I hate to talk about diets because I often feel i don't have anything to add. On the one hand, it's a vital subject if you want to make any true progress but on the other hand, it's an even more contentious area than physical training. There are just too many variables for people to get a handle on. And there's research coming out all the time on this or that food and how it's good for you this week and bad for you the next. What to do?
I don't pretend to be a scientist or a nutritionist. I primarily talk about what has worked for me because my own experience is all I've got. Will it work for others? Maybe in a general way and that's how I present it. So what has worked?
Certianly NOT Atkins or any extreme no-carb diet like it. Atkins for me as a gout sufferer was a death sentence. Atkins has you eating pure acid all day -- not what gout suffrers need. But even for normal people, I see Atkins as the most bizarrely extreme diet out there. It just isn't something you can do long term. I think we should be thinking of diet not in terms of short fads that we try just to lose a few quick pounds, but a long-term change of your whole diet -- everything you consume.
Cutting way back on complex carbs like breads, rice, pasta, and simple sugars like table sugar, honey, etc. have made a big difference in my training. I try to eat those things once a day, at most. I make note if i have them twice a day because I know that day will set me back in my training as far as weight loss is concerned.
I also try to eat that one serving at breakfast time or lunch time at the latest. I want them early in the day to fuel workouts.
One of the best pieces of diet advice I know came from Fabio, the romance novel cover model that was popular back in the early 90's. He said NEVER eat carbs after 6 p.m. I think that's solid advice. Dinner and late night snacks should be protein based for recovery. Carbs are for energy and not needed obviously for you to sleep. Eating carbs at night is adding empty calories to your diet.
However I do eat carbs for dinner in the form of vegetables. I have a large salad every night as my main dinner course. I highly recomend this. I now get about 10-12 servings of veggies a day and feel much better for it. And of course it goes against Atkins advice, but there it is. Cutting out healthy carbs like veggies is not something I would recommend.
Replace your rice, bread, and pasta with veggies and your body will thank you for it!
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Carbs at night
Any exercise advice that includes the words 'never' or 'always' is probabally wrong. It's never jsut one thing. You have to account for cortisol and pancreatic polypeptide responses to meals, the condition and operation of the thyroid, and circadian rythms. Protien has a long lasting effect on energy and saitey, if eaten at night, the can cause night eating syndrome (eating at night and skipping breakfast in the morning) or just sleep disturbances.A good rule of thumb is to avoid eating for 2-3 hours before bed and expend more calories then you take in.
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I meant diet advice.I find that some people need the words "never" to make things clearer for them. Between professionals, there's an awareness that few things in fitness and nutrition are absolute. But clients need clear guidelines. Awareness of the issues behind the scenes prevent that.
BTW, i'm leaning heavily towards the work of John Berardi these days? What do you think of him? I've come to many of the same conclusions as him but had to put it together through many different sources. His precision nutrition seems (AFAIK) to sum up my views fairly well.
Never/always
I am not really qualified to speak on nutrition. However, Much of he data comming to the surface now seems to indicate that the nutritional aspects, while important, have been a bit overblown by the industry. The important factor seems to be exercise and daily caloric expenditure, not diet. Low fat diets, for example, have been shown to do nothing for lower one's risk of heart disease and stroke. High fat diets increase the risk, but the only thing that seems to lower it is exercise.I have to disagree with the Absolute=Clear guidlines. While it is certainly easier just to make things absolute, it is the widespread acceptance that these things are absolute that is causeing a lot of problems. I try to use words like "avoid" instead of "never" and "try to" it's a good idea" etc. for always. Besides, if we are the ones they are comming to for nutrition advice, our first response should be a refferal to a nutritionist or dietitian.
As far as Beradi, Ihave never seen him speak and only read a few articals by him. He seems pretty typical of the general advice out there and I agree and disagree on certain points with him. FOr instance, I am not sold on the "whole Food" theory or the Organic fad. There are definately things added during processing of food that one should try to limit (sodium, simple sugar, etc.) but depending on what you are talking about, the canned veggie may have more nutrients than the whole one (depending on the method of transport, the distance traveled, and the way that it was grown in the first place).Thre are so many factors that need to be taken into account that I just don't pay much attention to those plans and books that market methods instead of information that one can apply to their specific needs. I dont read much of anything that isn't a published journal artical or study.
The best diet advice I ever recieved is from a nutritionist for the University of Michigan Athletic Department. He said that there are no good or bad foods, just bad eating habbits. If youwish to change those habbits, diets just dont work well. He advocates ADDING good food to a diet rather than eliminating "bad" food. That way the "good food" can gradually push out the "bad food" without alerting the starvation mechanism in your body. That seemed to help me make the changes I wanted without all the pain and agony.
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