Sheri Stiles on Nutrition, Fat Loss, and Body Image Met Flex for Fat Loss is about keeping most of your carbs around your workouts and using fats as fuels at rest. This method can be applied to any person, any athlete, for practically any goal. ---> Click here for more info on Met Flex: bit.ly/11Fbpnm Today, during my time spent scrolling through Facebook, I came across a post from a friend of mine in regards to nutrition. Being my sarcastic self, I posted in response “I just like food.” (This couldn’t be truer!) What he responded with, however, made me think – about nutrition and certain “diet” plans I have been on before. It also made me think about women in general, and the fact we chase this idealized image of what we are “supposed” to look like, which comes with the “diet” we are “supposed” to be on. What he said was, “Do you know how many people probably eat like you, but don’t sit down and get up with 300 lbs. on their back?” He also shared a saying: “What used to get you fat without weightlifting will get you jacked with weightlifting.” With regards to the first half of his statement, I thought about my nutrition and other ways of eating I have experimented with. How does all that impact my ability to squat 300+ lbs? Well, its no surprise to anyone who knows anything about eating and lifting weights—your ability to perform, and perform well, will be affected by the food you consume. I know, I know…I am not sharing any groundbreaking information, but there are people out there who do not think about this aspect, or are just plain clueless. There are also people who have told me I could continue on my “figure diet” (there was a brief 40 days where I thought being a figure competitor sounded like a good idea) and retain the ability to rack pull 500 lbs., or deadlift 350+ lbs. Those people were wrong. While I was dieting this way, I did eat some carbs (which came as a shock to me considering how long I had been going keto) but it was also extremely low in calories and fat. This was not conducive to the heavy lifting I do as a powerlifter; I was tired all the time, I was hungry all the time, and eating 4 oz. of baked chicken, ½ cup green beans and 10 almonds, at more meals than I could count, was NOT enjoyable. Did I lean out? Yes. Was that 5 lbs. I lost worth it? Not at all! I only did the diet for 6 weeks until I threw in the towel; all I really lost in those 6 weeks was strength. Oh, and my trainer said that in order for me to be competitive I would need to lean out around 18 lbs. more before getting on stage. At that time, this would have put me at 136lbs. from a purely aesthetics standpoint, I would look sick. I might have been “lean” and “ripped” but that was by their standards. Not to mention, I hated life for 6 weeks just to lose 5 lbs.! I am a strength athlete; what I eat impacts how I perform. I won’t sit here and say I don’t pay attention to what I eat – I do – but I also won’t sit here and say I don’t eat a lot. I do. I do those things to get stronger and fuel my performance. With my friend’s response also came my thoughts about idealized body image. I could write several pages regarding my opinions on this, but I will spare the novel this time. Ladies, let me be honest; it’s a bunch of BS. There is no magic bikini body diet, as promised in Women’s Health Magazine. If you are naturally skinny, and a size 0, good for you, but chasing what’s unrealistic for most of us, just because that’s how you’re “supposed to look” is stupid. How about chasing your strength goals? Working to lift that weight just one more rep, or shave off time in your next WOD. I won’t say healthy nutrition isn’t important. Getting protein, fats, and carbs in the right amounts, especially the right time, is crucial to performance. However, I don’t believe this should be looked at as “dieting.” To me, that word implies restriction and avoidance. I think it’s more beneficial to fuel your body for the functions it needs to perform. This is a newer concept, even for me, but one I can evaluate the effectiveness of based on strength. More articles youll enjoy: Sheri Stiles on Rest and Recovery eattoperform/2013/08/09/sheri-stiles-on-recovery/ How to Eat and Move When You’re Injured eattoperform/2013/04/17/how-to-eat-and-move-when-youre-injured/
Posted on: Tue, 29 Oct 2013 14:30:00 +0000
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