Heather BlackmonRecently I asked the FITaspire Insider community to share their current fitness & nutrition challenges. Many of the responses I’ve received so far are related to nutrition and to get how to get faster and leaner.
This is a question I often asked myself throughout my earlier years in endurance sports. After all, if i’m working hard to get faster, can’t that result in a leaner me?
Well…maybe.
But more likely, if you’re training to maximize your performance in endurance sports, your workouts and nutrition won’t set you up for maximizing fat loss! And if you’re training for fat loss, you won’t be able to achieve your full performance potential.
Let’s dig into this a little more.
Training for Fat Loss
When your goal is to lean out and lose excess fat, you typically start with a reduction in overall calories and adjusting nutrient timing to meet that goal. These strategies won’t support your best endurance performance, but can support an increase in strength (which helps you build muscles to give you that curvy or toned look). I have found that you can work on short distance events during a fat loss cycle — in fact my current 5K PR came while training for my bikini competition.
Tips for Fat Loss:
- Determine your calorie needs (based on activity level) & slightly reduce intake
- Eat protein-dense foods at each meal
- Shift starchy carbs to post-workout meal
- Prioritize strength training and cardio intervals
- Stick with water & tea for liquid calories
Training for Performance
When you’re training for athletic performance, you want your nutrition to support your higher training intensity and volume. You’ll want keep your calorie intake high enough to fuel those longer workouts and give your body the nutrients to perform at its peak and recover fully. The typical macro split to support this goal is often higher in carbohydrates than is ideal for fat loss, as well. This is not to say you can’t lose any fat while training for performance, but realize that your progress may be slower.
Tips for Performance:
- Determine your calorie needs (based on activity level) & eat up!
- Eat protein-dense foods at each meal
- Some starchy, whole-grain, unprocessed carbs at any meal
- Balanced training schedule created for your goal
- Aim for 50-150 calories per hour for workouts over 90 minutes
But what if your long-term goal really does cover both of these?
While you can’t achieve both goals at the same time, you can adjust your focus throughout the year to achieve one at a time. One approach would be to focus on fat loss first, then shift to maintenance and performance once you’ve reached your goal. Or focus on performance goals during the race season and shift your focus to fat loss during the off season when peak performance isn’t needed.
[Tweet “A hard choice: fat loss or performance. Why you need to choose. #fitfluential”]
So what is your current priority?
