Nutrition

I find it interesting that many carnal pleasures are considered taboo, but it’s considered taboo not to partake in carnal pleasures from consuming certain foods.  I love the irony, and for many the hypocrisy, which to me seems to be one of the most human characteristics.

As for my nutritional plan, it’s fairly relaxed in nature with a few flexible guidelines.  I had an anthropology professor that made a very intriguing comment: “evolution should dictate your preferred diet” meaning your diet should be similar to that of your ancestors’ diet.  Though the available forms of food have changed drastically over time, our bodies have a slow evolutionary rate to adapt to our environment (some may argue that without a naturally occurring selective process, natural evolution has ceased.  Check out the movie Idiocracy for a humorous spin on this idea). 

There is a growing following of the ancestral diet philosophy (Paleolithic Diet).  Some of the Paleolithic diets have more extreme views such as having one large feast per day of a high meat content and nearly no food the remainder of the day.  Since I am not highly aware of how my ancestors would eat, I make assumptions on how they would eat and do not adhere to the typical Paleolithic diet.  With the modern living structure, I don’t believe that a strict practice of a diet similar to our specific ancestors’ is appropriate (additionally it is very difficult to formulate a Paleolithic diet if you have a mixture of ancestry from a variety of backgrounds).  We do not have the same sleep patterns, activity levels, activity times, access to similar foods, etc, so naturally dietary modifications are necessary, but drastic changes should be avoided (evolution can only occur so fast).  So, enough of the philosophical rambling and on to my actual diet:

·  I eat little to no processed foods (of course there are exceptions, but they are only exceptions, and not norms) and if I eat meat, it is a very lean source (has little fat, especially saturated fat).

· I have small meals spaced throughout the day (this varies depending on the day, but I aim at 4-6 meals per day, where snacks are considered a meal unless exceptionally small) with most of the larger meals later on during the day.

· The majority of my meals, especially for the earlier part of the day, are raw foods.  This really reduces the processed foods, and is not necessary, but highly convenient.

· I try to either have low to mid-level glycemic index foods, or combine them with foods that are lower on the glycemic index.  The combination of high glycemic index foods and low glycemic index foods should reduce spikes in blood sugar levels, however I have not seen adequate research in this area.  One exception to the low to mid-level glycemic index food rule is food used for recovery (described below), or for short bursts of high intensity exercise.

· Though the macronutrient ratios used to be more important to me, I try to eat a ratio of 50-60% carbs, 20-30% protein, and ~20% fat (this is percentage of total calories from each of these categories, not by weight or mass).  I do not keep track of this, but after a long time of keeping track of these ratios, I have become good at estimating.  Fluctuations are definitely OK with me.  Remember that alcohol (beer is definitely my worst weakness) has 7 Cal/gram and is stored as fat easier than carbs or protein.

· I strive to maintain a consistent daily caloric intake (within 10% fluctuation on most days).  I think this is highly important if you are trying to lose body fat.  If you eat less than your caloric intake as you would for losing body fat, and then have too many days of a higher caloric intake, I believe your body becomes efficient at storing the excess calories to supplement the calorie deficient days (occasional high calorie days such as once per every two weeks is OK and may be beneficial).  Of course if you have drastic spikes in activity level, your caloric intake may need to vary accordingly.

· Lastly, I will adjust my maintenance diet (a daily caloric intake that maintains body weight) to get certain results.  If I am trying to achieve these results, the diet is NOT relaxed, though the guidelines above are still flexible.  However, I strongly warn against either of the following recommendations if you can only follow them for a couple of days at a time.  My experience is that if you GORGE (reverting to the maintenance diet is most likely fine) after following either recommendation for a couple of days, the following suggestions will result in drastic body fat gains.  Follow the recommendations intelligently.

(a) If I decide to lean down (drop fat), I generally cut my daily caloric intake by 5-10% (i.e. for a general maintenance diet of 2000 Cal/day you would eat 100-200 Cal less/day).  Dropping body fat will improve your strength/weight ratio, which may be critical for you to reach your goals.  This depends on the person.

(b) Cutting calories to reduce body fat is one thing, but cutting calories to reduce muscle is a completely new level of hunger, and you’ll have to be highly driven to resist gorging, or gnawing on your arm (eventually you get used to it, whether it be the lack of calories, or gnawing on your arm, though I don’t know the latter from personal experience).  If you cut more than 10% of your daily caloric intake from your maintenance diet, you will most likely begin to cut into muscle, with more significant calorie cutting resulting in dropping muscle quicker, but be cautious about going overboard, and the food that is consumed must be nutrient dense.  I aim to cut daily caloric intake by 15-20%.  Reducing muscle may seem like an unusual path to take for climbing, but climbing is not a strength sport, it is a strength/weight sport, so if you have extra muscle mass not directly correlated to cranking hard, it could be beneficial to drop the muscle, possibly even more so than body fat if you do not have excessive body fat.  I will be experimenting with cutting muscle this year, but hopefully maintaining the muscle necessary to climb hard.  Also, if your aim is to cut muscle, be leery of drastic increases in endurance training as this may have a negative effect on your strength/muscle mass levels.  Check out the Physical Training page for an explanation of this phenomena.

I follow this “diet” to maintain health (without processed foods, less saturated fat, sodium, and cholesterol are consumed, and almost no trans-fats are consumed) and increase my performance on rock (it also provides consistent energy levels throughout the day and helps me maintain a good mood, and trust me, food intake can highly effect your mood).  Specifically I aim to increase performance at bouldering, sport routes, multi-pitch routes, and to a lesser degree alpine routes.  If your main goal is to increase performance at alpine routes, the diet should be altered.  Generally with this diet I stay lean and have less energy stores to haul up hard climbing moves, however if your goal is alpine routes, those energy stores may be crucial (higher fat content may be necessary, and let’s face it, more enjoyable).  Don’t overlook that area.

The last topic to discuss is meal timing.  My general diet as described above is spread throughout the day, providing me with a consistent energy level (before I adopted it, I fought to keep from falling asleep at my computer after lunch), especially due to the food choice on the glycemic index.  Ideally these meals are spread out in fairly even increments.  There are a couple of exceptions to a spread out meal plan: recovery from exercise, performance enhancement, and energy for excessive amounts of exercise.  After a particularly hard exercise routine, especially if I bonked (utilized a good portion of the glycogen, a simple sugar, in my blood) or especially after I train for power or strength, I supplement with high glycemic index foods within an hour to provide muscles with immediate energy for recovery.  Recent independent studies have shown increased recovery and future performance if a high gylcemic index food (i.e. simple sugars such as glucose) is combined with protein (the ratio is generally 4 carbs:1 protein).  Accelerade® utilizes this ratio (and advertises it drastically).   If you plan on doing a particularly hard exercise routine, route, or competition, you may want to have a high glycemic index food prior to performing.  Experiment with timing to take advantage of the energy spike and heightened performance.  Lastly, if you have a day of particularly hard or long period of exercise, you may need to supplement periodically to reduce the chance of bonking.  This is especially true when attempting a long alpine route.

**A note on bonking: Certain studies have touted the advantage of bonking occasionally during endurance training.  Apparently this trains the body to be more efficient at using energy sources, however it should be attempted in less than half of your training sessions.  Bonking will not allow your body to train at its peak level, consequently reducing some training benefits.  Also this technique is aimed at endurance athletes, not necessarily athletes that benefit more from strength, power, or technique.  This research is still in its infancy stage.

 

 

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