The year is 2017, and CrossFit has now been around for 17 years. This revolutionary fitness methodology has grown from people all over the nation following a daily program online via a thread on CrossFit’s main page, to the largest fitness community on Earth. I like to think that this is because CrossFit has done a great job defining fitness. In fact, the founder was even able to do so in 100 words: “Eat meat and vegetables, nuts and seeds, some fruit, little starch and no sugar. Keep intake to levels that will support exercise but not body fat. Practice and train major lifts: Deadlift, clean, squat, presses, C&J, and snatch. Similarly, master the basics of gymnastics: pull-ups, dips, rope climb, push-ups, sit-ups, presses to handstand, pirouettes, flips, splits, and holds. Bike, run, swim, row, etc, hard and fast. Five or six days per week mix these elements in as many combinations and patterns as creativity will allow. Routine is the enemy. Keep workouts short and intense. Regularly learn and play new sports
~Greg Glassman”
What we’re going to focus on today, is the nutritional part from those 100 elegant words. This portion of Glassman’s statement can really be broken down into two different parts:
“Eat meat and vegetables, nuts and seeds, some fruit, little starch and no sugar”
“Keep intake to levels that will support exercise but not body fat.”
These two points are very important when looking at the basis of our nutrition, and the awareness we should have about our food when consuming it. We at 8th Street advocate a macronutrient diet, due to the objectivity and customization it provides (every person has different needs): not because we believe you should fill your foods with poptarts and processed foods. In the diet world, people always look for ways to get around eating vegetables, fruits, nuts, and seeds. There is no problem however, in getting an individual to consume breads, fatty meats, pastas, and starches. Why? Because they’re freaking delicious! And anyone telling you they don’t miss those foods, is either a liar, or has broken taste buds. For this reason, you’ll see things like “paleo pancakes”, “paleo cookies”, “zone balanced cheesecakes”, and much more. This is part of the problem with fad diets such as the paleo diet: most people will do everything they can to follow the “diet”, but are still over consuming junk. IE, if you’re eating hundreds of grams of honey daily, you’re eating hundreds of grams of sugar, whether it is paleo or not.
This is where the second part of the story comes into play. “Keep intake to levels that support exercise but not body fat.” Well, what if we take a play from the founder of CrossFit’s playbook and apply the scientific principle to our nutrition, just like he did to fitness. CrossFit is effective because it is measureable, observable and repeatable - so too, should be our nutrition. This is where macronutrients come into play: they give us a way to know how much we’re consuming and let us make intelligent decisions about our nutrition from there. It’s important to note, that food isn’t necessarily bad, but over consumption is and these numbers give us real time feedback on our consumption. All foods are simply molecules bound together. For instance, the carbohydrate glucose is = C6H12O6. The chemical formula for simple sugar is = C12H22O11. The body doesn’t react to any of these carbon, hydrogen or oxygen molecules different, as they are all principally the same. The difference, is in the amount of energy stored in one molecule. 1g of sugar, has almost twice the energy potential as one gram of glucose, this means more calories for a smaller serving and the potential to over consume while eating small portions. It would be asinine to say either is bad. However, the consumption of sugar will yield more carbs and calories, compared to the consumption of glucose, a more natural energy source. This my friends, is why if you’re measuring in an intelligent manner, you can eat poptarts and candy whilst also being shredded. Should you though? If you’re going for optimal performance and health, the answer is no. Eating these things in moderation is 100% fine if they're fitting into your consumption plan, but a diet solely consisting of these foods will not yield optimal health. This my friends, comes down to micronutrients. The vitamins and minerals we all need to be functioning at our best and promoting our most healthy selves. Unfortunately, these important little guys tend to be hiding in the things we tend to avoid, like broccoli: so eat your vegetables kids.
Now that we’ve covered the need to make our nutrition measureable and observable: how much should we be eating and why? The answer to this, is completely based off of the needs of the individual. There are many parts to this including: Age, BMI (height and weight), occupation (for basal metabolic rate), the type and frequency of fitness he or she is doing and what his or her goals are. The first thing that has to be looked at is the individual's goals: how many calories does he or she need to be ingesting to be in either a surplus or deficit. This comes down to looking at the estimated or calculated basal metabolic rate (calories burned to live) and his or her active metabolic rate (calories burned through activity). Remember, it takes 3500cal to lose 1lb of fat, so when looking at the estimated rate of metabolism, we want an individual to be in about a 500cal deficit daily to lose 1lb per week. Now that we have a calorie goal, the fun part begins. Macronutrient tailoring is important, and should be done based off the of the activity a person is doing. Knowing what type of activity that is being done by an athlete can have a direct effect on how much of a certain macronutrient they are eating and the overall percentage of their diet a certain macronutrient may be. This is because, different activities use different macronutrients to produce energy. For instance, a marathon runner would want a good amount of fat and carbohydrates because their sport is dominantly in the timeframe of aerobic glycolysis(tail end of glycolysis, uses carbs) and oxidative phosphorylation (which uses mainly fats). This individual would also likely not need as much protein, because a heavy body can negatively impact his or her run and hypertrophy or large muscle cross sections aren’t a positive in his or her sport. Inversely, a power lifter, who is constantly tearing muscle fibers working on strength gains would want to have more protein, more carbohydrates, and less fats in his or her system (power lifters rarely are in oxidative powered training protocols that burn fat). Furthermore, a body builder close to a show may have almost all carbohydrates removed and adhere to a ketosis style diet to remove bloating that may be caused by said carbs, and rely simply on burning fats for energy to become as shredded as possible.
The takeaway from all of this, is that your body isn’t unique, but your needs are. Barring having some sort of metabolic disease, every body can be tailored to optimally perform and can be taken to its potential through a well thought out and planned diet. Train hard, approach nutrition scientifically, and be patient. Your best self, is right around the bend!
