Form vs. Function: Considerations for Athletes by James Barnum Nutrition is, by and large, not very complicated. The most basic, foolproof dietary suggestion you can make to a new client is to simply eat an abundance of meat and fibrous vegetables when theyre hungry. Regardless of their training status and habits, age, current body composition, or goals, that will set them up with a solid foundation on which to build a specialized plan that suits their particular needs. However, things become excedingly more complicated when you start to dial in on a specific goal. When things become more complicated, things become more confusing. When things get confusing, chaos is the name of the game and things very quickly fall apart. Many of the folks who come to us have applied nutrition information without guidance, without consideration of individual factors, and theyve wound up in a rut. They dont understand where they went wrong. Look: Ive spoken with hundreds of people who can adhere to the plan with laser focus, who keep excellent track of their food intake, measurements, and training sessions, who are otherwise perfectly healthy, successful folks. They just cant seem to manipulate their body composition and performance. Although Im a proponent of taking responsibility for oneself, more often than not it isnt the clients fault; the plan just doesnt fit, and therein lies the problem. -{ Nutrition For...Who? }- Based upon my personal experience and education, Ive come to realize that the confusion were experiencing as a culture - we, the fit-minded of the world - stems from the fact that there is very rarely a clear delineation of WHO a nutrition strategy or paradigm has been devised for. Is it for a person seeking general wellness? Is it for an elite competitive strength athlete? Is it for a physique competitor? Is it designed to treat or alleviate symptoms of a disease or disorder? If I had a dollar for every time someone came to us following a low carbohydrate, low Calorie diet while also following an intense, 10 hour a week mixed-mode training regimen (with extra cardio), Id buy the farm. Its amost exactly the opposite problem youd run into if most of your customers were sedentary - those who seek nutrition counseling are often following a high Calorie, high carbohydrate diet while performing very little physical activity. Both of these groups have two things in common: theyre eating inappropriately for their goals, and their list of desired outcomes practically ALWAYS includes fat loss. In other words, everybody wants a six pack but very few know what it really takes to have one. They almost always head off in the wrong direction, either out of ignorance or misdirection. Before I continue, let me ask you a question. What would happen if these two populations switched diets but maintained their current levels of physical activity? _______________________ Metabolic Flexibility for Fat Loss is an easy, effective approach towards fat loss that champions gradual, lasting progress. This method teaches you to look at your activity levels, your goals, and your food preferences in order to formulate a plan that you can follow for the rest of your life. Click here for more info and a FREE chapter of Met Flex --> bit.ly/17DNa1e ________________________ -{Nutrition for Performance Athletes vs. Sedentary People}- If the two previous examples switched diets, the athlete would make use of the extra energy to drive performance. Ahtletes need to eat quite a bit of food to balance out their energy expenditure. For the athlete, body composition is the byproduct of achieving performance goals, which tend to support overall health. Health in this sense means not only longevity and freedom from illness, but also freedom from sport-related injuries both chronic and acute. A solid plan for an athlete will: 1. Teach healthy eating and exercise habits 2. Increase general or specific performance 3. Optimize body composition 4. Improve overall health In the same respect, the sedentary person would see an improvement in health with improved body composition by decreasing energy availability. Since performance isnt all that important to the sedentary person - they arent exercising after all - their energy demands are lower. Health for a sedentary person has more to do with proper daily functioning and resistance to illness rather than resistance to injuries. A solid plan for a sedentary person will: 1. Teach healthy eating and exercise habits 2. Improve overall health 3. Optimize body composition 4. Promote physical activity -{ Nutrition for Physique Competitors }- Physique athletes/competitors pursue entirely different goals than the sedentary person or performance athlete. Achieving pure physique goals involves building a substantial amount of visible muscle mass, then dieting to an extremely low body fat percentage and stepping on a stage to display the result. Dieting (or prep) takes place over the course of several months and ultimately, the condition (body fat percentage) achieved for the competition is not maintained. In other words, the physique competitor undereats for several months, gets shredded, and then returns to a normal body fat percentage after the competition. Its not sustainable and it doesnt last for long. For the athlete, performance comes first and body composition is more a consequence of training, yet both factors are important and supportive of one another. For the physique competitor, body compsition is paramount and performance is just a means to an end - they dont have to squat 400 lbs. for reps to look their best come the day of the show, so they dont have to eat a whole lot; just enough to maintain lean mass. Health is not necessarily any less important, but its not necessarily improved and may be jeopardized due to calorie restriction while exercising. Thus, a solid plan for a physique athlete will: 1. Reduce body fat 2. Maintain lean mass Remember when I asked you to consider what would happen if a sedentary person switched nutrition plans with an athlete? What do you think would happen if an athlete switched nutrition plans with a physique competitor preparing for a show? -{ How to Stop Chasing Your Tail }- Now that weve identified the goals of these three types of people, the answer should be pretty clear. Since the dieting physique competitors nutrition plan involves cutting calories to emphasize fat loss, performance suffers. A plateau or regression is inevitable. Since performance drives body composition changes for the athlete, the athletes body composition will follow performance - it will stagnate or regress. Health will also suffer and injuries will become more common as the body attempts to cope with the chronic energy deficit. Adaptations include fatigue, anxiety, depression, storage of excess body fat, muscle loss, etc. -{ Two More Questions }- Many of us are training like athletes, setting athletic goals, and idolizing people capable of amazing feats of athleticism. Why then are we eating as though were preparing for a physique competition? Also, why are so many of us thrusting, squatting, and snatching our butts off 5-6 days a week but eating as though we spend all day on sitting onthe couch? I believe that asking yourself questions like this is one of the keys to finally getting it right. Ill talk more about this subject in another article but for now, Ill leave you to consider the answer.
Posted on: Sun, 19 Jan 2014 20:30:01 +0000
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