The other day I had a friend, who is not a competitive athlete, ask me about some basic dieting principles. I gave him a little speech about your diet needing to suit your lifestyle and the ends you want it to serve. I gave the example of a bodybuilder being more akin to a high protein diet because they are concerned mostly with building mass and repairing their muscles. Conversely, a marathon runner may wisely choose a high carbohydrate diet to fuel long and frequent training sessions. I also stated that there were varying degrees of intensity or calculating a diet based on whether you are a competitive athlete, trying to get into shape for a backyard basketball league, or simply trim a couple modest inches off your waistline. I'll come back to this story, but first, here is a breakdown of my recommendations based on my experience and what I have learned. (Remember: I am not a doctor, so consult one before beginning a diet or training program)
High Protein - This type of diet fits well for power lifters and bodybuilders. Proteins serve primarily as a structural role in the body. That is, they build and repair your body. It makes sense then that people who are avid weight lifters want to repair their muscles after a heavy and harsh lifting session. Bodybuilders and Powerlifters also want to pack on lean body mass, many of them will adopt a low (not absolute "no") carbohydrate, high protein, and moderate fat intake. Fat also serves as a lubricant and repair mechanism for the body.
High Fat - The idea of a high fat / low carb diet is that your body will begin to burn fat as its primary energy source rather than carbohydrates. Doing some thorough research online will give varying studies and research results attesting to whether or not the body can adapt to this for competitive athletics. In my experience it can not. While I was on a diet like this I was training BJJ about five times per week and I did not feel as though my body had the energy to make it through the workouts. Simply put, my body needed energy and needed it fast. Fats take longer to break down into a usable energy source for the body. Carbohydrates provide a more immediate source of fuel. However, don't throw this diet out the window yet. If you are inactive and have no interest in athletics, I think that this diet is very well suited for those who are not exercise gurus, but still want to manage their weight and body composition via diet control.
High Carb - Every bodybuilder and Atkins-lover reading this just gasped and "tut-tut"-ed me. Well here's some news. Muscles need oxygen to function, a lot of it. More muscle mass means your body needs more oxygen to function. You will not see hulking juggernauts competing in iron-man competitions nor a spindly marathon runner hauling around atlas stones. Endurance athletes need a ton of fuel and do not need large amounts of muscle mass. Endurance athletes need to make the most out of their cardiovascular ability and this often means making their bodies more economical in terms of oxygen consumption. So, less muscle mass could actually improve performance for their specific sport. I'll talk a bit more about this diet below...
In order for me to truly consider this blog "open source" I need to be willing to step outside of my comfort zone. My diets over the years have been very protein centered. I have learned a great deal of my nutritional knowledge from bodybuilding websites. I am willing to take a chance and a change of pace for the sake of learning. My body is my case study. I want to try something new to suit my newly-rediscovered passion for rock climbing. Much like the marathon runner, for the rock climber access muscle mass can be almost as bad as access body fat. Think about this, even if you're 250 lbs of ripped muscle checking in 7% body fat, that is still 250 lbs you have to haul up a 50 foot rock wall. Talk about a waste of energy right? We can see a similar example at the high level of BJJ also. Most of your top BJJ competitors are not bulldozing behemoths, some are, but most are not. A fundamental principle of BJJ is that efficient technique can overcome strength and size. With all that said, I'm branching out to a high-carb diet as illustrated by Eric Horst's book "How to Climb a 5.12." I am wiling to sacrifice beloved muscle mass in an experiment to potentially improve my sport (climbing and jiu jitsu) performance.
I do have some initial concerns. The protein content prescribed by Horst may not be enough to recover my body from jiu jitsu workouts that I will be continuing during my climbing training. I am also cautious of the damage done to my joints on such a low fat diet, so some adaptations may be needed in the future. In spite of all this, I'm still willing to give it a trial-run for at least a few weeks. Back to the conversation I had with my friend, I was riding away on my bike and it dawned on me that I should really be practicing what I am preaching.
Now, my competition days in BJJ are certainly not over. It is just a matter of economics at the time being. I talked about this in my last post. I have always liked climbing, I am in a much more geographically fitting area for climbing, I am unemployed, BJJ competitions (let's face it) are expensive, and camping/climbing trips are cheap.
