Glycogen in the muscles is what will fuel explosive activities such as running the court, dunking, rebounding and playing intense defense.
The ketogenic diet can also provide recreational athletes many additional metabolic and health benefits. However, a low-carb and keto approach tends to work well for recreational athletes who want to get lean fast and are not overly concerned about achieving top end performance. There are many positives but also many drawbacks to following a low-carb approach to basketball nutrition, such as experiencing a long adaption period in which performance drops quite significantly.
Many professional basketball players use the ketogenic diet in the off-season to lose body-fat. If carbohydrates are restricted for days on end the body will begin to produce ketones.īasketball players can learn to adapt to using ketones as a primary fuel source by following a low-carb diet long term. This process is known as gluconeogenesis. In fact, after around 6-8 hours of fasting, liver glycogen w ill be depleted to around 20%.Īfter this point, in a carb depleted state, the body will begin to slowly turn to fats and protein for fuel. The liver stores between 75–100 g of carbohydrate, enough to maintain blood glucose during a 12-hour fast. The carbohydrate stored in the liver maintains blood glucose between meals. The average man stores around 400g of muscle glycogen that can be used as a fast burning fuel for exercise. When a basketball player eats carbohydrates it is stored inside the liver and muscle in the form of glycogen. Related Post: Calorie Calculator For Basketball Players? How Much Do You Need To EatĬarbohydrates are the preferred fuel source fo r basketball traini ng and games, however the body can use both proteins and fats for fuel.Ĭarbohydrates found in grains (bread, pasta, cereal), fruits and vegetables are the bodies preferred fuel source during basketball games and intense practice sessions. Let’s take a look a look at exactly what basketball players should eat in order to obtain a lean mean physique, while achieving optimal performance on the court. Macronutirent manipulation becomes even more important for basketball players who want to lose body fat while maintaining lean muscle mass. All calories are not created equal.īasketball players must be sure to consume the correct macronutrient fuel sources, such as carbs, fats and protein in the correct ratio in order to enhance both performance and recovery. Of course nutrition for basketball players is much more complicated than just simply consuming the right amount of calories. If you eat MORE calories than you burn and you will gain weight. Understanding the relationship between caloric intake and energy expenditure is very important for both weight management and performance on the basketball court.īasically if you consume LESS total energy than you burn you will lose weight. These energy requirements are much higher than that of the average person who usually only requires between 1500-3000 calories per day to maintain their current weight. Male high school athletes in this study were found to expend significantly more energy, burning through an average of 4600 calories per day. The study revealed that female high school athletes (aged 16-18yrs) have a daily energy expenditure of around 3,500 calories. A study by Silva et al, completed back in 2013 is still one of the best studies to date constructed to investigate the energy requirements of basketball players.