Tag Archives: sports nutrition

A Simple Fix To Eliminate Weight Gain While Exercising

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If you’re doing a lot of exercise, and gaining weight, then this article might give you ideas about how you can get back on track

I did a bunch of lactate testing last week (thread here), the testing gave me a nudge to reduce the intensity of my endurance sessions.

The tests also showed that my fitness is increasing faster than my fueling.

Let’s break the results of my summer program:

  1. My ability to fuel exercise with carbohydrate sources has improved significantly
  2. My ability to fuel exercise from fat sources has not improved as much

I’m in a typical position for a new endurance athlete:

  • Increase in exercise
  • Increase in eating
  • Increase in sugar/sport nutrition intake
  • Increase in body fat

It’s counterintuitive but common… exercise doesn’t imply weight loss

Now, I didn’t start my program to lose weight.

My weight’s been stable for years.

However, I don’t want to double my exercise and gain fat.

What to do?

Cut sugars.

My main intake of sugars is during my rides. I use sports nutrition on my longer bikes, where my output is ~700 kcal per hour.

The sports nutrition doesn’t fill me up, at all. I’m dumping liquid calories in me to fuel exercise.

If I drop my output by ~15% then I can cut my sports nutrition intake by 50%.

Reducing intensity starts a virtual circle of improved fat burning, eating primarily real food and, hopefully, improved body composition.

These changes do not leave me depleted because, at a lower heart rate, I can eat real food before, and after, working out.

Real food gives me something… I get full.

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I wanted to pass this along because…

Many athletes gain fat when increasing exercise stress – the temptation is to work “harder”, which reinforces the cause of weight gain!

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When I started my return-to-fitness campaign, I thought training my body to handle sports nutrition was going to be a limiter.

I got that wrong.

Re-training my body to use fat for fuel…

…that’s the key adaptation required for me to go long, again.

Dead Simple Nutrition

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Take advice from someone who has done what you’re trying to do

I started out fat and clueless.

The lessons I learned are different from someone, who grew up a star athlete.

  • If you want to be fast, take tips from someone who figured out how to be fast
  • If you want to lose weight, take tips from someone who lost the weight
  • If you want to improve your healthspan, read Howard’s book!

Know your goal and choose your reference set carefully. So much noise out there.

  • 360 days for health
  • 5 days for performance

Choose wisely

LOW can be better than NO

  • Low glutten
  • Low processed sugars
  • Low manufactured food

Less, rather than total elimination.

Pay attention to the bloat. For me… cereals, pastas and breads

Bloat items are better swapped with something I tolerate. When I swap them, moderate the portion, add a protein source and mix in some veggies.

Pay attention to well tolerated energy sources. For me… rice, rice milk, quinoa, potatoes.

I use Protein differently:

  • Protein with every meal
  • No long gaps without protein
  • ‘Recovery’ drinks across long training days – rice milk with protein powder
  • Real meals between sessions – avoid gel hell

Protein, especially with good fats, moderates my appetite and keeps my digestion happy.

Dairy

I tolerate it well but I’m careful not use as a sugar crutch.

There can be a lot of added sugar in dairy (especially “vegan” yogurts).

There is information in cravings and binges.

Cravings => usually a depletion signal. High-performance athletes need to train the ability to process food for fuel. Long sessions provide enough depletion, even when eating.

Binges => a sign of too much – too much intensity, too much stress, too much load.

To make progress with your body, and counter your binges/cravings, trade stress for the ability to lose fat.

A stable weight is a sign you have your act together.

Get to a stable, strong weight and stay there.

Effective nutrition is defined by what is not there:

  • Swings
  • Cravings
  • Binges
  • Injures
  • Illness

Where to focus:

  1. Eat less sugar – sweeteners are everywhere. Do not restrict whole fruits, they fill you up and reduce processed food intake.
  2. Protein with every meal – all day long
  3. Incremental change – lifetime journey!
  4. Start by improving the quality of your non-training nutrition
  5. Appropriate levels of carbohydrate – fuel the burn

Don’t get hooked on brand names…

Just Keep Winning

Getting Your Desired Body and Keeping It

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Tacos del Gnar in Ridgeway, CO
On the way to Telluride, worth the stop

Last week, I was in Telluride with my buddy, Mark. He asked me a question, very much on point…

Aren’t you afraid you’ll gain weight?

