What to eat and when to eat it can be one of the most difficult things for a dancer. It’s all about maintaining the perfect figure, right?

Contrary to common belief, most dancers don’t starve themselves to look thin. Many are eating a lot, just making sure to eat the right foods. Here to offer some guidance on nutrition for a dancer is Laura Acosta, a UF Professor on Dietetics.

Dancers in the past are known for starving themselves to stay competitively-skinny, often relying on smoking in order to suppress their appetite. What happens to one’s body in this case?

Starving and smoking are both extremely detrimental. Starving, when extreme, can cause muscle loss, slow down the metabolic rate, and induce an unhealthy state called ketosis.  In this starved state, the body is not going to be able to perform at its peak, and the dancer’s ability to perform optimally will suffer.  Long-term starvation can cause amenorrhea (loss of menstrual cycle, potentially leading to loss of fertility), osteoporosis (severe bone loss), and even heart failure.

What should a dancer survive on, then?

A balance of all the food groups: grains, protein foods, fruits, vegetables, dairy, and healthy fats, with a variety of wholesome foods from each one. While limiting processed, sugary foods that provide calories, but little-to-no nutrition.

What about when a dancer just got out of a six hour rehearsal?

Interestingly, chocolate milk has been shown to be an excellent post-workout snack, as long as the athlete is not lactose-intolerant.  It contains ideal amounts of carbohydrate to replenish glycogen – the storage form of carbohydrate in the body, found in the muscles and liver, and protein to promote muscle protein synthesis and repair.  Furthermore, because the protein is coming from milk, it will contain a substantial amount of whey protein, the type of the protein that is considered the most effective in rebuilding and repairing muscles.

What about when a dancer gets out of rehearsal at midnight?

Chocolate milk could work here as well, for a late-night snack. Other ideas might include, cottage cheese with blueberries, greek yogurt with honey, hummus and pita chips, a protein bar or smoothie, or a peanut butter sandwich.

Say a dancer wakes up late for ballet and needs a quick breakfast on the way, what should they eat?

This can be tough, because while some athletes tolerate food right before a workout, others may find it makes them feel nauseated or sluggish to exercise with a full stomach.  So this is going to be very individual for each dancer, and will take some trial and error to figure out.  A good rule of thumb, however, would be to avoid a high-fat meal/snack immediately before workouts, as fat will stay in the stomach longer and potentially cause uncomfortable fullness during exercise.

What should a dancer drink?

It depends.  Water is great for short workouts and rehearsals lasting less than an hour.  However, if the workout or rehearsal is going to last longer, Gatorade or another sports beverage are more ideal, as this will help to replace electrolytes lost in the sweat, and also provide a source of carbohydrate (the body’s fuel of choice for high-intensity exercise).

How often each day should a dancer eat? 

There is no “rule” for this necessarily, but eating several times a day to keep energy levels high, and spacing meals appropriately to ensure fuel is available for workouts and rehearsals, are important considerations.  For many athletes, this will mean eating somewhere around 4-7 times a day.