Extreme sports like snowboarding make physical demands that exhaust the body, requiring athletes to replenish their fuel sources regularly. The type of fuel snowboarders consumes significantly affects performance, requiring their diet to be a careful balance of protein, carbohydrates, and healthy fats. Timing is also key to maintaining energy sources and allowing for the needed recovery to maintain performance over the long term.

Snowboarding requires bursts of muscle strength, aerobic fitness, and flexibility. To maintain these traits, the body needs nutrition that will help muscles to maintain energy and prevent fatigue. Greater reliance on glycogen high foods in cold climates is necessary as well, making carbohydrates the most important fuel source to boarders.

Diets should be designed around appropriately timed carbohydrates for fast fuel and lean protein to assist in rebuilding muscle. Fruit, vegetables, nuts, seeds and whole grains provide important minerals snowboarders need. Healthy fats are required for cell growth, to help absorb nutrients from other foods, to produce vital hormones and to help keep your body warm. These nutrients will allow athletes to achieve their training goals as well as their benchmarks for body composition.

Foods such as whole wheat pasta, bread, potatoes, whole grain cereals, brown rice, and vegetables allow for endurance. Sprouted grain toast with eggs, oatmeal, fermented sourdough toast with smoked salmon and protein-rich snacks such as yogurt, cottage cheese, lean beef, chicken, turkey, and cold-water fish all provide energy without making you sluggish as high-fat foods containing unnecessary salt will do. Vegetarian chili with beans and guacamole or grilled salmon with rice and vegetables will help sustain energy also. Additional options that provide efficient fuel include whey-protein smoothies (made with whole fruit, nut butter, spinach, and almond milk) or soups (made with starchy carbohydrates like butternut squash and sweet potato).

Various stages of performance require different foods at different times. Pre-event meals can include cheese and tomato sandwiches, porridge with banana and cinnamon, pasta in a tomato based sauce and chicken noodle soup with bread. During events, snacks such as muesli bars and dried fruit are appropriate. After, food should focus on muscle recovery and can include options such as avocado on toast with eggs, minestrone with bread, burritos with beef, cheese and avocado and chicken stir-fry with rice.

Extreme sports such as snowboarding test endurance, requiring energy levels to be boosted throughout the activity. Eating a diet of healthy carbohydrates and protein-rich foods before boarding will help prevent fatigue during activity. A diet designed in this way is the key to a stellar snowboarding performance.