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Writer's pictureNeil Livemore

Low Carbohydrate Diet Impacts Football Performance

Updated: Oct 11


An infographic of a study showing the effect of low-carb vs high-carb sports nutrition on football perfomance

One of the main cornerstones of sports nutrition is ensuring proper fueling to meet the daily demands of activity and fuel for the work required. This is essential to support day-to-day function, health, and performance, whether it be cognitive, technical skill, or physical performance.


It's well established that carbohydrates play an important role in high-intensity activity. The above carbohydrate diet study set out to investigate how a low carbohydrate intake impacts football performance compared to an adequate carbohydrate intake. The study did this by having two teams play two matches and switch diets (low-carb vs. high-carb and high-carb vs. low-carb) during two football matches.

It’s also well-known that many athletes under-fuel and compromise performance without knowing. From a performance perspective (football nutrition in this case), without listing health considerations, it can cause:

  • Reductions in total distance covered in a game

  • Reductions in distance covered in all speed brackets - walking to sprinting.

  • Reductions in technical skill.

  • Increases in perceived exertion (how tough a task feels)

  • Increase in physiological stress for the same work.


Thes study (the important bits):


Two teams played each other twice (one week between games)


  • 20 players included (all players except goalkeepers)

  • Blue bar - high carb game

  • Orange bar - low carb game


Match 1

  • 3.5 days before the first match:

  • Team A follows high carb (8g CHO per kg body mass a day)⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

  • Team B follows low carb (3 g CHO per kg body nass a day)

Match 2 (one week later)

  • The dietary protocols were then reversed so both teams have played a game where the players were high-carb and low-carb.

Findings

Every player covered a greater total distance using a high-carb diet compared with the distance covered during the low-carb diet protocol (HC: 9,380 6 98 m vs. LC: 8,077 6 109 m; p , 0.01).


All distances covered, from easy jogging to sprinting, were also higher in High carb status compared with low carb (p , 0.01).


What does this particular study mean

Adequate fuelling for football players the days leading up to a football match will enhance the total distance covered and distance covered in each speed bracket.



PMID: 23168373



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