Wake up, eat, class, weights, eat, class, practice, eat, study, and sleep. That is a typical day for a student athlete at Penn State. I am an athlete myself, so I know the pains of the incredibly busy schedule. For athletes, what you eat is very important, but finding the time to eat enough is the hardest part. It is vital to consume the right amounts of every food group, and it is hard to do that on a busy schedule. Looking at most factors including portions, calories, and food groups, I think that Chipotle is perfect for student-athletes.
There are five main food groups for a balanced diet: carbs, protein, milk/dairy, fruits/veggies, and good fats/sugars. A chipotle burrito or burrito bowl makes it possible to get most, if not all of these in one meal. Rice covers the carbs; beans and meat provide a lot of good quality protein; cheese is a good source of dairy; corn, peppers, and lettuce cover the veggies; avocado is an excellent source of good fats. All of these ingredients are needed for the body, especially when it needs to recover from a tough workout. Unlike most Americanized Mexican fast food restaurants, Chipotle uses local, fresh ingredients. Many people make the argument that chipotle is bad because of the high amount of calories (a burrito typically has around 900-1000+ calories), but with the amount of training that athletes do, they need a lot of calories in their diet, and chipotle provides them with good quality calories.
An observational study published in The Training and Conditioning Journal looked at the eating habits of 345 male and female athletes from different division one schools. The researchers took gender and eating disorders into account when processing the data. Looking at body composition, eating frequency, and calories consumed, they found that 70% of female athletes and 73% of male athletes were consuming too few calories to meet their energy needs. This study showed that many student-athletes had an inadequate amount of calories to support their athletic energy, let alone the energy they need to process information in class. There are several limitations to this study. Athletes are constantly trying to vary their body weights. Since it is an observational study, it is very susceptible to third variables. For example, a football player might be trying to put on 10 pounds in the offseason while a soccer player might be trying to lose 5. That could mess with the data. Another aspect we need to look at is the subjects lying or exaggerating. For example, self-image has become a major factor in today’s world, especially for women. I think that we can ignore this because the study was both voluntary and anonymous. The workload for athletes can also differ from school to school and sport to sport. Can the findings from this study be applied to most college athletes? I think yes. The sample size is quite large and is varied throughout many athletic programs, and the data is quite significant.
It is clear that many student-athletes are not consuming enough calories. This is probably due to their busy schedules and often having to eat quickly and on the run. Some universities, including Cal Berkley, even have an express line for their athletes at the local Chipotle. Looking at the high quality ingredients and the amount of calories that Chipotle provides, it seems like a perfect, one-stop-shop meal for a college athlete.
This is a very interesting and entertaining topic as most college students can probably relate to loving Chipotle. Personally, I am not an athlete but I can only imagine how difficult it is to meet the necessary nutrition levels since it’s even a struggle for normal students. You definitely had an interesting point with how Chipotle can fully meet all your daily basic nutritional needs; however, are things such as sodium intake being considered? Although you mentioned how the calorie intake is probably not a huge issue considering most athletes lack the amount of calories they should be consuming, sodium and GMO’s that are used to cover rice and meat flavorings. http://www.livestrong.com/article/399991-is-chipotle-healthy/ this article discusses these issues, particularly the sodium issue which makes Chipotle not a poor option for athletes, but certainly not the best. All in all for a college campus with limited food sources, it seems like Chipotle is one of the best options for athletes.
I really like Chipotle and I’m pretty sure most people around town do as well because the lines are always so long! It was good to see that Chipotle really is a decent meal to have during the day especially considering that it’s a quick service restaurant. I think a lot of fast food/ limited service chains are bad for you that you wouldn’t expect (like Quizno’s, Sonic, and Chick-fil-A ) so it’s good to see that Chipotle serves fresh food and is one of the healthier choices.
This is a really interesting post. I found it to be very well written and clear. I love chipotle, and I agree with your theory on chipotle being a great source for all the necessary food groups for a student athlete. My question to you is that do you think student athletes have time to wait on the tremendous lines that we have at our state college chipotle? It must be challenging. I think the express line that Cal Berkley has would be a great addition to our chipotle here.
I love chipotle so this was definitely good to hear. I was a student athlete in high school and one of my favorite things to do was to go to chipotle after practice or games. I remember reading a study in the past that talked about how someone actually lost a few pounds eating chipotle for every meal, which was also good to hear. It’s reassuring that it offers a good balance of nutrition as well! I think this study is really comparable to the Subway study. Which consisted of a man eating nothing but subway for every meal and he actually ended up losing a lot of weight! Here’s the link to that story. Thanks for the post, it was really informative for all active students!!
http://walking.about.com/cs/howtoloseweight/a/subwaydiet.htm
As someone who eats chipotle frequently, this was good to hear! I am not worried about gaining weight (I probably SHOULD gain weight), but I don’t want to eat unhealthy (THAT unhealthy).
I really liked the structure of your post. Beginning with a nice introduction, then following that up with details about the food served at chipotle, followed by the connection to student athletes and bringing it all together with a good conclusion made the post really easy to follow, and explained your research really well. Great job!