The mic is hot and the game is on. You're listening
to News for the Nation podcast by Aces Nation,
where we talk about nutrition, sports performance,
the journey of a student athlete, and more. I'm
Claire. I'm Zach. Time to level up. Welcome back
sports fans. Today, special treat, we are giving
you some case studies that are real about how
to improve your performance through nutrition.
Always, we got Claire Alvarez with us. ready
to give you all the information you need. We
got two different case studies today. Claire
is going to share with us how she's helped athletes
increase their weight or muscle mass. I mean,
she's going to elaborate on that and then increase
their performance, both of those through nutrition,
which is highly important for all your performance
recovery needs. And you need it to stay alive.
So Claire, thanks for being here. Let's get right
into it. Which one are we doing first? Let's
talk about weight gain, muscle gain first. Let's
talk about that. Yeah. So, I mean, depending
on athlete's goals, there's going to be different
tweaks. I would say the majority of what we're
doing that's changing will be small tweaks in
between goals, really looking at changing calories
in a specific way. For younger athletes, I think
a lot of what we're doing is just changing habits
and giving them tips and tricks on how to do
these things and accomplish these things without
necessarily needing to like track their food
or kind of be a little bit more diligent than
I would maybe have adults be doing in similar
situations. So. If we're talking about gaining
weight, gaining muscle, I would say specifically
if the majority of athletes are talking about
gaining weight, they're typically talking about
gaining muscle. There's a couple things that
you want to keep in mind and there's a couple
strategies that we can implement to kind of help
make that better or easier, if you will. The
first thing and probably the most important thing
is to make sure you're eating in a caloric surplus.
So essentially what that means and I think we've
talked about a lot of these issues in our first
podcast is just making sure you're eating more
calories than what you're burning. This specific
athlete that I'm thinking of is a multi sport
athlete So they came to me and they were playing
multiple sports Transitioning kind of between
like basketball into baseball So school basketball
was kind of winding down travel that baseball
was winding up, but they were still doing both
of these sports at the same time it just depending
on the season depending on which one was more
of the primary sport versus kind of the more
backup or recreational sport. So even from switching
to baseball from basketball regardless his energy
needs or energy expenditure was pretty high.
So primary goal was to build muscle gain weight
and The first thing like I mentioned that you
have to be doing in order to do that is to be
in a caloric surplus. One of the biggest things
that I see especially in younger athletes especially
in multi -sport younger athletes make when they're
trying to build muscle is not eating enough.
So that's the first thing is not only do you
need to eat enough to maintain your weight but
you need to eat more than that so that you're
able to actually build muscle and put weight
on. So a couple ways that I like to help athletes
especially younger athletes kind of make that
transition from eating not enough to eating more
and eating in that caloric surplus is starting
with just what they're already eating and I'll
assess it from an individual basis and I if I
have to make suggestions on like swapping certain
things or changing certain things out then we'll
do that but The easiest thing to start with is
just gradually increasing portion sizes of what
they're already doing at every single meal. So
breakfast, lunch and dinner. So for example,
if let's say for breakfast they're eating like
a piece of peanut butter toast with half a banana
and two eggs, my first thought would be well
let's increase that to two to three pieces of
peanut butter toast. a couple more eggs maybe
like four eggs and maybe we're adding some orange
juice on the side so like something or a glass
of milk on the side so something like that to
where we're increasing what they're already doing
it's not going to seem too crazy but over time
we're adding to where that breakfast is maybe
or that meal is maybe a third to her I would
say two times more than what it already is. Okay.
Oh, go ahead. So, um, breakfast, lunch or dinner
doesn't matter to me. What, what do you see in
those meals? Like in this situation where you're
telling someone to increase their caloric intake
a little bit at a time, like what, in your experience,
what is one of the first areas that they go for
first, right? So you gave us a breakfast, um,
example, um, What would a typical younger athlete,
what would you say that they're more likely to
go for first? Is it the peanut butter toast?
Is it extra egg? Which one of those are they
more likely to add first? It depends on the athlete.
I've had some that prefer to add eggs. I've had
some that maybe... Are not as hungry in the morning
or they're a little bit nauseous in the morning
they're not used to eating a bigger breakfast
in the morning so maybe we'll add a glass of
milk or a glass of orange juice to just make.
The volume a little bit lower but still kind
of getting some extra calories so it depends
i would say i gave breakfast is an example because
usually. younger athletes are not eating enough
at breakfast. So that's usually a place where
we can kind of afford some extra room and extra
calories. I would say where they're more willing
to add or increase portions is lunch and dinner.
