[trying2Bbuff]

I know all of you vets on here are in the know about exercise. Hopefully one of you can help me.

My kids (boys ages 16, 14, & 10) are in the process of training to test for their black belts in karate; it is a very intense program of 2-4 hours of training per day, 6 days a week. Their training is probably closest to training for a triathalon. We got nutrition recommendations when we started but I am having a tough time thinking of dinners and such to fix for them before we take them to class at night. We are supposed to be feeding them a high carb, moderate protein, moderate fat diet right now. Does anyone have any good meal ideas that I can feed them so they can get through these tough workouts? If anyone has any advice, I'd sure appreciate it!
Thanks!

[sportmom]

We do a similar thing before our swim meets. A few days before, I try to offer a lot of complex carb pastas, such as spaghetti with veget. tomato sauce, lasagna, feed her lots of bagels and cream cheese, stuff like that. They call it the carbo load diet. If you google swimmers diet, you'll find more options.

[BlueToBlue]

Here are some ideas just off the top of my head that would be high carb, moderate protein and fat:

• pretty much any pasta dish: spaghetti and meatballs, maybe mac & cheese, if you made it with reduced fat cheese (since the meals are supposed to be moderate fat), or pasta tossed with any mixture of veggies, sauce, and a little lean meat (you can find lots of ideas for pasta that would be moderate protein/fat on cookinglight.com)
• stir fry with lots of veggies and a lean meat, like chicken served over rice (brown rice, if they'll eat it) or any type of Asian pasta
• hamburgers or hot dogs on whole wheat buns with oven-baked fries on the side
• pizza, if you went easy on the cheese or used reduced-fat cheese (maybe part-skim mozzarella)
• an egg strata (a casserole made from eggs and bread, with whatever else you want to add--you can find recipes online, try cookinglight.com)

[PhotoChick]

My two top suggestions would be:

~ whole wheat pasta with sauce and meat - anything from spaghetti and meatballs, to chicken lasagna, tuna noodle casserole, etc.
~ some type of stirfry (veggies with chicken, pork, or shrimp) over brown rice.

Also the idea of pizza is a good one. I make homemade crust with whole grain flour, but you can also buy whole grain boboli-type crusts. Load them up with tomato sauce, veggies, and healthy meat - chicken or low fat hamburger or something.

.

[jaypaul]

I would tryu to keep them at 55% carbs, 25% Protein and 20% fat.

[trying2Bbuff]

Just to update; my boys took their test at the end of October, and they did great! I found it quite fascinating to see how different meals affected their endurance and performance during the training sessions. The meal that finally worked best for us that we used for the test day was as follows:
Homemade whole grain waffles with real maple syrup
Chicken sausage
Orange juice
Fruit

Thanks again for all your great suggestions!