The mic is hot and the game is on. You're listening to News for the Nation podcast by Aces Nation, where we talk about nutrition, sports performance, the journey of a student athlete, and more. I'm Claire. I'm Zach. Time to level up. Welcome back sports fans. Today, special treat, we are giving you some case studies that are real about how to improve your performance through nutrition. Always, we got Claire Alvarez with us. ready to give you all the information you need. We
got two different case studies today. Claire is going to share with us how she's helped athletes increase their weight or muscle mass. I mean, she's going to elaborate on that and then increase their performance, both of those through nutrition, which is highly important for all your performance recovery needs. And you need it to stay alive. So Claire, thanks for being here. Let's get right into it. Which one are we doing first? Let's talk about weight gain, muscle gain first. Let's
talk about that. Yeah. So, I mean, depending on athlete's goals, there's going to be different tweaks. I would say the majority of what we're doing that's changing will be small tweaks in between goals, really looking at changing calories
in a specific way. For younger athletes, I think a lot of what we're doing is just changing habits and giving them tips and tricks on how to do these things and accomplish these things without necessarily needing to like track their food or kind of be a little bit more diligent than I would maybe have adults be doing in similar
situations. So. If we're talking about gaining weight, gaining muscle, I would say specifically if the majority of athletes are talking about gaining weight, they're typically talking about gaining muscle. There's a couple things that you want to keep in mind and there's a couple strategies that we can implement to kind of help make that better or easier, if you will. The first thing and probably the most important thing is to make sure you're eating in a caloric surplus.
So essentially what that means and I think we've talked about a lot of these issues in our first podcast is just making sure you're eating more
calories than what you're burning. This specific athlete that I'm thinking of is a multi sport athlete So they came to me and they were playing multiple sports Transitioning kind of between like basketball into baseball So school basketball was kind of winding down travel that baseball was winding up, but they were still doing both of these sports at the same time it just depending on the season depending on which one was more of the primary sport versus kind of the more
backup or recreational sport. So even from switching to baseball from basketball regardless his energy needs or energy expenditure was pretty high. So primary goal was to build muscle gain weight and The first thing like I mentioned that you have to be doing in order to do that is to be in a caloric surplus. One of the biggest things that I see especially in younger athletes especially in multi -sport younger athletes make when they're trying to build muscle is not eating enough.
So that's the first thing is not only do you need to eat enough to maintain your weight but you need to eat more than that so that you're able to actually build muscle and put weight
on. So a couple ways that I like to help athletes especially younger athletes kind of make that transition from eating not enough to eating more and eating in that caloric surplus is starting with just what they're already eating and I'll assess it from an individual basis and I if I have to make suggestions on like swapping certain things or changing certain things out then we'll do that but The easiest thing to start with is just gradually increasing portion sizes of what
they're already doing at every single meal. So breakfast, lunch and dinner. So for example, if let's say for breakfast they're eating like a piece of peanut butter toast with half a banana and two eggs, my first thought would be well let's increase that to two to three pieces of
peanut butter toast. a couple more eggs maybe like four eggs and maybe we're adding some orange juice on the side so like something or a glass of milk on the side so something like that to where we're increasing what they're already doing it's not going to seem too crazy but over time we're adding to where that breakfast is maybe or that meal is maybe a third to her I would say two times more than what it already is. Okay. Oh, go ahead. So, um, breakfast, lunch or dinner
doesn't matter to me. What, what do you see in those meals? Like in this situation where you're telling someone to increase their caloric intake a little bit at a time, like what, in your experience, what is one of the first areas that they go for first, right? So you gave us a breakfast, um, example, um, What would a typical younger athlete, what would you say that they're more likely to go for first? Is it the peanut butter toast? Is it extra egg? Which one of those are they
more likely to add first? It depends on the athlete. I've had some that prefer to add eggs. I've had some that maybe... Are not as hungry in the morning or they're a little bit nauseous in the morning they're not used to eating a bigger breakfast in the morning so maybe we'll add a glass of milk or a glass of orange juice to just make. The volume a little bit lower but still kind of getting some extra calories so it depends i would say i gave breakfast is an example because
usually. younger athletes are not eating enough at breakfast. So that's usually a place where we can kind of afford some extra room and extra calories. I would say where they're more willing to add or increase portions is lunch and dinner. Just because they're more hungry, it's a little bit easier. But sometimes my concern with those athletes, especially multi -sport athletes, if they're practicing up until eight, nine o 'clock
