Nutrition Tips

From the gaffer:

It's important to top up your carbohydrate levels prior to the game. You should therefore eat a high carbohydrate (approximately 100 of carbohydrate) meal 3-4 hours before kick off. This equates to two items from the list below.

Continue eating carbohydrate snacks up to one hour prior to kick off. This can include items such as biscuits, bananas, toast with jam, sweets, crackers, sandwiches, chocolate bar, cake, and a sports drink.

Drink at least three litres of non-diuretic fluids in the 3-4 hours leading up to kick off (i.e. water, sports drinks, but not coffee, tea, alcohol, coca cola, etc.). Be careful, as some "sports drinks" contain caffeine, such as the glucose orange bottle lucozade drinks, and these should be avoided prior to the game. Lucozade Sport and Powerade are both caffeine free. Avoid diuretic drinks at all costs, if you must have a tea a coffee to get you going in the morning drink an extra 250ml of water to counter it's effects.

During the match you should drink at least 0.5 litres of fluid at half time, even if you don't feel thirsty. You should also try to take on fluids whenever possible at breaks in the game. It's important to note that once you feel thirsty the damage has been done, and drinking after feeling thirsty will not completely revitalise you.

During a 90 minute game you will probably lose 2-4 litres in fluid. There's a table at the bottom of this page explaining how the loss of increasing amounts of water affect you and your performance.

Immediately after the game you should drink at least 1 litre of non-diuretic fluid. You should also aim to take on at least 100g of carbohydrate during the first two hours after the game, which equates to two items from the list below. Whilst I am not a particularly good example of the next point, ideally alcohol should be avoided after a game until your body has completely re-hydrated!

Examples of food portions containing 50g of carbohydrate:

Breakfast cereals	1 large bowl
Boiled potatoes	5 egg size
Jacket potato	1 medium with skin
Mashed potato	5 scoops
Bananas	2 large
Apples	4 medium
Oranges	4 medium
Tinned fruit in juice	1 standard can
Chocolate bar	1.5 50g bars
Kit Kat	8 fingers
Mars Bar	1 standard bar
Snickers	1.5 standard bars
Liquorice Allsorts	1 medium bag
Fruit pastilles	2 tubes
Pizza	0.5 9" base
Pasta (Cooked)	2 mugs
Rice (cooked)	1 mug
Tinned Spaghetti or Ravioli	1 standard can
Baked Beans	0.75 quarters standard can
Bread	4 slices
Rolls	2
Current buns	2 soft / crusty
Tea Cakes	2
Fruit Scones	2
Jam Tarts	3
Digestive Biscuits	5
Ginger Nuts	7
Jaffa Cakes	6
Crackers	10
Milk	2 pints
Fruit Juice	1 pint
Isotonic drinks	2 cans / 1.5 bottles
Ribena (diluted)	2 glasses
Lemonade	750ml

Effects of Fluid Loss:

1 litre	100% performance, but you will begin to feel thirsty
1.5 litres	100% performance, but maximum effort required
2 litres	5% drop in performance. You feel very tired.
2.5 litres	10% drop in performance, occasional stops required
3 litres	15% drop in performance, more frequent stops, nearing exhaustion
3.5 litres	20% drop in performance, loss of motor coordination
6 litres	Performance collapses, urine production down 50%, disoriented, coordination problems, sluggish
9 litres	Loss of consciousness, life in danger, could be fatal.

References:

A Guide to Fitness for Referees, The Football Association, September 2002