You have different training volumes and intensities throughout your training year, so your food intake and eating plan should support these ebbs and flows. Simply put, nutrition periodization is aligning your nutrition to support your training.
Some of the goals associated with aligning nutrition to your training are:
- Losing or maintaining your body weight
- Improving blood sugar levels and insulin control
- Supporting immune health (who wants to get sick???)
- Using “supplements” appropriately . . . this includes sports nutrition products (these are not snacks, people!) as well as ergogenic aids (if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is)
So, just like you have base, racing/build and off-season training cycles, you should have base, racing/build and off-season nutrition cycles. If you are interested in learning about good nutritional planning ALL YEAR.