The Ultimate Guide To Nutrition For Hoopers - Podcast Episode 24

Welcome to the Vision Driven Basel training podcast. Shout out to all you guys for tuning in today. Really appreciate all of you guys. Apple Podcast, Spotify, YouTube. Thank you guys for watching today's episode. Going to be all about nutrition. And this is a topic that was heavily requested and I think it's a really, really beneficial to you guys. I had to do a lot of research for, for this topic, but I feel like there's gonna be a lot of actionable things you guys can take that's really gonna help you guys to, to clean up your nutrition. So ultimately you can have more energy throughout the day, throughout your workouts and your games. You can recover better. And ultimately you guys can play at your, at your, at the highest level possible. You guys can maximize your performance. And a lot of it starts with how you feel your body. Okay? Super, super important. You know, obviously basketball is a game that relies on energy and we're going to kind of break down what exactly that means and how exactly we can affect that energy. But you know, all throughout basketball it's really, you know, a bunch of frequent starts and stops, right? So you know, you're gonna, you're gonna sprint back on defense and you know, then your guy's gonna get the ball, you're gonna have to defend him, be able to slide, then he's gonna pass the ball, you're gonna jump into help where you might not be going at 100% for a few seconds. Then the ball gets thrown back to your guy. Now you have to sprint and close out, play defense. Again, frequent starts and stops, you're slowing down all those different things and, and a bunch of changes of directions and all of that has to be maintained over the amount of time that you're on the floor. Okay? So however long that might be for high school, a lot of times eight minute quarters, for college, 20 minute halves. But we have to get to a point where you have the energy to be able to play at that frequency and maintain that energy for long enough to play at a high level the whole time. Okay? And there is, there is, you know, it's been found that, that you, I believe it's the average player or the average guard, I think, covers over two miles while they're playing, just between sprinting, backpedaling, sliding, all those things. The average player, I think, believes the average guard covers about two miles during the course of a basketball game. Okay. So obviously a lot of that is going to be full out sprinting a lot. It's going to be jogging, sliding, all those different things. So when we're designing our training and our nutrition, we have to be able to make sure that it prepares us to do that, okay? If we're under prepared, it's gonna leave us susceptible to obviously not playing as well as we could, but it's also gonna leave us susceptible to injuries, to overtraining, and ultimately not stuff that we want to have, okay? So we need to be able to take our nutrition seriously because it's gonna allow us to play better, to recover quicker, and all that good stuff. So we're going to kind of talk about two different parts of your performance and how that relates to your energy and specifically what foods you need to eat and how much of it you need to eat. First of all, we have the aerobic system. So we think about aerobic. That's like you're running, for example. So when you're sprinting, when your coach is making you guys run suicides or run 17s or run some sort of sprints at the end of practice during whatever it might be that is using your aerobic system, okay, you have to be able to really be able to process that oxygen and the carbon dioxide as well. And basically to kind of simplify it for you guys, the better in shape you are, so the better your aerobic system is, the higher your VO2 max is. Essentially, all that means is that you're just in better shape, okay? So you know, the guys who can run up, down the floor, play the whole game and feel fine, those guys have a high VO2 max versus the guy who can only play for 5 minutes before they need a break. He's got a low VO2 max, okay? So just to kind of simplify things, that's essentially what we're talking about when we talk about the aerobic system, okay? And this aerobic system can sustain you for. For a long time, okay? Like, you can build it up so that you're. So you think about, like, runners, right, long distance runners who can run for, you know, you know, miles and miles using their aerobic system, okay? So that's something that's not going to give you those explosive movements that you need in the game of basketball. But in terms of being able to continue to play when you're tired, when you're out of breath, being able to run up and down the floor and play for long stretches of time, that's where the aerobic system comes in and that's where that being fueled is important, okay? And then the next part that we'll talk about is the anaerobic system. So when we talk about explosive movements, so jumping, sprinting, you know, quick sprints, quick defensive slides, going up to get rebounds, all those things that are really quick, explosive movements, that's where we use our anaerobic system. So a lot of times when you think about anaerobic, you think about, you know, lifting weights, right? Because you have to be able to, you know, your body has to be able to exert force, exert a lot of force in a quick amount of time, but only for a brief period of time, okay? You're not going to do that for an extended amount of time, okay? And that's where the difference comes between aerobic and anaerobic. So with our aerobic system, it can be sustained for longer, but it's not going to be as explosive. With the anaerobic system, it's going to be sustained for not quite as long. It's going to be brief, but it's going to be explosive, okay? And those two things are both important to think in basketball. And we're going to get into how exactly we can eat for both of those different things. But like I said, you know, basketball is, is