Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Nutrition
Chad Cilli
Chris Barnard
Copyright 2012 Overtime Athletes Inc. All Rights Reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in
any form by any means graphic, electronic, or mechanical without permission in writing from the publisher. The
techniques, ideas, and suggestions in this document are not intended as a substitute for proper medical advice.
Consult your physician or health care professional before performing any new exercise or exercise technique
particularly if you have any chronic or recurring conditions. Any application of the techniques, ideas, and suggestions
in this document is at the readers sole discretion and risk. The authors and publisher of this document make no
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document
Contents
Introduction to Power Nutrition
Macronutrients
Nutrient Timing
Weight Loss
Weight Gain
Special Scenarios
Supplements
Templates
Barnard at Strength Camp, and Ron DeAngelo at UPMC just to name some of the best
ones.
I've also gained a great deal of knowledge from my conversations with Robb Wolf dating
back to his early days with Performance Menu, I've taken classes with Mike Mahler,
Brooks Kubic, and Dutch Lowy.
For the most part though, I've learned by doing. I've pursued the Crossfit Games in
2008 only to get injured just 2 weeks prior, I've prepped for USMC OCS, I was a
member of SOF-X, I pursued becoming a Navy SEAL and came much closer than
anyone thought I would, and I spent some significant time pursuing Olympic
Weightlifting as a full time sport. I've done a variety of diets, everything from vegan to
meat only. I have experience with mass gaining, fat loss, eating for performance, and
even diet alterations for medical reasons. I've done diets such as the Paleo Diet, Primal
Diet, Zone Diet, Mediterranean Diet, Velocity Diet, and Ray Peat's diet
recommendations. I am an avid reader of peer reviewed research journals, and I make
a great effort to stay up on all the most recent medical literature.
I suppose I'm a bit of a "fitness renaissance man" in that I try to do everything. I have
tried powerlifting, weightlifting, gymnastics, Crossfit, endurance running, body weight
training, kettlebells, rowing, you name it. And it's not because I get bored with things
quickly and I have ADD, but I'm just so fascinated by it all that I wish I could do
everything. I am truly passionate about health and fitness, and I know that it will be
something that I will pursue for all my life.
Macronutrients
Protein
First, you will need to ensure that you are getting enough protein. Thanks to all the
fitness magazines and supplement companies out there, this is commonly known, and
most athletes are already consuming enough protein. However, it is also important that
you do not over consume protein. Dr. Lonnie Lowery wrote about this, and he discussed
how eating too much protein can 1) encourage your body to burn protein for energy,
hence, encouraging your body to burn muscle instead of fat and 2) eating too much
protein often means that youre not eating enough carbohydrates and fat.
That being said, most athletes will require 0.8-1.2 grams of protein per pound of
bodyweight. So, a 200 pound athlete would be consuming between 160-240 grams of
protein per day. Just to give you a brief example of how someone might consume this
quantity of protein; 4 eggs, 8 ounces of ground beef (two hamburger patties), 2 scoops
of whey protein, and 8 ounces of chicken breast would be approximately 180-185 grams
of protein.
Please allow me to take a moment to address a myth. It has been said in many circles
that you can only use 30 grams of protein at a time. This has been proven by scientific
research to be false. What has been proven is that whether you consume 30 grams or
60 grams of protein in a single serving, the amount of protein synthesis (muscle
building) is the same. So, you will not build extra muscle simply by force feeding
yourself more protein.
One thing you might consider though is Dr. Layne Nortons research regarding protein
synthesis from multiple doses of leucine. Leucine is an amino acid found in protein.
Looking at Dr. Nortons research, we could make the conclusion that spreading out your
protein consumption into several smaller meals throughout the day could potentially
result in more total protein synthesis in a given day. For example, using previous protein
sources, you might have a scoop of whey for breakfast, 8 ounces of ground beef for
lunch, a scoop of whey in your post workout shake, and then 8 ounces of chicken for
dinner.
Carbohydrates
Second, you will need to consume enough carbohydrates to fuel your performance.
