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The Players' Plate: An Unorthodox Guide to Sports Nutrition
Salt is bad for you. It’s impossible to drink too much water. Right? Wrong. Very wrong. These are a couple of the many intricacies of sports nutrition that are less commonly known but can be life altering. Duke All - American track and field athlete Emily Cole learned this the hard way.
In The Players’ Plate , Emily helps fellow athletes realize just how different their nutritional needs are from the general public and equips them with tools to find their optimal fueling plan.
Through personal anecdotes from Olympic medalists, professional athletes, and registered dietitians, you will learn fundamental sports nutrition lessons—including those that extend beyond one’s physical plate. Key performance enhancing concepts
• A guide to macros, supplements, and confusing “health” labels
• The importance of eating your meals with others and finding balance in the kitchen
• Protecting your body image and mental relationship with food
Equipped with these concepts and whole foods recipes to put each of them into practice, The Players’ Plate is a necessary read for anyone hoping to have a long and healthy career while enjoying delicious food.
In The Players’ Plate , Emily helps fellow athletes realize just how different their nutritional needs are from the general public and equips them with tools to find their optimal fueling plan.
Through personal anecdotes from Olympic medalists, professional athletes, and registered dietitians, you will learn fundamental sports nutrition lessons—including those that extend beyond one’s physical plate. Key performance enhancing concepts
• A guide to macros, supplements, and confusing “health” labels
• The importance of eating your meals with others and finding balance in the kitchen
• Protecting your body image and mental relationship with food
Equipped with these concepts and whole foods recipes to put each of them into practice, The Players’ Plate is a necessary read for anyone hoping to have a long and healthy career while enjoying delicious food.
167 pages, Kindle Edition
Published October 4, 2022
87 people are currently reading
520 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 33 reviews
July 18, 2024
This was a great book for an insight on running and nutrition and I definitely learned a few new things! I love how she kept it short and simple so any athlete can benefit from reading this!
November 13, 2023
Been following Emily for awhile now and got this book shortly after it was released, finally got around to reading it. Good insight for athletes! Fast read.
December 23, 2023
If you are familiar with basic sports nutrition, then you won’t learn anything new in this book. This book also read more like a long essay than a nonfiction book. I would recommend this book to middle school athletes.
June 19, 2023
This book is a great intro in nutrition for athletes to build their diet. As someone viscerally passionate about sports nutrition I found it to be a little too elementary for me.🤓🤓🤓🤓 Still important work nonetheless.
“The key is not the will to win. Everybody has that. It is the will to prepare to win that is important.”
“our bodies simply must be our number one priority”
“I’m trying to be as strong as possible and as powerful as possible for my sport.”
“All I ask is that you remember that the body that you feel the worst in and the one that you perform the best in are the same one.”
“The key is not the will to win. Everybody has that. It is the will to prepare to win that is important.”
“our bodies simply must be our number one priority”
“I’m trying to be as strong as possible and as powerful as possible for my sport.”
“All I ask is that you remember that the body that you feel the worst in and the one that you perform the best in are the same one.”
January 31, 2024
Quick read laying out Emily’s near death experience in endurance training due to improper nutrition. Most of the book is informative and shares personal stories of multiple athletes. Lays foundation for sports nutrition, would recommend For those interested in the topic.
January 30, 2025
A must read for all athletes!!
November 12, 2022
This book functions as a great intro into nutrition. Emily writes as if she is talking to you as a friend, which makes for an enjoyable reading experience!
January 4, 2023
As a former college athlete, I wish I had found this book earlier in (or at any point during) my athletic career! I found this book through an Instagram Reel she posted, and I’m so glad I read it!
Emily Cole provides factual nutritional information, geared especially towards athletes. Many athletes don’t have the resources to work with a registered dietitian, and so much of the information they find is online, where misconceptions and false nutritional information runs rampant. She provides digestible explanations and information about nutrition, and she cites where her research comes from: registered dietitians and studies done at accredited institutions. I believe this transparency to be especially valuable. Young athletes especially struggle with wading through the pool of information found online and can easily get roped into whatever fad diet their favorite influencers are pushing. Often, these influencers don’t cite their sources, so it is hard for them to determine what information is valid and what is just baloney.
Cole speaks to the reader as though the reader is a peer or a friend. She is very encouraging to the reader throughout the book and is transparent with her own experience and nutritional journey. Along with her own experience, she includes experiences and struggles from other well known elite athletes, which for anyone struggling with nutrition or body image, I think, is very validating. It is good to know you are not alone. I am on the other side coaching now, and I will be encouraging my athletes to read this book. I hope that if they identify with any of these struggles, they find the courage to reach out for help.
I highly recommend this book to anyone looking for an introduction into proper nutrition, even if they aren’t necessarily an athlete. For coaches and athletes, this is a must-read!
