Calorie and Protein Targets

Perhaps the best place to start this whole sports nutrition gig, is to identify your main goal. Are you looking to lose weight, maintain weight or gain weight (for the lucky ones!). It really is then a simple matter of calculating your daily calorie goals and from that determining your protein goals. I do not recommend going more than 300 calories above or below your basic calorie requirements. Rapid weight loss often deprives your body of essential nutrients and can be less beneficial than helpful. Too great a calorie upload will gain in building body fat, not muscle.

So what's your basic daily calorie goal?

Multiply your body weight (in pounds) by 10, that's what a person with a typical daily routine burns - before any additional exercise. So a person who weighs 165 lbs should consume 1650 calories per day to maintain their weight. Add to that additional exercise which for most rowers works out at 600 - 900 calories per hour, depending on the intensity. Some of the fancy heart rate watches will give you your total calorie consumption for the workout.

The actual calorie burn per rower (across 105 athletes ranging in age from 12-19 and weight from 90lbs to 220lbs) will vary enormously.

The following is a best guess:
Team Oxford - 900 calories per hour
Team Vesper - 750 calories per hour
Team Kelly - 675 calories per hour
Team Bayer - 550 calories per hour

This is based on average size and typical intensity level. Make adjustments if your athlete is more or less intense than their peers.

Given rest breaks, assume that workouts at the boat house are 1.25 hours and workouts at the high school are 1 hour.

So a 145lb athlete in Team Vesper can expect to burn 1450+937=2387 calories on Mondays and Thursdays. If that athlete is trying to lose 5 lbs, then their day's intake should be 2387-200=2187 calories. This will provide the essential fuel for a great workout, but at the same time burn away a little of that body fat.

A 175lb athlete from Team Oxford can expect to burn 1750+900=2650 calories on Mondays and Thursdays. If that athlete wants to gain 10lbs, then their day's intake should be 2650+200=2850 calories.

Now let's take that calorie goal and divide by 25, that's our target protein requirement in grams. Keep in mind that you can add up to 50% to that number during our winter strength and conditioning phase, and revert back to the simple number during the rest of the year.

A person looking to consume 1600 calories should also be looking to consume 64 grams of protein. If they are working out intensely they will want to add 32 grams of protein, for a total of 96 grams. Thats a lot of protein and why we recommend protein supplements and foods very high in protein like Chobani, tofu and tuna fish.

There is no real danger in too much protein - its just the amount of calories that typically come with protein you have to worry about.

Yes counting calories / protein is a pain, but the scientific approach to healthy eating teaches us how to fuel our bodies and is a great life habit. You will be shocked when you start really looking at the nutritional information of the foods we typically eat, and realize just how much junk we eat on a daily basis.

Recap:
calorie requirements = body weight x 10 + exercise calories
protein requirements = calories / 25 + 50% during intense workout phases

These days there are great Apps to help you with nutrition information and calorie counting, like this one: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/calorie-counter-by-caloriecount/id367018196?mt=8
or their easy to use website: http://caloriecount.about.com/

Remember to reduce your caloric intake on Wednesdays and weekends!