all about energy, right? Being able to play, we have to have energy for that, okay? And that's what we get from food. So kind of to break it down a little bit more, you know, essentially what that energy is, it's called ATP, okay? And that's, that's. I can't even say the name of, like the scientific term, but ATP for short is what. It's what it's called. So that's when we talk about the actual, the actual compound in your muscles that give you energy to run, jump, be able to do different things on the floor, be able to play defense, all those things comes from that. And essentially it's the immediate source of energy for muscle contraction and ultimately your movement. ATP is a very, very crucial thing for us to be able to focus on right now. So when we talk about the aerobic system, a lot of times the ATP we're going to get from that is from oxygen, because aerobic oxygen, we're breathing it a lot. Being able to go for long distances, okay? That's where we're going to get that from. When we talk about the anaerobic system, that's where it becomes a little bit more detailed. But when we talk about the anaerobic system where we're not using oxygen anymore and we're using those quick bursts with that ATP, all of a sudden we can break it down and we can really look at the Source that we're going to get that ATP from, which is essentially going to be from carbohydrates. Okay? It's going to be from basically your glycemic storages, which is going to be a lot of that fueled by carbohydrates. Okay? So carbohydrates is going to be a big part of this as we get farther into it. But that system can be compromised if we don't have the necessary fuel. Right? If we don't have the necessary carbohydrates to fuel the anaerobic system, all of a sudden you're not going to be able to sprint as quickly, to slide as quickly, to jump as high. Okay? That can be significantly compromised if we don't have that. And kind of, to summarize all that, the aerobic and the anaerobic system, typically they're going to work in sync with each other, okay? It's not a situation where you're only going to use one, right? You're going to be running a bit on the floor, using that oxygen to produce that ATP with the aerobic system. But as soon as it's something that your aerobic system can't handle, which would be intense sprints or really quick jumps, that's where the anaerobic system is going to kick in. And it's going to be able to produce that ATP using the glucose you get from carbohydrates and also from fats as well. And carbohydrates are going to be the main fuel source behind both of these systems. For aerobic and anaerobic carbohydrates are really what's going to fuel you. Okay? So we need to make sure that before the game, before practice, before whatever it might be, you're, you're sufficiently loaded up on carbohydrates. And this is backed up by different studies that essentially prove that carbohydrates are the, the, the fuel of choice in these different start and stop sports, basketball being a prime example of that. So we, we cannot understate the importance of consuming enough carbohydrates to be able to fuel you for this. And essentially, really what it comes down to is that your performance is going to be limited by carbohydrate intake. So if you're under, if you're under fueled, your performance is going to suffer because of that. Okay? And not only will it suffer, if you know before your work, your workout or your game, you aren't fuel, but during your actual performances, during your games, your practices, refueling can actually be Very, very important as well. And that can come through, that can come through different things, such as sports drinks, for example. So there's actually studies that prove that intaking carbohydrates, which you can do through, you know, drinking Gatorade or Powerade, whatever your sports drink might be, that actually can help you when your exercise is intense and prolonged. So typically the rule of thumb is that exercise under an hour, you're pretty much good with just water. But as soon as it's intense and it kind of passes that, that hour mark, that's where being able to refuel with those carbohydrates that you get in a sports drink really. And really it could be with any sort of carbohydrates. But typically sports drinks are the easiest to consume during a game, during a timeout, whatever it might be. And also it's going to help you to consume it quickly. So, you know, drinking it is going to allow to be consumed quickly into your muscles. Whereas suppose if you were to eat, you know, some, you know, you were to go into the locker room and eat some pasta, you know, after you, during a 30 second timeout, it's going to be difficult for you to actually be able to receive the benefits of that right away. And on top of that, carbohydrates aren't just used to fuel your muscles, but it's also used to fuel your liver, which is actually going to store a lot of those carbohydrates for you. And it's actually going to help to regulate your overall glucose levels in your blood, which is going to affect your brain, which is going to affect your heart. All of those things require carbohydrates as well. So being able to refuel when you, with Gatorade, with Powerade, during your workouts or your games is a very, very important thing to note as well. Now, the big three of those macronutrients, carbohydrates, protein and fats. I'm sure you're wondering where proteins and fats kind of fit into all this as well. And just kind of off the bat. Again, the majority of the fuel for gains is going to come from carbohydrates, but fats can play a role as well. Now they're not going to play as big a role, especially during anaerobic production. Typically that's going to be just carbohydrates. But when we talk about low intensity or to moderate intensity work, then fats can actually play a role in that as well. So it's important that we don't just consume carbohydrates. But fats are a part of that as well. So that especially during rest periods, during all those times