Most sports require energy from a process called glycolysis which simply means the
body is using glucose which comes from carbohydrates. This is not to say that your
body cannot use protein or fat for energy, but simply that your body is better able to use
glucose from carbohydrates than it can create its own glucose from fat or protein.
From personal experience and observation, I have found that most athletes perform
best when consuming 0.8-1.6 grams of carbohydrates per pound of bodyweight. For a
200 pound athlete, this would be 160-320 grams of carbohydrates. Some athletes will
perform better with even high quantities of carbohydrates (you may be familiar with
Michael Phelps and his 10,000 calorie diet), but this is a rare case because the average
person can only store about 400 grams of glycogen (stored glucose) at a time. Hence,
consuming more than 400 grams of carbohydrates when you are not depleted of
glycogen will result in spillover or fat production.
For example, to reach the carbohydrate needs of a 200 pound athlete; 1 cup of dry
oatmeal, a 1/2 cup of dry white rice, 1 potato, and 2 slices of bread would yield roughly
200-205 grams of carbohydrates. You may have noticed that I selected mostly high
glycemic index carbohydrates here, I will explain more on that later.
Dr. John Berardi used to recommend eating your carbohydrates separate from your fat
intake. So, each meal with either have protein and fat or protein and carbohydrates, but
never carbohydrates and fat. This makes sense because if we look at the chemistry of
how our body responds to food, when we consume carbohydrates, we release insulin.
That insulin is absolutely necessary, and I am not one of those people who vilifies
insulin because insulin can help to transport glucose into our muscles, but if you
combine carbohydrates and fat, that insulin will also trigger something called lipoprotein
lipase (LPL) to transport fat into our fat cells. This is undesirable for obvious reasons.
Therefore, I agree with Dr. Berardi and recommend that you consume your
carbohydrates with protein and keep the fat intake low for your high carbohydrate
meals.
Fat
This of course takes me to fat. Fat has a bad reputation which it does not deserve. Fat
is absolutely necessary for many of our cellular processes, and fat and cholesterol
should be important to you since they are necessary for the production of testosterone.
Low fat diets have been shown in research to lower testosterone levels.
Staying with the example of a 200 pound athlete, most athletes need approximately
0.5-0.75 grams of fat per pound of bodyweight, so this would be 100-150 grams of fat
per day. This is actually a very easy number to hit, and its often harder to keep the fat
intake low than it is to increase it. Just to give a brief example of how someone might
consume this quantity; 2 tablespoons of butter and 2 tablespoons of coconut oil would
be all the additional fat needed to consume 140-145 grams of fat for an athlete who has
already consumed the eggs, ground beef, and chicken previous listed. If you figure that
youll probably put at least a tablespoon of butter into the pan when cooking eggs and
possibly another tablespoon when cooking your ground beef or chicken, all the
additional fat you might want to consume would be 2 tablespoons of coconut oil, which I
will address in the discussion of nutrient timing.
In summary, your diet might look like this for a 200 pound athlete:
Nutrient Timing
So, now weve outlined some basic principles of nutrition. How might we actually
implement this?
If youre like most high school and college students, you sleep in till the last possible
minute which doesnt exactly leave much extra time for breakfast. The easiest thing to
do is to put a scoop of whey into a shaker before you go to bed. When you get up, have
a heaping tablespoon of coconut oil. The MCTs (medium chain triglycerides) in coconut
oil will convert readily into ketones, which are shown to boost brain function. Also, since
you havent eaten all night while you were sleeping, have a spoonful of coconut oil for
breakfast will further facilitate more fatty acid oxidation (fat burning). Grab your shaker
and a bottle of water, and head out the door.
About two hours later, youll likely start to get hungry, this is a great time to add some
water to your whey protein and drink your shake. Just two hours into your day, and
weve already got a serving of good quality fat and a serving of protein.
