Nutritional behaviour and beliefs of ski-mountaineers: A semi-quantitative and qualitative study

Background: endurance athletes are advised to optimize nutrition prior to races. little is known about actual athletes' beliefs,knowledge and nutritional behaviour. we monitored nutritional behaviour of amateur ski-mountaineering athletes during 4 days prior to a major competition to compare it with official recommendations and with the athletes' beliefs. methods: participants to the two routes of the 'patrouille des glaciers' were recruited (a,26 km,ascent 1881 m,descent 2341 m,max altitude 3160 m; z,53 km,ascent 3994 m,descent 4090 m,max altitude 3650 m). dietary intake diaries of 40 athletes (21 a,19 z) were analysed for energy,carbohydrate,fat,protein and liquid; ten were interviewed about their pre-race nutritional beliefs and behaviour. results: despite belief that pre-race carbohydrate,energy and fluid intake should be increased,energy consumption was 2416 ± 696 (mean ± sd) kcal·day-1,83 ± 17 % of recommended intake,carbohydrate intake was only 46 ± 13 % of minimal recommended (10 g·kg-1·day-1) and fluid intake only 2.7 ± 1.0 l·day-1. conclusions: our sample of endurance athletes did not comply with pre-race nutritional recommendations despite elementary knowledge and belief to be compliant. in these athletes a clear and reflective nutritional strategy was lacking. this suggests a potential for improving knowledge and compliance with recommendations. alternatively,some recommendations may be unrealistic. © 2015 praz et al.