Fasting by individuals who do professional sports can pose a life-threatening risk if they are not very careful. Heavy training and exercise, especially while fasting, can cause sudden death as it seriously increases water loss in the body. 60% of the body consists of water. Water is very important for the life of living things. The amount of water in athletes' bodies should be slightly more than that of normal individuals. Even a 10% water loss from the body of an individual doing sports causes cramps, circulatory and kidney failure, extreme fatigue and lack of performance.
Rules That Athletes Should Follow While Fasting;
At Iftar. When the fast is broken, food should be eaten very slowly. Consuming too much food suddenly will cause a sudden increase in blood sugar and disruption of metabolism along with hormone oscillations. When this continues for 30 days in a row, the athlete may actually experience metabolic problems afterwards.
Consuming too fast food during iftar also prevents the feeling of fullness. A satiety signal comes from the stomach to the brain in about 15 minutes. Consuming food too quickly during this period will actually cause food consumption much more than necessary, unnecessary calorie intake and too much fat storage in the body.
When athletes fast, it causes muscle loss for a long time of the day. For this reason, quality protein sources should be included in iftar. These sources are meat and eggs. It is absolutely necessary to have 1 egg on the iftar table. Likewise, egg consumption is important at sahur.
Consumption of quality protein balances the blood sugar level and insulin hormone level. It ensures the protection of muscle tissues.
For sahur, a breakfast consisting of eggs and complex carbohydrates and consuming 2 glasses of milk or ayran are very good nutritional choices. Milk protein digests slowly. Thus, the muscles will be nourished with protein for a longer period of time.
You can add flaxseed oil to the salad at sahur to further slow down protein digestion and nourish the muscles for a longer time. While fasting, athletes need to increase their water and fluid intake between iftar and sahur more than normal individuals.
Read: 0