Depending on what you have available, your next meal should be solid. When I was
going to school, I rarely had time to cook or even go to the cafeteria to eat, so I used to
make up two dozen hard boiled eggs every Sunday. For your first solid meal, I
recommend going with 4 hard boiled eggs, but if youre grabbing some food in the
cafeteria, you can get a couple hamburgers, ditch the bun, and the just eat the meat
and whatever came on your burger.
Assuming you train after school, your next meal is going to be the last meal you have
before you hit the gym. So, if havent had your eggs yet, now would be the time to eat
those eggs, if you havent had your beef yet (and it can be steak, roast beef, ground
beef, etc), have your serving of beef. And in this meal, have your first serving of
carbohydrates. I recommend the oatmeal since it digests slowly and will give you
energy to draw from for your training. You might even add a tablespoon of butter (not
margarine) to your oatmeal. Because oatmeal is a lower glycemic index carbohydrate,it
wont spike your insulin causing you to store the fat in the butter like carbohydrates
normally do.
Assuming that your next activity is your training, your post workout meal should be a
scoop of whey protein and a Russet potato. Why a Russet potato? Russet potatoes,
according to some charts, have a glycemic index of 115 on a scale of 1-100. Thats a
serious insulin spike! When you spike your system with a high glycemic index
carbohydrate post workout, your body will rapidly replenish glycogen stores (your bodys
stored carbohydrates for energy). Now for the science, post workout, your GLUT4 levels
(a glucose transporter) are elevated, so when you eat the Russet potato, you will have
something called non insulin mediated glycogen replenishment. In other words, the
glucose from the carbohydrates will be transported to your muscles by GLUT4 instead
of insulin. What this does is improves your rate of glycogen recovery and minimizes
carbohydrates being stored as fat.
This influx of carbohydrates post workout also stops catabolic processes (muscle
breakdown) and begins anabolic processes (muscle building). If you dont like potatoes,
or your just hate eating solid food post workout, I would recommend Vitargo (a
carbohydrate supplement) as a viable post workout carbohydrate source. I normally try
to stick to real food instead of supplements, but Vitargo is a solid product. Ill even save
you some money, use 1 scoop instead of their 2 scoop recommendation. Why?
Because youre getting the insulin spike and the carbohydrates, doubling up on scoops
isnt going to boost your performance or recovery that much more, but it will make you
go through the product twice as fast, hence, youll be spending twice as much on
supplements.
For your last meal, about 2 to 3 hours after your post workout meal, this is where I
recommend you eat the chicken breast and rice. It is a lean meat and a good quality
carbohydrate to finish out the night. This will further replenish glycogen levels to give
you energy for the following days training as well as provide your body with more
protein to continue reparative processes.
That is how I would recommend that you best plan your meals to maximize the most
performance, muscle gain, and fat loss. You will recover faster and make more progress
if you are well fed and consuming adequate nutrients.
By eating this way, we are encouraging our body to use fat for energy during low
intensity times while sparing glycogen so that our body has accessible glucose for high
intensity times.
By separating our carbohydrate and fat intake, we encourage more glycogen
replenishment to our muscles, especially because the majority of our carbohydrates will
be consumed around and after the training window.
Weight Loss
There are some variations that we can make to this diet to fit specific goals. First off,
and most obvious, if youre trying to lose weight, a very easy change is to drop the
morning spoonful of coconut oil. Right there youre cutting 240 calories. The trick to
weight loss, and specifically fat loss, is not to cut calories too much too fast. The reason
being, if you make a large change in calories, your body will react negatively and you
will have a much harder time losing fat. Small changes, gradually implemented over
time are far more effective, plus, you wont lose your strength in the gym. If you just
suddenly cut 500 calories, you can bet that your performance in the gym and on the
field would suffer.
Another tweak you can make to your diet is you can eliminate the pre workout
oatmeal. So, in that scenario, you would still have the spoonful of coconut oil first thing
the morning, the whey shake, the eggs, and the beef, but you would not consume any
carbohydrates pre workout. Before you get worried about this, digestion is an ongoing
process, so remember that youre eating your carbohydrates post workout, and so they
are stored from the day before. You should not see any decrease in strength, speed, or
explosiveness, however, you may have SLIGHTLY less endurance in longer training
sessions, but if youre following the TPT Program, you should not be training for hours
on end anyways.