your body's recovering, it's proven that well trained athletes actually have fats stored in their muscles that will help them to recover quicker. Okay, so those two, those two nutrients right there are really going to be key for us in terms of recovery, in terms of fueling. And protein has, has a place as well. We'll get more into protein as we move along forward, but protein is not going to be as big of a factor for the actual time on the court. Okay. Typically that's going to be something we're going to focus on after. So I didn't mention this at the beginning of the podcast, but, you know, this is probably something you're going to want to take notes on. Specifically, different points. If you feel like you hear something like, oh man, I feel like I definitely need to know this, then, you know, open up your notes app on your phone or whatever and just write some stuff down if you feel like you need to. And I think this part right here is something you definitely could, could, could write down. Essentially, there are different guidelines in terms of how many carbohydrates you need to intake. And I'm sure you guys are wondering, okay, you know, coach telling me about how important carbohydrates are, like, how much do I need? Like, what, what, what should I do before games to make sure that I'm prepared to actually have the enough fuel to be at my best the whole time? And these guidelines I actually got from the Gatorade Institute of Sport. They did a big study on this with a lot of doctors, a lot of researchers. And so essentially your intake for carbs is going to be different depending on what the actual event is. Okay, so, for example, if it's a practice day or just a preparation day, maybe just workouts that day, it's probably not going to be as high intensity as a game will be. Okay? A game, especially if you play big minutes during a game, it's going to be more intense on your body than, you know, an hour long workout will be an hour and a half long practice will be where there's going to be a lot of, you know, time where you're down a lot of time where you're going through plays where you might be going 100% as opposed to a game where it's really, you're going the whole time. When we talk about, you know, your practice days, for example, so a day where you Only have a practice or maybe a workout, whatever that might be, you're going to typically want to consume 5, 5 to 7 grams of carbohydrates per kg of body weight. Okay? And obviously for you guys who live in America, you guys are like, what on earth is kilogram? Okay, just to kind of break it down for you guys, a few examples. So let's take a player who weighs 160 pounds, okay? That would be about 72 kilograms. So what we'll do is the low end of that, right? Five per every, you know, kilogram of body weight. So we'll just go you, you know, five by 72. So the low end for a player who's 160 pounds on a practice day or a moderate intensity day would be at least 360 carbs that day. And the high end would be 72 times 7, which would be 504. So the ideal range for that player, for 160 pound player to consume on a practice day, on a more moderate day would be between 360 to 504 grams of carbohydrates that day. Okay? And just a disclaimer for this whole entire thing. A lot of this is gonna be personal preference. So you might wanna be in the low end, you might feel better doing that, or on the high end, you might feel better as well. Okay. So you kinda have to figure out what works best for you. But that's the general guideline that the research backs up. Okay. And like I said, though, that's gonna change depending on, you know, the amount of work you're gonna do that day. So if you have a day where it's a game, right, and you're gonna have to be, you're gonna have to put out a little bit more effort, it's gonna be a little bit more intense, a little bit more draining on your body. Now all of a sudden we can talk about what to do, you know, before that, right? So that's kind of leading up on those practice days. But when we talk about, you know, before that game, right, or even before practice, let's say. So let's say before your practice, what should you do to make sure that by the time practice gets here, by the time your game gets here, you're fueled up and you're ready to go, well, the best thing you can do is eat a carbohydrate rich meal. So, you know, a lot of meal with a lot of carbs in it. You're gonna want to try and do that the night before, okay? So the night before, you know, your practice, your game, whatever it might be, you're going to want to fuel up on carbs with that last meal of the day. So you know, that might be, you might have some pasta, you might have, you know, some, you know, some sandwiches, whatever it might be, that that's going to allow you to kind of fuel up on those carbs. So the night before, and then two to four hours before your game, ideally you're gonna want to fuel up again with a meal that's kind of high in carbohydrates. Okay. And so after that two hour mark, right, so we just talked. Well, say you have a game at seven that night. Okay, so we'll say at, you know, at 4:30 or at 5, right. You finish up your meal and you know, let's say you have some, some fettuccine Alfredo, right. So you had a lot of carbs in that meal. So now we can talk about leading up to that game. So, you know, if you still feel like you want a little bit more, then that's where you can kind of supplement some stat with different snacks. Maybe you have a, you know, a peanut butter and jelly or you might have some, some peanut butter crackers. Just some stuff that can give you some kind of quick carbs right there. You might drink a little bit of a sports drink before that as well. That, that's kind of ways. So in that two hour mark before the game, you, you can also fuel up a little bit more on those carbs. And typically the guideline is about 30 grams of carbs per hour in those two hours before that game or that practice. But again, that's more so an individual preference whether or not