Degrees of Diets
I mentioned that there are different degrees of diets earlier in the post. I like to think in terms of these three categories: Statistical, Procedural, and Sticky (examples below). The Statistical Diet is best suited for the very serious dieter. Many dieters will say that they "do not want to have to do all of that" for their diet. The Statistical diet is very detailed in terms of calculations. However, it is from this that the other degrees extend. On the bright side, you only have to do it once. The next, lighter, degree is the Procedural Diet. The Procedural diet is simply a "cleaned up" version of the Statistical Diet. We take the measurements (usually in grams) of the Statistical Diet and break them down to "general" measurements of servings. Servings may mean different sizes to different people, but all that matters for these purposes is what YOU consider to be a serving. The next version is a more expletive version of the Procedural Diet, what I call the Sticky Diet. I dubbed the title because this is the version that gets STUCK to my refrigeration or somewhere I can reference it in the kitchen. The Sticky Diet tells me how many servings of what to eat per day as well as any supplementation or additional rules such as "cheating policy."
Statistical Diet Example:
How to Climb a 5.12 by Eric Horst
Carb (65 %) Protein (15-20%) Fat (15-20%) *% daily calories
Men's Health Protein Requirement
> 56 g/day 0.45 - 0.77 g/lb
@ 160 lbs Protein (g) - 20% Calories Carb (g) - 65% Fat (g) - 15% *Horst 1
0.45 g/lb 72 1440 234 24
0.55 g/lb 88 1760 286 29.3
0.68 g/lb 108.8 2176 353.6 36.2
0.77 g/lb 123.2 2464 400.4 41
Protein (g) - 15% Calories Carb (g) - 65% Fat (g) - 20% *Horst 2
0.45 g/lb 72 1920 312 42.6
0.55 g/lb 88 2346.7 381.3 52.1
0.68 g/lb 108.8 2901.3 471.4 64.4
0.77 g/lb 123.2 3285.3 533.8 73
Protein (g) - 20% Calories Carb (g) - 60% Fat (g) - 20% *My Adapt. 50/20 principle
0.45 g/lb 72 1440 216 32
0.55 g/lb 88 1760 264 39.1
0.68 g/lb 108.8 2176 326.4 48.3
0.77 g/lb 123.2 2464 369.6 54.7
* Off of the top of my head I would guess that to sustain my current training schedule I needed between 2200 - 2400 calories per day. The 50/20 principle referenced is a theory I have that when any one macronutrient concentration is greater than 50% or lower than 20% of caloric intake, it becomes difficult to practically consume nutrient ratios as prescribed. These calculations were created based on the men's health magazine recommendation for protein intake. This was the structural foundation for the calculations even though carbohydrates were the dominant nutrient.
Procedural Diet Example:
Protein 88g / 20g serving size = ~4 x 20g servings = 320 calories (14.25%)
Carbs 381.3g / 20g serving size = ~19 x 20g servings = 1520 calories (67.7%)
Fat 52.1g / 9g serving size = ~5 x 9g servings = 405 calories (18.04%)
Total Calories 2245 * w/in my 2200 - 2300 guesstimate
* We can see that the ratios are a bit off, but the actual consumption, that is, the literal intake of foods I consume, may differ or balance it out more closely to the prescription. I'll do a couple days log in the future to check this.
Sticky Diet Example:
Protein 4 x 20g 1 x loose (from carb/fat sources)
3 x Meat (Poultry/Red), Whey, Fish
Carbs 19 x 20g 1 x 4 servings (5g/c ea) Vegetables
2 x 2 servings (20g/c ea) Fruit
3 x 20g loose (condiments, fat/protein sources)
4 x 40g Starchy Carbs (Cereal/Oatmeal/Pasta/Bread/Dairy)
5 x 20g Post-Workout (Sports Drink / Recovery Shake) and Granola Bar
Fat 5 x 9g 3 x 9g from Meat Sources
2 x 9g Nuts/Nutbutter/Oil
Supplements
MetRX Natural Whey
Universal Animal Flex (joint guard) - twice per week
I'll be starting this diet tomorrow and will keep you guys updated with statistical logs and subjective notes. I do not have a set climbing competition or trip planned yet, but there are some tentative dates up in the air. Right now, I'm just trying to build a solid climbing base just like I would in a boxing or BJJ training camp. Everyone of my training camps, no matter where my game is at the time, begins with a rest period and followed by a "back-to-basics" phase to kick things off. My temporary climbing goal is to ascend 1 mile of routes (110 on our UWG wall) in the next 8-10 weeks. This would include the first four weeks of the training camp I am considering for a late January or early February climbing trip. The base-building period would be followed one week completely off from climbing. I'll also try to track my nutrient intake specifically for a week or so, just to see how closely my Sticky Diet resembles my Statistical and Procedural Diets; this is not a routine I'll adopt regularly, but just to verify my methods.
On a closing note, I've got a good support group for both my BJJ and rock climbing circles. I am really looking forward to branching out and taking new strides and sacrifices for the sake of learning.
Kudos,
Ausitn
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