-Donuts and Gummy Worms For Sure-
In most ways, nutrition isn’t tricky; it’s simply a math equation: energy burned vs energy consumed. That’s true for life, that’s true for golf, that’s true on Sunday and Monday and all the -day days.
However, as you might have guessed, or experienced, it plays out much more complicated in real life, particularly during a round of golf.
The wrinkles:
-Golf takes a long time.
-Golf burns TONS of calories.
-If you are a competitive player, you are likely on the road away from your home environment.
-It’s rarely “food keeping” temperature and you can’t bring a microwave with you, making meats or good proteins hard to keep with you.
-Unhealthy food is more calorie dense than healthy food (meaning healthy on-course nutrition requires a lot of food!)
You probably know all this… so what do we do next?
(Enter: “The Math”)
First, we need to know the math. It is estimated that we can burn up to 1,400 or 1,500 calories walking a round of golf. That’s about 2lbs of chicken by my estimation. An average chicken is about 5 or 6lbs, so we need to bring 1/3 of a chicken with us. Not ideal. It’d probably be better that we needed a whole chicken, because at least then we could just walk it with a leash.
Ahem. Forgive me.
1,500 calories is then the number we need to figure out how to eat during our five hour round of golf, and in actuality, it’s going to be more like 8 hours from meal-to-meal. 1,500 calories of stuff that will give us energy—slowly-ish— not fill us up, not leave us too groggy, and with enough power to carry the bunker we never can carry off the 18th tee.
(For reference, we are gonna assume that a normal person burns 2,000 calories in normal day.)
(Enter: “The Plan”)
Act 1: The night before. Make sure and eat a good healthy meal the night before. Avoid dessert if possible. You want things that will feel light but filling, with plenty of protein. Think fish, chicken, salad, and good fiber (fruits and veggies). The only hard part here is discipline.
Act 2: The morning of. First thing in the morning, drink a big glass of water (20 oz). This gets everything going, helping you feel awake, replenishing you after a night of sleep, and gets the digestive process moving.
Act 3: Breakfast. Two and a half hours before tee time. (If you have an afternoon tee-time keep this plan as well). Think protein and fats, with less of an emphasis on carbs (although some fruit will be totally fine). I love bacon and eggs (‘Merica), bagels and peanut butter, chicken and a heavy fiber cereal…berries, etc. In general I’m hoping to get 750-1000 calories from this meal.
Act 4: After warmup headed to the first tee. Now is a great time to have a banana or orange or a fruit of some kind. The sugars will be “uppers”, the fiber in the fruit will keep you from spiking too hard, and then, combined with the amount of food we had a couple of hours ago, it’ll help keep us sustained and in the rhythm we want to have today—eating every 45 minutes or so.
Act 5: During the round. Shoot to eat something every other hole, at most every third hole (should end up being every forty-five min to an hour, as previously mentioned). Protein shakes are great here, as are little containers or nuts and seeds. I wouldn’t be upset by a banana or two thrown in the mix as well. Ideally we’ll get another 1,000 calories between the first tee and the 13th hole.
Act 6: Don’t neglect food after the 14th hole. It’s easy to think “I only have a couple more holes, I can stop”, but don’t. Keep feeding. Ideally we’ve had at least 150-250 calories five or so times by now (750-1250 total), but finish strong. It’ll allow you to maintain all the way to the end, and practice afterwards if needed. A huge part of tournament golf is getting ready for tomorrow too, even while you’re competing the day beforehand.
Act 7: Post-round. It’s easy to want the beer and burger here, ESPECIALLY if we haven’t maintained our portions throughout the day. When one is significantly underfed, it’s basically a guaranteed fact that the body will gorge itself—on the most tasty thing available—which in this case is probably chips, burgers, and beer or Gatorade.
Don’t indulge. Get chicken breast, a side of green beans, maybe some rice on the side, and a glass of water (perhaps with some electrolytes thrown in). You’ll be so thankful you did come this evening and the next morning.
Act 8: Dinner. You are the only one who knows exactly how much you need at this meal, but hopefully you’ve captured the gist of what we’re looking for at this point. Lean proteins, good carbs (fruits/veggies/rice/sweet potatoes etc.), and perhaps some avocado or good fats to sustain the body through the night.
As best as you can help it, try not to have this meal too late. The digestive process takes a while and the closer it is to bedtime, the less likely you are to sleep well.
Act 9: The next day. It starts all over my friend!
TLDR (Too-long-didn’t-read) version:
For a generally healthy competition diet, we are looking to get about 3,500 calories in a day. We’d love to see about a gram of protein per lb of bodyweight (usually 150-200grams). We desperately want our sugars/carbs to not be heavy on Gatorade, but significantly more full of fiber, so the body processes the sugar more slowly and we don’t have as strong of blood-sugar spikes, potentially leading to fast bursts of excessive energy, and leading to potential sluggish crashes. Wise choices are easier when you are satiated, and much more difficult if you have fallen behind on your calorie count and are famished. Staying ahead of the game is worth 10 points to Gryffindor.
If you follow this guideline, you’ll likely play better. Not every round of course, it’s certainly possible you have the snap hooks and every one finds water. But in general, you’ll find that you have an extra bounce in your step, and a little more mental energy to plan and execute your shots.
Go get it!
-Michael
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