Nutrition and a Balanced Diet

[bricer]

I havea quick question about eating at H/S.
In the morning around 0640 i wake up and normally i eat 1 banana and drink a glass of Orange Juice, and then eat a whole wheat bagel with cream cheese. and sometimes i take an apple to school with me, but then lunch time comes and there is nouthing but crap on the menu and i can only eat so much fruit,

[scskowron]

So what's your question?

[coronadodreamin]

I havea quick question about eating at H/S.
In the morning around 0640 i wake up and normally i eat 1 banana and drink a glass of Orange Juice, and then eat a whole wheat bagel with cream cheese. and sometimes i take an apple to school with me, but then lunch time comes and there is nouthing but crap on the menu and i can only eat so much fruit,

Hi Bricer,

The answer to what I'm assuming your question is simple -- Don't rely on the school tp provide you a proper lunch. I'm a Senior in H/S and the lunch they provide us is worthless , so I bring my own. Nothing fancy; just a peanutbutter sandwhich (2TBS natural pb) with two slice of whole wheat.

www.bodybuilding.com has some excellente articles on nutrion along with some very active forums. I recommend you go there and do a bit of reading for some nutrion advice/ideas.

Best of luck, Bricer :)

[gmt-nyc]

Not sure the question, but there are differences in opinions regarding the proportional allocation of your daily diet. I am not an nutritionist or have a degree in this stuff, but I have been training for 14 years and have maintained a high level of physical fitness during that timeframe. So I've done research into nutrition to help me achieve my training goals while maintaining a steady weight of 190# (for the record I'm 32 yo, and am 6'3" tall)

For starters, there are some common themes out there. One is to eat less more often, meaning to eat smaller meals five or six times throughout the day. For example, instead of eating "3 square meals" of nearly 1,000 calories each, instead eat five or six smaller meals of 600 calories each. The reasons why are related to the body's digestive system, and can be better answered by others more qualified here. Another is to eat less processed foods (potato chips, packaged deli meats, etc.) due to their high amounts of sodium and use of preservatives. Another growing trend is to try and eat "natural" foods, or even "organic," to avoid chemicals, hormones, etc. used by many food manufacturers.

As for a balanced diet, there are a few options that have pros and cons.

Some people subscribe to the Zone, which is well documented, and recommends a 4:3:3 ratio of eating 4g of carbs, 3g of protein and 3g of fat for every 10g of food you consume. There are tremendous benefits associated with the Zone program including fat reduction and improved athletic performance. CrossFit espouses the Zone, and there is a wealth of information on their website at www.crossfit.com, specifically check out - http://www.crossfit.com/cf-info/start-diet.html, and this article - http://www.crossfit.com/journal/library/cfjissue21_May04.pdf

Others, like myself, favor the 3:2:1 school of thought, meaning consuming 3g of carbs, 2g of protein and 1g of fat for every 6g of food you consume, which is along the lines of the NavySEALs.com nutrition (http://navyseals.com/nutrition). Funny, I never read that section before a few days ago, but when reviewing my daily food intake I was already tracking at pretty much 50% carbs, 35% protein, 15% fat, which is just about 3:2:1. Looks like I may have found my calling, at least nutritionally ;) These forums have tons of terrific threads regarding nutrition, so I strongly suggest you read through them as there are some incredibly knowledgeable people posting as well as Been There Done That (BTDT) guys who've made it through BUD/S, Ranger School, etc.

Anyway, there are other tons of variants like the Paleo diet, etc., and everyone needs to figure out what is best for their body type and metabolism, and what will help deliver the results, whether it be athletic performance, strength, endurance, balance, etc. And other resources, like bodybuilding.com, etc. are great resources, but keep in mind the source while you do your research. Bodybuilding.com is likely to promote diets that, surprise, are more useful for bodybuilding, not athletic performance, just like CrossFit is going to talk about diets useful for overall fitness, not bodybuilding.

As for me, my rationale was based on 1) I am already lean (5-6% bodyfat), and am already producing at a very high level of athletic performance, and 2) as I mentioned, my diet was already close to the 3:2:1. So if it ain't broke, don't fix it. I don't think changing my diet would result in performance improvements based on my current numbers.

Anyway, hope this helps. Have fun with your research, and best of luck training!

[bricer]

thank you very much, very informative...i appreciate all the help