The common nutritional prescription for CrossFitters revolves around balancing macro nutrients (protein, carbohydrates and fat) and improving the quality of the food consumed though the paleolithic approach (eat like the caveman). When someone starts training with Coastal CrossFit we introduce these concepts as a foundation to improved health and performance and we’ve seen many people make life changing improvements based on this approach.
The important thing to realise is, that this concept is simply a foundation or launching pad for improved nutrition and there is certainly room for tweaking for more individual results. There are several reasons that you may want to tweak your nutrition – but the one I want to tackle here is weight gain. Now you may be sitting there thinking why would someone want to put on weight? To put is simply, if you increase the cross sectional area of a muscle, you can expect it to get stronger. Now I am aware that this article doesn’t apply to the masses, but don’t switch off yet. Just because you may not yet be at this stage in your athletic development, doesn’t mean that the information won’t be valuable in the future.
Strength and power play a large part in the potential success of a CrossFit athlete and something that I am seeing more and more is athletes who have significant strength goals but are trying to achieve them while maintaining body fat percentages a body builder would be proud of. Whether we admit it or not, CrossFitters can be a vain bunch with all of the shirtless exercising and I think it’s safe to say that most people would rather look good than not. The problem here is that while you are trying to stay under 10% body fat and gain maximum amounts of strength, you are trying to achieve two things that sit on different ends of the spectrum – thus the title of this article. If your goal is to maintain a ripped physique year round, then you should expect your strength gains to take longer, alternatively if you want to maximise your strength gains then you should be happy to let that six pack blur a little bit and segment a time towards consuming enough calories for your body to grow.
This introduces another issue – how do I consume enough calories while trying to avoid low quality foods? I am a big fan of the CrossFit Football nutritional prescription so rather than re-word whats already well written I’m going to quote them – “The CrossFit Football Diet plus Dairy: the simplicity of the diet blends optimum performance and health. We can’t say it any simpler than this…Eat meat, fish, seafood, eggs, vegetables, roots, tubers, bulbs, herbs and spices as well as animal fats, olives & olive oil, coconut and dairy. The goal is to consume 1 gram of protein per lb. of body weight. The way to maximize muscle growth is to provide the body with adequate protein for growth and recovery, hormonal control for better body composition…and improved growth and recovery! One gallon of whole Milk contains 2400 calories. This is an excellent source of proteins, carbohydrates and fat. Dense calorie sources are a must, like whole milk and meats.
There is growth potential beyond calories by consuming whole milk. Increased IGF, hGH, insulin, testosterone come from drinking whole milk. These are all potent growth promoters. Whey Protein acts similar to milk. It is a fast acting protein and a good supplement when trying to achieve 1 gram of protein per lb. of bodyweight.”
Now before you go and start drinking 4 litres of milk a day, remember that the average NFL player is well in excess of 100kg, so a scaled approach may be necessary. I have based my nutrition around this approach for quite some time now and am happy with the results but, as always don’t believe what I say. Read, research, experiment and if you find something that works really well – share your story.