Just because they're more hungry, it's a little
bit easier. But sometimes my concern with those
athletes, especially multi -sport athletes, if
they're practicing up until eight, nine o 'clock
at night. I don't necessarily want them eating
a very large dinner right before bed because
that can impact their sleep or that could potentially
impact GI stuff or not feeling hungry the next
day. So it kind of is a catch -22 and it really
just depends on the athlete and their schedule
and what their body can handle. Okay, back to
the case study. But good question. So that was
the first thing we did is just slowly and gradually
start to increase portion sizes. So for this
kid specifically, he was able to implement a
larger breakfast. And that really helped him
just to kind of start the day with a little bit
more. Kind of similar to gradually increasing
portion sizes would be just to eat frequently
throughout the day. So I mentioned three meals.
That's like the bare minimum. We need to be eating
three meals. Realistically, and I know this is
harder during the school year than it is during
summer, we want to be eating every two to three
hours. So typically for athletes that would mean
eating three meals and probably at least three
snacks if we're adding like pre and post workout
snacks in there, intro workout snacks, and maybe
closer to six to eight snacks depending on how
we're breaking that up. So really want to eat
frequently and kind of take advantage of the
time that you have throughout the day and optimizing
those windows to get in the probably what is
a pretty large amount of calories that they need
to get in to be in a surplus. For this specific
example, this was right at the tail end of school.
We definitely had a harder time getting snacks
in. Again, depending on the school, depending
on teachers and classes, sometimes they don't
allow snacks. That made it a little bit difficult.
We tried to get around that by maybe adding electrolytes
or something to water that had some carbohydrates
in it. So just trying to do things where we could.
But during summer, the schedule shifted to where
it was breakfast, morning snack, lunch, pre -practice
snack, post -practice snack, pre -practice snack,
dinner, bedtime snack. So we were pretty structured
in that schedule. Because of that that allowed
us to make sure that he was getting all the calories
that he needed throughout the day Yeah, what
what's the deal with that? Anyway with school
not a lot of schools not allowing you to have
snacks Yeah I'm trying to think of what mine
did and I honestly can't remember. I think it
just depended on the teacher Sometimes they were
they were nice about it. And if you were like,
hey listen I'm an athlete, I'm starving, I need
to eat something or whatever, they would be a
little bit more willing. But I just remember
some teachers were like, nope, no food, you can't
have food. So like, how do we go from little
toddlers, you know, or like little kids going
to school and they get snacks throughout the
day plus the meal, right? And now like you're
older, you can't you can't have any more food.
And to me, it makes Zero sense because a lot
i mean a lot of kids are in sports i mean they
maybe get i know we had a gap in between the
end of school and practice i think it was like
an hour so we could eat a snack there but i mean
the lunch schedule is also messed up i mean some
kids eat lunch at 10 a .m. so then they're eating
again until three four o 'clock like that's pretty
crazy so and i would think that. You know this
idea that from a concentration perspective and
I think just the amount of kids that have trouble
concentrating during school You would see such
a large improvement if they were able to have
a snack Yeah, and to be noted on the opposite
of the example that you give some kids have to
start school at like 7 38 o 'clock, but their
lunch because of how the school said is set up
may not eat till like 132 so They've got that
long period of like, hey, I'm not able to eat
after having breakfast. And some kids don't even
have breakfast. Right. Yeah. So it's crazy. But
it is crazy. So it's hard. But I will say there
are some I've had some athletes that I've worked
with where they're like, yeah, teachers don't
care. Cool. Whatever you need me to bring, I'll
bring. sometimes we run into more issues, but
sometimes it's nice to make some of these changes.
Definitely. Something else that we incorporated
were smoothies. Smoothies are a really helpful
strategy with weight gain and muscle gain just
because they're easier to digest and get down
because they're liquid and you can pack a lot
of calories in them. I remember When I was in
collegiate football and we were making smoothies,
we would put all sorts of stuff in there, avocado,
coconut oil, using whole milk or coconut milk.
So just trying to get as many calories as you
can in that one thing because you can control
that for them. So if you feel like, hey, you're
getting... I know they're getting at least a
thousand calories in today because I provided
them with this. Great. And for the most part,
those calories are nutritious and from whole
food sources. So that's also a win in our book.
So that's a really big one is just utilizing
those, whether it's post -workout or for a snack
throughout the day, like I said, especially with
summer here. So some Ways that we can look at
adding really nutrient dense but high calorie
foods Into smoothies are things like I mentioned
like instead of using like almond milk or oat
milk using canned coconut milk, which half a
cup is like 240 250 calories using frozen avocado.
So putting that in there and With half of a large
avocado you get like 150 calories. Peanut butter
or almond butter using nut butter in it. Trying
to put lots of fruit in it or using fruit juice
and fruit so we're getting some more calories.
So just trying to use that to your advantage
and like I mentioned you can have a smoothie
that's upwards of like 800 to 1000 calories if
you really struggle to get enough in throughout
the day. Yeah, I know. That's a sneaky way to
get vegetables in if you don't really like them,
because you only like fruit and peanut butter
and milk or whatever, you know, what have you.
