I receive a boat load of questions, the majority of which are pretty repetitious. No problem with that, it just means they are common to most folks BUT it may force me to lobotomize myself with an ice-pick if I do not get a handle on the email volume, so this FAQ is an attempt to stem the deluge a bit. Please read through the FAQ, and the Consulting Page, actually follow the links and if you do not see the answer to your question, shoot me an email here. I will do my best to get back to you in a timely manner.
Compilations:
I paid to have the bulk of my posts from the CrossFit message board and the Performance Menu message board consolidated. They are quite extensive and well worth the read.
Performance Menu Compilation
The Zone
- How Many Blocks?
- ASK a Question
- Zone Tweaks
- Athletes Zone
- The Golden Ratio
- 42 Ways to Skin the Zone
- Too Many Carbs?
- Zone Resources
Paleo
- The Paleo Diet Newsletter
- The Paleo Diet Published Research
- Paleo FAQ
- Calcium
- Acid Base balance
- Fatty acids (including omega 3’s and 6’s)
- Fructose/Glucose in Fruit
- Ketosis
- Aren’t beans good for you?
Gluten & Celiac
The Zone
The #1 question I receive is “how many blocks do I need?” Well Tiger, that’s a good question but I’m not tackling it anymore. I will however provide you several FREE and EASY resources to figure this out on your own. Here are a few links:
This first one is a link to the CrossFit Journal # 21. It is an amazing resource with block measures, and how to find your blocks in a rough-n-ready way.
People freak out about whether they are a “large or medium athlete…while the difference is only 1-2 blocks. It’s not that big a deal and can be easily tweaked later…but some folks do not like it the “easy way”, thus we have the following approaches:
Zone Block Calculation Spreadsheet
These approaches are fairly involved, require a little “MATH” and give you…(drum-roll please) THE SAME DAMN ANSWER AS CrossFit Journal 21!! Choose your own adventure…
Ok, just to completely beat this thing into the ground, here are a few more resources for finding your Zone Block requirements:
Go buy a book:
Mastering the Zone – Barry Sears
Mastering the Zone. Not overly technical, it gets nitty-gritty about HOW to do the Zone, offers some tweaks that nearly everyone needs to make the Zone work better and it even mentions, in one skinny ass paragraph, the fact that athletes need to increase their fat blocks to optimize performance and maintain bodyweight…one of my biggest pet-peeves with Barry Sears and the reason his methods have not been adopted more widely in athletic circles. You will need a tape measure and some patience to determine your blocks using this book. Did I mention CFJ 21?
Great place to ask a question and actually get it answered from either a coach or an athlete who does this stuff.
This used to be the place on the net to get help and talk about ideas. It still has a boat load of top level coaches and athletes but they tend to get diluted by the embedded trolls and resident arm-chair experts who have never done or accomplished a thing. Caveat Emptor.
There are a large number of Zone tweaks to make that nutritional approach work for you. I’ll briefly mention these and describe BRIEFLY how to do them. I will also provide links to detailed articles on the topic that typically cost $1-$2. Either figure out the tweaks from the brief description of throw down that Latte money to buy one of the articles, capiche?
Folks lean out on the base zone, experience decreased performance at some point and then need to up their fat 2-5x for maintenance and optimized performance. At the end of the day a 16 block person would look like this:
16P, 16C, 80F
If that made no sense read this article I wrote for the Performance Menu:
Every other Zone Tweak
Ever notice that it takes 2 cups of broccoli to make a block? Do you realize that means 8 cups of broccoli for a 4 block meal?!??! How about the greater than 50% of people who STILL get carb-head and insulin problems with the level of carbs recommended by the Zone? Well, I wrote an article for the Performance Menu:
The main point with that article is one can:
1-shift upwards of 50% of the day’s carbs into the Post WO meal.
2-Delete carb blocks as needed and add 3 blocks of fat (1.g of fat per block) to maintain caloric balance.
Makes no sense? Buy the damn article!
