Against the Current

[Csubi Zambo]

Hey,

I'm a 39 year old male, 6.0 ft, 250 lbs. Strong, and can hold my own in a wod. However, I am fat. No ifs, ands, or buts. I have a comp in August and need to drop at least 20 lbs, for my own health.

One of the biggest issues I face is that I have 3 jobs. My main one has me working Graveyard Shifts. 01:00-08:00. The others are 1 day a week, mostly days. Sometimes I go from the Graveyard, straight to another job.

I CFIT about 4 times a week. Just added extra 2-3 KB sessions in the evenings for the comp. (so a couple 2 a days). I'm also trying to get a 5K trail run in once a week if possible, or 15K blade.

For food, I've just cut out booze, bread, sugar, and crap in general. Lots of veggies, and meat. (day 2)

So... I'm hungry. I know it takes the body about 2 weeks to regulate, so I'm dealing with it.

ex: It's 5 am and I just got home from work. I ate squash and ground beef, and am now going to bed again. Is this healthy?

Any tips or tricks to help me out?

Thanks

[Alan Bradin]

Hey buddy; I'm on this right now. First things first, weigh and log your food. It's shocking how hard it is to get 2,000 calories on a diet like this. It should work itself out to somewhere between truckloads and boatloads of food. If you're around BMR, and you're working out that much, there's your problem right there.

If you're eating enough, then try to get more fats into your diet. You can also use whey protein, which is an easy whey (har) to get more protein in. Personally, I was having a lot of trouble eating 175g of protein a day without it. Hope this helps, and keep it up!

[Darryl Shaw]

Originally Posted by Csubi Zambo

Any tips or tricks to help me out?

These should cover just about everything you need to know about sports nutrition.

Position of the American Dietetic Association, Dietitians of Canada, and the American College of Sports Medicine: Nutrition and Athletic Performance.

IOC Consensus Statement on Sports Nutrition 2010.

Olympic.org - Nutrition for Athletes.

AIS sports Nutrition Factsheets.

IAAF.org - Nutrition for Athletics.

British Dietetic Association Food Fact Sheet: Sport.

*All links wfs*

[Phil Washlow]

I am not going to argue with Darryl again here but from the ADA "Carbohydrate recommendations for athletes range from 6 to 10g/kg (2.7
to 4.5 g/lb)" the article says body weight and not lean body mass so at 250lb that recommendation is 675g - 1125g. That is a precription for heart disease and diabetes. 675g of carbs from broccoli, not even discounting for fiber (most carb counters don't count fiber as most of it is not digested) is 21.3 lbs of broccoli, yes that is not a mistake 675g of carbs from broccoli is 21 lbs. If you would like to eat just white potatoes for carbs you would need 7lbs, daily!

That being said if your goal is to lose as much fat as possible as fast as possible, here is my recommendation.
visit
www.leangains.com
http://www.bulletproofexec.com/how-t...r-morning-too/
http://eatingacademy.com/nutrition/k...d-state-part-i

(all links are blogs, cannot confirm they are 100% wfs)

The best part of about an intermittent fasted ketogenic diet is that you don't have to be hungry. The fasting takes a little getting used to but the 16 off 8 on version is quite easy using bulletproof coffee. In terms of food, keep your carbs < 50g, protein <130g (protein can cause blood sugar spikes which spikes insulin causing you to no longer be ketogenic), and a lot of fat to keep you satiated. As you acclimate your appetite will decrease markedly.

Originally Posted by Phil Washlow

I am not going to argue with Darryl again here but from the ADA "Carbohydrate recommendations for athletes range from 6 to 10g/kg (2.7
to 4.5 g/lb)" the article says body weight and not lean body mass so at 250lb that recommendation is 675g - 1125g. That is a precription for heart disease and diabetes. 675g of carbs from broccoli, not even discounting for fiber (most carb counters don't count fiber as most of it is not digested) is 21.3 lbs of broccoli, yes that is not a mistake 675g of carbs from broccoli is 21 lbs. If you would like to eat just white potatoes for carbs you would need 7lbs, daily!

