Dawn Weatherwax, Sports Nutritionist, Talks Shop

So this past weekend, I attended the Ohio State Strength and Conditioning Clinic which was held at Ohio State University. They had a pretty good lineup of speakers, but today I am going to talk about Dawn Weatherwax's presentation. She is the owner of Sports Nutrition 2Go and has worked with many different clientele including top level athletes from the NFL and MLB. I'm going to point out some of the more interesting points I found in her presentation and hopefully, you can take away something that might help you out as well.

• Just like I said in my newsletter last time about athletes being dehydrated before they even start practice, Dawn said that 3 out of 4 student athletes are probably not eating enough calories to fuel their bodies. She said the only true way to find out how many calories you burn is to get a metabolic testing. Coincidentally, we have a machine at our facility if you are interested.
• Speaking of hydration, she said that you should drink your body weight in fluid ounces to stay hydrated. Now, if you are working out or playing an activity, then this is adjusted even more. These fluid ounces can include orange juice, milk, and up to 16 ounces of coffee as long as you aren't adding cream, sugar, and other fattening substances.
• I talked last time about sodium's role in dehydration and she agrees that it is huge. So, if you are sweating a lot during your activity then you need to make sure that you aren't just staying hydrated, but also getting sodium in as well.
• When it comes to protein, you should try to ingest some 20-30 minutes after a workout. 20-30 grams should be fine, anything more than 40 is wasteful because your body can only absorb so much at one time. That is why you want to plan throughout the day to get your protein in at different increments.
• A deck of cards is the size of 3-4 ounces of protein which equals about 20 grams.
• There is no difference if you get your protein from food or a supplement. She likes supplements purely for the convenience. Advocare offers a great post workout drink called Post Workout Recovery. You can read about it by clicking here http://advocare.com/07111072.
• A male should consume 20-30 grams of protein every 3-4 hours. While a female should consume 16-24 grams of protein every 3-4 hours.
• A serving size of fruit or a vegetable is the size of a tennis ball.
• She likes the upper limits of the daily recommendations of foods, thus she says it is tough to get all that through food. That is another reason why she likes supplements, to get those daily recommendations with ease.

I thought those were great tips on some questions that people always seem to ask me. Well now you know from an expert. To read more about Dawn and what she does go to http://sn2g.com. She was real nice and easy to talk to. We'll talk next time about some of the other speakers I saw that day.