WEIGHT plays an important role in any athlete’s life. For equestrians it can be the difference between being able to ride a certain horse in a race or being able to cope with the major physical demands placed on you during competition and training.

The sport is advancing and we all want to keep up, but this should not be done at the risk of our health. Horse riding is one of the very few sports which participants can enjoy at an advanced age as long as they are fit and well enough to sit in the saddle.

Sharon Madigan PhD, RD, is Head of Performance Nutrition at the Irish Institute of Sport. Sharon has helped many Irish equestrian athletes maintain and achieve their competitive edge through dietary management. Here Sharon explains how riders can reduce their weight healthily and effectively and she also highlights the common pitfalls that occur through poor dietary choices.

ATHLETES will always try to modify their body weight in order to gain a competitive edge. However, it is important for athletes to understand that if you need to lose weight, you want to lose fat.

You need to lose fat weight rather than muscle weight as, unlike muscle, fat will have no positive effect on performance. To lose body weight effectively, appropriate training, eating and drinking plans are required.

Drying out and starvation diets over a short period of time will cause dehydration and loss of muscle mass, therefore losing the assets that will help your performance rather than the dead weight that is fat which will slow you down.

More muscle also means that more calories are required to keep it alive, therefore if there are gains in muscle mass, potentially athletes can eat a little more also. Athletes in weight category sports need to have long-term plans for fat loss. Using scales to monitor their weight is often not enough for elite athletes.

Other body composition assessments need to be used. Skin fold measures (by well-trained sports scientists or nutritionists) or DEXA scanning should be considered as athletes will be able to see how much of their weight is fat mass and how much is muscle mass and to ensure that the proposed target weight is realistic and achievable.

Individual plans on fat losses can then be considered. Some athletes may not physically be able to achieve the necessary weight especially if their fat mass is already very low. They should then consider a different weight category.

THE FOOD EFFECT

Well-trained athletes usually have carbohydrate stores that will allow approximately 70 minutes of medium intensity exercise if stores are completely full. If stores are depleted then exercise intensity will be affected and fatigue will result.

This can affect athletes in the preparation phase leading up to competition. Restriction of carbohydrates is a favourite method of achieving quick weight loss. However, it is not something elite athletes should consider as a routine way of achieving weight loss.

Every gramme of carbohydrate is stored along with 2.7g of water - this means that reducing carbohydrate is an effective way of losing weight but will add to the dehydration conundrum.

There are a number of methods that athletes use to ‘make weight’ including mild to severe food and fluid restriction, exercise, sauna sweating and layering clothes with exercise. The effects on performance will vary according to the extent of some of these practices and other factors such as the frequency of the activity (a tournament situation where the athlete weighs in on successive days will be harder than a once-off fight).

A reduction in food intake to lose weight will have a negative effect on carbohydrate stores especially if this is combined with exercise during the food restriction period and/or dehydration.

MAKING WEIGHT

Another common way of making weight is to “dry out” or dehydration. Most of us do not drink enough but, for elite athletes, dehydration is a major problem. It is well known to affect cognitive skills, concentration and reaction time. It also reduces physical performance and increases the risk of injury. If you are dehydrated your brain is also dehydrated.

This is very important for riders because if they take a blow to the head during a fall it can result in a serious head injury. Drying out to make weight may allow you to compete but you are likely to underperform and you certainly will have difficulties making the weight again at the next weigh in. In a tournament situation this will be a major problem. Dehydration will also result in carbohydrate stores being depleted at a faster rate leading to fatigue setting in faster.

Other problems that occur in making weight sports include, disordered eating behaviours which effects mood, and also leads to low intakes of certain nutrients (calcium and iron) which are crucial for bone development, good health and to prevent anaemia.

This is a very important consideration for jockeys in particular. A racing career often begins at a very young age. To still be competitive 20 years later you must look after your health. Broken bones are often part and parcel with horse riding, but by partaking in unhealthy weigh loss regimes you are putting yourself at a greater risk of injury, in what is already a dangerous sport.

Jockeys should try to maintain a weight that is as close to their competition weight as possible. Most people can cope with losing up to half a kilogramme in a short period of time. If you are struggling to make the weight necessary for racing (i.e. you are trying to lose 2-3kg in a short period of time) there is going to be difficulties and it is not healthy to attempt to do this.

You need to look at what you are doing and I would suggest that you seek the advice of a trained professional so that they can put together a plan that will help you.

Athletes should be encouraged to look at their practice and to ensure they have good recovery plans following weigh in.

THE FINAL 24 HOURS

Small body weight losses might be tolerated by some athletes especially if they have been following good nutrition and hydration strategies. Athletes need to know what suits them. ‘Practical and practiced’ are key!

Foods or drinks that will not cause tummy upsets (shakes, small snacks) are important. If athletes are trying out new ideas they should keep a record of what works and does not. Record how you feel after trying a new nutritional strategy and this information can be used at a later stage to fine tune the nutrition plan.

Athletes may also consider altering the fibre content of their diet. Athletes should practice switching from their normal dietary intake of moderate/high fibre to a low residue diet for 24hrs before a competition. This involves replacing wholegrain foods with low fibre alternatives such as liquid replacement meals and tinned fruit.

RECOVERY

The main aim following weigh in should be to replace any of the fluid that has been lost and to ensure that the fuel stores are replaced or topped up prior to the competition. Recovery is crucial between weigh in and competition.

Practiced techniques are essential here. It is suggested that the acute loss of moderate amounts of weight can be coped with as long as the athlete has an aggressive recovery strategy. This may be especially useful for larger athletes who struggle to make weight. The athlete and coach needs to be aware that this weight loss will be from the fat-free mass and it is still not fully understood what impact this might have on performance.

During recovery replace any fluids lost along with extra. If an athlete has lost 1kg then 150% of the losses (1.5 litres) should be the target fluid intake. Sodium replacement along with this fluid will maximise the uptake of the fluid. This can be achieved by using an oral rehydration solution alongside the recovery meal or drink.

Fuel stores need to be replaced or topped up as some athletes may have gone for a run, paddle or had a warm-up to aid the making weight process and they will have used up some of their carbohydrates stores.

If athletes do not know how they are going to react to something it should not be used for the first time during competition. If an athlete only has a small amount of time then the practical challenge of getting food and fluids into them is the main problem. Small amounts of fluids taken regularly that contain carbohydrates, sodium, fluid and protein are essential.

Milk-based drinks and sports drinks offer athletes a simple way of doing this. The quantities will depend on their weight. It is also important that athletes sip on small amounts of fluid after weigh in rather than taking one large amount.

For athletes who will only compete a few times in the year it is probably easier for them to live at a different weight than their competition weight. For athletes who are weighing in regularly then they will need to consider living as close to their competition weight as possible.

Sharon Madigan PhD, RD, is Head of Performance Nutrition at the Irish Institute of Sport.

Web: instituteofsport.ie