The athlete who loads his muscles before competition then leaves them fasted after the effort has the reasoning inverted: performance is decided as much by tomorrow’s plate as by yesterday’s. Modern sports nutrition is no longer a matter of carbohydrate loading and a protein shake: it is periodisation, recovery, and a balance between adaptation and depletion. Over the long term it protects or erodes the terrain: bone, immunity, hormones. This is where the TCM reading, which had a two-thousand-year head start on the notion of capital to preserve, meets exercise physiology.
Beyond performance: the plate as adaptation terrain
The founding error of sports nutrition is to reduce it to the day’s performance. The athlete’s diet serves three overlapping functions: supplying energy for effort, enabling adaptation (the muscle that rebuilds stronger, the system that tolerates load better), and preserving the terrain (bone, immunity, hormonal balance). The third is the least visible and the most important: an athlete can perform for years on an eroding terrain, until the day the erosion comes due.
Nutritional periodisation applies the logic of training to the plate: on heavy-load days, carbohydrates and protein go up; on rest days, they come back down. The glycaemic index then becomes a timing tool rather than a restriction: fast carbohydrates around effort, slow carbohydrates away from it.
Protein, carbohydrate, hydration: the fundamentals
Three levers structure the athlete’s plate, and they are less complicated than marketing pretends.
Protein supports muscle repair: 1.2 to 1.6 g/kg/day for the regular athlete, up to 2 g/kg under heavy load or caloric restriction. Distribution matters as much as dose: 20 to 40 g per serving, spread across the day, stimulates synthesis better than a single large portion. Fish, eggs, pulses and dairy cover this need without supplements in most cases.
Carbohydrate is the fuel of intense effort: beyond 90 minutes of exercise, glycogen stores run down and performance falls. Needs range from 3 g/kg/day (moderate effort) to 8-10 g/kg/day (heavy endurance). The choice of sources conditions the terrain: whole carbohydrates and fibre accompany recovery, while pure fast sugars around effort serve immediate refuelling.
Hydration is the most neglected lever: dehydration of 2% of body weight reduces performance by 10 to 20%. Thirst is a lagging indicator; hydration is built ahead, not during.
Recovery: the underestimated lever
Adaptation does not happen during effort; it happens after: the muscle rebuilding, glycogen refilling, the immune system resetting. It is in the 24 to 72 hours following a heavy load that the body decides whether it adapts or wears down. Recovery nutrition combines three levers: protein for repair, carbohydrate for refuelling, and micronutrients (iron, zinc, magnesium, vitamin D, antioxidants from berries and greens) for immune function and connective tissue.
Sleep is the fourth leg of this table: it is during deep sleep that growth hormone does its repair work. A diet that serves sleep (last meal not too late, not too heavy, stable night-time blood sugar) belongs to recovery as much as the shake does.
RED-S and overtraining: the drifts
RED-S (Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport) is the syndrome of the athlete who trains more than they eat: energy available for vital functions drops, and the body cuts non-essential spending. In women: amenorrhoea, loss of bone density, stress fractures. In men: falling testosterone, bone fragility, faltering immunity. The symptoms are slow to appear and quick to settle in: persistent fatigue, performance that plateaus then declines, repeated stress injuries, recurrent infections.
RED-S is not a problem of motivation or supplements: it is an energy shortfall. The treatment is restoring intake, not adding protein. The TCM reading knows it under another name: it is Qi and Jing deficiency, the depletion of deep capital that shows as failing immunity (weakened Wei Qi) and weakening bones (the Jing running down).
The TCM reading: the athlete’s Qi, Jing and Wei Qi
Chinese dietetics holds an intuition that exercise physiology took time to reach: exercise does not draw from a bottomless reservoir, it draws from a capital. Qi supplies the day’s energy; Jing supplies the deep capital (bone, marrow, reproduction, longevity); Wei Qi supplies surface immunity. Effort that outruns recovery draws on Jing to compensate: this is the athlete who performs until his bones, thyroid or fertility call him to order.
The TCM strategy for the athlete is to nourish Qi without draining Jing: regular warm meals, foods that tonify the Spleen (sweet grains, soups, roots), nourishing proteins (fish, eggs, pulses), and days of genuine rest where the plate does not work either. The Mediterranean diet read through TCM provides exactly this terrain: quality fats, digestible proteins, fibre that protects the Spleen.
Frequently asked questions about sports nutrition
Do I need a protein shake after every session?
Not necessarily. A meal containing 20 to 40 g of protein within two hours covers the same need; the shake is a convenience, not an obligation. What matters is the total daily dose (1.2 to 1.6 g/kg) and its distribution across the day.
Is fasted training useful?
For light to moderate effort, training fasted can help metabolic adaptation; for intense or long effort, it degrades performance and recovery. Intermittent fasting has its place within a strategy, but not as preparation for a heavy session.
Is more protein needed for strength or endurance?
In strength work, needs are more marked (1.6 to 2 g/kg) for muscle synthesis; in endurance they remain present (1.2 to 1.6 g/kg) for repair and immune function. The main difference is the place of carbohydrate: far higher in endurance.
How do I know if I am in RED-S?
The signs are slow: persistent fatigue despite rest, performance that stalls or regresses, repeated stress injuries, frequent infections, amenorrhoea in women, loss of libido. A medical work-up (bloods, hormones, bone density if needed) confirms; the answer is energetic, not supplemental.
The athlete’s plate protects the capital, not only performance
Sports nutrition has matured: it is no longer summed up by the eve’s carbohydrate load and the post-session shake. It is a periodisation that follows training, a recovery that feeds adaptation, and a balance that preserves deep capital. TCM has put it this way for centuries: Qi is spent, Jing is conserved. The athlete who eats for performance without feeding the terrain ends up exhausting both.
In the Yin Shi app, the food sheets give the protein, iron and zinc density of each product: lentils and fish tick the recovery boxes, fast sugars those of refuelling around effort.
Further reading: the glycaemic index and the sweet flavour, cortisol and Qi stagnation, chronic fatigue as Qi deficiency, Wei Qi, and the vitamin and mineral guide.
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