This could be a misconception of mine but I always thought swimmers should be ravenous after swim practice. My son (13) swims for 2-2.5 hours and does not want to eat dinner after practice. He eats about 30 minutes before he leaves for practice but it's not a huge meal. Most days he skips dinner and goes to sleep without eating anything. I am concerned because 1. shouldn't he re-fuel his body after practice? and 2. not sure he is getting enough nutrition to sustain the level of effort that is needed. At the same time I want to trust his body to let him know when and how much he needs to eat. When I ask him he will say he is not hungry. Any advice?
Trust but verify. Proper fueling (before, during and after workouts) are key elements of development and performance improvement. Eat when you’re hungry and drink when you are thirsty, don’t typically hold true for athletes striving for peak performance. You and your son should consider bringing this up with his primary care physician or consulting a sports nutritionists.
You can also check out articles on the web. USA Swimming has some good resources on nutrition and there are a number of hits when googling nutrition for competitive swimmers.
At 13, your son can do a lot of this research on his own, but you may want to spend some quality time with him looking into this.
Yes I tried to do some research but all I found was that the meal after practice should be a balanced meal of complex carbs, protein and fat, nothing about actually NOT WANTING to eat anything. I suppose I can force him to eat it, but I am trying to understand why he doesn't want to eat it. Will check with his doctor also.
Trust but verify. Proper fueling (before, during and after workouts) are key elements of development and performance improvement. Eat when you’re hungry and drink when you are thirsty, don’t typically hold true for athletes striving for peak performance. You and your son should consider bringing this up with his primary care physician or consulting a sports nutritionists.
You can also check out articles on the web. USA Swimming has some good resources on nutrition and there are a number of hits when googling nutrition for competitive swimmers.
At 13, your son can do a lot of this research on his own, but you may want to spend some quality time with him looking into this.
Yes I tried to do some research but all I found was that the meal after practice should be a balanced meal of complex carbs, protein and fat, nothing about actually NOT WANTING to eat anything. I suppose I can force him to eat it, but I am trying to understand why he doesn't want to eat it. Will check with his doctor also.
