"Preston Crawford" wrote in message
...
I'm looking for a good book on sports nutrition. Convinced that I wasn't
getting enough protein and just coming out of a fog of pretty accute
anxiety
I decided recently to start eating meat again. Just fish and egg whites. I
feel a lot better, especially physically. I'd like to figure out, though,
having basically winged while I lost the weight and then got stuck in my
anxiety rut for a year or so, how much protein I need generally as an
athlete. Does anyone know of a good book that addresses this? I know some
books about cycling or running address it in chapters, but I'm talking
about
a book dedicated to nutrition for the active person.


Really, it varies from person to person. You'll probably have to
experiment a bit. But keep in mind the gov't recommends is what a couch
potato needs. If you're burning up more energy, you need more calories.
Keep in mind that there are
9 calories in 1 gram of fat
4 calories in 1 gram of protein
4 calories in 1 gram of carbohydrate.
And that's all there is . . . fat, protein, and carbs.
Personally, I feel best and have no migranes when I eat 50% of my total
caloric intake as protein, and roughly 25% fat and 25% carbs. I've tried
what I've seen officially recommended, and 30% protein, 50% carbs, and 20%
fat just doesn't cut it with my system. Hah.
Of course, there are fats, and there are fats. There are carbs, and there
are carbs. There are proteins, and there are proteins. This is what ya
gotta look for:

Fats--you want to avoid hydrogenated fats (like what they put in most peanut
butter, margerine, and fast food/processed crap). You want the good fats,
like what's in fish, and some other stuff that's on the tip of my typing
fingers . . . anyway, there's lots of info on the good and bad fats,
shouldn't be difficult to find a list, learn the general gist of what to
avoid.

Protein--made of amino acids, there are what's called "Complete" proteins
and "Incomplete" proteins. Complete proteins are made with all of the 9
amino acids the human body cannot synthesize. Incomplete proteins are
missing one or more, most often methionine. You can combine different
incomplete proteins and come out ok, but it's easiest just to eat eggs,
milk, fish, and meat along with the incomplete proteins. There's a book
available on Amazon.com called (I think it's) the Nutrition Almanac. It
lists the various essential amino acids in several hundred food items (and
vitamins, too). If you don't mind some heavy duty number crunching, that's
a pretty good resource.

Carbs -- There are some carbs, like sugar, that get burned in your system
pretty quick, give you a rush sometimes. You don't want these. What you
want are the slow-burning carbs, like what's in oatmeal, brown rice. Read
up on the glycemic index of carbohydrates, get a list of what foods are good
and what's not, and you'll know what to put in your supermarket shopping
cart.

To figure out how many calories you need every day . . .
First, weigh yourself.
Keep track (in a notebook or whatever) of everything! you eat in a 7 day
period. Then, using your trusty Nutrition Almanac (or maybe a resource on
the web) figure out how many total calories you took in. Divide by 7, and
that'll be your daily average.
Now, weigh yourself again.
If you don't want to gain or lose weight, then keep your daily average
caloric intake the same.
If you want to lose weight, plan to reduce your intake . . . 1 pound of fat
equals 454 grams, there are 9 calories in each gram of fat, so if you want
to lose 1 lb of fat, you have to reduce your weekly intake by 4086 calories,
or 583 a day. Alternatively, you could increase your energy expenditure
(pedal your bike for another 30 minutes or so a day) by the same amount. Or
a combination of the two.
And if you want to increase your weight, just eat more, or reduce your
energy expenditure.

This is the general gist of the process . . .

You could start out with, say, 30% protein, 50% carbs, 20% fat, in which
case you'd be eating (on a 2400 calories a day diet):
720 calories / 180 grams of protein
1200 calories / 300 grams of carbs
480 calories / 58 grams of fat

Again, you may be better off with different proportions of the above, but
you'll have to experiment and see what works best for you.

I think I've covered the basics of the general gist, but I'm all talked out
.. . . lemme know if I've forgotten something . . .
--Tock