But yeah, you're right. You could load so much
stuff, so many nutrients into the shake. And
a lot of people, if it tastes good, they'll be
like, yep, that's me right there. I love it.
Yeah. Look, I remember there were... times you
put granola bars in there, granola bars, cereal,
you can do that, or oats. Oats is another really
easy way to add calories to smoothies, which
is helpful. So that's just another way. Yeah.
Okay, so before you get to the very end of the
results portion here, how did you do your initial
baseline type of thing? Was it just body weight?
Were you able to get any type of fat -free mass
or muscle mass readings on this person? How did
that initial evaluation go? Yeah. So because
it was a younger athlete, just weight, we just
had weight, but I always like to go off of performance,
energy levels, how they're feeling. So kind of
some of those like non -scale. markers of progress
as well, feelings of fullness, any like nausea,
so things like that. But typically, if I am to
get any body composition type baseline data,
it's in older athletes or adults. This athlete
was, I think, 13 or 14. So we didn't have access
to it. So recap here, we got a multi -sport athlete
trying to gain weight, gain some muscle. You
went from adding a little bit more to each meal,
encouraging the snacks throughout the day just
to keep that caloric surplus. What was the result
for this person? Yeah. So after increasing all
of those things and incorporating them consistently,
he was able to reach his goal weight of 10 pounds
of adding 10 pounds. His body comp did change
just from an aesthetic point of view. So he noticed
it. He noticed his strength going up in training
sessions, noticed energy improving, performance
improved. So while we didn't necessarily have
numbers to tell us from a body count perspective,
there was some anecdotal data to help kind of
just drive the point that we were able to increase
muscle mass. how much I have no idea, but I think
it's safe to say that while reaching that target
number, the majority of that was probably muscle
with a little bit of body fat increase in there
too. Right. Which is not a bad thing for someone
who's a younger multi -sport athlete to have
a little more. It's not a bad thing. So what
was the timeframe for this 10 pounds? This was
two months. Okay, hey, that's pretty good. That's
pretty good. And I will say a lot of the times,
especially in the initial week or two, we'll
see like a quite, not quite a large jump, but
usually a larger jump because if we're increasing
carbohydrates significantly, we're able to add
more water or we're able to hone in on hydration.
typically water weight is going to increase.
So we'll see like a jump on the scale. But after
that, he was able to primarily or consistently
increase by somewhere between like a pound to
pounds per week, which is which is kind of what
we're looking for. Wow. Aces Nation is a team
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Wow, that's a pretty good deal, Claire. Also
sounds like a pretty committed student -athlete
right there. to be able to have those results
and make those changes around class and then
really take advantage of the schedule set when
you get to summertime. So good information there.
Now, let's move to the performance one. Okay.
So this is not weight based. This is a whole
different set of goals. What were the goals going
into it? Yeah. So typically the performance goals,
that I see in younger athletes are just wanting
to get better. I feel like when you press for
that, they're like, faster, stronger, just better.
And you're like, great, okay, got it. So that's
essentially what this athlete, she was just looking
to, she was a track runner. So mid to long distance,
so like 800 to mile, maybe two mile. So just
looking to improve times, get faster, feel like
she had more energy and not bonk during races
or like hit a wall during races. And I noticed
a similar trend with a lot of these like performance
athletes and it's similar to the weight gain
athletes in the sense that they're not eating
enough. However, a lot of times with and it's
not. All of the case, but I do have a lot of
athletes that will come in and they are eating
relatively well in terms of like what their meals
are composed of. But the issue is the timing
of their meals and that's what I see the timing
of their meals or the timing around their workouts
that I notice is very off and that makes sense
because we're not taught that and most most athletes
aren't taught until. College if they're lucky.
And so usually what I'm seeing is similar with
like the school pattern, but you know, like may
or may not be eating breakfast. If we are eating
breakfast is probably pretty small on the go.
