Eating to Win

Matt Sharp is a [?] who trains using Olympics distances, which include swimming [?] for 1500 metres, riding a bicycle for 40 kilometres and running for ten kilometres without taking a [?]. Because Matt must train 25-30 hours per week, he burns between 4500-5000 [?] per day - about 2000 [?] more than the average male - so he needs to eat a very large amount of food to keep his body going. Matt’s diet was developed systematically by a [?] to ensure that his body receives proper [?] and calories.

Matt eats lightly each morning before his swim, preferring only a glass of squash and a few biscuits because his stomach is not ready in the early morning for large amounts of food. After swimming, he has a much larger breakfast consisting of wheat-based cereal, toast and jam, [?] and a large portion of [?], because this is an excellent source of carbohydrates that can release energy slowly into the blood stream and sustain his strength, especially on long bicycle journeys. Even after this very large breakfast, Matt still needs to eat bananas and sandwiches when he is [?], as these rides are often 5 hours long. He explains that he does not want to develop hypoglycemia when he trains, which causes the body to use its own [?] of protein when it does not have enough glycogen stored in it. When this occurs, muscles may become tired, causing hom to feel weak and [?], which may be difficult to recover from afterwards.

After Matt’s cycling practice, he eats another large meal of toast and scrambled eggs as eggs are an excellent source of [?]. He also enjoys the taste and feels they are convenient because anything can be added to them. 20-30 minutes after his session he drinks milk and protein [?], which are excellent sources of calcium and protein, and which help him recover and keep his bones strong.

His evening meal is basic but large, as he eats pasta with sauce, salmon for protein and vegetables for vitamins and minerals. Matt says that not only does he use up more calories than most average people, but also more vitamins and minerals, so these too have to be replaced. He also says that training makes him feel hungry every 30 minutes, but he does not mind because being able to eat as much as he wants is a great feature of exercising all the time.

In the evening, Matt enjoys some [?] and a cup of tea to give his body a bit of sugar so that by morning he will not have starved his body for ten hours. Matt says that at his level of competition, the food he eats makes a large difference in the speed he is able to compete at, and that the better he eats, the faster he can go. In short, Matt says, ‘What you put in is what you’re gonna get out.’