at night. I don't necessarily want them eating a very large dinner right before bed because that can impact their sleep or that could potentially impact GI stuff or not feeling hungry the next day. So it kind of is a catch -22 and it really just depends on the athlete and their schedule and what their body can handle. Okay, back to the case study. But good question. So that was the first thing we did is just slowly and gradually
start to increase portion sizes. So for this kid specifically, he was able to implement a larger breakfast. And that really helped him just to kind of start the day with a little bit more. Kind of similar to gradually increasing portion sizes would be just to eat frequently throughout the day. So I mentioned three meals. That's like the bare minimum. We need to be eating
three meals. Realistically, and I know this is harder during the school year than it is during summer, we want to be eating every two to three hours. So typically for athletes that would mean eating three meals and probably at least three snacks if we're adding like pre and post workout snacks in there, intro workout snacks, and maybe closer to six to eight snacks depending on how
we're breaking that up. So really want to eat frequently and kind of take advantage of the time that you have throughout the day and optimizing those windows to get in the probably what is a pretty large amount of calories that they need to get in to be in a surplus. For this specific example, this was right at the tail end of school. We definitely had a harder time getting snacks in. Again, depending on the school, depending on teachers and classes, sometimes they don't
allow snacks. That made it a little bit difficult. We tried to get around that by maybe adding electrolytes or something to water that had some carbohydrates in it. So just trying to do things where we could. But during summer, the schedule shifted to where it was breakfast, morning snack, lunch, pre -practice snack, post -practice snack, pre -practice snack, dinner, bedtime snack. So we were pretty structured
in that schedule. Because of that that allowed us to make sure that he was getting all the calories that he needed throughout the day Yeah, what what's the deal with that? Anyway with school not a lot of schools not allowing you to have snacks Yeah I'm trying to think of what mine did and I honestly can't remember. I think it just depended on the teacher Sometimes they were
they were nice about it. And if you were like, hey listen I'm an athlete, I'm starving, I need to eat something or whatever, they would be a little bit more willing. But I just remember some teachers were like, nope, no food, you can't have food. So like, how do we go from little toddlers, you know, or like little kids going to school and they get snacks throughout the day plus the meal, right? And now like you're older, you can't you can't have any more food.
And to me, it makes Zero sense because a lot i mean a lot of kids are in sports i mean they maybe get i know we had a gap in between the end of school and practice i think it was like an hour so we could eat a snack there but i mean the lunch schedule is also messed up i mean some kids eat lunch at 10 a .m. so then they're eating again until three four o 'clock like that's pretty
crazy so and i would think that. You know this idea that from a concentration perspective and I think just the amount of kids that have trouble concentrating during school You would see such a large improvement if they were able to have a snack Yeah, and to be noted on the opposite of the example that you give some kids have to start school at like 7 38 o 'clock, but their lunch because of how the school said is set up may not eat till like 132 so They've got that
long period of like, hey, I'm not able to eat after having breakfast. And some kids don't even have breakfast. Right. Yeah. So it's crazy. But it is crazy. So it's hard. But I will say there are some I've had some athletes that I've worked with where they're like, yeah, teachers don't care. Cool. Whatever you need me to bring, I'll bring. sometimes we run into more issues, but sometimes it's nice to make some of these changes. Definitely. Something else that we incorporated
were smoothies. Smoothies are a really helpful strategy with weight gain and muscle gain just because they're easier to digest and get down because they're liquid and you can pack a lot of calories in them. I remember When I was in collegiate football and we were making smoothies, we would put all sorts of stuff in there, avocado, coconut oil, using whole milk or coconut milk. So just trying to get as many calories as you can in that one thing because you can control
that for them. So if you feel like, hey, you're getting... I know they're getting at least a thousand calories in today because I provided them with this. Great. And for the most part, those calories are nutritious and from whole food sources. So that's also a win in our book. So that's a really big one is just utilizing those, whether it's post -workout or for a snack throughout the day, like I said, especially with
summer here. So some Ways that we can look at adding really nutrient dense but high calorie foods Into smoothies are things like I mentioned like instead of using like almond milk or oat milk using canned coconut milk, which half a cup is like 240 250 calories using frozen avocado. So putting that in there and With half of a large avocado you get like 150 calories. Peanut butter
