Week 1: The Foundation of the Athlete’s Diet

Instructions

SPHS503 Assignment 1

Athletic Director: Hey I’m glad to see you. Time to get started on our journey to improve our athlete’s performance through diet. Our athletes eat whatever they want, whenever they want. Little scary, huh? Especially if you believe nutrition plays a role in an athlete’s performance. So this week, you are going to evaluate the diet of one team. I’ll let each coach tell you more.

Coach Speedy: I hear a lot of my athletes like to eat protein. They say it will help build muscle, and they think more muscle will help them run faster. They also enjoy pasta about three days before a meet. I’m not sure this is best for them.

Coach Power: My guys and gals pour on the protein because they swear it builds muscle. Boy, many are exhausted before the end of their workout. Why can’t they make it through the workout? I know, we need more protein!

Coach Combo: Last Saturday’s game was a disaster. My guys had leg cramps by half-time. I tell you, they drink lots of Gatorade to stay hydrated, but this did not prevent cramping. They also eat lots of protein to bulk up. We need muscle and pounds to take on the other football teams in our conference. I am not getting the 110% I need.

Athletic Director: Okay, now you have heard from each coach. Time to get going on your assignment. For this assignment, if your name last name starts with the A-H, you will help out Coach Speedy and evaluate a sample diet from the Cross-Country team. If your last name begins with I-P, you will analyze a sample diet from Coach Power’s weight lifting team. Finally, if your last name starts with the letter Q through Z, you are going to evaluate a sample three-day diet from one of our football players that play for Coach Combo. Several files are attached to this assignment for each Coach. Each file contains a three-day diet. Pick one of the files for your Coach and analyze it.

You will use Cronometer to analyze the athlete’s diet. First, enter an athlete’s profile that you think is reasonable for that sport (age, gender, height, weight, activity level) and set a realistic macro distribution (look for the settings menu). Next, enter the foods the player ate into the diet analysis program (be sure to separate each day based on the menu file chosen–do not enter all foods for the three days into one day in Cronometer).

Once you entered all the foods into Cronometer, you will get an analysis of the diet. Screenshot the diet analysis and submit it with your answer to the questions below. Use the “diary” view to print/screenshot each individual day showing the food list on the top and nutrient analysis on the bottom, and use the “trends” tab for a summary nutrient report (showing just the nutrient analysis and date range–it will look the same as the daily reports, but without a food list on top). For the most accurate summary results, be sure to set your “trends” filters to <last 7 days> and <non-empty days>. Use the “trends” summary report to answer the questions. Do NOT answer the questions for each day individually–you MUST use the “trends” nutrient report.

Next, create a Word file that answers the questions below (please either number them or include the question). These responses should be well-developed, graduate-level short answer essays, and provide evidence (from the reports themselves, classroom resources, and/or other appropriate materials) to justify your recommendations/choices. Single sentences or bulleted lists are not appropriate.

Which nutrients were less than 100% of the DRI goal?
What changes would you suggest to increase the nutrients in yellow to green? Be specific. Do not just state you would increase the amount of the foods already present in the athleteâ€™s diet. Add new foods.
What role did physical activity level play in the playerâ€™s dietary plan?
How much water did the athlete consume? Did it meet the target?

You must submit one or more files in the assignment area under Assignment 1:

Screenshots of the diet analyses (3 individual days and 1 summary report).
Word document with the question answers (report images can be embedded IF large enough to read the numbers)