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 first, and most important, nutrition consideration is understanding what your energy (calorie) needs are each day.
This, of course, has implications for body composition goals; but it is also the first point to get right for health and performance improvements overtime.
For instance, in some athletic populations, low energy availability (LEA) is an area of concern. This is characterized by high energy output and insufficient energy intake top the degree where basic physiological functions are left under-fueled.
There are numerous complications from consistently being in a state of LEA [1], including:
decreased mitochondrial synthesis
decreased muscle protein synthesis
decreased bone mineral density
decreased sleep quality
increased risk of injury
& more
Conversely, an energy intake that is too much of an excess will lead to more body fat gain than would be optimal, which may hinder endurance performance; among other more well-known health complications of chronic caloric surpluses.
How to know how many calories you need each day:
The number of calories your body burns each day is known as your Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE).
An easy way to estimate what this means for you is by using an equation or calculator, such as the one at tdeecalculator.net.
I want to be clear, though, 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
Monitor what happens to your bodyweight at this # of calories / day
If BW decreases, then the predicted # is actually a deficit of calories
If BW increases, then the predicted # is actually a surplus of calories
If BW maintains, then the predicted # is accurate
Furthermore, you should view your TDEE as a range more than a set number.
Each day comes with a different physical demand, different amount of stress, and other variables that influence energy output.
So, it’s reasonable to assume that your real TDEE on a given day is somewhere between ~+/- 100 of the number you end up with.
What to do once you find your TDEE:
Once you know (approximately) what your TDEE is, then it’s time to put that number to use.
What your options are in this regard are to be in a surplus of calories, a deficit of calories, or eat at around your TDEE to maintain bodyweight.
For the most part, which one you pick should be reflective with what your current training goals are and what your current body composition is.
If you would currently consider yourself overweight, then opting for a calorie deficit in order to reduce body fat levels would probably be your best bet.
The good thing about this is that the more bodyweight you have to lose, the more likely it is that you can see performance increases while seeing body fat losses simultaneously. Doing so will become more difficult the lower your body fat becomes, but it is nice to achieve both wins at the same time for a period of time.
The important thing here is that you should not undergo a large deficit of calories. Eating somewhere around 10% less than your TDEE is a good goal to aim for. One way you can confirm you are at this intake is by tracking your rate of weight loss, which should be about 0.5-1.0% of bodyweight lost per week.
There are other instances where you may intentionally go into a calorie deficit; but apart from an initial fat loss phase you will ideally spend a minority of your time in a deficit.
The majority of your time will be spent either at your TDEE or in a surplus of calories.
In order to see your best improvements in both endurance and strength/muscle mass, you will want to opt for a caloric surplus.
If you are in a period where you want to optimize for endurance efficiency, such as the last 6 weeks of training before a race, then you may opt to eat more at maintenance than a surplus.
The reason, you will need to spend a majority of your time at this intake is because building muscle and endurance is a longer process than fat loss.
Nevertheless, the general rule here is similar to a deficit: you would be best served by aiming for a surplus of ~10% or so. Eating more won’t make you build muscle faster, and may just result in needless body fat accumulation.
Before moving on to macros, there’s two final points here I want to make:
First: there is much more detail that can be covered on this topic, but doing so would make this article needlessly long. If you are interested in developing a plan together, then I would encourage you to consider our coaching service.
Second: when I say try not to exceed a surplus or deficit of greater than 10%, what I really mean is on your average day throughout a plan or program. If you have a day here or there where you go over or under this, the world will keep spinning. Just get back on track the next day.
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:
Protein provides 4 calories per gram.
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.
Fat intake
Fats provide 9 calories per gram.
There are varying recommendations you’ll find for this if you scour the internet long enough.
A common recommendation made regarding fat intake, and one that I will extend to you here, is somewhere between ~20-30% of your TDEE.
The minimum fat intake before hormone deficiency sets in is ~15% of TDEE. 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
Carbohydrates, like protein, provide 4 calories per gram.
The simplest way to view your carbohydrate intake is simply by using carbs to fill in the rest of your calorie needs in a day.
At the start of this article, we discussed identifying your TDEE and, by extension, how many calories you should eat in a day.
20-30% (roughly) of your TDEE should be fats, as mentioned previously.
The 1.6 grams of protein / kilogram body mess mentioned before that will take up another chunk of your calorie intake.
Therefore, you can take the amount of calories you have left for a day, divide that by 4 (because carbs have 4 cals/gram), and that gives you your carbohydrate target for the day.
The result of this specific macronutrient orientation will likely provide you with what you might consider a “high carbohydrate” diet, which is largely the intention.
You should consider carbohydrates your best friend when it comes to performance, and numerous studies have demonstrated that higher carbohydrate diets are more advantageous to athletic performance than higher fat diets. [6].
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:
Recovery from training
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; which may or may not be organic.
What does this mean in practice?
Having diversity in your protein sources each day
Eating at least 3 servings of fruits each day
Eating at least 3 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. Plus, multivitamins have not been shown to provide the same benefit as nutrients found from food, and some individuals experience worse health when taking a multivitamin. [9]
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 goal.
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:
Energy intake
Macronutrient intake
Food quality & micronutrient intake
Nutrient timing
As stated before, I have another article dedicated to supplementation for hybrid athletes.
If you have questions left unanswered, then you are welcome to email me at info@fitnesssimplified.org.