Meet Day Nutrition Guidebook
how to dial it in for slightly improved performance
I get asked about meet day nutrition a lot, and I typically give people the same advice: stick with light foods you’re used to eating, focus on carbohydrates, and drink a ton. And honestly, for almost all lifters, that’s plenty. I have found that you can slightly improve performance with a careful meet-day nutrition plan — but only slightly. If that’s something you’re interested in, keep reading.
I refer to some specific products in this post. I am not sponsored by or affiliated with any of the companies or products, and I do not receive any sort of kickbacks for recommending them.
Goals for Meet-Day Nutrition
We’re trying to accomplish three things on meet day:
Sustain energy. You don’t want to feel run down by the time deadlifts come around, but you also don’t want to be sleepy from eating a ton of carbs.
Maximize fullness. High levels of intramuscular glycogen (and to some extent, glycogen stored in the liver) will directly improve performance, although not as much as just plain feeling good will.
Optimize bloat. Note that I didn’t write “minimize.” Bloat is beneficial for the squat and bench, but usually detrimental for the deadlift. Being able to manipulate water retention throughout the day is tricky but can be beneficial.
To accomplish those goals, we need:
Foods that are high in carbohydrates, low in fats and proteins, and easily digested.
Fluids with the appropriate balance of carbohydrates and electrolytes.
Salt.
The Shopping List
Water
Pedialyte (or a generic equivalent)
Sports drink of your choice (e.g., Gatorade)
LMNT or another electrolyte powder with lots of sodium
Rice Krispie Treats
Bananas
Fat-Free Fig Newtons
Bagels
Rice cakes
Honey
Peanut butter
Low-sodium beef jerky (I recommend this)
Energy drink of your choice
The Strategy
First, just a heads-up: this strategy is based on an athlete who did not cut weight for his or her meet. If you plan on cutting weight, there are some additional factors to consider that I’m not going to cover here, because this article is complicated enough. If you need help with your nutrition, you can always contact me for a consult.
Before The Meet
Meet day nutrition starts as soon as you wake up. Drink 16 ounces of water, go for a ten minute walk, and then have a cup of black coffee. The goal here is to help you and your bowels wake up. Trust me – you don’t want to have to take a dump in the porta-potty as soon as you get to the meet venue.
Let the coffee sit for 20 minutes or so before you eat breakfast. Hopefully, you’ve been following a decent meal plan the entire prep, because you don’t want to change things now, and you don’t want to go into a meet with a stomachache from the eggs, bacon and pancakes you ate an hour ago. I recommend the following for breakfast:
Protein equal to 20% of your bodyweight in pounds. If you weigh 200 pounds, try to get down about 40 grams of protein.
One or two servings of fats, depending again on size. If you’re a lightweight lifter, that’s about 14 grams of fat; heavyweights can shoot for twice that. There’s obviously a bit of gray area in-between.
Carbs equal to about 40% of your bodyweight in pounds.
1000 mg of sodium.
So our 200 pound lifter is eating a breakfast with about 40 grams of protein, 80 grams of carbs and 15 grams of fat. My favorite option is a bowl of Cream of Rice with protein powder and peanut butter, but again: stick to food that sit comfortably with you.
Wait another twenty minutes or so after breakfast and get down another 16 ounces of water.
Before Squat & Bench: Maximize Fullness
Between the time you get to the venue and when squats start, have at least 32 ounces of full-sugar Gatorade, and add a pack of the electrolyte powder. If you are hungry, go ahead and snack on a mix of the foods from the shopping list. The goal here is to keep you feeling full and hydrated until you get through squats without feeling sick to your stomach.
Bench is the tricky part of meet-day nutrition. The more bloated you are for bench, the better the weights will move – but you’ll want to drop as much of that bloat as possible before deadlifts. So, the plan is to increase fluid intake, decrease salt intake, and stick to low-fat, low-protein foods.
As soon as squats are finished, have 32 ounces of Pedialyte and eat bagels, Rice Krispie Treats or Fig Newtons. You don’t have to slam the food and fluid down, but the goal now is to get enough sustenance so that you feel just slightly overfull and are urinating pretty frequently, so don’t hold back, either.
Right before bench have an energy drink (assuming your tolerance to caffeine is good).
Before Deadlift: Optimize Bloat
As soon as bench is over, we want to get some bloat off. Have a serving of the low-sodium jerky and a tablespoon or two of peanut butter, and 1000 mg of dandelion root. You should cut back on the fluid intake at this point – stick to plain water, and only drink if you’re thirsty. The energy drink and dandelion root should have a mild diuretic effect, and if you’ve been sweating anyway, you shouldn’t feel overly full any longer.
One more note on deadlift nutrition: belt tightness is going to be pretty important — more so than in the squat or bench press. If you frequently feel bloated later in the day when following a normal diet and not competing, you’re almost definitely going to feel bloated by the time deadlifts roll around on meet day, and you might have trouble getting your belt to sit just right. In that case, consider supplementing with digestive aids starting about six weeks before the meet. I recommend these products:
Digest Gold (this is an Amazon affiliate link)
I have heard good things about this probiotic but have not tried it.
Other Considerations
I want to reiterate that this is a generic approach to meet-day nutrition; that it doesn’t account for personal preferences, water cuts, or PED use; and that whatever you eat during the meet will only make a small difference (unless you really mess up your digestion by eating something that doesn’t agree with you or going overboard on the stimulants).
All disclaimers aside, it’s impossible to know exactly what will happen on meet day, so use some common sense. If the meet is flying, don’t try to force down so much food and water between squat and bench that you feel sick. If it drags on all day long, don’t limit yourself to a tablespoon of peanut butter between bench and deadlift.
That’s it for this article. Hopefully it’s a good reference and helps you get that platform PR!