Fueling up for rugby page

[Blubberboy]

I'm pretty new to the whole primal diet and have only really been applying the principles for the last 3 odd weeks.


I was wondering how to adapt the diet to playing rugby. I'm playing in a cup final tomorrow and was wondering how to fuel up for 80 minutes of hard intense rugby (plus an hour odd warm ups).


Normally I would carbo load the night before and the morning around 10am. Kick off is 2.30 and I usually can't eat for a few hours before. Plus tomorrow we're on a bus at 9.30 so breakfast will 8ish. Team lunch about 11.30-12 (which could be anything).


Do I just need to really up my fats instead of carbs. What sort of meals would you suggest tonight and tomorrow (and maybe something to take along instead of the team lunch). Not really sure how to get enough calories in as munching on protein gets me full quick. Kind of at a loss what my meals should consist of especilly match day where it needs to be light enough to sit and digest easily


Thanks!

[AndyB]

Nice to see a fellow rugger on here! I have been doing a mostly primal diet for the last couple of months, which incidentally coincided with the start of our winter rugby training here (I am an old boy at 40 but still competing for a starting slot on a DIII team, which says a lot either about me or the team. At the start, when my fitness level was admittedly low, I had a ton of difficulty - I had been fueling with nuts and fruits a couple of hours before practices, but that wasn't sitting well with me. Long story short, once my body had adapted to the new eating regimen (assisted by the loss of about 20 pounds - I'm a hooker, by the way), I found that I was responding better to very hard, full contact practices by going in on a semi-fasted basis (eat a normal lunch at around 12:30, practices start at 7:00). We haven't had our first match yet, but we did have a 6 hour boot camp that I went to on a good breakfast of eggs and avocado a couple of hours before the start time, then snacked on fruit throughout the day. I was never hungry and had plenty of energy. YMMV.

[Grumpycakes]

It seems that human evolution has primed us more for hunting in order to eat, instead of eating in order to hunt.


On Thursdays, my gym day and my Krav Maga day overlap. I have breakfast at 7, work out from 1:30 to about 2:15, then do an intense session of Krav Maga from 7:30 to 8:30. I am never lacking for energy and get through Krav with energy to spare, then finally eat at 9 pm. Saturdays I go to Krav having fasted for about 18 hours.


Has anyone considered the possibility that "fueling up," while providing some energy, creates a very large placebo effect? That is, subconsciously thinking, "I have eaten recently, therefore I have the energy to push myself, therefore I will give it all I've got" vs. thinking, "I haven't eaten. How will I have energy? If I go too hard I could pass out and damage my body. I better take it easy" and hitting a self-imposed wall. Food for thought, I guess.

[AmyMac703]

Fellow rugby player as well here. I've been anywhere between 70 and 90% primal since the beginning of the school year.

I never, ever carbo load before a rugby game. It makes me feel lethargic and that's pretty much the last thing I need. Depending on what time the game is, I'll either have a light breakfast of mostly protein/fat or no breakfast at all.

Also, consider: if you eat primally 90% of the time (i.e. on the days that you have rugby practice and/or do whatever other workouts you do) and then switch it up (by carbo loading) for the one day that it actually matters, does that seem like a good idea?