or almond butter using nut butter in it. Trying to put lots of fruit in it or using fruit juice and fruit so we're getting some more calories. So just trying to use that to your advantage and like I mentioned you can have a smoothie that's upwards of like 800 to 1000 calories if you really struggle to get enough in throughout
the day. Yeah, I know. That's a sneaky way to get vegetables in if you don't really like them, because you only like fruit and peanut butter and milk or whatever, you know, what have you. But yeah, you're right. You could load so much stuff, so many nutrients into the shake. And a lot of people, if it tastes good, they'll be like, yep, that's me right there. I love it. Yeah. Look, I remember there were... times you put granola bars in there, granola bars, cereal,
you can do that, or oats. Oats is another really easy way to add calories to smoothies, which is helpful. So that's just another way. Yeah. Okay, so before you get to the very end of the results portion here, how did you do your initial baseline type of thing? Was it just body weight? Were you able to get any type of fat -free mass or muscle mass readings on this person? How did
that initial evaluation go? Yeah. So because it was a younger athlete, just weight, we just had weight, but I always like to go off of performance, energy levels, how they're feeling. So kind of some of those like non -scale. markers of progress as well, feelings of fullness, any like nausea, so things like that. But typically, if I am to get any body composition type baseline data, it's in older athletes or adults. This athlete was, I think, 13 or 14. So we didn't have access
to it. So recap here, we got a multi -sport athlete trying to gain weight, gain some muscle. You went from adding a little bit more to each meal, encouraging the snacks throughout the day just to keep that caloric surplus. What was the result for this person? Yeah. So after increasing all of those things and incorporating them consistently, he was able to reach his goal weight of 10 pounds of adding 10 pounds. His body comp did change just from an aesthetic point of view. So he noticed
it. He noticed his strength going up in training sessions, noticed energy improving, performance improved. So while we didn't necessarily have numbers to tell us from a body count perspective, there was some anecdotal data to help kind of just drive the point that we were able to increase muscle mass. how much I have no idea, but I think it's safe to say that while reaching that target number, the majority of that was probably muscle with a little bit of body fat increase in there
too. Right. Which is not a bad thing for someone who's a younger multi -sport athlete to have a little more. It's not a bad thing. So what was the timeframe for this 10 pounds? This was two months. Okay, hey, that's pretty good. That's
pretty good. And I will say a lot of the times, especially in the initial week or two, we'll see like a quite, not quite a large jump, but usually a larger jump because if we're increasing carbohydrates significantly, we're able to add more water or we're able to hone in on hydration. typically water weight is going to increase.
So we'll see like a jump on the scale. But after that, he was able to primarily or consistently increase by somewhere between like a pound to pounds per week, which is which is kind of what we're looking for. Wow. Aces Nation is a team of former college athletes and coaches on a mission to improve the sports culture experience and change today's expectations. We do this by helping every player maximize their athletic potential.
with professional programs to improve strength, speed, nutrition, and mental toughness, and by using sports to create a direct pathway to college with a guaranteed college scholarship program for all student -athletes. Visit acesnation .org to learn more and schedule a demo. Let's go! Wow, that's a pretty good deal, Claire. Also sounds like a pretty committed student -athlete
right there. to be able to have those results and make those changes around class and then really take advantage of the schedule set when you get to summertime. So good information there. Now, let's move to the performance one. Okay. So this is not weight based. This is a whole different set of goals. What were the goals going into it? Yeah. So typically the performance goals, that I see in younger athletes are just wanting
to get better. I feel like when you press for that, they're like, faster, stronger, just better. And you're like, great, okay, got it. So that's essentially what this athlete, she was just looking to, she was a track runner. So mid to long distance, so like 800 to mile, maybe two mile. So just looking to improve times, get faster, feel like she had more energy and not bonk during races
or like hit a wall during races. And I noticed a similar trend with a lot of these like performance athletes and it's similar to the weight gain athletes in the sense that they're not eating enough. However, a lot of times with and it's not. All of the case, but I do have a lot of athletes that will come in and they are eating relatively well in terms of like what their meals
are composed of. But the issue is the timing of their meals and that's what I see the timing of their meals or the timing around their workouts that I notice is very off and that makes sense because we're not taught that and most most athletes aren't taught until. College if they're lucky. And so usually what I'm seeing is similar with like the school pattern, but you know, like may or may not be eating breakfast. If we are eating breakfast is probably pretty small on the go.