Why yes, I am terrified!

The context was my current “far less than I used to” training program. Sure, I was scared, and that’s why I kept the volume rolling for so many years.

However, like so many fear-based quirks in my life, my fears proved groundless.

Further, creating a lifestyle catered to misplaced fear crowds out a lot of useful work!

Telluride

Get Off the Wheel of Sugar

AC has been crushing with a series of threads encouraging athletes to improve their stamina and fat burning. The lessons run much, much deeper. Creativity, cognition, and metabolic health – all benefit from working on the low-end of our fitness.

Many of us use training protocol as a way to justify our food choices. With the best intentions, we remove a food group, and end up replacing it with sugar.

OR

Starting to train, we shift our nutrition towards “sports nutrition.”

My buddy, Jonas Colting, calls this getting caught in Gel Hell.

Not a win.

Removing the friction towards better choices

Two tips work here:

  1. Aim to eat more veggies than my vegetarian pals.
  2. Stay below my sugar threshold.

#1 requires a bit of effort, but not too much. My main gig is salads and stir-frys.

#2 can be scary – it implies less total duration, less intensity.

Both these changes nudge us towards sustainable choices and, as we age, reduce the risk of ruin from following a Chronic Endurance lifestyle.

More Telluride

Get Strong

Back in the day, folks used to debate the utility of strength training for endurance athletes. Do y’all still do that?

I’m not into debating, I’d rather use something that works.

Strength Training Works.

There is a conscious, and unconscious, attraction to people who move powerfully – moving well, is attractive.

You want to be more attractive, trust me (see below).

Being attractive improves our self-image, which sets up a virtuous circle in our larger lives.

Door #1 was fast, but I’ll go out on a limb and predict my wife would prefer Door #3

Remove One

Trying to change everything at once leaves me feeling scattered and distracted.

It doesn’t work.

Again, here’s what works:

One person, one habit, one pattern, one choice…

Each of us has a habit, relationship or pattern that we can eliminate, for gains.

  • 2 beers before bed
  • A basket of bread with lunch and dinner
  • Cheese
  • Bread + cheese = pizza 😉
  • French fries
  • Soft drinks
  • A friend who’s a feeder

Don’t try to do everything.

Don’t think you need to change “forever”.

Simply take a break for 30 days and pay attention.

With all this stuff, letting go of my fears seems daunting.

No way, I’ll be able to pull that off.

You don’t have to.

Try it out for 30 days and pay attention.

Iterate towards better.

Where do you go that makes you feel at peace?
For me, it’s the mountains.

Fasting and Chronic Weight Loss

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2019-07-23 14.47.50Let’s consider the second order effects of fasting.

Inside every one of us is an anorexic and a glutton. Be wary of strengthening these aspects of your personality. If you know what I mean, then you know what I mean.

What’s your goal? Similar to knocking out a major food group, fasting can be cover for a deeper desire for chronic weight loss. Chronic weight loss is not a viable life strategy. 

Health. I don’t buy the discussion on health benefits. It reminds me of counting calories => a technique, used by many, to self-rationalize poor choices.

Not smoking, reducing sugar, daily movement, wearing a seat belt… those make sense to me. Getting really, really hungry (so I can stuff myself later)… I’m not so sure.

Health is characterized by stability. Stability in body weight, sleep patterns, emotional wellbeing and cravings.

If you experience extremes in your emotional life then avoid them in your nutritional life (and everywhere else).

Own, then address, your extreme choices.

Damage Limitation Strategies – Nutrition

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2016-12-09-16-30-38My mind has the tendency to ascribe meaning, and narrative, to my daily choices/actions/words.

