African Sports Monthly Vol I. Issue II February 2018 | Page 30

Eating at the
World’s Table
By Huliamatu Bah MA, RD/LD
The Energy Required
It takes a lot of energy to get the human
body to perform its daily functions; such as
more rapid pace. This high energy need must
be met every day to help the athlete perform
and progress in his sport.
walking, blinking, thinking or talking. The Whether it’s an endurance, strength or
unit of measurement that the body uses to cal- speed-based sport, the amount of energy uti-
culate energy is called Calorie (kcal). Calories lized to perform at the professional level may
from foods are like loans from a bank, with cause the body to quickly become nutritional-
too many loans one can end up in a huge debt ly deficient. If an athlete eats less, it will take
which is what obesity is. The average 20-year- a toll on their performance; their bodies would
old, 1.75 m (5 ft 9 in), 89 kg (195 lbs) male start breaking down its own muscles into nu-
needs to consume about 2,230 kcal per day to trients to maintain its daily function. Muscle
maintain his body weight. A male athlete of the depletion, for example, can lead to perfor-
same age and build needs, on average, 4,200 mance loss, susceptibility to diseases such as
kcal per day to maintain his body weight. The malaria and delayed recovery. According to
athlete differs from the average male because research, eating nutritionally dense foods has
athletes have higher physical demands to per- been shown to improve performance, reduce
form therefore their body utilizes energy at a fatigue and improve recovery.