College athlete

taryn_strahl

Hi everyone! I play tennis competitively in college. I'm normally 5'7" and 125 pounds. It's the perfect weight for my body. I am currently at 136 pounds and want to lose 11 pounds, but don't know how to diet correctly. I still need to eat a lot to get the energy for practice and matches! I rely a lot on carbs. I guess I just want to know if anyone has advice for me. I want to safley lose that weight without losing energy.

AllanMisner

Doesn’t your college have a sports nutritionist on staff?

taryn_strahl

No, we just went D1, and the tennis budget doent allow that yet. They told us maybe in a year or two.

thaylin0

However what about people training to be one, or their teachers. It is a fairly common program at 4 year schools.

AllanMisner

Is there one for the other teams? Maybe you can piggy back on the basketball team. My point is, without really knowing your working needs (D1 tennis is pretty demanding stuff), there is no right answer. IMO, there is too much at stake for you to take MFP advice on this one. Find a professional nutritionist, particularly one who works with top level athletes.

thaylin0

Exactly what Allan said. Not to mention sports nutrition is different from normal nutrition.

taryn_strahl

Yeah it's just tough to find people, tennis is kind of put on the back burner to football and other more popular sports, but I will dig a little deeper and bother more people about it. And about the nutrition majors, I think I would rather have someone who is graduated and is actually working in the field.

thaylin0

That is why you go to their professors and speak to one of them. College professors are typically passionate about their fields and willing to help, especially when it comes to a school sport.

Sam_I_Am77

I find it hard to believe that a large DII school that just went D1 doesn't have a Strength & Conditioning coach available for consultation either. Try going to PubMed or your school's Library and do a search for something along the lines of "Nutrition for College Tennis" and look for peer-reviewed resources. I did a quick look in my school's library and there are quite a few actually, wish I could link them for you. Here's an abstract from one,

Tennis is a pan-global sport that is played year-round in both hemispheres. This places notable demands on the physical and psychological preparation of players and included in these demands are nutritional and fluid requirements both of training and match-play. Thus, the purpose of this article is to review nutritional recommendations for tennis. Notably, tennis players do not excel in any particular physiological or anthropometric characteristic but are well adapted in all areas which is probably a result of the varied nature of the training demands of tennis match play. Energy expenditures of 30.9 ± 5.5 and 45.3 ± 7.3 kJ∙min-1 have been reported in women and men players respectively regardless of court surface. Tennis players should follow a habitually high carbohydrate diet of between 6-10 g.kg-1.d-1 to ensure adequate glycogen stores, with women generally requiring slightly less than men. Protein intake guidelines for tennis players training at a high intensity and duration on a daily basis should be ~1.6 g.kg-1.d-1 and dietary fat intake should not exceed 2 g.kg-1.d-1. Caffeine in doses of 3 mg.kg-1 provides ergogenic benefit when taken before and/or during tennis match play. Depending on environmental conditions, sweat rates of 0.5 to and over 5 L.hr-1 and sodium losses of 0.5 - 1.8 g have been recorded in men and women players. 200 mL of fluid containing electrolytes should be consumed every change-over in mild to moderate temperatures of < 27°C but in temperatures greater than 27°C players should aim for = 400 mL. 30-60 g.hr-1 of carbohydrate should be ingested when match play exceeds 2 hours. ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR

jpaulie

Are you ever normally 5' 6"