Emily Cole provides factual nutritional information, geared especially towards athletes. Many athletes don’t have the resources to work with a registered dietitian, and so much of the information they find is online, where misconceptions and false nutritional information runs rampant. She provides digestible explanations and information about nutrition, and she cites where her research comes from: registered dietitians and studies done at accredited institutions. I believe this transparency to be especially valuable. Young athletes especially struggle with wading through the pool of information found online and can easily get roped into whatever fad diet their favorite influencers are pushing. Often, these influencers don’t cite their sources, so it is hard for them to determine what information is valid and what is just baloney.
Cole speaks to the reader as though the reader is a peer or a friend. She is very encouraging to the reader throughout the book and is transparent with her own experience and nutritional journey. Along with her own experience, she includes experiences and struggles from other well known elite athletes, which for anyone struggling with nutrition or body image, I think, is very validating. It is good to know you are not alone. I am on the other side coaching now, and I will be encouraging my athletes to read this book. I hope that if they identify with any of these struggles, they find the courage to reach out for help.
I highly recommend this book to anyone looking for an introduction into proper nutrition, even if they aren’t necessarily an athlete. For coaches and athletes, this is a must-read!
November 15, 2023
Ich bin ein bisschen enttäuscht von dem Buch, ehrlich gesagt hatte ich mir mehr erhofft:
Zuallererst beinhaltet es wirklich nicht viele Tipps, wenig Seiten, unglaublich viele Absätze, Wiederholungen und groß gedruckt.
Zweitens ist alles unglaublich allgemein gehalten. Das ist zwar verständlich, da Ernährung zwischen Menschen variieren, aber generelle Angaben hätten wirklich nicht geschadet.
Die Rezepte sind ganz nett, wenn auch 8 nicht viel ist.
Zuletzt und am wichtigsten: Der Ratgeber ist weder "unorthodox" wie angepriesen, noch beinhaltet er irgendwelche Informationen, die jemand mit einem grundlegenden Verständnis von Ernährung nicht schon weiß. Von daher enttäuschend.
Nichtsdestotrotz freut es mich, dass es dieses Buch gibt, für Athleten die wirklich gar keine Ahnung von Ernährung haben, auch wenn die Tipps wie erwähnt nur Basics sind und nicht ausführlich behandelt werden.
Vor allem das Thema Schlaf fand ich am interessantesten und neuesten und der Umgang mit dem Thema Body Image und Balance.
Trotzdem scheint mir als wäre das Buch leider seiner Zeit hinterher - vor fünf Jahren wäre das alles vielleicht Neuland gewesen, heutzutage finden sich diese Tipps in jeder 30 Minuten Internetrecherche zum Thema Ernährung.
Wie erwähnt: all dem entgegen trotzdem schön, dass Cole dieses Buch herausgebracht, und mit Studien und Experten belegt mal zusammengefasst hat.
Zuallererst beinhaltet es wirklich nicht viele Tipps, wenig Seiten, unglaublich viele Absätze, Wiederholungen und groß gedruckt.
Zweitens ist alles unglaublich allgemein gehalten. Das ist zwar verständlich, da Ernährung zwischen Menschen variieren, aber generelle Angaben hätten wirklich nicht geschadet.
Die Rezepte sind ganz nett, wenn auch 8 nicht viel ist.
Zuletzt und am wichtigsten: Der Ratgeber ist weder "unorthodox" wie angepriesen, noch beinhaltet er irgendwelche Informationen, die jemand mit einem grundlegenden Verständnis von Ernährung nicht schon weiß. Von daher enttäuschend.
Nichtsdestotrotz freut es mich, dass es dieses Buch gibt, für Athleten die wirklich gar keine Ahnung von Ernährung haben, auch wenn die Tipps wie erwähnt nur Basics sind und nicht ausführlich behandelt werden.
Vor allem das Thema Schlaf fand ich am interessantesten und neuesten und der Umgang mit dem Thema Body Image und Balance.
Trotzdem scheint mir als wäre das Buch leider seiner Zeit hinterher - vor fünf Jahren wäre das alles vielleicht Neuland gewesen, heutzutage finden sich diese Tipps in jeder 30 Minuten Internetrecherche zum Thema Ernährung.
Wie erwähnt: all dem entgegen trotzdem schön, dass Cole dieses Buch herausgebracht, und mit Studien und Experten belegt mal zusammengefasst hat.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 25, 2023
i followed emily on tiktok for a while before ever realizing she wrote a book! being in the army, my fitness journey started five years ago by simply just moving my body to keep up with the physical demands of daily PT. as the years progressed, i went through the skinny to strong pipeline, going from wanting to be as skinny as possible, to wanting to be strong with visible muscle. i tried a plant-based diet & counting calories without paying any mind to what i was eating, outside or how many calories were on the nutrition label.
as of recently, i've been interested in focusing on macros, improving my nutrition, & learning about vitamins & supplements & their benefits on my athleticism & overall health. this book was easy to read & understand, & gave a basic knowledge on nutrition, while keeping balance in all aspects of your life in mind. definitely recommend to anyone on any level of fitness journey! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5!
as of recently, i've been interested in focusing on macros, improving my nutrition, & learning about vitamins & supplements & their benefits on my athleticism & overall health. this book was easy to read & understand, & gave a basic knowledge on nutrition, while keeping balance in all aspects of your life in mind. definitely recommend to anyone on any level of fitness journey! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5!
