Dietary Habits of Young Athletes Going in for Cyclic Sports

Abstract

In modern sports, outlining an adequate diet is one of the key issues in training young athletes. The following literature review presents new approaches to nutrition of young athletes going in for cyclic sports. These sports take a lot of energy, entail great strain and significant intensity of training. Correspondingly, the ratio of nutrients in athletes training for endurance tends to shift toward carbohydrates, the amount of which in the body should cover the increased need for workload as may be defined by the training process and the amount of workload. High-fat diets have proved irrelevant in terms of providing energy function; therefore, this nutritive approach was dismissed, since an athlete should have an about 25% share of fats of his/her menu’s total caloric value. According to modern standards, the amount of proteins in athletes’ menu should not exceed 1.2–1.6g per 1kg of body weight. To avoid the risk of dehydration and physical weakness, cyclic athletes should take sport drinks (in small portions) prior to and following a training session (competition). They contain carbohydrates and electrolytes and therefore are more preferable than pure water.

Keywords

• nutritional support
• cyclic sports
• sports medicine
• young athletes