Vegetarian Way to Increase Protein Intake

Every sportsperson requires a fit healthy body which in turn requires you to intake sufficiently high quantities of Protein. You may find abundance of protein in non-vegetarian diets which is basically fish and meat. It is here that vegetarians find difficulty in finding a vegetarian way to increase protein intake to their body. If you are a vegetarian and looking for a way to increase protein diet, read on.

Budding athletes who need to have protein rich diet for building muscles need to consume a minimum of 50 grams of protein in a day. However, a typical breakfast, lunch and dinner comprising of hummus, tofu and Boca burgers do not provide more than 25 grams of protein. So where do you get additional proteins from?

You may receive additional proteins in the form of eggs or milk. An average egg provides up to 6 grams of protein. This is including the yolk which is cholestrol rich. If you are consuming only the egg whites, then a three egg mass of egg whites shall provide you up to 10 grams of protein. You may consume this if you are an "eggetarian" (A vegetarian who consumes egg).

If you do not consume egg, then you may find help from milk. You may consume milk between meals. Ten ounces skimmed milk provides you anywhere around 10 grams of protein. A couple of rounds of milk between meals will help you supplement your daily meals with proteins that you may need to compensate for exercising and hence the subsequent muscle building.

Importance of Fat to a Half Marathon Runner's Body

Most of our neighborhood athletes shun fat in the perception that consuming fat-laden food will make them sluggish and hence reduce their fitness levels. While it is indeed true that obesity is so much because of fat, fat in general is not bad for the body. As always, an optimum level is so very important in order for you to excel in sports.

So, the question arises - How is fat useful to my body? As a half marathon runner, you need to extract the maximum out of your physical attributes. Beta Carotene is a nutrient that helps you in vision and is found in green salad. Green salad also contains nutrients like lycopene that helps you in skin care. As an outdoor athlete lycopene too is important. But, these nutrients shall not be absorbed from the green salad in the absence of fat. Technically thus, a green salad with a full-fat dressing is more nutritious than one with a fat-free dressing. Fat thus helps you in enhancing your nutrient intake. It is not just the nutrients mentioned above. A lot of vitamins are also fat soluble and hence are absorbed better in the presence of fat.

Half Marathon runners also need to constantly keep a check on their blood pressure. To help you in this, Omega 3 fatty acids that is present from plants and fish is extremely vital. This also helps you in a more generic way by keeping your heart healthy preventing other chronic diseases.

As an athlete, you are advised to maintain a balanced consumption of meat. While meat helps you with good protein intake thus helping you in improving your physique, the fat that comes along with is totally avoidable and does not help you in your game.

Carbohydrate Diet for a Half Marathon Runner

What is the role of carbohydrates in the diet of a half marathon runner? Well, like most of us would already know, carbohydrates help to provide energy to the active muscles in our body. They are the nutrients that burn in order to provide energy to do most daily tasks. However it is not uncommon for us to hear dietitians talk about the evils of carbohydrates and the importance of having a low-carb diet.

While the generalization of carbohydrates being evil to the body is not completely true, this advocacy is not completely untrue either. This is because of the way the different foods burn up in order to provide energy. In this regard, we shall classify the carbohydrates we intake into two categories - the good and the bad.

First the good. Carbohydrates that we obtain from organic food are, as you guessed, good for the body. This is because these carbohydrate have a very optimum burn rate which pretty much balances with the other activities of the body and hence is able to provide energy to the everyday activities. Food that provides you with such good carbohydrates include fresh fruits, fat-free milk, bread and vegetables like potatoes.

So why are some food items bad? This is because most of the junk food that we have burn at a higher rate in our body. When this happens, the level of sugar (glucose) rises in our blood. Our body detects this as an abnormal case similar to diabetes and injects a dose of insulin to control this sugar rise. This eventually causes such sugar to be condensed into fat and stored in our body.

So, while as a marathon runner, you must be extremely encouraged to have carbohydrates in order to provide you with energy to fight it out on the field, be extremely careful about the kind of carbohydrates you intake since that can define your energy levels on the field.

Does More Protein Mean Better Body Build?

