Base Nutrition for Sport


Pre-Competition Nutrition

This is a crucial time to:

  • Optimise fuel stores and hydration
  • Prevent stomach upsets
  • Prevent hunger

Things to consider:


What time of the day are you competing?

Timing is an important issue to consider because the pre-competition meal (and subsequent meals) needs to be scheduled into the competition day. Try consuming your pre-competition meal 1 to 3 hours prior to competition. The length of time you leave between eating and competing depends on your individual tolerance to food prior to exercise. If you can only eat 3 hours before competition, top up on liquid energy.

Gastrointestinal upset

If your sport involves weight-bearing exercise where your stomach is joggled around, you may experience gastrointestinal symptoms (stomach and gut upsets).

Strategies to reduce stomach and gut upset include:

  • Reduce your fibre intake by choosing lower fibre cereals like cornflakes, ricies, white rice, pasta, white bread and soft fruits with no skin, on competition day
  • If you can't eat solid food before competition as it upsets your stomach, try liquid energy meals
  • Ensure your hydration is adequate
  • Make sure that the food you eat on competition day is familiar to you and you have tried the meal out during training. This is not a time to try out new foods or feeding regimens

Pre-competition Meal Ideas

  • White toast and baked beans/spaghetti/corn/banana
  • Cereal (not too high in fibre) with milk and/or yoghurt and/or fresh or canned fruit
  • Muffins or crumpets with jam/honey/peanut butter
  • Pancakes with fruit
  • Creamed rice and fruit
  • Porridge with milk
  • Pasta
  • Baked potato with corn/spaghetti/baked beans
  • Sandwiches/rolls

Pre-competition Hydration

  • Make sure that you drink sufficient fluid the day before competition as well as competition day. To prevent much of the loss of fluid through increased urine production, increase the amount of salt in your diet. This will help you to retain more water by reducing urination
  • In very hot or humid conditions a sports drink is a good option. Sports drinks contain sodium which will help absorb and retain fluid