That being said if your goal is to lose as much fat as possible as fast as possible, here is my recommendation.
visit
www.leangains.com
http://www.bulletproofexec.com/how-t...r-morning-too/
http://eatingacademy.com/nutrition/k...d-state-part-i

(all links are blogs, cannot confirm they are 100% wfs)

The best part of about an intermittent fasted ketogenic diet is that you don't have to be hungry. The fasting takes a little getting used to but the 16 off 8 on version is quite easy using bulletproof coffee. In terms of food, keep your carbs < 50g, protein <130g (protein can cause blood sugar spikes which spikes insulin causing you to no longer be ketogenic), and a lot of fat to keep you satiated. As you acclimate your appetite will decrease markedly.

And the recommendation you gave is not for athletes. It will depend on if the OP wants to maintain his workload or not.

I would recommend eating 2,000-2,300 calories a day and trying to track your food as best you can. Eat oats, brown rice, and potatoes for you carb sources. Limit sugars, and maintain increased protein intake to promote satiety. If you continue your workload under these restriction you should lose fat no questions asked. Fast if you want but stop if it leads to your over eating when breaking the fast. Lastly, eating a lot of vegetables can help you to feel full and consume less calories.

[Phil Washlow]

Originally Posted by Bill M. Hesse

And the recommendation you gave is not for athletes. It will depend on if the OP wants to maintain his workload or not.

I would recommend eating 2,000-2,300 calories a day and trying to track your food as best you can. Eat oats, brown rice, and potatoes for you carb sources. Limit sugars, and maintain increased protein intake to promote satiety. If you continue your workload under these restriction you should lose fat no questions asked. Fast if you want but stop if it leads to your over eating when breaking the fast. Lastly, eating a lot of vegetables can help you to feel full and consume less calories.

You are correct, it is not ideal for performance in hiit. So the recommendations will really depend on the OPs goals. Interestingly a there are studies showing that a ketogenic diet is very beneficial for endurance athletes, once metabolically efficient our bodies can run almost solely on fat during aerobic exercise.

[Joe Wright]

Originally Posted by Phil Washlow

yes that is not a mistake 675g of carbs from broccoli is 21 lbs.

I break up the broccoli into settings:

5 pounds with breakfast
5 pounds with lunch
5 pounds PWO
5 pounds with dinner

I keep a pound in the car everyday too, and I work on that at red lights on my way to work.

Originally Posted by Phil Washlow

You are correct, it is not ideal for performance in hiit. So the recommendations will really depend on the OPs goals. Interestingly a there are studies showing that a ketogenic diet is very beneficial for endurance athletes, once metabolically efficient our bodies can run almost solely on fat during aerobic exercise.

This is debatable. It is certainly true you increase fat usage at 50-60% THR, but at the speeds a competitive race is taking place this would false unless of course fat is all you have to use because your glycogen stores are next to nothing. The reason for this is having to engage a combination of muscle fibers and not just slow twitch ones to run at these speeds. The fact that carbohydrates improve athletic performance is near inescapable. Again, it depends as you say on the goals of the OP. I obviously believe carbohydrates are not evil.

[Phil Washlow]

Originally Posted by Bill M. Hesse

This is debatable. It is certainly true you increase fat usage at 50-60% THR, but at the speeds a competitive race is taking place this would false unless of course fat is all you have to use because your glycogen stores are next to nothing. The reason for this is having to engage a combination of muscle fibers and not just slow twitch ones to run at these speeds. The fact that carbohydrates improve athletic performance is near inescapable. Again, it depends as you say on the goals of the OP. I obviously believe carbohydrates are not evil.

At 60% of V02 max (about as high as you can go and maintain for hours, like endurance races) an elite and metabolically efficient athlete can get upwards of 80% of their energy from fat sources. This rate is about 750 cals per hour, 20% is 150 cals. You can store about 500g of glycogen in your muscles which is about 2000 cals, we're looking at 10 hours of safe performance with no glycogen replenishing. There is a product called super starch that can be used to replace glycogen without spiking blood glucose (which would turn off the 80/20 split, as your body can not uitilize as much fat with spiked glucose and insulin). If you go a little slower (lower VO2) you can up that % of fat utilization.

Carbohydrates can make tremendous improvements in athletic performance and strength/muscle gains. But I believe it is necessary to understand how they are impacting our performance and use macro composition to optimize your diet for your desired outcome. IMO just fat loss or just endurance = low carbohydrate consumption. Rapid strength and size gains = higher consumption of carbs (within reason).

Marathon runners are operating at greater than 60% when running 2.5 hours to complete the race. Longrr races may well differ. At 70% thr you are looking at roughly 80% carbohydrate usage. If what you say is true I will keep my eye out for top athletes using low carbohydrate diets.