Lunch is probably pretty big after school before
practice might be eating a snack might not, but
a lot of times what I'll see is like a really
high protein snack before practice or something
like that. Get home, eat dinner, and then go
to bed so. A couple problems with that and I'll
start with the first one is if you're not eating
a high carbohydrate snack before practice, you're
probably going to be low energy. Aside from the
fact if you don't have adequate energy intake
throughout the day at a minimum. So that was
the first thing that we changed was her nutrition
around practice. So instead of eating like a
protein bar or trail mix or a cheese stick before
practice, we were eating like half a peanut butter
and jelly or we were eating like pretzels with
maybe a little bit of peanut butter. Yeah. So
what you're saying there is like you went from
a higher fat snack with more protein content
to more carbohydrate focused right before going
into practice. Yes. So that's what we focused
on. Something else that is interesting that I
don't think a lot of high school athletes get
either, if they do get breaks, they're usually
just getting like a water break. But I have some
athletes that their practices are lasting multiple
hours. And if they're not eating something throughout
practice, or having carbohydrates in some capacity,
whether that be in a water bottle, juice form,
applesauce pouch, something like that, they're
putting themselves at a disadvantage for energy
reduction. So that was something else that we
had to kind of work through like if she was able
to do that. And typically, her practices were
about an hour. So it wasn't necessarily the end
of the world. But if there was like a long practice
on like let's say they didn't have a meet and
it was a Saturday and they were having like a
two hour practice, she would have an applesauce
pouch when she could, ideally halfway through,
but somewhere along there. And that really helped
as well. So making sure she had that adequate
energy. And then after practice, instead of just
driving home and going home straight to dinner,
we added a post -workout snack. So it wasn't
necessarily Huge, but again, high in carbohydrates,
protein, maybe a little bit of fat. So for example,
if like a parent came to pick her up, they'd
have like a yogurt with fruit and granola for
her and she would have that on the way home or
a smoothie or let's see, what else did we do?
Maybe the other half of the PB &J with some of
protein shake. So this athlete in particular
had a longer drive to get home from wherever
the training session was happening. Um, I wouldn't
necessarily say a longer drive. It wasn't a drive,
but there was a drive home. Um, I think it was
like 15, 20 minutes. So had the snack when you
get in the car, got home, showered, mom or dad
made dinner or, you know, had dinner ready. And
then, you know, by the time She got home, did
all that. It was like maybe 45 minutes in between.
So tried to do something small, easily digestible.
Again, it wasn't something huge, but trying to
have something so we're utilizing that window
of time and starting the recovery process. So
for listeners, if you got like that 15, 20 minute
window that it takes you to get home, plus you
have to shower, if dinner's not ready, then that's
even longer. So that time can kind of add up
without you even realizing it, not that it just
takes 15 minutes to get home and you've got stuff
that's available but maybe not accessible at
that point, or maybe accessible but not available.
But anyways, so yeah, that's a good reference
to have for the timeframe that. you could get
away with to have that post training snack before
you have your dinner. Right. And then dinner
was pretty good. And then the other thing that
we changed was just having a pre bedtime snack.
Again, wasn't big. It could have been like some
tart cherry juice and like almonds or nuts, maybe
some like popcorn with nuts or seeds or some
chocolate chips, something like that. So it was
relatively small, lower in volume, but still
contained carbohydrates, some fats. Sometimes
there was some protein in there as well. But
again, just kind of like utilizing another window.
So having a snack, it was probably, I would say
about, I think dinner was at like six, two hours
after dinner, maybe like one and a half, two
hours before bedtime, if there was a lot of homework.
Well, I mean, that's some good information there
for our listeners. So what was the result here?
What was the performance result? And what were
those gains? Yeah. So I only worked with this
athlete for about three to four weeks. But in
that time, she definitely noticed an increase
in energy intake and energy. So like went into
practices with a lot more energy, was able to
complete the intention of the practices. And
by the end of that time, she was running personal
bests at meets, albeit not by like minutes, but
she was still running faster, which was one of
her primary goals. So I think it just shows that,
you know, making sure that you're meeting the
energy demands of your sport is important, but
also that timing is really important because
if you're going into a practice session and you
have no energy or not enough energy, you're not
going to be able to practice with the intent
that you need to practice with to get better
and faster and stronger, whatever it is that
you want to do. So you're going to be stuck in
the cycle of just being tired and performing
the same. Yeah, I think it's incredible that
she was making even personal best by seconds.
and you only I mean you only worked with it for
three or four weeks typically I would say even
if she in that time frame even if she just felt
better felt like she had more energy you know
at the start of practice and throughout practice
I think that was a huge win but the fact that
she was able to perform at meets uh it's fantastic
and she probably if continuing along the same
trend that you established with her in that three
to four weeks she was probably seeing continued
success and personal best that she continued
on. Yeah. And I think, and we talked about meat
nutrition too, she definitely took a lot of that
timing nutrients with her into the meats too.
And I think that made a big difference as well,
because if you're doing the same thing before
practice, what you're doing with meats and just
eating a bunch of protein and fat, it's probably
not going to help you run an 800 very fast. Yeah,
no doubt. Let's get information. I hope everyone
you know play that back and listen to it because
Claire just gave you a lot of information there
about how she's been able to work with people
for two different goals and still be able to
make those adjustments and you're probably going
to need something a little more specific to you
so definitely reach out to us and Claire is able
to provide that information specific to you so
that you can gain weight if you need to if you
want to right perform better if you if you need
to you know if you want to and everybody wants
to perform better so definitely um hit us up
let's figure out how we can help you be better
you know be who you want to be as an athlete
so thanks everybody for listening we will catch
you on the next one see ya