This interactive, online study guide is designed to help understand and apply the basic principles of exercise nutrition. It is supplemented with readings from the Exercise Nutrition textbook, expressly written for this course. The textbook provides basic nutrition information that will help you as you complete this course. Both the textbook and study guide include glossaries of key terms. The online study guide will help you understand the role nutrition plays in supporting fitness activities. In this course, you will assume the role of a newly hired fitness trainer at a fitness center. Your orientation session will last 6 "days" and you'll work with two virtual mentors: Ms. Watson, the head trainer of the fitness center and Jennifer, the center's registered dietitian. Jennifer will help train you and be available to discuss the nutritional needs of each of your 5 clients. Your mentors will lead you through the following situations and exercises: Day 1: The Fuel Supply--By the time this first orientation is over, you'll know the predominant nutrients used to fuel activities of varying intensity and duration. You'll recognize the effect training has on fuel usage and understand how the body uses fats to fuel activity. You'll begin by reviewing the fitness center registration records of your 5 clients and making some nutrition decisions regarding these individuals. The session concludes with a quiz over the core concepts. Day 2: Carbohydrates--You'll work with Jennifer as you learn about carbohydrates and exercise. Jennifer will help you consider the role of carbohydrates in training and performance and examine the effect of exercise and training on muscle and liver glycogen stores. Discussing each of your clients, Jennifer will help you review the carbohydrate requirements for athletes. She'll help you learn to calculate carbohydrate needs of athletes. A quiz over carbohydrates and exercise is included to help you test your knowledge. Day 3: Training Effect--Jennifer presents information about the effects of training and the issue of fats and cholesterol. You'll learn how to answer questions concerning cholesterol and how diet and exercise might help athletes reduce their risk for heart disease. You'll discuss the effect training has on helping endurance athletes be better fat burners. This orientation session concludes with a brief quiz over the effects of training and fats and cholesterol. Day 4: Protein--Jennifer is ready to talk about the role of proteins in exercise and the recommended intake of proteins. While the protein needs of athletes are higher than those of sedentary people, Jennifer wants you to understand how much protein is adequate. She also warns you that proteins are only one part of the picture. Your clients also need enough calories to ensure growth and they need an adequate resistance training program to stress the muscles. To help you review the concepts presented in this session, Ms. Watson has prepared a short quiz. Day 5: Dehydration--Jennifer discusses the effects of dehydration on performance. She provides some tips you can share with your clients on how to detect and prevent dehydration. A brief quiz of dehydration is included. Day 6: Vitamins and Minerals--In this final day of your exercise nutrition orientation, Jennifer helps you to identify the vitamins and minerals most closely associated with the musculoskeletal, cardiorespiratory, and thermoregulatory systems. You'll discuss and identify the circumstances that can lead to iron-deficiency anemia, the athletes who are at risk, and the effect that iron-deficiency anemia has on training and performance. Jennifer will ask you to list the factors associated with loss of bone calcium and will present information to share with clients who are concerned about calcium intake. Each client provides information about his or her diet and exercise activities. Using this information, you'll determine if vitamin or mineral supplementation might be necessary. You'll also be asked to judge if a particular dose of a supplement may be potentially dangerous. The quiz at the conclusion of this session focuses on the role of vitamins and minerals in the diet. Finally, you'll take the online course test, which covers material from the interactive study guide and from the course text. System Requirements This course is designed to work best when your computer and Internet browser are configured to the following technical requirements and setup specifications: Internet Explorer 5.5+ (Windows), Netscape Navigator 7.1+, Mozilla 1.7+, or Firefox 1.0+. Computer monitor preferences set for 640 X 480 resolution or larger. Adobe Flash Player version 5+. To download the free Flash Player, click on the button below. Browser pop-up blockers disabled. Back to the Online Education Center.