NUTRITION FOR FEMALE SOCCER PLAYERS (CONSIDERATIONS)

EXPERT INSIGHT

Enrico Arcelli, Italian sports nutritionist and professional team consultant, explains in “Nutrition for soccer players”, that the important goal for a soccer player, as well as any athlete, is to reduce your body fat, NOT to “lose weight” per se. Weight loss may just mean you have sweated a lot during a match, or lost muscle or glycogen, which is not the goal. The real place to lose weight is fat pounds, NOT pounds of muscle.

CONSIDERATIONS

Female soccer players need to consume a diet high in carbohydrates, calcium and iron to ensure general health, writes U.K. based sports scientist Thomas Reilly in “Science and Soccer”. Women on high training loads especially need to avoid disruptions to the normal menstrual cycle, meaning weight loss may not be a correct goal. In a review of the medical literature, Reilly found that the body competition of women soccer players tends to be closer to that of other team sports than to the ultra-lean profile of endurance athletes. Body fat percentages of around 18-26 percent for female soccer players, with most around 21 percent, resemble those of the general population.

MISCONCEPTIONS

Tollison notes that traditional weight-loss programs say to lose weight, you need to do continuous cardio for 20 minutes for seven days a week. Continuous exercise, however, negatively affects power by converting fast-twitch muscle fibres to slow, making you a slower athlete. This is NOT a plus for soccer. He recommends dropping long distance running and focusing on interval training, which combines intensive bursts of activity with slower interludes.

Print PDF