That is the easiest way to approach weight loss, and ensure that the weight you are
losing is fat and not muscle.
Weight Gain
What if you want to gain weight? Assuming that you want to gain muscle and not fat, a
huge spike in calories is not advised. Sure, you can do the dirty bulking, but most guys
dirty bulking gain as much fat as they do muscle. You dont want that. The best way to
do this is to either add another serving of carbohydrates, so for instance, you could eat
two potatoes or two cups of rice, or, you can add another meal. That additional meal
should be post workout just like the chicken and rice meal, and ideally, it would be a
lean protein with a low fat carbohydrate source. Canned tuna or salmon is an option,
you can also go with deli chicken or turkey breast, and then for your carbohydrate you
might consider rice, quinoa, frozen vegetables, etc. You should aim for about 30 grams
of protein and 30 to 35 grams of carbohydrate in this additional meal.
To intelligently gain weight, and assuming youre interested in gaining muscle and not
fat, the dirty bulking method where you just eat whatever you want should be avoided.
Instead, slowly increase your calories each week in small increments still eating good
quality food sources and with appropriate meal timing. This will encourage more
metabolic efficiency in nutrient partitioning (sending things where they need to go) and
you will gain more muscle while keeping fat gain to a minimum.
SPECIAL SCENARIOS
Say for instance that you need to consume carbohydrates with every meal for blood
glucose reason or some other medical reason. Your macros per meal would look
something like:
5 meals
40 grams protein
40 grams carbohydrate
20 grams fat
This comes to roughly 500 calories per meal and 2,500 calories per day. Add a sixth
meal and youre right back to 3,000 calories.
WEIGHT LOSS REVISITED
I need to lose alot of fat and fast.
This is simple, but not easy. Not easy at all. You will be craving junk food and feeling
hungry often, but we can easily change your diet around to minimize strength and
performance loss while maximizing fat loss. In fact, you may actually get faster just from
losing the weight.
Assuming that your game day is Saturday. The following protocol would most effectively
address your needs.
Saturday through Thursday
5 Meals
40 grams of protein
40 grams of fat
This comes to roughly 520 calories per meal and 2,600 calories per day. Assuming that
you are training hard, this will likely be slightly hypocaloric (not enough calories).
Friday
5 meals
Meals 1 and 2
40 grams of protein
20 grams of fat
Meals 3, 4, and 5
40 grams of protein
100-200 grams of carbohydrates
Your first 2 meals will be approximately 340 calories each, but your last 3 meals could
be as high as 1,000 calories each. We are intentionally over feeding in a pulsation
format in order to super compensate and fully replenish your glycogen stores (energy
stores) for the following day. This works on the assumption that you are training and
active all week long. Your glycogen stores should be depleted by the fourth or fifth day
in, then by keeping the fat intake low and the carbohydrates high, we will encourage to
body to store extra glycogen in an attempt to overcompensate for the fact that you
were so depleted.
This should not only help your to lose more fat because of the spike in hormones such
as leptin, but it should also help you to max out your performance on Saturday because
you carb loaded on Friday.
The most important part of this, however, is that you carb load with good quality
carbohydrates such as rice, oatmeal, Russet potatoes, etc. Do not load with ice cream,
potato chips, and junk food. If you use junk foods full of low quality fats, you will feel
sluggish and sick the next day.
SUPPLEMENTS
I know that the supplement industry is constantly pitching new products, but the
unfortunate reality is that most supplements just dont deliver.
Here are the supplements that I recommend because they are proven to be effective.
Whey Protein (I personally prefer Whey Protein Isolate)
Creatine (plain creatine monohydrate powder)
Baking Soda (Arm and Hammer)
Whey protein has a great profile of amino acids and provides immunoglobulins as well.
