Should Triathletes Count Calories: The Burning Question
Your performance in training dictates race performance in triathlon—all those unseen hours of sweat and effort.
Nutrition is a massive component of high-quality, consistent training because it is the lynchpin for success.
In essence, how much energy you consume and use.
Knowing this, should triathletes count calories, and what effects could that practice have?
Find out below.
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When I ask the triathletes I work with to track their diets for a week or two, an incredible thing happens.
It might be the biggest benefit of calorie counting because it can make a huge difference to someone's diet.
However, there are also some potential risks, and it's not as simple as saying that everyone should count calories.
At the end of this article, you should have a good idea of the pros and cons of tracking calories and whether you should consider it as a triathlete.
What is calorie counting?
Calorie counting is a nutritional practice that tracks calories consumed daily. It works by recording the amount of calories contained in every food item consumed.
It is mainly used by people looking to lose or gain weight, but they aren't the only reasons!
Knowing your calorie intake can help ensure you're not in a calorie deficit, which is crucial when training hard.
Tracking helps balance your macros like carbohydrates and proteins, which are super important factors of nutrition for an triathlete’s performance, fueling your workouts and aiding in recovery.
There are guidelines for endurance athletes on protein (1.4-2.0g of protein per kg of body weight per day) and carbohydrate (3-10g of carbs per kg of body weight per day) intake, and calorie counting can help you to hit these targets and appropriately match your nutrition to your training.
Using it to ensure you're eating enough is a positive approach to managing your nutrition. It has significant potential benefits, especially if your training load is high and you’ve got a busy life.
When should I count calories?
There are certain instances where calorie counting could play a big role in aiding in your goals, and these might include:
Weight management
While losing weight without tracking calories is possible, it is much harder—especially if you want to do it safely and continue fueling your training.
Usually, you need some structure to follow. Whether that's calorie counting or a pre-made meal plan where someone else has worked out the calories, not tracking or planning means you're flying blind.
Within endurance sports, this becomes more important, too, to make sure that the calorie deficit is appropriate.
Without tracking, it would be easy to undershoot your calorie goals significantly and put yourself at risk of Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport and, ultimately, your training and health at risk.
My usual advice is to aim for 0.5-1kg of weight loss per week, and calorie counting can help you hone in on that and ensure you're eating in the right ballpark to hit this.
Dietary awareness
There's a funny thing that happens with almost every client I work with who I ask to track calories.
After a week or two, they provide me with some of their insights into their diet without any prompting.
These will be things like:
“I don't eat enough protein”
“I don't eat many portions of fruit or veg”
“I eat quite a lot of processed food”
Regular tracking can lead to better dietary choices simply through the act of becoming more aware of what you eat.
By logging your meals, you understand your food habits and can adjust toward healthier eating.
This is a potent tool that shouldn't be overlooked because the end result is a healthier diet that is more supportive of athletic performance and health: this will make far more difference over the long term than most supplements or tech gadgets!
When people think about nutrition for a triathlete’s performance, they often think about exciting supplements or special new protocols to follow, but the truth is your daily diet is far more influential than those, which is why calorie counting can be pretty much revolutionary for some people.
Risks of calorie counting
But with all that noted, it would be wrong if we didn't consider some of the downsides to tracking your calories.
Obsession
One significant concern of counting calorie intake for triathletes is the potential for developing an obsessive focus on calorie counting and macros.
This might lead to anxiety around food and a concern that you must hit your macros every day.
People may also feel the need to weigh all their food and become reliant on a tracking app, losing the ability to manage their nutrition without external help.
And then there's a worry that if they stray outside their calorie ranges because otherwise there will be repercussions. Similarly, people lose the fun of food and can't have a piece of cake without feeling guilty or thinking about their calorie intake.
We'll pick this up again later because it's a valid concern that should be considered carefully.
Ignoring your cues
Over-reliance on calorie counting can sometimes lead you to ignore signs of hunger or fullness, which can be counterproductive to maintaining a balanced diet and fueling your training.
This is a primary area that many who are against counting calories for triathletes highlight: it would be better to understand your own body and your needs.
If you can learn when you're hungry and genuinely full, you can individualize your nutrition without needing help from an app.
This is a very valid point, and I want anyone I work with to understand these signals, but there is a bit of an issue with this.
Before diving into that, I want to highlight another potential downside: calories aren't always accurate.
Inaccuracies
Suppose I take my phone and scan a barcode, log it in my nutrition app and manage my whole day like that. In that case, there's a reasonable chance that the number of calories I thought I was consuming wasn't correct, and we might be talking in the realms of 20% here.
This is because there might be errors with food manufacturing or reporting or issues with the nutritional labels when scanning them onto the app.
Whatever the case, they might not marry up, which could mean you're inadvertently under or over-consuming food.
Should triathletes count calories?
Over the years, I've worked with various athletes, each with their own approach to nutrition.
One individual found tracking calories brilliant. It allowed them to understand their training needs and adapt their nutrition depending on their goal, and they used it to lose weight successfully.
I worked with another athlete who chose not to track calories due to concerns about becoming overly fixated on numbers, worrying that it might lead to an unhealthy obsession with their food.
What's right? Is tracking calories for athletes something that you should do?
This is difficult because there are experts on both sides of the fence. Some are very positive about tracking calorie intake for triathletes, while others think it's too risky or miss the nuances of being in tune with your body.
There is no one-size-fits-all answer to tracking calories, and it depends on the individual.
However, nutrition for a triathlete’s performance is integral and can make a dramatic difference to your dietary quality and, as a result, your performance.
One of the things I talk about with the athletes that I work with is thinking of tracking calories as tracking your finances.
Just as you would regularly check your accounts to ensure you're not overspending, keeping an eye on your calorie intake helps prevent dietary "debt."
Initially, it's helpful to track things more frequently to establish good habits. Over time, you might need to check less often, relying more on your understanding and less on logging every detail.
If something has gone out of sync, you might retake a deeper dive to reassess your finances.
The same can be said for tracking calorie intake for triathletes.
Logging your food for a couple of weeks can be a powerful way to learn more about what you regularly eat.
It's not something you need to do forever, and you can function without it, but it can provide an objective way of analyzing your diet and getting you on the right track.
Calorie counting, when used correctly, is a tool in the arsenal. Like heart rate or power on the bike, it can provide valuable data to inform your decisions.
My general approach to counting calories is to track for a couple of weeks to gain insight into your regular meals. This helps establish a baseline and familiarise you with the food you routinely eat.
Then, work out your calorie requirements based on your training volume and create a rough meal plan with main meals and snacks that align with your calorie requirements.
Once in the groove, you can reduce calorie counting, but continue to follow your plan and align it with your training.
You can periodically check in with your tracking app to ensure input matches output and that things are running smoothly.
Overall, tracking calories for triathletes can be a valuable tool if used correctly, but like most things within nutrition, it's not a black-and-white answer for everyone.
Another area I love to talk about with clients is how to improve their recovery, and you can check out this recovery guide to help you with just that.
FAQs
How many calories should an athlete eat?
The typical advice is for women to consume 2,000 calories per day and males to consume 2,500 calories per day. This is loosely based on 60 minutes of exercise per day, so individual needs will vary. Triathletes often need far more than this!
Do Triathletes count calories?
I have worked with many triathletes over the years, some of whom count calories.
There is no one-size-fits-all answer because every case is individual. However, when appropriate, it is an extremely powerful tool for managing a diet and can contribute to maximizing performance as well as body composition manipulation like weight loss or gain.