you need it or you don't need it or you need more or less, whatever it might be. But kind of adhering to these guidelines in terms of the night before loading up on carbs, a couple hours before, two to four hours before, you're gonna load up again with a meal on carbs. And then kind of leading up to the game that's gonna make sure that the glycogen levels in your liver are high, that your muscle glycogen is topped off as well, and that your brain is alert. Okay, so you're ready to go. You're firing all cylinders at that point. So now let's talk about the actual games. Right, so we went over the practice and having 360 grams to 504 grams on kind of lighter days. But when we talk about actual game days, it's going to go up a little bit there. So now all of a sudden the guideline becomes, okay, 7 to 12 grams of carbohydrates per kilogram of body weight. Okay? So now all of a sudden we're gonna go. On the low end would be about 504, and on the high end would be about 864 grams of carbohydrates that day, on the day of a game. Or maybe it's just a really, really intense day where you might have multiple workouts. That's where you're gonna want to increase those carb levels a little bit. Okay. And then we can talk about, you know, a lot of you guys if you're playing in a tournament, so you might have multiple games in a day, multiple games in a weekend, obviously the level of carbs is going to have to increase even more off of that. Now we're going to get into that 10 to 12 range in terms of grams of carbohydrates per kilogram of body weight. Okay? So these numbers are still 160, 60 pound athlete. And now we're looking at the low end of that being 720 grams to 864 grams of carbohydrates for that 160 pound athlete. Now obviously you gotta tailor that to yourself. So if you weigh 150 pounds, well, all you got to do essentially is just kind of figure out, okay, what is that in kilograms? And then multiply it by, you know, five to seven on a light day, seven to 12 on, on a, on a game day, and then that 10 to 12 on a, on a tournament day. Okay. And that kind of is based on what? On, on, on you personally. And again, figuring out that range, maybe you're slightly below that range, slightly above that range. You have to figure out what works best for you. But those are the guidelines to kind of, if you're unsure of where to start, maybe pick somewhere in the middle of that and then all of a sudden you'll be able to figure that out. Okay. So again, just to kind of recap that on a lighter day, typically the guideline for that is going to be you're going to want to have about 5 to 7 grams of carbohydrates per kilogram of body weight. And that's going to be enough to kind of make sure again that your glycogen levels are where they need to be be on a game day or a very, very heavy practice workout day, that's going to want to be up to about 7 to 12 grams of carbohydrates per kilogram of body weight. And then on a tournament day where you're going to have to be playing multiple games, that's going to go up to 10 to 12 grams of carbohydrates per kilogram of body weight. And that's going to again, help you to make sure that your liver is full of glycogen so that you can kind of regulate those levels in your blood. When you start to play, you don't feel tired, you don't feel like you hit a wall. When you play. It's gonna help you to make sure that your muscles are firing in terms of your aerobic, but also importantly your anaerobic being able to jump and sprint as fast as you can, beat your peak performance. And then obviously, like I said, your brain is really going to be impacted by your glycogen levels as well. So making sure that you're able to stay focused and stay alert the whole time. Also an important reason why you want to make sure that we're not lacking in the carbohydrate department before those practices, before those games. So that kind of breaks down the actual games, right? Preparing for games. What am I supposed to eat before games? How do I make sure that I'm ready to go? And that's kind of your personal day. But again, it comes back to carbs. Carbs are the important thing. Fats as well. But really those two things are going to be big for you. And again, you got to figure out what works best for you. For me personally, I always like to eat a couple peanut butter and jelly sandwiches before games. That helps me. Again, lot of carbs in that, some fats in that. And I feel, I feel good. I feel ready to go. You know, I can't eat, you know, if I eat a really protein heavy meal before I go play, I don't feel good. Right. I feel tired. And that's just me personally. Some people might like to, they might, they might feel like, oh, you know, if I eat some, some, a lot of chicken and, you know, broccoli before games, I feel, I feel at my peak. But for me personally, I gotta have those heavy carbs in terms of those sandwiches. So again, figure out what works best for you. Try to put yourself in that range of, again, the guidelines that I gave you and see if that affects your performance. I guarantee, if you haven't thought about it, just taking into account how do I feel, am I actually putting my body in the best position to be successful and you're going to ultimately See some great results just by doing that and being more in tune with what your body is telling you. Okay? But obviously a big part of nutrition is players want to know, like, okay, coach, how do I get bigger, right? How do I get stronger? How do I put on muscle? Okay? That's a big part of nutrition for Hoopers and the other aspect of it. So instead of talking about the actual game part, now we talk about, okay, how do I make sure that my training is supplemented by my nutrition as well, okay? And that's an important thing to understand because, you know, in every sport, right, an athlete, their speed, their power, their strength is dependent on your muscle mass, right? The muscle that you have, okay? It's not always how much or how big you are, but a lot of times it's about your muscle type, but also