There are various dietary strategies that you need to amend in your personalised Nutrition Plan to accommodate the fasting that you would be embarking on. As you will be consuming only two meals each day for the month of Ramadan (disrupting your usual eating times), you would need to ensure that you are consume sufficient energy intakes to be able to withstand the training and other activities that are scheduled for the day and sufficient protein intakes to maintain the amount of muscles that you have.
Interestingly, studies have shown that during Ramadan, body fat may decrease, maintain or even increase depending on what food you choose (Haouari et al., 2008; Kul et al., 2014; Sadeghirad et al., 2014). So it is important to choose the right food and beverages and the quantity you need to consume.
Below are some common dietary strategies that you would need to take note of during Ramadan. Take note of the criteria for each dietary strategies as not every strategy might be applicable for your sport and lifestyle.
Tip #1 - Before Ramadan, fix your Nutritional Status
When individuals to have poor diets and have nutrition deficiencies before Ramadan, they tend to be unwell/ the immunity could be quite low during Ramadan as your eating patterns change while training intensity might or might not be similar to the usual training (depending on the season/ periodisation phase & sport).
How to fix:
Get advice from a Sports Nutritionist. He or she will flag out some possible deficiencies.
Tip #2 - Just before Iftar
Remember to consume your three or five dates and milk before praying. Dates are able to provide you with instant energy while milk can help you hydrate your body better. Milk has a score favorably on the beverage hydration index where it helps with fluid retention.
Just a note when consuming dates and milk... As a Sports Nutritionist, I usually see my athletes gobbling down the dates while gulping down a glass of warm milk as if someone is going to take the dates and milk away from them. Please slowly consume them. Your stomach might not be able to handle a sudden high volume of food and fluids which can cause stomach discomfort.
Strategies
Give yourself some time to consume 3 to 5 dates + Milk before praying
"Pace yourself when eating during Iftar and Sahour."
Tip #3 - During Iftar
During the breaking of fast, you would be feeling hungry especially when you smell the aroma of the food that you would be consuming. This hunger might cause you to gobble down the food. Try to pace yourself to avoid stomach discomfort & indigestion and to be able to sleep better.
Strategies
Try to consume about a total of 2000 to 3000ml of fluids over the Iftar meal times.
Consider taking smaller easily digestible meals
Minimize the amount of deep fried food and foods with high sugar content during Iftar to manage your physique and physical performance better.
Tip #4 - Take note of when to sleep
During Ramadan, it is found that the sleep quality and quantity may be reduced. To help with this, you might want to consider sleeping before midnight (post-iftar) and wake up for sahour with regular napping throughout the day.
Sleep affects Nutrition and Nutrition affects sleep. Without much sleep, it may affect our food choices and the amount of food that we eat. Choosing the wrong food could affect the quality of sleep. It could end up in a vicious cycle.
Strategies:
Sleeping before midnight
Have regular napping during the day
Tip #5 - Cooking for Sahour Meals
When planning what to cook, take note of the following:
Minimize the amount of salt used in the dishes & soup. Choose non-processed foods that are less salty. Although salt may help with fluid retention, an excess amounts prior dawn could increase the possibility of being thirsty throughout the day.
Choose wholegrains such as brown rice instead of processed carbohydrates-rich food such as white rice. There would be a slow release of carbohydrates after Sahour.
Include Protein-rich dishes and Vegetable dishes. This would further help with the slow release of carbohydrates and you feeling full for longer due to the fibre in the vegetables and protein in the meal.
Tip #6 - During Sahour
It is important to maintain energy balance during Sahour by consuming sufficient amounts of energy and nutrients. As our glycogen stores in the liver could be reduced by about 50% during our sleep, it is crucial to fully load the muscle and liver glycogen during Sahour especially for Athletes who have training by taking sufficient amount of carbohydrates. The amount needed depends on the physical activity level for the day.
Skipping Sahour is a no no.
Some athletes make the mistake of attempting to drink a large amount of water at the Sahour meal. It can lead to kidneys filtering too much fluids which causes high urine production and ultimately contribute to increasing the risk of dehydration. You would need to carefully plan with Sports Nutritionists to determine and appropriately time hydration and rehydration strategies. This could minimize the potential adverse effects of dehydration during the day especially in warm ambient weather conditions.
Immediately after waking up, monitor your hydration status with our hydration monitoring kit. Your hydration status will show whether you have consumed adequate amounts of fluids. You would need to ensure that you corrected the amount of water. In general, you could try taking a total of 2000 to 3000ml of fluids during Sahour meal to minimize dehydration but fine-tuning the amount and timing of fluids is necessary. Contact us to help you fine-tune the amount.
Strategies
Take sufficient amounts of carbohydrates
In general, you could try taking a total of 2000 to 3000ml of fluids during Sahour meal to minimize dehydration but fine-tuning the amount and timing of fluids is necessary. Water is not the only beverage that provides you with fluids. Fluids also include milk, soup, vegetables and fruits.
Remember to take note of your Nutrition
Remember to maintain the amount of energy and nutrients that you need by not skipping Sahour and Iftar. Contact us if you don't know how much you need to eat.
Hydration is important for health and performance especially during Ramadan. Monitoring your daily hydration status is very beneficial and could be done by using our Hydration Monitoring kit. You can pre-order the kit below.
Do leave a comment below.
References:
Haouari M, et al. How Ramadan fasting affects caloric consumption, body weight, and circadian evolution of cortisol serum levels in young, healthy male volunteers. Horm Metab Res. 2008 Aug;40(8):575-7.
Kul S, Savaş E, Öztürk ZA, Karadağ G. Does Ramadan fasting alter body weight and blood lipids and fasting blood glucose in a healthy population? A meta- analysis. J Relig Health. 2014 Jun;53(3):929-42.
Sadeghirad B et al. Islamic fasting and weight loss: a systematic review and meta-
analysis. Public Health Nutr. 2014 Feb;17(2):396-406.
Saad M, Kasper M.A.,Close G.L. Chapter 7 Ramadan & Sports Performance. The Nutrition X-change 2023
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