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Bowling is just like any other sport. To maximize your performance you must be in top condition, and a good diet is an important aspect of this.

The major nutritional concern for most bowlers is extra body weight. Excess body fat is only a hindrance, there is no benefit to bowling performance. Not only does it add extra stress to the muscles and bones of the body as you bowl, the stress on your heart is potentially life threatening.

Excess body fat also can hinder your bowling technique, restricting movement, making it more difficult to produce correct technique, and the fatigue from carrying the extra weight can reduce your training time and add distractions to your game. As you can see, it is advantageous in many ways to lose weight.

It is important to eat a healthy, well balanced diet. Most people have a good idea what is a healthy diet and what is not. As bowlers, the challenge is to find the healthy food at the bowling centers. Often you don't have the healthy choice from the snack bar, and subsequently many bowlers are overweight. The answer is in the planning. Prepare healthy food at home, and take it with you when you go bowling.

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Related Pages

• See also: Hydration for Bowling
• Sports Nutrition
• Sport Specific Nutrition for a range of other sports

Old Comments

Commenting is closed on this page, though you can read some previous comments below which may answer some of your questions.

• I have to disagree about body fat being hinderance.  Yes, to extreme it is, but most of the top bowlers in my area are like the "Big Nasty" Pro bowler. I do not think you should eat while bowling unless you are bowling more than 3 hours.  You should eat before bowling, preferably about 2 hours before.  US Bowler magazine had a great article on this.  They also covered not-so-healthy choices and how they effect you physically over a time period of 2-6 hours.  If you have to eat just before or during bowling, they suggested soups and sandwiches with no cheese, onions or hot peppers.  Stay away from fried foods. (from TheBearAK, Dec 2012)
• It is understandable that you won't be able to bring in food from the outside when bowling recreationally, however, bowling for sport (on a team for instance) could be different.  Often, a bowling ally will work with teams to allow outside food for the athletes only.  This is great, because it still allows them to make money on spectators and other patrons, but gives the athlete who may have to bowl 4-6 games or more the ability to maintain a competitive edge through proper nutrition.  It's worth asking the ally that you typically bowl at if this is possible for your team. (from Pete O, Feb 2011)
• "I really like the emphasis you put on nutrition even for a sport such as bowling. I agree. The snack bar in the bowling alley does not offer healthy choices, but your idea of bringing your own food from home won't work at our local bowling alley. Big sign posted at the entrance: no food or drink can be brought from outside. They want you to buy it from their concession. So that is too bad for us. But thanks for your ideas. We can eat at home and then come out out to bowl. Thank you" (from Mark Twain, 2009)