how much muscle you do have. Okay? That obviously is a factor as well. So that can be increased through strength training, right? And I'm a huge proponent, obviously, if you guys have listened to me for any amount of time, of making sure you're in the weight room or you're doing body weight stuff, just stuff to make sure that you're getting stronger, okay? I'm a huge proponent of doing that because you need to be able to target that, but you're not going to be able to maximize what you do in the weight room if you're not also hitting your nutrition as well. If your nutrition is terrible, then the results that you see from the weight room aren't gonna be as great as they could be. Okay? And sometimes you might not see much results if your diet is really, really bad. So we wanna make sure that that's not the case, okay? We wanna make sure that we can put ourselves in the best position to see those results. And a lot of that is gonna have to do with protein. So this is kinda where protein comes into all of this. And this is what we really have to consider are how much we're eating. Because during the season, right, you're practicing every day, you got games multiple times a week. Some of you guys might even work out before school, after school, trying to get the extra work in. You might still try and get in the weight room a little bit. You're having so much, you're expelling so much energy, so many calories that a lot of players are going to lose weight, they're going to lose muscle during the season, and we don't want that to be the case, okay? We want to figure out a way that we can maintain, at least maintain Our muscle, we might lose some fat during the season, that's alright. But we want to make sure that we're able to keep our level of our muscular strength. We want to be able to keep that as consistent as we can throughout the season. And an important part of that is recovery. So our nutrition, post game, post workout, all those things is something that we need to lock into if we want to be able to do that. And, and ultimately, kind of just the cliff notes of how muscle is built and lost, it essentially comes into calories in versus calories out. So, you know, how much muscle protein do you lose and how much do you gain? Okay. And how much do you break down? How much do you gain through your workout? So when you go to workout, right when you go to lift weights, you're breaking down your muscles. And if you eat properly and you recover well, you're going to build those muscles back stronger. But if you take away that nutrition aspect, you're breaking down muscles still, but now you might not be able to repair them quite as well as you could if you ate properly, essentially. Okay, so that's where it comes, it comes into effect. Yes, your muscles are still going to build back, but if you're missing key aspects of your, of your diet, then, then they're not going to build back as strong. And that's where we get into players losing muscle mass, losing speed, losing strength during the season because maybe they're not eating properly, they're not recovering well, so their muscles are breaking down every day. When you're running, you're jumping, you might get your extra work in, your muscles are breaking down, but they don't have the fuel to be able to recover and build back stronger. Now, protein plays a big role in this and because of that, we want to make sure that we consume protein immediately after that workout, that practice, that game, whatever it might be, that's gonna help you to build back muscle in that immediatethat immediate phase. So that 30 minutes after you workout is a very, very crucial time for you to get some protein into your body so that you can kind of negate the negative effects of protein synthesis. And losing that protein in your body, it's gonna help you to be able to build back faster. And essentially it's gonna actually help you to stimulate thatthat muscle protein as well. Okay. And also the reason it's important right after is because you know youryour blood is flowing and it's gonna actually signal to your body that like, okay, there's protein in here, let's get to work. So obviously you just got done playingyou know, playing a game or working out, your blood's flowing, you get that protein in you right away. And because of the blood flow, it's gonna get to your muscles quicker. So they're very, very receptive like I said to. And as soon as that protein is in there, the end result is that kind of shifting some of your protein intake to right after training is going to result in more of those amino acids from the protein getting involved in that protein synthesis with your muscles. Okay, so let's talk about the type of protein though, right? Because you know, all protein is good in some sense, but not all of it is equal. It's not all, it's not all the same. Okay? So there's different types of protein and one of the most popular is whey protein. Right? And that's really what we're talking about. We talk about getting protein into your body quickly after your workout. Okay. A steak hashas a lot of protein, it's a great source of protein, but it's difficult to quickly consume and quickly be able to digest a steak and get that protein to your muscles right away. Even if you eat a steak right after a workout, it's gotta get into your stomach and digest. And it's kind of a heavy food. So you might not be able to get as much of it to your muscles in that 30 minute window as you might if you just quickly drink a protein shake. Okay. Or you eat a quick whey protein bar, right? Stuff that's a little bit lighter on you, that's gonna be able to get to your muscles quicker. So being able to consume a protein shake right after a workout or a protein bar is really, really a great thing. And the other thing too is that it's not like, you know, we have to talk about the amount of protein too. So for example, you know, essentially studies have shown that it's about 20 to 30 grams of protein right after a workout is basically all your body