wiggum,
i am certainly no expert, but my gut instincts (no pun intended) tell me that there is more to diet than dr sears' book would lead us to believe.....not that i think the zone program is horrible, i just don't feel that it is completely correct.
for me the low-carb/high-fat diet that he bashes on page 195 of his book DEFINITELY outperforms the zone.
i also question the basic premise of the whole book. on page 2-3 he claims that americans are eating less fat than ever, but still getting fatter. i don't know where he lives but i live in america and everyday i see fat people chowing down on burgers, cookies, chips, candy bars, wendy's salads with honey mustard dressing, "nutritious" sandwiches with plenty of mayonaise or peanut butter, ice cream...... check the amount of FAT in these things.
i'd give the crossfit workouts very solid grades though and feel the "coach" is very talented at mixing up workouts that tax all of your bodies energy systems. i'd like to see him use his talents to make a special series of workouts for those of us who are "equipmentally" challenged. every year he should produce a book with workouts of the day for each day of the following year. at the bottom of each page he could provide substitution exercised for those who don't have the equipment. i'd buy it.
pc
American people do, indeed eat a lot of fat. They always have. Other
nations eat a ton of fat as well. Dr. Sears' point is that demonizing fat
is incorrect based on the aforementioned facts. What Americans eat
far more of than other countries and than Americans themselves have
in the past is carbohydrates, especially the refined ones.
When people say that they don't preform well on The Zone, I question
how well they are following the diet. From what I have seen and heard
when people do not do well on the Zone, the fault invariably lies with
the lack of adherence to the protocol. At CrossFit, we have just seen
far too many people change their lives dramatically for the better on
the Zone to not be convinced. If you have any questions, go to the
CrossFit forum and post questions for Robb Wolf. You will find few as
educated or dedicated to diet and chemistry of the body as they relate
to human performance.
Regarding CrossFit and the equipmentally challenged, the answer is
quiet simple. It is very easy to modify the workouts to fit one's
equipment restrictions. Further, the site has all the workouts of the
day archived. One just needs to go through the archives to find a
workout that one can do given one's equipment. This is simple. Thus,
the book you say that you would pay for is already provided free of
charge.
"Chem, on days I get back from wrestling at 8:00/8:30, you think it would be best to get my dinner immidietly after, then around 9:30 (I get to sleep between 10:00 and 11:00) get like one of the cottage cheese based snacks?"
Yes, sounds good.
"Once summer hits, and I am lifting in the morning, I may also be able to eat dinner at like 5:00/5:30, then a snack immideitly after. That way on wrestling days, I could go like snack; lift/run; breakfast; lunch; dinner; wrestling; snack or something along those lines?"
Again, good choice.
On your mom:
I don't have the exact specs w/ me, but it's something like this:
LBM = Lean Body Mass = weight - bodyfat
AL: Activity level: how much you exercise, between .5 and 1
.5 is sedentary (no activity), 1 is a constantly training athlete.
(LBM/7) - AL = blocks per day
Now, we just need an approximate bodyfat (could you estimate it), and an approximate activity level. Probably going to go with .7, cause she exercises 2-3 times per week right?
Princess Chaser: Again, different diets work better for different people, but I want to address the points you mentioned.
"i am certainly no expert, but my gut instincts (no pun intended) tell me that there is more to diet than dr sears' book would lead us to believe.....not that i think the zone program is horrible, i just don't feel that it is completely correct."
Unclear, your making a vague statement with no reasons attached to it. How is it not 'completely correct'?
"for me the low-carb/high-fat diet that he bashes on page 195 of his book DEFINITELY outperforms the zone."
For how long? How close were you following the zone? The zone is meant to be a LIFETIME diet, what's the longest you've been able to eat low carb and have good results?
"i also question the basic premise of the whole book."
The premise of the book is that controlling your hormones with food is very beneficial and more people should do it.
Another main idea of the book is this: Nutritionists/doctors/dieticians recommend eating high carb, low fat diets. Sears shows that there are many benefits to eating more of a 30-40-30 split and that low fat isn't necessarily the way to go. By no means does he deny that many people eat high fat diets. He's talking about what's being recommended to people, and whether it works or not.
Again, I've been eating this way for 5 years and I'll stand by the results. I've made my best gains, felt the best when my diet was right on.
Also - crossfit has a section on making your own equiment at home. You can do almost all their workouts w/ an olympic bar, some weights, pullup/dip rings, and a space to run. I'll see if I can find it.
i followed this for about 3 months. i just used the "zone block" method in appendix c of the book. not too difficult.
this week's workouts didn't seem too bad as far as equipment goes. alot of the older workouts used the concept 2 rower. what would you guys recommend instead of this??
I would say that the C2 is about as good an invesment in one's fitness
that one could make. Without it, I would substitute "sumo deadlift
highpulls". You can find a link to these at the CrossFit website.
"I am certainly no expert, but my gut instincts (no pun intended) tell me that there is more to diet than dr sears' book would lead us to believe"
I don't know either, thats why I am going to give a week on it, see if I have more energy and feel good. If not, oh well I go back to my normal diet, which I feel is very good.
Thanks again Chem, I'm not too sure about an estimate, I think I'll ask my sister for her opinion, she'll probably be closer then I am.
-Nick
Is there any specific book you reccomend for me, like Enter the Zone, or Mastering the Zone etc.
Mastering the Zone. Better for athletes than Enter the Zone IMO.