For a balanced diet that supports peak performance, some athletes are turning to the Performance Plates model.

“’Performance Plates’ are an adaptation of the MyPlate model to adjust for the different training durations and intensities athletes engage in,” said Skylar Weir, a registered dietitian nutritionist at UCHealth Yampa Valley Medical Center. “It can be appropriate for athletes to have 50% of their plate or meal coming from carbohydrates, and that’s because athletes’ needs for energy are much higher than the general population.”

The U.S. Department of Agriculture developed the MyPlate approach to help people maintain a balanced diet. With Performance Plates, athletes shift the ratios of different macronutrients based on their training.

What are ‘Performance Plates,’ and how does they work?

During rest days or light training when sessions are less than 30 or 40 minutes, athletes follow the MyPlate model, in which half the plate is filled with colorful foods, a quarter with complex carbohydrates and a quarter with whole-food proteins.

During moderate training days, when training hits 45 to 90 minutes and intensity increases, athletes divide their plates evenly between the three types of foods: a third of the plate is filled with colorful foods, a third with complex carbohydrates and a third with protein.

During hard training days, when training exceeds 90 minutes, or athletes train twice during one day, half of the plate is filled with carbohydrate-rich foods, while the other half is split between colorful foods and protein.

“It’s really the increased energy demand that drives these shifts,” Weir said.

Snacks can be critical for athletes to boost nutrition and energy. Weir encourages athletes to incorporate carbohydrates and protein in each snack, and depending on activity level, to enjoy two to three snacks a day.

“Snacks are your superpower,” Weir said. “They allow you to get these little drips of energy throughout the day and fuel around your workouts more effectively, so you don’t go into training or come out of training with an empty tank.”

What are the benefits of shifting to a Performance Plates approach?

When shifting to a Performance Plates approach, athletes often see immediate benefits.

Some athletes are used to fueling the same way on hard training days as on rest days, making it difficult to recover after an intense training session.

“Fueling with a large salad after a long run just isn’t enough,” Weir said. “When athletes start to add in more of these carbohydrates and fuel sources and start to meet these energy demands, they recover more quickly, the risk of injury goes down, and their mental clarity goes up.”

Athletes may also struggle to include enough antioxidant-rich, colorful fruits and vegetables. However, overall health can suffer without those colorful foods to counteract the inflammation naturally caused by exercise.

“Helping them understand the why behind these foods can be very helpful,” Weir said. “During rest days, they can introduce these fiber-rich colorful foods as they have more time to digest.”

Another challenge for some athletes is to incorporate sufficient portions of carbohydrates, which help fuel workouts and improve recovery.

“Probably the biggest pushback I get, whether for MyPlate or Performance Plates, is when someone’s really scared of carbohydrates,” Weir said. “We usually have to spend some dedicated time breaking down why they’re afraid of carbohydrates and what they’ve read or heard about them. Usually, the background for that fear is that carbohydrates lead to weight gain. We have to debunk that carbohydrates are not what’s contributing to weight gain – it’s eating an excess of any food.”

The structure and visual nature of Performance Plates can give athletes a straightforward way to balance nutrition without getting overwhelmed or obsessed with what they’re eating.

“I think most of the athletes find it to be a very helpful, valuable tool,” Weir said. “It gives them an easy way to judge if they’re getting enough of each nutrient on different training days. Most athletes enjoy that it’s more of an intuitive approach to eating.”

This story first appeared in the Steamboat Pilot.