is going to need at that point. Okay. Any more than that is really not going to do much for you. Okay. It's only really going to synthesize that 20 to 30 grams right away. So if you're able to get a 20 gram protein shake in within 30 minutes of your workout, that's going to be doing a lot of, a lot of good for your body right there. And that's just kind of a guideline that, that the overall total can actually kind of increase depending on your weight. So for a smaller athlete, so you Know, for example, if you're 175 pounds, that 20 grams of protein might, might be what you need right after. But if you're 250 pounds, that might be slightly more. Maybe that's 30. Okay. But if you're a little bit less than 175, maybe you only eat 15. Okay. At the end of the day though, you don't need to load up on 60 grams of protein right after because a lot of that isn't really going to do much for you anyway. So kind of trying to be within that 15-30gr protein after workout range is typically going to be a pretty good place to be for you. So looking at that total that we have right there, that 20 or that 30 grams right after that workout, what that kind of breaks down to is about 0.25 grams of protein per every kilogram of body weight. Okay. So for that 175 pound person, that 20 grams right after workout is going to be perfect for you. And, and ultimately your recovery doesn't end right after that 30 minutes. Okay. Actually, studies have shown that within the next 24 hours after an intense workout, your muscles are actually more receptive to protein during that time. So it's important that we get more protein in so that the muscles can synthesize that protein because they're gonna be very receptive to it. And so being able to keep up that 0.25 grams of protein per every kilogram of body weight, if we can do that between three to four times a day with our meals, that's also gonna be very, very helpful in your recovery. Okay. So if at breakfast you can strive to get that 2025 grams of protein in lunch, same exact thing. Dinner, same exact thing, maybe you have a snack during the day that has some protein in it. Okay. Combine that with making sure you have that brief protein right after your workout and you're gonna be in a great position to make sure that your body is recovering well. Okay. So three to four times per day at that same 0.25 grams of protein per every, per every one kilogram of body weight. So again, with that 175 pound athlete, typically around 20 is going to be good. So you have that 20 after your workout, you have 20 breakfast, 20 lunch, 20 dinner, and then maybe you have a snack that would be your fourth plus your workout. So you're getting a good amount of protein, you're able to synthesize that well and be able to build muscle. Especially when your muscles are very receptive to that muscle synthesis in that 24 hour period around your workouts. Okay. And typically if you're playing every day, that means that your muscles are going to be ready to synthesize every day. Okay. So that can kind of be your, that can kind of be your thing. Like when you talk about nutrition, like, I gotta have my protein every day because my muscles are always looking to build because I'm always breaking them down when I'm playing basketball or when I'm working on my conditioning or I'm in the weight room, whatever it might be. That's where it becomes important that we're able to do that. It's also shown that potentially eating that serving of protein right before bed can actually help you as well. And essentially, protein before bed kind of delays the shift during your sleep to put you into a fasted state. And so when you're in a fasted state, it's not possible to build muscle because you don't have the proper nutrition to be able to do that. So essentially what it does is it saves your muscles from that breakdown, from additional breakdown where you can just have thatthat protein in there that's continuing to help you build and help with that muscle synthesis right there. So before we end, I wanna give you guys a few tangible things you can do that are gonna help you to be able to kinda stick to your nutrition a little bit as well. And the one thing I'll say is, like, don't feel like you have to be perfect with everything. Okay. Even if you just take one or two things from this podcast and kinda implement them, that alone is gonna help you. O. Okay. So you don't have to feel like you have to do everything tomorrow. Right. If you just take one thing now, maybe a couple weeks, you take another thing and then you take another thing at some point you can completely change the way that you eat and the way that your body reacts, the way your body recovers and the way that your body is fueled, that can completely change if you just take it step by step. So don't feel like you have to do everything right now if you don't really want to right now. Okay. Take what you can, but I want to be able to break down some stuff for you just so you can have some stuff that you can actually use going forward. So you know, the energy requirements for, you know, the average high school basketball player can be, can be a lot. Okay. When you kind of break down the how much energy is actually expended throughout just your daily routine. Okay. And for in a study Done that kind of measured the energy outputs of high school basketball players. It was shown to be between 3,500 and 4,600 calories per day. Per day. That's a lot of calories right there that they're expending between lifting weights, between getting in their skill work, between practice games, whatever it might be. You're expending a lot of energy to get that stuff done. So although the total energy intake is important, it's also important that we look at where the source of that energy is coming from. Okay. And we've already talked about how carbohydrates are the best source of that fuel for you. Okay. And how that's kind of the preferred for your body. It's the preferred source of energy during that high intensity activities like