Does this seem about right?

G

Gustavo1

0
I found this suggestion on a soccer-conditioning website, cant remember which one right now, but it said that a soccer players' diet should be 60-65% carbs, 20-25% fat, and 10-15% protein and i just wanted to run this by you guys and check if it sounds about right. Specially since I thought protein was supposed to be a big part of a healthy diet so I dont know what to think of it yet.

Thanks guys
 
Gustavo said:
I found this suggestion on a soccer-conditioning website, cant remember which one right now, but it said that a soccer players' diet should be 60-65% carbs, 20-25% fat, and 10-15% protein and i just wanted to run this by you guys and check if it sounds about right. Specially since I thought protein was supposed to be a big part of a healthy diet so I dont know what to think of it yet.

Thanks guys
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If you're really active and consuming a great deal of calories to keep yourself fed, then "more than enough protein to meet your needs" becomes a lot less than the idealized x grams or 30'ish %. 15% of 6000 calories is 900 calories is 225g of protein, which for most soccer players (they're not exactly known for being massive) will be more than 1g of protein per lb of body weight. The rest of the energy comes from more easily exploited sources (carbohydrates, and fat).

It would be pretty impractical to be trying to get 2000 calories from protein. That's 500g a day. :)
 
Phate89 said:
If soccer players are supposed to be skinny with no muscle, sounds about right.
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Thats what keeps me back, cause for the 1st time in my life im not totally disgusted with my body as my workout sessions have been paying off tremendously and I look allright in front of a mirror and I dont want to get rid of all that muscle that ive worked so hard to get.
 
Gustavo said:
Thats what keeps me back, cause for the 1st time in my life im not totally disgusted with my body as my workout sessions have been paying off tremendously and I look allright in front of a mirror and I dont want to get rid of all that muscle that ive worked so hard to get.
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If you want to feel better about the concept, try getting Lyle McDonald's "The Protein Book". It's pretty heavy, but you can either take my word for it, or read his book, check all his sources, contrast with other studies from reputable journals, and come to your own conclusions. I recommend just taking my word for it. ;)

Or you can take trust Phate's "experience". :p
 
Gustavo said:
Thats what keeps me back, cause for the 1st time in my life im not totally disgusted with my body as my workout sessions have been paying off tremendously and I look allright in front of a mirror and I dont want to get rid of all that muscle that ive worked so hard to get.
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I can guarentee you, if you go down to 15% protein you will see some serious muscle loss.

And anyways, you need 65% carbs just to have energy for soccer, you'll be fine with 35-40% carbs
 
Phate89 said:
There is no experience to it. If you run that much and eat 15% of your intake from protein you'll be a skinny twig with little muscle.
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Your position is incorrect because it is subject to an error in logic known as an inductive fallacy. Let me put it in simpler terms - You are like a salesman trying to tell me that 15% of anything is not much. 15% of a dollar may not be much, Phate, but 15% of a million dollars is (to most people).

In short, you are not making sense, and this is why you are wrong. It's like you didn't even read my previous post before commenting.
 
Unless he's going to eat over 5000 calories, 15% isn't enough.

Lets say he's eating 3000 calories a day, thats only a little over a 100 grams of protein. Some say thats enough to retain muscle, some say you should always go 1g/per lb or more.

I don't think he'd be able not to lose muscle running so much during games and practices while consuming so little protein.
 
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Well, now we have to establish the semantics of "a soccer player".

When speaking of an athlete, I assume we're talking about someone who trains and competes as if it his or her profession. As such, I'd be shocked to discover "a soccer player" who eats less than 5000 calories a day for maintenance. Fairly sure the site in question is making the same assumption when issuing its general recommendation.

Let's say Gustavo is average height, and weighs 180 lbs. RMR * Activity Level would put him at 4000 calories. And in the case of serious athletes, this will usually be heavily underestimating caloric needs. It would probably be more perspicacious to break down his activities individually, total them, add in the TEE, and arrive at something like 5000-6000.

Now, if he means he occasionally plays the recreational game of soccer and is otherwise your average gym rat, then you are of course right. :)

So I suppose what we take from this is we should have first asked for clarification along the lines of, "Gustavo, please tell us what your week's training and activities are. All of it." So, G, it's on you, buddy. ^_^
 
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[Focus] said:
Well, now we have to establish the semantics of "a soccer player".

When speaking of an athlete, I assume we're talking about someone who trains and competes as if it his or her profession. As such, I'd be shocked to discover "a soccer player" who eats less than 5000 calories a day for maintenance. Fairly sure the site in question is making the same assumption when issuing its general recommendation.

Let's say Gustavo is average height, and weighs 180 lbs. RMR * Activity Level would put him at 4000 calories. And in the case of serious athletes, this will usually be heavily underestimating caloric needs. It would probably be more perspicacious to break down his activities individually, total them, add in the TEE, and arrive at something like 5000-6000.

Now, if he means he occasionally plays the recreational game of soccer and is otherwise your average gym rat, then you are of course right. :)

So I suppose what we take from this is we should have first asked for clarification along the lines of, "Gustavo, please tell us what your week's training and activities are. All of it." So, G, it's on you, buddy. ^_^
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I don't think he plays professional soccer. I've played club soccer, and though they do a lot of running. It's not enough running to afford anywhere near 5000 calories ( unless he has a gooch type metabolism, which i doubt ).
 
Phate89 said:
I don't think he plays professional soccer. I've played club soccer, and though they do a lot of running. It's not enough running to afford anywhere near 5000 calories ( unless he has a gooch type metabolism, which i doubt ).
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I know several people who play soccer recreationally and consume more. Of course, they've never been fat, so. I'm waiting for more info. >_>
 
[Focus] said:
Well, now we have to establish the semantics of "a soccer player".

When speaking of an athlete, I assume we're talking about someone who trains and competes as if it his or her profession. As such, I'd be shocked to discover "a soccer player" who eats less than 5000 calories a day for maintenance. Fairly sure the site in question is making the same assumption when issuing its general recommendation.

Let's say Gustavo is average height, and weighs 180 lbs. RMR * Activity Level would put him at 4000 calories. And in the case of serious athletes, this will usually be heavily underestimating caloric needs. It would probably be more perspicacious to break down his activities individually, total them, add in the TEE, and arrive at something like 5000-6000.

Now, if he means he occasionally plays the recreational game of soccer and is otherwise your average gym rat, then you are of course right. :)

So I suppose what we take from this is we should have first asked for clarification along the lines of, "Gustavo, please tell us what your week's training and activities are. All of it." So, G, it's on you, buddy. ^_^
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Well up to a week ago, I was just concentrating on losing fat not so much conditioning for soccer so I was doing an upper body workout (Chest, back, shoulders, biceps and triceps) on MONDAYS, WEDNESDAYS, and FRIDAYS.

I was doing continuous running for about 40 minutes on TUESDAYS and THURSDAYS to increase my endurance. My soccer matches were up to that point on SATURDAYS(now on Sundays).

I am 5'8, weigh 155lbs, and my maintenance is about 2600 cal/daily
 
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Gustavo said:
Well up to a week ago, I was just concentrating on losing fat not so much conditioning for soccer so I was doing an upper body workout (Chest, back, shoulders, biceps and triceps) on MONDAYS, WEDNESDAYS, and FRIDAYS.

I was doing continuous running for about 40 minutes on TUESDAYS and THURSDAYS to increase my endurance. My soccer matches were up to that point on SATURDAYS(now on Sundays).
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Yep, just like I thought. 15% is not enough. Lower carbs by to around 40% and increase protein.
 
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