Properly managed, this desire to “make sense” is a powerful tool for positive change.

2016-12-08-08-27-44Nutrition has NOTHING to do with nutrition.

What we end up eating has a lot to do with appetite, habit and availability.

I’ve watched nutritional science change so often, and so dramatically, that it has lost its credibility with me.

Here’s what I’ve noticed…

  • Exercise is the best medicine I can give myself
  • Excessive stress results in poor choices
  • Prior food choices, sleep and exercise impact my neurochemistry

The above can work together in a positive, or a negative, feedback loop.

Regardless, they are always working.

2016-12-07-11-23-01Why does “Eat Huge Salads” work?

  • Buying healthy food makes you a healthy person
  • Preparing healthy food makes you a healthy person
  • Unlike ice cream, cold cereal or beef chili with rice… I have to chew a salad – chewing slows me down (habit creation) and increases my satisfaction beyond the next meal (appetite moderation)
  • A mixing bowl of salad makes subsequent poor choices physically painful (adverse consequences)
  • Large amounts of fiber keep me regular and there is a emotional release from good elimination
  • Salad is the food choice with the lowest number of calories per bowl
  • It works because it works – while my explanations might be back fit-BS, the results are real

Whatever you eat for the next three years, you will come to believe that your choices are delicious. Don’t believe me? Listen to people who think differently. We are hardwired to believe in the merits of our prior choices.

Pay attention to your mantras – what you say after you eat, what you say about food, what you say about yourself.

Choose wisely – our minds are always watching, listening, rationalizing.

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Apples!!!

Two to three apples is a quick way to get a similar effect to a salad.

Displacing a poor choice is easier than resisting one.

100% CostCo 85% Vegan

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2015-05-03 18.09.49I bought Rich & Julie’s new book, The Plantpower Way, and we’re looking at increasing the nutritional quality of our diet.

To get a start point, I thought I’d share how I’ve been eating over the last year.

In running through my diet, I realized that I could buy everything at CostCo! That made me smile. I do love the place.

I also realized that I’m ~85% plant based, at least under my own roof.

I have three meals that I eat most days. I’m not all that particular about when I eat them.

Fruit salad – chopped apple, berries, granola, vanilla soy milk, plain greek yoghurt

Veggie salad – mixing bowl of veggies, avocado, seeds and nuts – served with salmon, chicken or nothing – dressing is hummus or a miso-based product

Eggs and quinoa – scrambled eggs cooked in coconut oil, quinoa, olive oil – toss in 2 cups of reheated frozen broccoli – sometimes I toss a handful of shredded cheese on top

Snacks are: apples, dark chocolate, popcorn, unsalted premium nut mix, toast with almond butter/jam, my wife’s banana bread.

No sports drinks, colas, sodas, juices or sports bars.

I don’t eat processed food and won’t eat anything with trans-fat / hydrogenated oils / artificial sweeteners.

We eat out often. I’m not dogmatic (any more). Over the last three months, I can remember eating pizza, burgers, curries, steak and french fries.

When my wife’s out of town, I’ve been known to crack a couple beers and eat a pint of fro-yo from the freezer. My binges are a fraction of what used to happen as an elite athlete and a finance-guy.

My weight has been stable for a decade, my energy is good and my health markers are excellent.

I have a longstanding habit of zombie eating with electronics. I’ve passed this along to my kids (!) and am trying to sort in myself, first.

Nutritional Vigilantes

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Paleo diet is back in the news.

Please remember that branded nutrition is a distraction from what matters in your life.

Let’s free our minds by taking nutritional dogma and throwing it in the trash.

We do this by discounting the advice of:

  • Sedentary, obese experts
  • Underperforming athletes
  • Anyone with an agenda to sell us

This leaves us with:

  • Eat less sugar
  • Eat more veggies

…but it can’t be that simple.

Have you tried those two changes and watched what happens?

Focus on simple adjustments that capture the bulk of the improvement available.

Everything else is details.

Don’t debate the details.

Focus on what works.

More veggies, less sugar.