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Helz View Drop Down
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    Posted: 04 Mar 07 at 9:41pm

Hey,

I was wondering, does anybody know what the perfect diet for performance laser sailing? I was getting slightly confused as everyone is telling me to quit being a vegetarian because it is really bad for my sailing. Is this true or is protein supplements enough?

Please help a confused 15yr old, 5 1/2 stone laser sailor.

luv Helz
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: 04 Mar 07 at 10:00pm
You obviously have good reason to be a vegetarian, would the fact it isn't the perfect diet for sailing change your views?
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: 04 Mar 07 at 10:05pm

I've been vegetarian for 12 years now, and am at least as fit as I was before. There was a blip early on when I found I wasn't getting enough vitamin B (don't like cabbage or other dark-leaved greens!), but a half dose of very weak tablets ('Lanes Vit B') suffice to keep that topped up.

As a growing lad(/lass? you don't say which!)  I wonder if you don't need to keep more of an eye on protein, but if you still eat dairy products - eggs, cheese etc., and maybe some tofu, Quorn and the odd fish (harden your heart a little, occasionally), you should be OK, I should think. I read somewhere recently that adults, at least, don't need that much protein - much less than most of us get, at any rate.

And if you're not eating burgers, you've got plenty of room for real nutrition!

Always assuming you're eating enough food in total? Have you totalled up your calories and compared them to the requirement for a 15 year old? At least 2500/day (not all in Mars bars!) as I read this:

http://www.fao.org/docrep/meeting/009/ae906e/ae906e18.htm

Any nutritionists out there?

 

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Direct Link To This Post Posted: 04 Mar 07 at 10:32pm
Okay I like to think of myself as a bit of a "sports nutrition expert" so I'll tell you what I think....

I presume if you're 5.5 stone you sail a laser 4.7?
For a start, protein supplements are a bit of a tricky subject and you need to know what you're doing with them.  A lot of the stuff is rubbish and with any protein supplement you need to be doing a lot of physical exercise and particularly weight training to build muscle not fat.  You also have you remember that you're 15 and will never get any slimmer/youthful looking and the butch, pumped up look isn't really that attractive to most boys.  But I can recommend maximuscle promax or cyclone as very good protein, glutemine and creatine supplements. 
You should have no worries about your vegetarian diet - in my opinion it's very healthy and I know lots of top athletes who are vegetarian.  At 15 you've probably got some a bit of growth still in you, how tall are you? 
When you say "performance sailing" I presume you mean high level competition sailing in which case a lot of your performance on the day will be down to your diet in the fe days leading up to the comp.  Carb loading is one school of thought where you can deplete your carbohydrate stores about 6 days before a major event  by eating hardly any starchy foods like pasta, bread, potatoes etc. and exercising way more and then gradually build up your carb consumption and taper off your exercise until a day before the event you are eating a lot of high carb food and resting your body completely.  This way your body makes sure it stores more carbohydrate than it had before so will give you that bit more energy to keep hiking on those long beats.  It's also important that when you get ashore you refuel with carbohydrates within 2 hours of getting back otherwise you will be totally shattered the next day and will feel sh*tty.  I tend to find a good big bowl of porridge in the morning will keep you going for aaaages and then maybe some fig rolls later into the day to keep energy levels high.  Porridge is magic stuff and It keeps me going through some gruelling cycling races and sailing is much the same. 
Oh yeah and energy drinks are a waste of time - water's the stuff!!
At 5.5 stone I think you might be a bit light for laser sailing where there's a lot of work involved - you might be better to go into a double hander like an rs200 and get yourself a big heavy crew....
I'm 5' 7 and 9.5 stone and i consider myself to light for competitive single handed sailing so you might want to rethink your boat choice there....

I think I might have gone a bit overkill on the initial question but it is a bit of a specialist area for me!