basketball and lifting weights and doing whatever else you might do for your training as well. When muscle glycogen storages. So we talked about that those carbs provide that glycogen for your muscles, for your liver, so that you can be at your best when that's full. Typically, you're gonna have about 90 to 100 minutes of basically all that energy right there. So just kind of a side note, when I always talk about, you know, working out for four hours straight is a waste of time. That's why. Because even if you do everything right, your body's gonna have about a little less than two hours worth of energy. Okay. To go at 100%. So going for four hours, you're wasting your time. And to be honest with you, that upper range of 100 minutes is probably for the more advanced athletes. Okay. So let's keep that in mind as well. So just kind of a side note, let's make sure that again during workouts, we aren't extending them too long. We're able to go at 100% the whole time because we don't overextend those glycogen storages and we don't try and burn the candle on both ends in terms of trying to resort ourselves there and then come back for another workout later. We want to make sure that we're able to refuel as well. And while your practices, typically practices are going to have a lot of down times, you probably won't be going 100% for 90 minutes every practice over a period of time, including games as well. You might not go 100% for 90 minutes during a game either. But over time, over the period of days and weeks where you're continually going every single day, especially during the season, it can start to deplete those glycogen storages. And that's when you start to feel tired. You feel like you have heavy legs. It's hard for you to get going at practice every day. That can a lot of times be related back to a lack of fuel for your body with those carbohydrates. Ok, so basketball players in general are going to want to consume a high carbohydrate diet. And typically that means that at least 55% of your total calories in your day are gonna come from carbohydrates. So over half of what you eat is probably gonna be carbs. Okay. And that should come from foods like fruits, vegetables, bread, pasta, rice, those kind of those good foods. So when I say carbohydrates, that doesn't mean you can go eat cookies and chips. Those will have plenty of carbohydrates in them too. But that's not going to be what is gonna be the best in terms of fueling your body. Okay, we wanna go with those real foods. Fruits, vegetables, rice, pasta, bread, all those things, which again, sandwiches are a great option for you. Pasta is a great option for you. Kind of those heavier things. When you talk about, you know, eating those carbohydrate rich meals two to four hours before games or the night before games, those can be great options for you. And there's more than just that. You know, you could eat a muffin that would be, that would be pretty good in terms of your carbs. There's a lot of options for you when it comes to carbohydrates. So that should be pretty, pretty easy for you guys to get. But again, we talked about the range you want to be in is at least 5 to 7 grams of carbohydrates per every kilogram of body weight. Okay, so we went over that example with the player who's 160 pounds, right, where if he's eating five to seven a day, he's going to be somewhere about 380s to about 500 grams of carbohydrates per day. And that is going to change based on what your body weight is. Okay? So let's keep that in mind. And that's going to change depending on in season, preseason, off season, whatever it might be. And obviously the amount of, the amount of work that you're going to be doing every single day. So with protein, there's also going to be some guidelines that we can follow that are going to help you to be able to maximize your recovery. And typically the upper echelon of that guideline is going to be about 1.8 grams of protein per every kilogram of body weight. So if we have a player who's 140 pounds, okay, that's going to be about 115 grams of protein per day for that player to be able to adequately recover. And that's also on the higher end. So they might be okay with 100 grams of protein that day. Okay. A player that weighs 180 pounds, they might need up to about 150 per day to be able to adequately recover. Okay. Again, plug that in for your own body weight. Figure out what you need to be eating so that you can recover at your best as well. So let's talk about the actual meals and your rule of thumb there. So when we talk about your pre game meals, Right. Typically the rule of thumb for that would be your body weight in kilograms multiplied by the hours before the game. And that's going to be the grams of carbohydrates that you're gonna want to consume. Somewhere around there, again, might be higher and lower depending on who you are. But for example, if we have a player who is 68 kilograms, which would be 150 pounds, we're gonna multiply that. We'll say he has three hours before his game. That would equal 204 grams of carbohydrates. Okay. So if it's three hours, if it's four o', clock, he's gonna game at seven. He could eat up to 204 grams of carbohydrates to make sure that again, those glycogen storages in his liver is at its peak and his muscles at its peak. And again, he's functioning in terms of his brain focus. That's at its peak as well. Okay. But if you have a player who, you know, maybe they're only an hour away, then that might go down to about 70 carbohydrates before the game starts. Okay, so that's going to matter depending on time, depending on you personally and depending on how much you weigh and how much you actually are going to need. Okay, we talk about during games. You know, typically games are going to last between 32 to 48 minutes, depending on what level you're at. And that's just of game time. Usually games are going to go an hour, hour and a half, again depending on what level you're playing at. And again, although it's unlikely you're going to completely