It is a low fat, low carbohydrate source of very high quality protein.
Creatine monohydrate is a great addition to your post workout shake. The research is
seemingly endless, so I wont rehash it all here, but creatine is a proven product in
increasing strength, power, and mass.
Baking soda is the one thing on that list that probably will surprise most people.
However, if you look at the research, baking soda in your water pre workout reduces
fatigue, increases power output, and appears to even have some benefits in preventing
post workout soreness. Its cheap and highly effective. I will warn you though, start with
a small dose and slowly work your way up. Taking a large dose of baking soda can give
you diarrhea if youre not used to it.
The number one supplement that I think athletes should be avoiding is all the pre
workout and fat burner supplements on the market. When we look at the research,
participants often lose as much muscle as they do fat when using pre workout and fat
burner supplements. These have a stimulant effect, but that stimulant effect is catabolic
(breaking tissue down) and the body does not appear to favor fat over muscle and
breaks them both down.
If you feel that you need a boost, good old, tried and true caffeine is the way to go.
There is a mountain of research showing the effectiveness and safety of using caffeine.
A cup of black coffee 30 to 60 minutes pre workout seems to do the trick for most
athletes.
TEMPLATES
Here we will break down exactly what meals you will be consuming should look like
throughout the day.
Try to find the weight that is nearest yours. You can then round up or down depending
whether you wish to gain or lose but remember to consider the sections on weight gain
and weight loss.
Note these are examples of foods you can consume. As athletes we take into account
that you will be pressed for time and sometimes need to eat alternatives which we
displayed for you. However, here is the breakdown of what your daily meals should
look like.
Meal 1
High Fat
Meal 2
High Protein
Meal 3
Lunch
Meal 4
Pre Workout
Use this table as a reference sheet of how to follow the chart above.
Morning
Breakfast
Lunch
Coconut Oil
Whey
Ground Beef
Almonds
Beef Jerky
Sardines
Macadamia Nuts
Mozzarella Sticks
Lamb
Hazelnuts
Sliced Cheese
Cashews
Deli Meat
Peanuts
Chicken
Cream Cheese
Peanut Butter
Tuna
Sunflower Seeds
Greek Yogurt
Chipotle Salad
Pumpkin Seeds
Cottage Cheese
Coconut Butter
Egg Whites
Whole Milk
Kefir
Brazil Nuts
Pre Workout
Post Workout
Dinner
Subway Sandwich
Beef Tacos
150 lb Athlete
Quantity
Food
Calories
PRO
CHO
FAT
Meal 1
2 tbsp
Coconut Oil
234
27.2
Whey
139
25.6
2.8
1.6
Ground Beef
288
19.6
22.8
Eggs
144
12.6
0.8
10
1/2 Cup
