

  • Sodium intake: 500-1000 mg

  • Potassium intake: 100-200 mg

Intra-training fueling

If you are performing endurance training lasting longer than 1 hour, then you need to be fueling yourself throughout that training.

Why?

Carbohydrate stores become largely depleted around 60-70 minutes into endurance training. [8]

This leads to greatly increased fatigue, decreased performance, increased risk of heat stroke, etc.

So, if you are performing endurance training lasting longer than 1 hour, then you should practice the following strategies. Under any other circumstance, you can disregard the following.

Here’s what you need [6]:

• 30-60 grams of carbohydrate per hour

  • Amounts depend on intensity, bodyweight, and sex.

  • Women may need less due to an increased ability to use fat for fuel compared to men [7].

  • If you are getting your carbs through a sports drink, it is important that the carbohydrates don’t make up more than 8% of the fluid; as this can lead to delayed gastric emptying and stomach distress.

• 200-300 mg of sodium in a concentration of 460-690 mg per Liter fluid per hour

  • One normal water bottle is 500 mL (half of a liter)

  • This concentration is important to make sure the electrolytes aren’t watered down

• 50-100 mg of potassium in a concentration of 80-200 mg per Liter fluid per hour

  • Again, this is to make sure the electrolytes aren’t watered down

Post-training meal

Note: this is far less important in terms of timing compared to your pre-training meal & intra-training fueling (if needed).

Another note: how long you wait to eat after training is largely determined by when you ate your pre-workout meal.

For instance, if there was 4 hours between your pre-workout meal and training, then you should probably eat very soon after your workout.

Conversely: if you trained very soon after eating, then you have some more leeway.

With that said, there’s no reason to push off your post-training meal, and only benefit to be had from having it sooner; even if the benefit is small.

What’s important here is that you are replenishing with carbohydrates, protein, and fluids.

You can look at this similar to what you ate for your pre-workout meal, however you also have more leeway with more fat and fiber being allowed.

Conclusion

That covers the most important tenets of good nutrition for hybrid athletes.

In order, they are:

1. Energy intake

2. Macronutrient intake

3. Food quality & micronutrient intake

4. Nutrient timing

As stated before, I have another article dedicated to supplementation for hybrid athletes.

You can find that here.

If you have questions left unanswered, then you are welcome to email me at info@fitnesssimplified.org.