Proteins are absolutely essential to any sportsman. They are the very building blocks that help you in building your muscles and repairing damaged ones. Thus it is always recommended that you have a good protein diet after a strenuous workout or running. This helps you greatly in your recovery process.

However, some athletes are of the opinion that the easiest way to a great physique is lots and lot of protein intake. This is completely a myth. As with any other nutrient, proteins should only be taken in a quantity as is required. Frequent excess intake of proteins damages vital parts of your body.

Let us elaborate this further. The lowest component of proteins are called amino acids. When you consume foods that are rich in protein, this is broken down into amino acids that further help in as the building blocks. However, this process of breaking down to amino acids adds a lot of stress on the kidneys and liver. When you have a heavy workout, high intake of protein is good. However, consuming heavy protein food like fish and meat would push the kidneys and liver to the maximum and this eventually results in kidney and liver disorders. So, it is important to remember that more proteins does not necessarily mean more body build.

How to recover after a half marathon

Before we talk about the diet post-marathon for recovery, it is important to understand how the body intakes different nutrients. Like said, Carbohydrates in the form of glycogen is the immediately consumed form of energy in the active muscles. In the absence of carbohydrates, the body starts breaking down proteins. Fats are the most difficult to break down and the body consumes them at the last and least during a game which requires immediate burning of calories.

After a strenuous running during the half marathon, your body is totally devoid of carbohydrates in your active muscles. It is extremely important to refill these muscles with carbohydrates in order to provide energy for the ensuing days of training and running. This apart, a protein diet is extremely important. Proteins are the building blocks of energy and they play a vital role in rebuilding any microscopic damage to your muscles.

I would suggest the following food to be consumed post-runing in order to recover from your energy loss:

Carbohydrate diet that includes banana, energy booster drinks and glucose within the first 30 minutes after play.

A mix of protein and carbohydrate diet in the next 1-3 hours in order to allow your body to heal. Food to be consumed includes Fresh fruit, bread, egg and low fat milk.

Role of different nutrients for a Half Marathon Runner

There are three nutrients that your body desperately needs. These three nutrients must always be present at the right amounts in the athletes' body so that the body can take the bouts of energy lost during exercising and running.

The first among them is Proteins. Proteins as already mentioned are the building blocks of energy. They are absolutely essential in rebuilding damages to your body parts. It is important that you include the right amounts of protein in your diet when you are in exercise mode or when you are injured so that you let your injuries to heal faster. It is important to increase your protein intake whenever you increase your body building exercises. So what do you think, more protein means more body build all the time?

The second most important nutrient is carbohydrates. Carbohydrates are the important source of fuel to your active muscles when they are in exercising or play mode. In the form of glycogen, carbohydrates burn immediately to ATP molecules in order to serve your body with energy.

Fats are most misunderstood form of nutrients that are considered to be evil. In fact, fat is one of the most essential nutrient, but in less quantity. Fat is involved in the the formation of some critical components of your body including your brain. If you are a young athlete still growing, you should absolutely not avoid fat. However avoid man made fat components like hydrogenated oil which are simply not essential.

How to sustain energy during a Half Marathon?

The food that you eat prior to any session of practice or half marathon running is very vital to how you react during the course of the actual half marathon. However, it is extremely important that you refill your body with lost energy during the course of the half marathon during breaks or pauses in the game so that you can contribute your hundred percent throughout the course of the run.

The component that you will require absolutely during the session of play is Carbohydrates. When you are at an intense session of running, carbohydrates in the form of glycogen is broken down into components called ATP which are the building blocks of what we call energy. So this ultimately boils down to the fact that faster you are able to produce ATP, the quicker you will get your energy levels back.

So what are these foods that will provide you with ATP on demand? Bananas are one of the best sources of glucose and fructose. Together, they give you one of the immediate sources of energy. This apart, energy drinks also help you with immediate energy that you need to battle it out on the sports field. Apart from providing you with energy boosters and caffeine which is very vital on field, it also provides them in the form of a fluid thus providing you abundant hydration to sustain the dehydration on the field. In the end, you also have glucose packets that you may consume at any point to increase your energy levels. Besides all of this, also remember to take plenty of water during the course of the half marathon as and when you feel dehydrated.