Muscle Cramps
I am a 24-year old masters swimmer. I have been getting cramps - calf and toe- a lot recently. On advice of the coach and teammates I am taking a potassium supplement and eating a lot of bananas. However, this hasn't really solved my problem. I think now that it may be a dietary problem. What are the possible causes of these cramps and what if any foods should I eat more of. Thank you in advance for your response. – Simon
Hi Simon, if you’ve ruled out muscle damage or injury, then cramps can usually be corrected easily with a change of diet. The first thing to consider would be your hydration levels, are you drinking enough water? I have a checklist I go through to figure out the cause of muscle cramps. Number one - rule out muscle injury. Number two - rule out dehydration. Number three –
increase calcium and magnesium in correct ratios. Number four – you should be able to get adequate potassium from your diet. So try this Simon, take a
good quality multivitamin and add a calcium and magnesium supplement daily. This should fix the problem for you short term. Meanwhile, I recommend a sports nutritionist, you really should have someone look over your diet to make sure you are eating correctly to replace essential nutrients. Good nutrition is the key to athletic performance and if you are experiencing muscle cramps your diet is probably short changing your recovery.
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Teenage Rugby
My 15 year old has just started training seriously for rugby and I want to make sure I'm feeding him the right things, he's training 2-3 times a week, what should a daily meal plan for him look like? Elizabeth
Teen age boys grow dramatically between the age of 12 and 19 years, so boys need increased amounts of nutrients like amino acids (protein), calcium, zinc and iron. Vitamin C is also necessary to aid the absorption of iron, so that means lots of fruit and vegetables and a good reason to eat a healthy diet.
An active teenage boy may need to consume over 3000 calories a day to maintain his weight. Consuming adequate energy, vitamins and minerals is important to support muscle growth and prevent muscle loss during teenage years. Eating breakfast is one of the easiest ways to help fuel muscle and get those extra muscle building nutrients into the diet. Teenagers who eat breakfast consume less fat and get higher amounts of carbohydrates and protein over the day. In contrast teenagers who skip breakfast tend to make poor food choices and have a higher BMI. It's important to make sure he is drinking enough water and eating healthy meals throughout the day.
Teenagers on the go need to eat regular snacks and meals, the key is to make them nutritious. Don't skimp on breakfast, it's the most important meal of the day. Cereal and low fat milk with fruit or baked beans on toast and juice. Lunch should contain complex carbohydrates, protein, salad and fruit. Dinner should be comprised of vegetables, a protein source and complex carbohydrates like rice, potato or grainy bread. Winter is a great time for hearty soups and crusty bread, stews, casseroles and stuffed jacket potatoes.
Leftovers can be taken for lunch the next day. Don't forget that after his training he'll need to rehydrate and have a carbohydrate rich snack as soon as possible.
Help to lose weight
I really need your help. I'm a 61-year-old male, 5-11", who's ballooned to 260 pounds, mainly from lack of exercise and eating all the wrong foods. For the past 50 days, I have been extremely diligent about watching calories, eating nothing white whatsoever, no oils (except some olive oil), no sweets at all. I am trying to keep my calorie intake under 1200 a day, eating only whole grain products, salmon, canned tuna in water, fresh raw spinach, no-fat dressing, tomatoes, blueberries, 2-4 cups of green tea a day, oatmeal, an occasional egg, a cup or two of 1% milk, 1-2 ounces of vodka a day...NOTHING bad! I am taking one
turmeric capsule (600 mg/day). For the past 50 days, every day, I've been walking between 4-5 miles every morning at a pace of about 4 miles/hour, sometimes adding a jog of 1/2 - 1 mile. My problem is this: I am not seeing hardly ANY improvement in my Body-shape. Old clothes still don't fit, etc. I'm beginning to get really discouraged after all my physical and dietary work. Am I expecting
too much after 50 days? Your help would be so greatly appreciated!
Thanks, Nick
Nick, the truth is you haven’t failed, the diet you have attempted has failed you. Sadly the average body fat percentage of New Zealand over 30 years old is over 20 %, as a muscle to fat ratio, this is extremely over fat. The ideal healthy range for you 12 -20% and that’s a wide range.
A quick tally up on my calculator tells me that 2500 calories per day should give you a loss of 1.18 kilos of fat per week if you keep up the daily walk. That means that you are seriously under eating. Diets fail us for a number of reasons. When the human body is faced with a shortage of nutrients, its survival response is to conserve fat. Let me define the word “Diet” for you a diet is a temporary severe restriction of food or calories. Most diet programs call for extremely low calories of 800-1200 for women and 1500-1800 for men. When you cut your calories drastically like this you lose weight, simple! But there’s a problem with this, the weight loss almost never lasts, 95% of dieters can’t keep the weight off, secondly, most of the weight loss has occurred through loss of lean muscle or lean structure, so you’ll end up fatter. That said you should still be able to lose 1% of your weight as fat per week without a loss of muscle. You should be able to achieve a loss of 8.4 kilos of fat over 50 days. Keep in mind that as you body adapts you will most probably have to increase your calories. Because a male will typically lose up to 1 kilo of muscle a year from the age of thirty, you will probably gain 5 – 6 kilos of muscle naturally as you lose the10 - 20 kilos of ugly fat. Without complicating things, I reckon you should sit down with a nutritionist and have a 2500-calorie food plan designed to suit your lifestyle. As long as you incorporate some alcohol free days to aid your liver, you can still include 6-7 drinks a week without hindering results. As an after thought, take a multivitamin as soon as possible. Eating 1200 calories a day has depleted many of your nutrients already.
