I play ice hockey once a week in local league. My games are at either 8 or 9 P.M. I already drink plenty of water in the days before, and right now I have a pretty big pasta dinner the night before and and a smaller portion for lunch on game day. An hour or two before face off, I’ll usually just eat a power bar. I’m also about 20 lbs. overweight so I dont want to over do it by loading up too much on carbs and would actually like to lose a few pounds while playing. So my question is; What would be the best diet for me in the day(s) prior to game night to maximize my energy level and stamina? Any and all suggestions would be greatly appreceiated.
“Carbo loading,” the day before an event is pretty useless. Carbs don’t stay in your system that long. Carbo loading is popular among American distance runners, but the Kenyans don’t do it, and they seem to do OK. Eating a big pasta dinner the night before a hockey game gives your body more than enough time to use up all the energy it can possible get from the carbs and convert the rest to fat. All this happens a long time before the puck drops.
I’d suspect that you’re probably not even exercising enough to use up all the carbs you in your body to begin with.
Your muscles have a store of energy from carbohydrates to get you through about 45 minutes or so of moderate aerobic exertion. Once those stores are exhausted, the body has to switch over to some other form of energy such as stored fat. If this changeover doesn’t happen quickly and smoothly, your muscles are unable to keep going and you experience the phenomenon known as “hitting the wall.”
Marathoners, triathletes, and others who are expecting to be exerting themselves for periods in excess of an hour or so engage in carbo loading before hand because some reasearch suggests that the muscles can be coaxed into storing 10-20% more fuel reserves by laoding up on carbohydrates in the three days or so preceeding a race. (Carbo loading science is not universally accepted, and there are many conflicting theories as to how it should be done. There is even significant evidence showing that it has no effect on ultimate performance.)
The upshot is, even in a 60 minute hockey game, after time spent resting on the bench and spells between periods, you’re probably not going to even burn through the carbos you’ve got stored up from your ordinary eating patterns. Loading up on more food the night before the game is just adding more calories that aren’t being used by your body. The Powerbar before the game is more of the same-- those things are useless for the typical athlete.
Fortunately, losing a few pounds and maximizing your energy go hand in hand. Eat a healthy diet all the time. Have a fairly light dinner the night before a game, and a simple breakfast and lunch the day of the game. If you prefer to exercise on a full stomach, have a couple of bananas or an orange an hour or so before the game to get your metabolism up and running. If you’re going to have a “big meal,” do it after the game. And exercise more-- one game a week isn’t going to help you lose weight. Do another 45 minutes of extra skating three more times a week, either at the rink or on rollerblades. If you can shed some of the extra 20 pounds, you’ll notice your energy increase dramatically.
I’m not one for ‘me too’ posts. But Nurlman couldn’t have given better advice. Anything else is unproven ‘science’.
Although, to tack on a little bit of variation: You might want to consider cross-training. Rather than do all your extra aerobic exercising skating, you might want to run, swim, or bike. This might help keep from exhausting the ‘skating muscles.’
Peace.