Lunch is probably pretty big after school before practice might be eating a snack might not, but a lot of times what I'll see is like a really high protein snack before practice or something like that. Get home, eat dinner, and then go to bed so. A couple problems with that and I'll start with the first one is if you're not eating a high carbohydrate snack before practice, you're probably going to be low energy. Aside from the fact if you don't have adequate energy intake
throughout the day at a minimum. So that was the first thing that we changed was her nutrition around practice. So instead of eating like a protein bar or trail mix or a cheese stick before practice, we were eating like half a peanut butter and jelly or we were eating like pretzels with maybe a little bit of peanut butter. Yeah. So what you're saying there is like you went from a higher fat snack with more protein content to more carbohydrate focused right before going
into practice. Yes. So that's what we focused on. Something else that is interesting that I don't think a lot of high school athletes get either, if they do get breaks, they're usually just getting like a water break. But I have some athletes that their practices are lasting multiple
hours. And if they're not eating something throughout practice, or having carbohydrates in some capacity, whether that be in a water bottle, juice form, applesauce pouch, something like that, they're putting themselves at a disadvantage for energy reduction. So that was something else that we had to kind of work through like if she was able to do that. And typically, her practices were about an hour. So it wasn't necessarily the end
of the world. But if there was like a long practice on like let's say they didn't have a meet and it was a Saturday and they were having like a two hour practice, she would have an applesauce pouch when she could, ideally halfway through, but somewhere along there. And that really helped as well. So making sure she had that adequate energy. And then after practice, instead of just driving home and going home straight to dinner,
we added a post -workout snack. So it wasn't necessarily Huge, but again, high in carbohydrates, protein, maybe a little bit of fat. So for example, if like a parent came to pick her up, they'd have like a yogurt with fruit and granola for her and she would have that on the way home or a smoothie or let's see, what else did we do? Maybe the other half of the PB &J with some of protein shake. So this athlete in particular had a longer drive to get home from wherever
the training session was happening. Um, I wouldn't necessarily say a longer drive. It wasn't a drive, but there was a drive home. Um, I think it was like 15, 20 minutes. So had the snack when you get in the car, got home, showered, mom or dad made dinner or, you know, had dinner ready. And then, you know, by the time She got home, did all that. It was like maybe 45 minutes in between. So tried to do something small, easily digestible.
Again, it wasn't something huge, but trying to have something so we're utilizing that window of time and starting the recovery process. So for listeners, if you got like that 15, 20 minute window that it takes you to get home, plus you have to shower, if dinner's not ready, then that's
even longer. So that time can kind of add up without you even realizing it, not that it just takes 15 minutes to get home and you've got stuff that's available but maybe not accessible at that point, or maybe accessible but not available. But anyways, so yeah, that's a good reference to have for the timeframe that. you could get away with to have that post training snack before you have your dinner. Right. And then dinner
was pretty good. And then the other thing that we changed was just having a pre bedtime snack. Again, wasn't big. It could have been like some tart cherry juice and like almonds or nuts, maybe some like popcorn with nuts or seeds or some chocolate chips, something like that. So it was relatively small, lower in volume, but still contained carbohydrates, some fats. Sometimes there was some protein in there as well. But again, just kind of like utilizing another window.
So having a snack, it was probably, I would say about, I think dinner was at like six, two hours after dinner, maybe like one and a half, two hours before bedtime, if there was a lot of homework. Well, I mean, that's some good information there for our listeners. So what was the result here? What was the performance result? And what were those gains? Yeah. So I only worked with this athlete for about three to four weeks. But in that time, she definitely noticed an increase
in energy intake and energy. So like went into practices with a lot more energy, was able to complete the intention of the practices. And by the end of that time, she was running personal bests at meets, albeit not by like minutes, but she was still running faster, which was one of
her primary goals. So I think it just shows that, you know, making sure that you're meeting the energy demands of your sport is important, but also that timing is really important because if you're going into a practice session and you have no energy or not enough energy, you're not going to be able to practice with the intent that you need to practice with to get better and faster and stronger, whatever it is that
you want to do. So you're going to be stuck in the cycle of just being tired and performing the same. Yeah, I think it's incredible that she was making even personal best by seconds.
and you only I mean you only worked with it for three or four weeks typically I would say even if she in that time frame even if she just felt better felt like she had more energy you know at the start of practice and throughout practice I think that was a huge win but the fact that she was able to perform at meets uh it's fantastic and she probably if continuing along the same trend that you established with her in that three to four weeks she was probably seeing continued
success and personal best that she continued on. Yeah. And I think, and we talked about meat nutrition too, she definitely took a lot of that timing nutrients with her into the meats too. And I think that made a big difference as well, because if you're doing the same thing before practice, what you're doing with meats and just eating a bunch of protein and fat, it's probably not going to help you run an 800 very fast. Yeah,
no doubt. Let's get information. I hope everyone you know play that back and listen to it because Claire just gave you a lot of information there about how she's been able to work with people for two different goals and still be able to make those adjustments and you're probably going to need something a little more specific to you so definitely reach out to us and Claire is able to provide that information specific to you so that you can gain weight if you need to if you
want to right perform better if you if you need to you know if you want to and everybody wants to perform better so definitely um hit us up let's figure out how we can help you be better you know be who you want to be as an athlete so thanks everybody for listening we will catch you on the next one see ya