|  | Diet Nutrition | Nutrition

Wrestler's Diets & Nutrition

Creating a diet to meet the nutritional challenges wrestlers face can be far more challenging than creating a diet for other athletes. Wrestling divides competitors into weight classes so the athlete's focus is not just on being strong but also on maintaining their weight. The nutritional challenges for wrestlers are twofold. First, they must ensure that their body receives adequate calories, vitamins and minerals to recover from training along with meeting the protein needs of an athlete. Second, they must remain as lean as possible so they can compete in their chosen weight class.

  1. Nutrition Basics

    • Remain lean by obtaining the majority of your calories from foods in their natural states. You should strive to avoid junk foods including sugars, processed foods and refined flour items as these foods generally contain calories that are devoid of any real nutritional value. Structure your diet around healthy carbs, such as fruits and vegetables and whole grains like barley, wheat and rye.

      Athletes have additional protein needs--the American Dietetics Association (ADA) recommends consumption of around 0.8 grams of protein per pound of body weight daily. That intake should come from lean protein sources like seafood, eggs and low-fat meat, turkey and chicken.

      Finally, round out your diet with healthy, natural fats like those from olive oil, canola oil, coconut oil, almonds, walnuts, peanuts and cashews. For simplicity's sake, include a fruit or vegetable, a whole grain product, a lean protein source and a healthy fat source in each meal to keep your diet balanced throughout the season.

    Making Weight

    • Maintain a food log containing the number of calories consumed per day to help you stay within your weight class. This will keep you from needing to drop large amounts of weight before a meet. Keep your food log either in a notebook or in a Word or Excel file, listing the foods eaten and their caloric content. Over time, this will provide you with an idea of how many calories you will need to eat per day to gain, lose or merely maintain weight. It will become an invaluable reference if you decide to move up a weight class later in your career.

    Hydration

    • Remember to keep yourself properly hydrated throughout training. Generally speaking, you should be consuming at least eight 8-ounce glasses of water per day. Beyond that, according to the ADA, you should also strive to consume fluids and carbohydrates during training sessions and meets. Aim to take in at least 30 to 60 grams of carbohydrates per hour--regular consumption of sports drinks, such as Gatorade or Powerade, is an easy way to meet these goals. Just remember to count those calories in your food log. Hydrations is especially important to prevent reduced performance from dehydration if you have used diuretics or other water manipulation techniques to help you lose weight before a meet.

Nutrition - Related Articles