TOP 10 NUTRITIONAL MISTAKES MADE BY ACTIVE PEOPLE

1. Skipping breakfast. Not eating breakfast is like asking your car to get you to work without any gas in the tank. Experts agree--skipping breakfast just means you'll be hungrier later, which can make it more difficult to control both your diet and your weight.

2. Not eating before a workout. Providing the body with food for energy allows for a better, more productive exercise session. A small pre-workout meal consisting of carbs, a little fat and some protein can also help improve endurance and hand-eye coordination.

3. Waiting too long after exercise to eat. One of the best things you can do to prepare for your next workout is eat a small meal that includes both carbs and protein within 2 hours of your last session. The carbs help replenish muscle glycogen stores and the protein facilitates the repair of damaged muscle tissue.

4. Replacing meals with energy bars or replacement drinks. They are convenient, but too often energy bars offer little more nutrition than your average candy bar. And replacement drinks may lack adequate fiber. When it comes to eating nutritiously, there's really no substitute for healthy whole foods.

5. Eating too much protein and not enough carbs. The current popularity of low-carb diets has many people trying to fuel their workouts with poultry instead of pasta. But whether you're an endurance athlete or a body-builder (or something in between), carbs are essential to effective workouts.

6. Trusting the accuracy of dietary supplement labels and claims. Because the supplement industry remains largely unregulated, manufacturers can make unproven and untested claims about their products. Don't fall for the hype and do your homework before putting anything into your body.

7. Not consuming the right amount of calories for the amount of activity you do (i.e. too many or too few). Your caloric intake should be sufficient to support your active lifestyle, but not so abundant that weight control becomes a challenge.

8. Believing that exercise means you can eat whatever you want. Most of us have to learn this lesson the hard way. Whether you exercise a little or a lot, you still need to follow a healthy, balanced diet and watch your portion sizes.

9. Not drinking the right amount of fluids. Dehydration can be a serious problem, especially if you exercise in hot, humid environments. Drinking fluids before, during and after exercise will help maintain adequate hydration levels. Just don't take it to the extremes--drinking too much water may results in hyponatremia (low sodium), which, though rare, can also pose a danger to one's health.

10. Jumping on the latest diet craze in search of that elusive "edge". It's tempting to believe there is some magic formula out there that will dramatically improve performance or help to effortlessly lose weight--if only we could find it. So we try diet after diet, consume countless supplements and follow crazy regimens, even though we know the best thing we can do is stick to the basics and follow a healthy, balanced diet.