Following suit with general healthful eating guidelines, eating to keep your energy level high involves a balanced diet with a variety of unrefined carbohydrates, proteins, and fats. To maximize energy, you should focus on eating vegetables, whole grains, and healthy oils. While taking a multivitamin can help ensure you have enough vitamins and minerals, it does not necessarily give you more energy.
Some foods, like candy and other simple sugars, will give you a quick boost of energy while whole grains and healthy unsaturated fats can give you sustained energy reserves to pull from throughout the day. Here are some additional ideas to help boost your energy through your diet:
- Eat frequent, small meals – small meals throughout the day provide your brain with steady nutrition to reduce your feelings of fatigue
- Smaller is better – research shows larger meals, especially large lunches, increase post-meal fatigue
- Avoid crash diets – when trying to lose weight, do so gradually as poor nutrient intake can cause fatigue
- Limit alcohol – avoid consuming alcohol before times when energy is necessary as consuming alcohol leads to increased fatigue in the following hours
- Drink water – a feeling of fatigue is often the first sign of dehydration. While sports drinks provide extra vitamins, minerals, and electrolytes – they do not give extra energy for normal daily activities
Source: Harvard Health Publishing