Habib Famuditimi
Professor Saenz
KIN-427
10 September 2021
Nutrition for Physical Activity & Health
The relationship between nutrition and physical activity/ performance has never been
more in focus for athletes all around the world as it is in today’s world. It is very common for
athletes, even those at the highest level, to not meet the nutrition needs that their sports demands
and then suffer from it, either in performance or Whether it be not getting enough calories daily,
having deficiency in nutrients, or even hydration problems. In the articles, Sports Science Is
Changing How Female Olympians Train. It Could Help You, Too by NPR news and Tokyo
Olympics: How our female rowers ate more and triumphed by Stuff news, a common theme
found in both these texts in regards to nutrition and performance was the syndrome known as
RED-S or Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport. RED-S is a syndrome where one is not
consuming or putting enough energy into the body to meet the energy needs of the required
physical activity or sport. Essentially, there is not enough energy available to support
performance. The articles highlighted the impacts of how increases in calories consumed made
major improvements in performance, strength gain, and overall well being in the athletes
involved. Next, The Youtube video titled World's Strongest Man — Full Day of Eating (12,000+
calories), follows the Strongman athlete, Brian Shaw, as he takes viewers on a journey of how
much and what exactly he eats in a day. By the end of the day, the calorie count reached 12,000
calories, which is an insane amount of calories compared to the calorie needs of the average
person. This once again ties into the focus of the relationship between nutrition and performance.
Brian Shaw explains in the video that after ingesting about 2,000 calories in the morning, he
starts to feel hungry again about mid-morning to afternoon. This makes sense because although
the average person would need somewhere upwards of 2,000 calories per day, Brian Shaw is a
much taller, bigger, and stronger person with far more muscle mass than the average person.
Therefore, he will certainly require far more calories just to sustain himself. Now, including the
intense training and physical activity that he does on a daily basis, that increases the amount of
calories he will then require from day to day and in his specific case, it reaches 12,000 calories.
All of these sources (articles and video) display the importance of nutrition and
performance. They also help to show that active individuals or an individual in the recovery
process do require more calories than sedentary individuals. All the athletes involved in the
articles and video such as Brian Shaw, Brooke Donoghue, Annie Kunz and Maya DiRado have
all shown that athletes and physically active people need to consume more calories because there
can be a negative impact on performance and also on wellbeing if they do not. In an academic
journal titled Nutrition guidelines for competitive tennis by Dragoș-Florin Teodor, the author
states that athletes who participate in the specific sport of tennis should consume a certain
amount of calories which, in comparison to someone who is sedentary, is much higher. Teodor
writes, “For most players, the International Tennis Federation recommends a minimum of
approximately 2500 calories a day, although some players may require in excess of 3500
calories” (Teodor). This is because the demands of the sport will require the athlete to have more
energy available to them when they are performing but someone who is sedentary does not
require additional energy to be available because they are not doing any physical activity.
Professor Saenz
KIN-427
10 September 2021
Nutrition for Physical Activity & Health
The relationship between nutrition and physical activity/ performance has never been
more in focus for athletes all around the world as it is in today’s world. It is very common for
athletes, even those at the highest level, to not meet the nutrition needs that their sports demands
and then suffer from it, either in performance or Whether it be not getting enough calories daily,
having deficiency in nutrients, or even hydration problems. In the articles, Sports Science Is
Changing How Female Olympians Train. It Could Help You, Too by NPR news and Tokyo
Olympics: How our female rowers ate more and triumphed by Stuff news, a common theme
found in both these texts in regards to nutrition and performance was the syndrome known as
RED-S or Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport. RED-S is a syndrome where one is not
consuming or putting enough energy into the body to meet the energy needs of the required
physical activity or sport. Essentially, there is not enough energy available to support
performance. The articles highlighted the impacts of how increases in calories consumed made
major improvements in performance, strength gain, and overall well being in the athletes
involved. Next, The Youtube video titled World's Strongest Man — Full Day of Eating (12,000+
calories), follows the Strongman athlete, Brian Shaw, as he takes viewers on a journey of how
much and what exactly he eats in a day. By the end of the day, the calorie count reached 12,000
calories, which is an insane amount of calories compared to the calorie needs of the average
person. This once again ties into the focus of the relationship between nutrition and performance.
Brian Shaw explains in the video that after ingesting about 2,000 calories in the morning, he
starts to feel hungry again about mid-morning to afternoon. This makes sense because although
the average person would need somewhere upwards of 2,000 calories per day, Brian Shaw is a
much taller, bigger, and stronger person with far more muscle mass than the average person.
Therefore, he will certainly require far more calories just to sustain himself. Now, including the
intense training and physical activity that he does on a daily basis, that increases the amount of
calories he will then require from day to day and in his specific case, it reaches 12,000 calories.
All of these sources (articles and video) display the importance of nutrition and
performance. They also help to show that active individuals or an individual in the recovery
process do require more calories than sedentary individuals. All the athletes involved in the
articles and video such as Brian Shaw, Brooke Donoghue, Annie Kunz and Maya DiRado have
all shown that athletes and physically active people need to consume more calories because there
can be a negative impact on performance and also on wellbeing if they do not. In an academic
journal titled Nutrition guidelines for competitive tennis by Dragoș-Florin Teodor, the author
states that athletes who participate in the specific sport of tennis should consume a certain
amount of calories which, in comparison to someone who is sedentary, is much higher. Teodor
writes, “For most players, the International Tennis Federation recommends a minimum of
approximately 2500 calories a day, although some players may require in excess of 3500
calories” (Teodor). This is because the demands of the sport will require the athlete to have more
energy available to them when they are performing but someone who is sedentary does not
require additional energy to be available because they are not doing any physical activity.
