If you play footy at club level you've probably had someone at training tell you to eat more protein, usually the bloke with the biggest arms in the team. You've probably also been told carbs are bad by someone else in the same week.

Most of what gets passed around in change rooms is half right at best. The actual guidelines that sports dietitians work from aren't that hard to follow once you see them laid out, so this is a run through what they say and how it fits around a normal week of work, training and a game on the weekend.

The main reference here is a joint position statement on nutrition and athletic performance that was published in 2016 by the American College of Sports Medicine together with Dietitians of Canada and the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. It's not written for rugby league specifically but it's the document most of the numbers you'll see quoted come from.

Carbs on training days
For people doing about an hour a day of moderate exercise the statement recommends 5 to 7 grams of carbohydrate for each kilo you weigh, every day. So if you weigh 85kg that works out at somewhere around 425 to 600g of carbs a day which is more than most people would guess. Rice, pasta, potatoes, bread, oats, fruit and so on.

Rugby League isn't an endurance sport in the same way as long distance running so you don't need to be at the top of that range every day. Most people would be better off eating toward the lower end on rest days or light days and a bit more on the days with a hard session or a game.

Protein and how to spread it out
Protein is where most of the attention goes. The same statement puts it at 1.2 to 2.0g per kilo of body weight per day, with the higher amounts for periods of heavy training or if you're trying to lose fat without losing muscle. For the 85kg player that's roughly 100 to 170g a day.

The part people tend to miss is the timing. The recommendation is to spread protein over meals every three to five hours rather than having most of it at dinner. A lot of club players have a coffee for breakfast, something quick at lunch and then a big feed at night, so the total might be close but it all lands at once.

After training the statement suggests around 15 to 25g of protein within the first couple of hours. That doesn't have to be anything special. A chicken or tuna sandwich, a couple of eggs on toast, a tub of Greek yoghurt or a glass of milk with something to eat will all get you most of the way there.

If you're training straight after work and don't get home until late, a protein shake is an easy option for that window. Whey is the most common type and if you're looking at options it's worth going through a range of whey protein powder and comparing how much protein is in one serve because it varies between products more than you'd expect.

There's also a recommendation for carbs after exercise of 1 to 1.2g per kilo per hour for the first four hours but that's meant for when you have another session within about eight hours. For most club players that only really comes up at a carnival or a weekend with two games.

What the pros do
Zero Tackle did a piece a while ago on what NRL players eat where Penrith's performance dietitian at the time, Benita Lalor, said "Protein is critical to recovery because it provides muscles with the building blocks to recover and repair."

Matt Moylan, who was captain then, said recovering for the next week was always his biggest focus after a game and that the main thing was to "make sure we consume enough protein and carbs to refuel".

Full-time players obviously have a lot more support than the rest of us but the basic idea is the same for a reserve grader.

Before a game
For the meal before a game the statement recommends 1 to 4g of carbohydrate per kilo in the one to four hours before exercise that goes for longer than an hour. In practice most players will want their main meal about three to four hours before kick-off and then maybe something small like a banana or a muesli bar closer to the game if they're hungry.

It's a good idea not to try anything new on game day. Eat something you've had before training and know sits well with you. Fatty or greasy food takes longer to digest so the pie on the way to the ground is probably better saved for afterwards.

Fluids
This is one a lot of people don't think about. The statement recommends drinking 125 to 150 per cent of the fluid lost during exercise, which is about 1.25 to 1.5 litres for every kilo of body weight you drop. An easy way to check is to weigh yourself before and after a session. In a Queensland summer it can be more than you think.

Do you need supplements at all?
For most people probably not many. The Australian Institute of Sport says protein powders like whey can be useful straight after key training sessions, when appetite is low or when you don't have access to food. It puts a 30g serve at around 21 to 27g of protein and also says a food first approach should apply to all supplements "but especially to protein needs".

The AIS recommends no more than one or two serves a day and choosing products that have been batch tested by a third party. That's worth keeping in mind if you play in a competition that does drug testing.

If you eat meat, fish, eggs or dairy most days you can usually reach your protein target from normal food and a shake just makes it more convenient. For younger players who are still growing the bigger priority is simply eating enough overall. Players have got bigger and faster over the years (Zero Tackle has also written about how NRL players have changed in the modern game) but most of that comes from years of training and eating properly rather than from supplements.

A normal week
Put together, a week with two training nights and a game on Saturday doesn't need much planning. Have some protein at breakfast instead of just a coffee, eat something decent within a couple of hours of getting home from training, keep your carbs up the day before and the morning of the game and drink more water than you think you need. The rest is mostly turning up to training.