Core Commit to Health & Fitness 2016, Round Two: March 14 - May 16

[littleman]

So, in my daughter's weightlifting class they did some math to calculate her maximum deadlift from what she is able to do with regular sets.  According to the formula she was sitting at 150lbs.  She was kinda shocked by the weight and decided to give it a try and managed to do it!  She only weighs about 120lbs..

[Rupert]

Well done her

[ergophobe]

That is awesome!

Wasn't she at 115 or 105 just a little while ago?

[littleman]

Yeah, just a few weeks ago she was really excited about doing 115lbs.

[Rumbas]

Wow, strong girl!

[ergophobe]

Does she realize that you're sharing this with a bunch of middle-aged guys working to stave off middle-aged decline, few of whom are likely to see a 25% increase in their deadlift over the course of the next several months?

[littleman]

Yes she does, but being a teenager, not on a visceral level.  She just turned 16 btw.

[littleman]

Hey Ergo, could you talk a little about your nutrition?  You are a very active person, I am curious about your macros.

[Drastic]

3/3 this week.

[ergophobe]

Hey Ergo, could you talk a little about your nutrition?  You are a very active person, I am curious about your macros.

I fear this may be disappointing...

I'm really not the guy to ask about this kind of thing - I'm not personal trainer or dietician. I do like to stay active, but to be honest, I don't think about it that much. Meaning that I don't have training program or much of a diet regime. If I wanted to run faster, I would have speed days and distance days and all that. But I just like to go out in the woods and run, performance be damned. My wife says that when she was younger she "practiced" piano, but now she plays. That's how I am I think. My only really goal is have fun, clear my head and feel good.

I'm a little more conscientious about my diet, but just in a general way. I recently had some issues where my GI tract felt a bit off for a long period and, given a family history of food sensitivities, I eliminated gluten, dairy, soy, eggs and I'm already a vegetarian. The truth is, I felt like crap and after about a month went back to eating whatever I feel like and am feeling much better thank you.

I've been a vegetarian for pretty much my entire adult life at this point and have lately been trying to cut down on dairy as well. These choices have nothing to do with health and fitness.

I traditionally tend toward lots of grains slathered in fat of some sort, usually cheese though I throw coconut oil and almond butter in all manner of things these days. I've always tended high on carbs and fat and low on protein, even as a little kid when I supposedly ate meat (though never liked it and it was always a challenge at "fancy" dinners to get me to eat something other than a hot dog).

I probably eat too much cheese and yogurt. I definitely eat more veggies than the average American but probably still not enough. Similarly, compared to the average American, I think my sugar consumption is low. My consumption of sugared drinks is very low (essentially zero).

I go through periods of low activity, but lately has been a period of high activity. In those periods, I tend to supplement a lot with protein powders - whey and hemp mostly. I notice a big difference as my normal diet without that is pretty low protein.

Yesterday afternoon a friend and I did a long easy climb, but it's 1100 vertical feet of climbing, plus a few hundred to the base and a couple hundred more to the top (1500-1600 total), a longish boulder-hopping descent and we missed the turnoff to go back for his pack, so I ran the bottom few hundred a second time back up for the pack and I feel fine today, I think in part because I've been keeping the protein intake higher lately.

Beyond that, I take a multivitamin and lately an iron supplement when I remember because I started to feel anemic a year ago and the iron supplement got rid of that quick.

BTW, I have some friends who are world class athletes and though in general their diets are better than the average American and definitely "cleaner" (fewer preservatives, more organic), they don't seem to get too obsessed about it. My friend Hans [LM - that's the guy that inspired the back side of the coin] often eats things that I wouldn't touch, like packages of powdered mini-donuts and things laced with all manner of chemical detritus.... and yet he was an All-American track pole vaulter in college, a sponsored climber for 15 years and at 50 he broke the record for the fastest ascent of The Nose.

[littleman]

Interesting stuff.  I was curious not because I was thinking that your diet necessarily gave you an advantage in your athleticism, but instead I was curious about how your greater than typical physical activity allowed you more leeway with your diet.

Being a vegetarian it makes sense that you would have a diet that is high in fat and carbs relative to protein.  What would you estimate your total protein is in grams these days?  I take it that you really do not pay attention to total calories, but instead rely on your body's feedback loops to regulate itself?

I still eat food in volumes of an obese person -- what saves me is low calorie density food.  Even when I was in full ketosis (which is known to suppress appetites) people would be amazed at the size of my servings. 

[ergophobe]

>>your athleticism

That's sort of embarrassing to read. I'm not particularly athletic, but I have traditionally had an ability to keep plugging away after others give up (in general, not just physical activity).

>>leeway with your diet

Cheese has been the traditional killer. I truly LOVE good cheese. Starting in my mid-30s, I found that if I stocked the house with a wide variety of delicious, fine cheeses, I would commonly gain some weight.  If I ran out of cheese, I would shed pounds pretty quickly. I have a slightly less religious devotion to cheese now and notice the effect is not as pronounced.

But in general, I go up and down by a few pounds here and there, but mostly my hunger self-regulates pretty well. The only times in my life I have ever counted calories has been when I've been trying to gain weight.

I'm not sure of my total protein intake. I typically do a scoop of why protein every night plus the protein I get through food. I decided recently that was not enough and I shoot for about 50-70gms per day of supplemental, high-quality protein over and above what I get through food.

I'm a small guy (I used to say 5' 7" but I think I've lost an inch!) and 140 pounds (145 when really fit). So basically for protein I'm getting whatever I get through diet, and currently supplementing about 1gm per kilo of body weight, slightly more than 1gm per kg of lean body mass.

I have noticed lately that I do not recover as well as I did ten years ago and chalked it up to natural aging, but I think actually it's that I have a lower protein diet and I am finding I am recovering better now that my protein intake is back up. A friend who trains high-level athletes, including some Masters athletes, says they have found that often beginning in the mid-40s people need to have more protein for the same effect and he puts his athletes in their 50s and 60s on at least 1gm per pound of body weight which is much higher than most recommendations.

>>eat food in volumes of an obese person

Through my late 30s I would eat a lot. My sister-in-law would call me "Jethro" after Jethro on the Beverly Hillbillies because I would commonly eat a box of cereal out of a salad bowl for breakfast and two full entrees at a restaurant (and I was only 140-145 pounds the whole time).

When I did count calories, I was usually shooting for at least 3000 per day, but often 4000+

Can't do that anymore!

[littleman]

Your personal findings on protein coincide with some studies I've come across lately that say that we need more protein as we get older -- not just total protein, but the amount in each serving, I believe it was at least 30 grams to ensure the protein would get used to repair muscle.

[ergophobe]

That's a good point. I haven't just upped the total, but I've spread it out through the day. So I often have a scoop of whey in fairly close proximity to a meal. So it's probably the amount + frequency that I'm noticing.

[littleman]

Four of us managed to get a workout from the gym at the top of the Marriot here in Hanoi -- it had a spectacular view.  Tomorrow is Monday here,  but I am going to count it as part of the previous week seeings how we are 17-14 hours ahead of the USA over here..