Olympic golden rule: Eat to compete

Although every world-class athlete follows an individualized diet, carbohydrate-rich foods such as pasta and potatoes pave the road to world records, sports nutritionists and trainers say. The protein and fats so crucial to popular weight-loss diets including Atkins and South Beach play much lesser roles on the world stage of endurance athletics.

‘‘Carbohydrates are the first and primary source of energy that the body uses,’’ says Troy Jacobson, a Baltimore champion triathlete and coach of 2000 Olympian triathlete Joanna Zeiger. ‘‘If a swimmer like Michael Phelps or a bike rider like Lance Armstrong tried to focus on primarily eating proteins and fats, there’s no way they could ever perform the way they do. Depending on the time of year and the emphasis on their training, endurance athletes will eat upward of 70 percent of their calories from carbohydrates.’’

Some of those folks just concentrate on getting enough calories, period. At 19, Michael Phelps not only impresses folks with his grueling workouts — many of his days consist of two-hour swimming sessions twice a day — but also with the thousands of calories he needs to power his 6-foot-4, 195-pound body toward gold medals.

Eating 5,000 to 6,000 calories a day is harder than you’d think, says Jacobson (35), a champion triathlete himself. ‘‘When I was training 30 hours a week, putting in six-hour days, I would not only eat solid food but supplements to give me extra calories. In addition, I would also consume a pint of icecream every night before dinner. It was 1,500 calories I needed to have so that I wouldn’t start losing muscle mass.’’

However, in the days before competition, endurance athletes don’t chow down the same way they do at the height of their training. Instead, they taper their workouts, which reduces their appetites as well as their need for as many calories.

The day before they compete, they might decide to load up on some extra muscle energy, perhaps at the pasta station in the Olympic Village dinng hall. ‘‘They need to carbo-load before the event, fill up the levels of glycogen (quickly available energy) in their muscles,’’ says Nancy Clark, a writer on sports nutrition.

Dining at the Olympics affords lots of healthful choices. Athletes eat in a food area roughly the size of three football fields that seats 6,000 people. Food will be available around the clock, and suits the tastes of competitors from more than 200 countries as well as those who are vegetarian, vegan and kosher.

The irresistible urge to reward yourself after a tough performance is one way fans can identify with the Olympians, but nutritionist Nancy Clark hopes folks can digest a more long-lasting lesson: ‘‘It’s important for ordinary mortals as well as Olympians to fuel their bodies for energy. If you fuel your body during the active part of the day — meaning breakfast, lunch, afternoon snack — you can have the energy of Olympians. But most Americans eat backward. They skimp at breakfast, have very little lunch and eat a huge amount of calories at the end of the day.’’

(LA Times-Washington Post)