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Direct Link To This Post Posted: 05 Mar 07 at 7:33am
Helz

I think the best person to speak to regarding this would be Jon Emmett (Laser Coach), he does visit this forum or try his website for his email address.

But been 15 year old and 5 and a half stone as PB said you seem to be a bit light for a laser. Obviously it depends on your height.

Anyway my best advice would be to email him and get him to reply on the forum.

(edited for sp.)



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Direct Link To This Post Posted: 05 Mar 07 at 9:50am

there is nothing wrong with being a vegitarian, but they have conducted science expertiments and basicly it is easier to eat the right sort of food if you are not vegitarian. The only nutrition you will find harder to have enough and the right sort of is protien. Most top athletes that are exercising alot have to make sure that they eat enough protien, which normally envolves lots of chicken and tuna. Chicken and tuna are very very low in fat but have lots of protien, so they are perfect. At 15 stay well clear of any supplements, they only work if you do alot of exercise and at 15 bulking up is not good, also they are lots of them out they that are illegal to take in sailing and if you get drugs tested then you will get a ban. Everyone will say I have never been drugs tested sailing but if you sail a laser or radial and do a national ranker or qualifier then everyone there can be drugs tested and the EIS normal turn up to every single one.

as long as you are getting enough carbohydrate, protein, vitamins and not to much fat (esecially saturated) then you should be fine. At 35kgs you are on the light side for an oppy! You will just have to weight until you grow if you start doing wieghts or bulk up you will do damage for when you are older.

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Direct Link To This Post Posted: 05 Mar 07 at 10:35am
As a veggie Laser sailor, I once asked Michael Blackburn (PhD in sports science) about this. He said that it was going to be almost impossible  for a veggie Apprentice to stack on the extra 8-10kg required to get to big-rig weight while training hard, but apart from that there seemed to be no problem. I gave up the effort to stack on healhy weight and stuck to Radial weight, but apart from that there was no problem. If you did enough training, you could out-hike the meat eaters easily.

Why not buy Michael's book on sailing fitness? There can't be anyone more qualified in Laser fitness (with all due respect to Jon).

As MM pointed out, there are plenty of fast vegetarian sailors in very physical classes. I think Mike Gebhartdt, Olympic medallist and world champ in the Mistral windsurfers (more physically demanding than Lasers in most ways I think) was a veggie. In Mistrals and a local windsurfer class I sail, vegetarians and 1st and 2nd nationally, respectively. I think there were 2 veggies in the top 10 nationally in Radials when I was in them, which is more than the proportion in the population.

And of course, being a vegetarian you get better karma, which means you luck into some very nice windshifts which you can then put down to skill!




Edited by CT249
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: 05 Mar 07 at 10:53am
I've been veggie pretty much all my life and sailing pretty much all of it too...For protein I'd recommend diary, eggs, peanut butter and beans, but possibly not all in the same meal...Putting on weight has never been a problem for me (I wish) but that might have something to do with Cider, pizza and Chocolate...
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: 05 Mar 07 at 11:01am

Originally posted by Prince Buster


Oh yeah and energy drinks are a waste of time...

Why? I thought the science behind drinking isotonic fluids for quick rehydration and replacement of lost salts is pretty sound, and with respect of getting easily accessible carbs in, the simple sugars in them seems like a pretty straightforward thing to me!

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Direct Link To This Post Posted: 05 Mar 07 at 11:16am
The scientific studies are usually done by the energy drinks manufaturers themselves and so are usaully a bit unreliable.  The rehydration is no quicker than simple water and the replacement of salts shouldn't be needed if you are eating the right stuff.  The simple sugar form of carbs is one of the worst because it gives you a quick burst of energy and then very soon a big low where you'll feel drained.  The amount of sugars in the isotonic drinks is huge and if you're working along the principles of needing sugar for sport you might as well just drink a can of coke out there.  I always feel I perform a lot better by eating food like a cereal bar or fig rolls and drinking water than by drinking isotonic drinks. 
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