needs. Some will need to consume 6-8 meals/snacks per day to meet energy needs. Others may require weight loss for health and/or performance reasons. Eating plans, such as those developed by Houtkooper (6) and Messina and Messina (7), are helpful for educating vegetarian and vegan athletes. Carbohydrates. Carbohydrates should make up the largest portion of the athletes diet. Numerous studies have concluded that increased carbohydrate (CHO) intake can improve exercise capacity and that low-CHO diets can be detrimental to performance. High-CHO diets optimize muscle and liver glycogen stores (8,9) and have been shown to optimize performance during prolonged, moderate intensity exercise (i.e., distance cycling and running (10-13), and during intermittent (14) and short duration, high-intensity exercise (15-18). Recent studies have also suggested that benefit of CHO consumption is not limited to maintenance of glycogen stores, but also related to maintenance of Krebs cycle intermediates (12) and preservation of the bioenergetic state of exercising muscle (17) (factors also related to muscle fatigue). Sports nutrition guidelines recommend that 60-65% of total energy should come from CHO (19). It may be more appropriate, however, to base recommendations on body weight which is independent of energy intake (20). Nutritionists should educate vegetarian athletes on good sources of CHO and provide guidelines for meeting daily intake of 7-10 g/kg. Usually athletes understand this type of approach, especially when CHO exchanges are used.Protein. Protein needs of athletes vary according to type of activity and level of training. The American and Canadian Dietetic Associations recommend that athletes consume 1.5 g of protein/kg of body weight (19). Two recent reviews, however, have come to very different conclusions regarding protein requirements of physically active individuals (21, 22). Millard et al (21) states that there is no consensus as to whether protein requirements are influenced by physical activity. Lemon (22), on the other hand, suggests that protein requirements are approximately 1.2 to 1.4 g/kg/d for endurance athletes and, approximately 1.4 to 1.8 g/kg/d and for strength athletes. These values for strength athletes, however, are higher than those of elite body builders (1 g/kg/d) and may actually reflect requirements during early stages of resistance training (23). The rationale for the additional required protein in endurance and strength training results from increased protein utilization as an auxiliary fuel during exercise and to a lesser degree protein deposition during muscle development (22). Inadequate intakes of CHO (24) and energy (25) have also been found to increase protein needs. During prolonged endurance activity, athletes with low glycogen stores metabolize twice as much protein as those with adequate stores primarily due to increased gluconeogenesis (24). As a final note, protein requirements in most published studies have been evaluated in young men, and may be different in females and/or older athletes. Recent studies have found that females, relative to males, catabolize less protein consequent to endurance exercise (26), and that older sedentary men require protein in excess of the RDA (27). Clearly, more research is needed in this area.Despite the controversy over protein requirements, vegetarians athletes can easily achieve adequate protein providing their diet is adequate in energy