You can also use this Excel spread sheet to calculate those Zone Tweaks! Thanks to Bill Fairchild for sharing that!
In a similar vein, check out this blog post on the Zone:
I’d say greater than 50% of folks I work with run better on few than recommended carbs. This is just something you need to play with. Do you perform better on fewer carbs? Feel better? Better hunger control? Leaner? I can’t figure this stuff out for you in an easy way, you just need to tinker and see what works.
Here is a blog post I did on Zone resources, Meal plans and my ever popular Shopping Guide:
What About Paleo?
Maybe I’m just a Cave Man at heart OR perhaps the best nutritional approach is one that uses the foods we evolved with? All I know is I have yet to see someone not perform, feel and look better by minimizing grains, legumes and dairy while emphasizing lean meats, seafood, fruit, veggies, nuts and seeds. Go Figure. So, as a baseline, if you want to get the full gist of all this paleo stuff go to www.thepaleodiet.com and just start reading. Like everything. Sign up for the Newsletter:
Have a question about paleo research? Why don’t you check out all the paleo research here:
The Paleo Diet Published Research.
I just need to digress: All the anti-paleo blowhards have never read any of that material. They never evaluate the research as it stands; challenge its merit by recommending a better fit for the data or a better theory. They simply ignore it. Wankers.
Ok, so that is a bunch of stuff to read, are there any key papers that one should read FIRST? This is a fantastic, easy to read and short paper:
The nutritional characteristics of a contemporary diet based upon Paleolithic food groups.
Yep, Loren Cordain get’s a boat load of questions too. He tackles most of those via his FAQ’s:
In this section you will find information on:
Fatty acids (including omega 3’s and 6’s).
My rough recommendation on fish oil supplementation is 0.25-1.0 g/10lbs Body Weight/day of EPA/DHA. The top end is for sick/overweight people, the lower end is for most other folks. It seems like a lot, but a can of sardines is about 2.5g EPA/DHA. We are replacing a missing FOOD! My good friends at Whole9 have made a nifty fish oil calculator for you. It’s free. It works. use it! If you are ill (overweight, have inflammation, autoimmunity) and complain this seems like “too much fish oil” let me ask you this: If your house is burning down, are you concerned about too much water being used by the fire department? No? good, same story with fish oil. Your hose is burning down kiddo, let it burn or save your ass, that’s your call. Your overactive immune system is right at the heart of things and fish oil + a Paleo diet will fix it.
What about the fructose/glucose content of fruits?
I feel kinda funny replicating all the links that already exist over at The Paleo Diet…please give all that stuff a read, use Google and stuff like that to track down information!
What about Ketosis?
Dr. Mike Eades has a fantastic Blog and here is an amazing primer on Ketosis:
What about ketosis and exercise?
Here is a great piece detailing both anthropological data and modern laboratory data on the subject:
Ketogenic diets and physical performance.
The bottom line? No glycogen, no glycolytic activity!
No.
Gluten & Celiac
Common questions: What is celiac? How do I get it? Well, here is a nice piece from CNN:
Evidence that gluten and other lectins destroy Leptin and thus insulin signaling:
Random Stuff
Continuing Education-
I frequently receive the question “What do I do after the Crossfit Nutrition Cert?” That’s a tough one. the Registered Dietitian track is so mind-numbingly boring and mis-informed it’s just painful to imagine going through that. What might be of benefit is doing a sequence of general, organic and biochemistry for nurses of allied health practitioners. It will cover much material you will not be interested in, but then again it will provide the foundations for better understanding all of this. A human anatomy/physiology class would be helpful as well. This represents a not-insignificant amount of work but if you take this stuff seriously it is the bare-minimum to really have a steeping in this material. At present there are no accredited nutrition related programs I’d recommend. It’s all Food Pyramid crap with not a mention of evolutionary medicine as the premise.
UPDATE: We are working on an advanced topics educational program for several different educational tiers. Trainers, RD’s all the way to Doctors and pharmacists.