drain your glycogen storages during one game, we want to make sure that we can, we can save them as much as possible. So if we have to play back to back games on two days or we have to, we have a workout in the morning and we're going to play at night, we want to make sure we have as much in the tank as we can. So not only can we can bounce back, but we're able to play at a higher level for longer. Okay. So we can maintain 85% of our max level in the fourth quarter as opposed to being drained only be able to play at 65%. Okay. And what this is going to do is it's essentially going to help all those areas we talked about earlier with especially your anaerobic system. So sprinting, jumping, quick movements, all those things right there. So the recommended amount of carbohydrates to consume during your actual games or your actual practices is kind of 30 to 60 grams per hour. Okay. And that's obviously of power of intense exercise. So if you have a Gatorade, you know you are going to want to pay attention to how much you're consuming with that because that can be your source of carbohydrates during that time. And typically a 16 to 32 ounce Gatorade is going to be enough to kind of fulfill you during that, that time in terms of those carbohydrate needs. And obviously the great thing about drinking a sports drink as well is that it's going to also help you with your dehydration so you're able to stay hydrated while also being able to stay stored up on your glycogen levels as well. So in terms of recovery, we've talked about how important it is to get an immediate source of protein right after your workout within that 30 minute window. Because again, that's when your muscles are going to be the most receptive to that protein synthesis as well as the most receptive to restoring those glycogen storages as well as. So that's something we're going to want to do. And you know that that either that meal or that protein shake that you might drink 30 minutes after is going to be much more, much better received by your body than if you were to do the same thing two to three hours later. Okay? That being said, after we do that, after we replenish ourselves quickly in that 30 minutes after, you're going to want to eat another meal, an actual meal, within two to three hours of that workout or that game, that practice, just so you can truly kind of refuel your body. You don't want to just rely on one part because again, we talked about earlier that 30 minutes is not the end of your recovery. You still have more time that your body needs to recover. So you're going to want to supplement that with, again, more stuff to eat as well. And there's plenty of kind of popular protein shakes that you can get, but chocolate milk is another great option for you as well after games. Um, and it is important to consume those carbs and, and, and protein right after that workout. But, you know, with that meal, that's where it can be much more balanced in terms of, of of what we're gonna eat. And you're also gonna wanna make sure that you rehydrate as well after those games where again, another great thing about drinking sports drinks is that they're gonna have sodium, which a lot of times you're running low on sodium after, after intense games, practices. So being able to refuel with ideally a sports drink at some point to make sure that you're, you're good on your carbohydrates as well as sodium and those other electrolytes is going to be important for you. And then you just have to be able to kind of scale that up. If you're playing in a tournament where you're playing multiple times a day, that's just kind of going to kind of depend on your overall activity level. So obviously there's a lot there. But honestly, it becomes pretty simple when you just recognize, you know, okay, what do I need to eat in terms of carbohydrates? What do I need to eat in terms of protein? And what about fats? Okay, really it comes down to 55% of it is carbs. You want to make sure that depending on your body weight, you're eating enough protein and then really the rest is just kind of filled in with fats. And it's really as simple as that. And again, don't feel like you have to do everything right at once. But if you're able to say, okay, you know, I'm make sure that I have a sandwichy right after my basketball game so that I can kind of replenish those glycogen storages and get some protein in as well, okay, I got a peanut butter sandwichy right after it's got some protein in it and carbohydrates, I'm gonna feel good after that. And then I'm make sure that I eat them or an actual meal within two or three hours of my game. If that's the only change you make. You're gonna start to recover a lot better. Okay. So there are little actionable things you can take from this podcast that are gonna help you to be able to play at your best, to recover at your best, and to ultimately, you know, kind of hit the best level you can. Because, again, we always talk about how competitive basketball is today, and every day gets more competitive. So being able to find those little advantages for yourself, nutrition is a huge part of that. If you're able to commit to, I want to try and eat the right things, I want to try and fuel my body the right way. That's really going to pay dividends for you down the line. So, again, hopefully this kind of answered everything for you guys. Again, a lot of stuff in here to take, but I encourage you, if you took notes, hopefully you did go back and look through it, see what you can take. Now if you need to listen through a second time, also recommend that you guys do that. Whatever it takes to be able to kind of soak all this stuff in. But, you know, any questions, make sure you guys send me a DM on Instagram. Vision Driven Basketball. Drop a comment below, let me know what you thought. Shout out to all you guys on YouTube. Make sure you drop a like and subscribe as well. And all you guys who are listening on podcast or Spotify. Appreciate you guys. I'll talk to you guys soon. Peace, Sa.