Below are the guidelines for the Performance Nutrition Challenge. Notice they’re simple, and there’s a progression based on where you’re at and the steps you’ve already made. We’ll be following this up with basic food lists for each of the macronutrients (Protein, Carbs, and Fat) as well as some sample meals.
E-mail me ASAP if you want to do this, the deadline is 1/31/10. The cost is $10 – if you say you want to to it, I’ll assume you’ll want the money pulled out of your current billing account unless you say otherwise. We’ll charge everyone on 2/1/10. We’ll be conducting the benchmark workout on 2/1/2010, and will allow make-ups if you cannot be here next Monday.
Nutrition Guidelines for the CrossFit RVA Performance Nutrition Challenge
Step 1 –
-Eat lean meat (eggs included here) at every meal. Protein intake should be at least 1g/pound of bodyweight.
-Remove grains, starch and sugar.
-Majority of food should be from lean meats, vegetables, some fruit, nuts, little starch and no sugar.
This is the level of dietary control that will most likely be appropriate for many of you who are looking to eat healthier and make small improvements to body composition. We’re taking a big step towards controlling food quality and managing insulin levels by shifting away from the sugars and grains. For those of you who are having performance difficulties, increase higher GI carb sources slightly (fruits).
Step 2
-Monitor the amount of carbohydrates you eat over the first week, based on the food recommendations in Step 1.
-Cut total carbohydrate intake by 25%, shift 25% to a post-Workout. You’re left with half of the carbohydrates for your regular meals. Shifting more toward less-dense carbohydrate sources will make this fairly easy.
This step is for those who already have made the adjustments in Step 1, feel able to do so right off the bat, and need to lose 10+ pounds. You’ve got 8 weeks, so I suggest everyone make the Step 1 adjustments first. If you’re hungry, increase fat intake slightly, and keep quality protein levels high.
Step 3
-Restrict carbohydrates further (75-50g/day for guys, 50-25g/day for gals)
-Enter food in fitday.com to track overall macronutrient (Carbohydrate, Protein, and Fat). Once an average for calories is found over the course of a week, drop 100 Calories/Day the following week. Repeat each week until weight loss of .5% to 1% of total bodyweight per week is attained.
This is for those who need to lose a considerable amount of fat. It is more extreme than the first 2 steps, but is a balanced and moderate approach. We’re only restricting calories as much as needed to spur fat loss. Don’t do anything stupid like cutting your calories in half the second week in; you’ll end up hungry, with dropping performance levels.