February 9, 2023
I’ve only been running seriously for a bit (I’m a younger athlete). I started during the pandemic since my mom was running too. I joined the xc team at my school and realized just how much I loved running. I saw this book and just knew I had to get it. Nutrition has always been something that I thought was interesting but I had no idea where to start. This book was so interesting and I thoroughly enjoyed reading it. So much so that all my friends and family heard me talking about it all the time.
I feel like I’ve learned a lot and I can’t wait to learn more.
I feel like I’ve learned a lot and I can’t wait to learn more.
December 19, 2022
As a high school cross country and track runner this bike spoke to the little girl inside of me. I absolutely loved it and wish I could’ve read it early. Emily shines light on so many important things in the sports world that are frankly just not talked about enough. As I am currently training for a marathon and hope to start training for a half iron man within the next year I’m so grateful I had the opportunity to read this. In my opinion everyone young person in athletics needs to read this!
January 7, 2025
I can’t believe it took me this long to actually sit down and read this all the way through and I really wish I’d had this when I played soccer in college. Even if you’re not training for a sport or a race and you’re just interested in basic knowledge about nutrition, this book lays it all out in a way that’s so easy to break down and apply in real life. Also if you’re looking for motivation to start cooking your own food, this is a great source.
January 1, 2023
Coming from a college athlete I wish I had this book when I was younger. I never understood the importance of nutrition and the foods I was putting into my body until very recently. Emily is my age and explains all of this important information in a ways that college athletes can relate to. This is why it will be successful. It has become one of my go to’s and have recommended to so many people.
March 24, 2024
Pretty cool to hear from a young athletes point of view about nutrition. It’s a basic nutrition book tangled with personal stories. She interviews some powerful athletes and they all say the same thing - what is on your plate fuels your performance.
3 stars for the info & 1 star for the various athlete stories.
3 stars for the info & 1 star for the various athlete stories.
October 17, 2022
This is a great book. Really gave a name to the unknown face of a lot of problems/confusion I'd been having over the intersection of sport, diet, and psychology. Directly convinced me to go start seeting an RDN too!
December 31, 2022
some amazing advice and data that i can’t wait to use to better my eating habits. so excited to try these recipes and see the improvements in my athletic abilities :)
and what a way to complete my 2022 challenge!
and what a way to complete my 2022 challenge!
March 1, 2023
I’m so thankful Emily Cole wrote this book. As a former athlete this is the I go I wish would have been taught and now as a coach I’m thankful for her simplicity to help others in the nutrition field. A MUST READ
March 8, 2023
I know I should have loved this book but it felt more like I was reading a research paper than I was actually learning how to succeed with nutrition and running. Will put it on my shelf for my future self who will appreciate it more 🤞🏼
March 25, 2023
As a college long distance runner that struggles with fueling sufficiently and well, this book has been such a life saver—I have learned so much. Thank you Emily for taking on the challenge in writing it.
December 20, 2023
this is amazing! as a competitive runner myself, emily cole has been one of my favorite collegiate athletes in ncaa xctf. i learned so much in this book and realized that the current habits i have are really bad. overall, there needs to be more books like this tbh.
January 29, 2024
I can't emphasize what this book did for me as a high school athlete. The confidence I felt knowing that there was other athletes going through the same things I was going through was groundbreaking. Emily does a wonderful job writing this book and it should be read by every high school athlete!!
April 1, 2024
As a parent of a runner I wanted to know how to better fuel her. Even with many nutrition classes under my belt, I graduated in 2002 and my own days in intense training are done. I highlighted to give my freshman in HS the Cliff Notes! Highly recommend.
January 7, 2023
AMAZING read. so happy I picked this one up, so many fun fueling tips & tricks
January 7, 2023
Felt understood/touched a few nerves. Felt seen. Felt like my thoughts and feelings are valid.
January 11, 2023
It was insightful, but as a Registered Dietitian, it was very simple.
May 2, 2023
3.5/5 ⭐️
I was curious to hear about her journey as an athlete and finding the tricky balance between nutrition and physical activity. I enjoy her on TikTok as well.
I was curious to hear about her journey as an athlete and finding the tricky balance between nutrition and physical activity. I enjoy her on TikTok as well.
July 13, 2023
this book was extremely informative! so slay! (i am taking nutrition in the fall and now i feel smarter)
November 20, 2023
Such a good novel and a compelling story from a collegiate athlete and lots of great information about staying athlete!
February 4, 2024
i love emily cole! fun new recipes! super informative!
Displaying 1 - 30 of 33 reviews