Fuel and train for your sport
Playing well comes from two things working together: training that makes you stronger and fitter for your sport, and food that matches the work you're doing that day. Fixtures and training change from week to week, so the food side is a moving target. This guide covers the short science, what gets in the way, and how Strathlon keeps your plan in step with your sport.
On this page
1. The science, briefly
- Fuel should match the work. Hard training and match days run mostly on carbohydrate, so they need more of it than easy days and rest days.[1][2]
- Too little fuel for too long costs you. Training hard on too little food, week after week, is called low energy availability. It can harm performance, recovery, bones, hormones and immunity, in men and women alike.[3]
- Strength work protects you as well as powering you. Strength and conditioning training is linked with fewer sports injuries, and stronger muscles help you sprint, jump and change direction.[4][5]
- Sweat adds up. Losing more than about 2% of your body weight in sweat can hurt endurance performance, so drink across long or hot sessions.[6][7]
- Refuel, but don't panic about the clock. After training, carbohydrate and protein help you refuel and repair. Your totals across the day matter more than hitting an exact window.[8][9]
For Sports Performance, Strathlon raises your calories and carbohydrate on training and match days and sets your protein at 2.2 g per kg of body weight.
2. What gets in the way
- Every week is different. Fixtures move, training nights change and seasons start and stop, so a fixed eating plan is wrong more often than it is right.
- You eat on the move. Food at the ground, on the road or between sessions is hard to track, so the days you need fuel most are the ones you log least.
3. How Strathlon keeps up with your fixtures
- Your sport schedule drives the plan. For up to two sports, tick the days you play and the days you practise, and set each season's first and last date. Your gym days follow one weekly pattern placed around them.
- Gym work picked for your sport. With Sports Performance as a goal, your gym sessions include moves chosen for what your sport asks of you. Settings shows how your plan is tuned for it.
- Food advice for each kind of day. The Nutrition tab gives each sport's match days and practice days their own tab, with advice on what to eat before and after. On the evening before a match, it tells you to make dinner carb-rich.
- Logging on the go. On the AI Coach tab, photograph a pack's barcode for its own figures from Open Food Facts, a free public database of food labels, or photograph your plate or type what you had for an estimate. These logging tools are part of the AI Coach subscription; without it you can type your day's calories into the Tracker yourself.
4. Use your numbers to decide
- Extra training? A second session, or a run that wasn't on the plan: on the Plan tab, tap Add activity and log it. A logged activity counts in full on that day.
- Two planned sessions on one day. When your plan has more than one sport session on the same day, the biggest counts in full, the second at 55% and any more at 30%, up to a daily maximum. In the Tracker's day detail, each session's row says what it counts for.
- Did you eat enough to recover? The Tracker shows your target, what you've eaten and what you've burned side by side, so after a heavy day you can see whether you've fuelled it.
5. Your sport's own guides
Every sport in Strathlon has two guides: one on fuelling and one on strength and conditioning, each written for what that sport asks of you. Find yours below.
More on the topics that cut across sports: low energy availability, hydration and electrolytes, carb loading, recovery nutrition and why these exercises are in your sport block.
6. Staying safe
- Under 18, or your answers to the food questions in setup suggest care is needed? Your calories stay at maintenance, plus what your sport sessions add.
- Pregnant or breastfeeding? The app sets no calorie target at all and asks you to follow your midwife's or doctor's guidance on eating. If you tell the app you're pregnant or breastfeeding, the Plan tab stops setting sessions and shows published activity guidance instead.
- Feeling flat for weeks, getting ill often, or noticing changes to your periods? These can be signs of under-fuelling.[3] Speak to your GP or a sports physician.
References
The figures in this guide come from the sources below. Where a number reflects a professional body's guidance, the citation names that body and its country. Facts about how Strathlon works come from the app itself.
- Thomas DT, Erdman KA, Burke LM. American College of Sports Medicine Joint Position Statement. Nutrition and Athletic Performance. Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise. 2016;48(3):543–568. Issued jointly by the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics (United States), Dietitians of Canada (Canada) and the ACSM (United States). PubMed 26891166
- Burke LM, Hawley JA, Wong SHS, Jeukendrup AE. Carbohydrates for training and competition. Journal of Sports Sciences. 2011;29(sup1):S17–S27. Daily carbohydrate scaled to the training load. PubMed 21660838
- Mountjoy M, Ackerman KE, Bailey DM, et al. 2023 International Olympic Committee's (IOC) consensus statement on Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport (REDs). British Journal of Sports Medicine. 2023;57(17):1073–1097. Health and performance effects of low energy availability in female and male athletes. PubMed 37752011
- Lauersen JB, Bertelsen DM, Andersen LB. The effectiveness of exercise interventions to prevent sports injuries: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials. British Journal of Sports Medicine. 2014;48(11):871–877. PubMed 24100287
- Suchomel TJ, Nimphius S, Stone MH. The importance of muscular strength in athletic performance. Sports Medicine. 2016;46(10):1419–1449. Greater strength is associated with better jumping, sprinting and change-of-direction performance. PubMed 26838985
- Sawka MN, Burke LM, Eichner ER, Maughan RJ, Montain SJ, Stachenfeld NS. American College of Sports Medicine position stand. Exercise and fluid replacement. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise. 2007;39(2):377–390. The under-2% body-mass-loss guideline. PubMed 17277604
- Cheuvront SN, Kenefick RW. Dehydration: physiology, assessment, and performance effects. Comprehensive Physiology. 2014;4(1):257–285. Supports the 2% threshold for endurance performance. PubMed 24692140
- Aragon AA, Schoenfeld BJ. Nutrient timing revisited: is there a post-exercise anabolic window? Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition. 2013;10(1):5. The window is hours rather than minutes. PMC3577439
- Morton RW, Murphy KT, McKellar SR, et al. A systematic review, meta-analysis and meta-regression of the effect of protein supplementation on resistance training-induced gains in muscle mass and strength in healthy adults. British Journal of Sports Medicine. 2018;52(6):376–384. Daily total protein as the first-order variable. PubMed 28698222
This is general educational information rather than medical, dietary or coaching advice. Figures are population-level guides from published research, and individual results vary. Anyone with a health condition, a history of disordered eating, or who is pregnant or postpartum should consult a qualified physician or registered dietitian before starting or changing an exercise or nutrition programme. See our Terms for more.
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