Oatmeal
145.5
25.4
2.4
1 scoop
Whey
139
25.6
2.8
1.6
1/2
Potato
96.5
2.15
18.25
1.95
4 oz
Chicken
220
33.6
8.8
2 Slices
Bread
160
4.6
30.4
1/2 Cup
Rice (dry)
367
7.6
79.5
0.8
2,137
137.6
159.9
102.2
Meal 2
1 scoop
Meal 3
4 oz
Meal 4
Meal 5
Meal 6
Total
175 lb Athlete
Quantity
Food
Calories
PRO
CHO
FAT
Meal 1
2 tbsp
Coconut Oil
234
27.2
Whey
139
25.6
2.8
1.6
Ground Beef
432
29.4
34.2
Eggs
216
18.9
1.2
15
1/2 Cup
Oatmeal
145.5
6.1
25.4
2.4
1 Scoop
Whey
139
25.6
2.8
1.6
Potato
193
4.3
36.5
3.9
6 oz
Chicken
330
50.4
13.2
2 Slices
Bread
160
4.6
30.4
1/2 Cup
Rice (dry)
367
7.6
79.5
0.8
2,559.5
172.7
178.6
124.9
Meal 2
1 Scoop
Meal 3
6 oz
Meal 4
Meal 5
Meal 6
Total
200 lb Athlete
Quantity
Food
Calories
PRO
CHO
FAT
Meal 1
2 tbsp
Coconut Oil
234
27.2
Whey
139
25.6
2.8
1.6
Ground Beef
576
38.9
45.4
Eggs
286
25.2
1.5
19.9
1 Cup
Oatmeal
291
12.1
50.7
4.8
1 Scoop
Whey
139
25.6
2.8
1.6
Potato
193
4.3
36.5
3.9
8 oz
Chicken
443
67
17.5
2 Slices
Bread
160
4.6
30.4
1/2 Cup
Rice (dry)
367
7.6
79.5
0.8
3,032
211.2
204.3
147.6
Meal 2
1 Scoop
Meal 3
8 oz
Meal 4
Meal 5
Meal 6
Total
225 lb Athlete
Quantity
Food
Calories
PRO
CHO
FAT
Meal 1
2 tbsp
Coconut Oil
234
27.2
Whey
139
25.6
2.8
1.6
Ground Beef
576
38.9
45.4
Eggs
360
31.5
25
1 Cup
Oatmeal
291
12.1
50.7
4.8
1 Scoop
Whey
139
25.6
2.8
1.6
Potato
193
4.3
36.5
3.9
8 oz
Chicken
443
67
17.5
4 Slices
Bread
320
9.2
60.8
1/2 Cup
Rice (dry)
367
7.6
79.5
0.8
3,263
222.5
235.2
155.1
Meal 2
1 Scoop
Meal 3
8 oz
Meal 4
Meal 5
Meal 6
Total
250 lb Athlete
Quantity
Food
Calories
PRO
CHO
FAT
Meal 1
2 tbsp
Coconut Oil
234
27.2
Whey
139
25.6
2.8
1.6
Ground Beef
576
38.9
45.4
Eggs
432
37.8
2.4
30
1 Cup
Oatmeal
291
12.1
50.7
4.8
2 Scoops
Whey
278
51.2
5.6
3.2
Potato
193
4.3
36.5
3.9
8 oz
Chicken
443
67
17.5
3 Slices
Bread
240
6.9
45.6
3/4 Cup
Rice (dry)
550.5
11.4
119.3
1.2
3,557.5
255.9
262.9
161.1
Meal 2
1 Scoop
Meal 3
8 oz
Meal 4
Meal 5
Meal 6
Total
275 lb Athlete
Quantity
Food
Calories
PRO
CHO
FAT
Meal 1
2 tbsp
Coconut Oil
234
27.2
Whey
278
51.2
5.6
3.2
Ground Beef
576
38.9
45.4
Eggs
432
37.8
2.4
30
1 Cup
Oatmeal
291
12.1
50.7
4.8
2 Scoops
Whey
278
51.2
5.6
3.2
Potato
193
4.3
36.5
3.9
8 oz
Chicken
443
67
17.5
2 Slices
Bread
160
4.6
30.4
1 Cup
Rice (dry)
734
15.2
159.1
1.6
3,820
283
290
162.1
Meal 2
2 Scoops
Meal 3
8 oz
Meal 4
Meal 5
Meal 6
Total
300 lb Athlete
Quantity
Food
Calories
PRO
CHO
FAT
Meal 1
2 tbsp
Coconut Oil
234
27.2
Whey
278
51.2
5.6
3.2
Ground Beef
576
38.9
45.4
Eggs
432
37.8
2.4
30
1 Cup
Oatmeal
291
12.1
50.7
4.8
2 Scoops
Whey
278
51.2
5.6
3.2
Potato
193
4.3
36.5
3.9
8 oz
Chicken
443
67
17.5
2 Slices
Bread
160
4.6
30.4
1 Cup
Rice (dry)
734
15.2
159.1
1.6
3,820
283
290.3
162.1
Meal 2
2 Scoops
Meal 3
8 oz
Meal 4
Meal 5
Meal 6
Total