Soda "Pop" Sugar & Sprinters

Don’t confuse the fact that you did something and it didn’t cause you harm (course, that assumes that BF% alone determines health) with it not being that bad. We all know the guy that says “yeah, well my grandfather ate fried food, smoked, and never exercised and lived to be 102.” Just cause something works for YOU doesn’t mean it works. And the research and logic seem to indicate otherwise.

As for the PWO insulin spike, generally that works better if there is some protein, vitamins, and minerals being shuttled about along with a tablespoon of sugar.

What’s the argument here? I said pop won’t make you fat… and you claim “research and logic” indicate otherwise?!? A calorie is a calorie. If your training is in check you could live off a diet of twinkies and liquorice and still have fantastic body composition. But then again, maybe my genes are superior and that’s why my bodyfat is so low… :cool:

Bruney Surin supposedly lived off of McDonalds the couple months before he ran 9.84. I heard that from a guy who trained with him 24/7.

what most people dont get is that nutritonal guide lines and federal reccomendations (as crappy as they are) are geared toward the general public not elite athletes or athletes attempting to achieve elite standing. as long as your diet has protein carbs fat and nutrients in it you can prosper on it but you may not necessarily be getting 100% out of your body. training intensly for the most part allows us to eat whatever the hell we want but that doesnt mean we should. to achieve the highest level that our body can achieve everything has to be in order including our diet.

Interesting(above). Not to be an a-hole but I doubt that nutrition really makes that big of a difference. I ran 11.1s in college on a diet of regular soda, iced animal crackers, brownies, cake, milk, cocoa puffs, fried clam strips, seasoned french fries, beer, etc.

I have only improved minimally post college (few hundredths) with a diet that is pretty good according to the most nutritional arguments (exponentially cleaner than in college for sure!). So in my mind, great diet equals about -.1 …maybe.

Based on my experience, it is my opinion that the only major benefit of a good diet for a 100m sprinter is keeping bodyweight in check. I know that alot of powerlifters for example, eat garbage (McDonalds diet) and are strong as hell and have great explosive strength. Sure, they may die when they’re 50 due to a diet of BigMac sandwiches but I’m trying to perform better not live to be 110 years old…

I also will bet that alot of people with awesome strict diets run 12. Go ahead. Blast away :wink:

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Well that must be impossible- because we all “know” that his then coach would have found out because he uses blood testing to aid in the design of his training programs. No, you say??

Sorry friend, but “a calorie is a calorie” went out the window long ago. One study compared 3 diets, all 1000 calories, with different macronutrient makeups. 1000 calories is hypocaloric for ANYONE, yet somehow several people gained weight on the high-carb version. A calorie ain’t a calorie anymore than a fat is a protein. You have the thermic effect of food along with hormonal effects of the things you eat…if you think food is merely calories, you’re obviously quite mistaken. If you really think that a diet of Twinkies and licorice is equal to a diet of grassfed meats, vegetables, nuts, seeds, and fruits, I will try to refrain from laughing. There is no question that sugar and trans fats are highly detrimental to longevity AND performance. The vitamin and mineral intake of natural, unprocessed foods will help your muscles contract faster and harder and improve your recovery rates.

Young people (ie high schoolers that eat whatever they want) are more able to overcome these deficiencies due to the body’s ability to overcome oxidative damage. As you get older, the body is fighting more of that damage (ie aging) and your performance will suffer as stress overcomes the body’s ability to repair it.

mortac8, diet isn’t going to create potential or overcome genetics, but it will unleash or lock-up potential. A perfect diet won’t turn a marathoner into a 10-second sprinter. As I said before, we all have our “well, I (or my friend or my uncle or my grandfather) ate like crap and still leaped tall buildings in a single bound”, but what would happen if we looked at an average across a population rather than single data points…any point of view can be conveyed with a single data point. What would happen if we took 2000 people, divided them into 2 groups, fed one the standard American fare (fast food, sugary sodas, processed foods) and fed the other a nutrient-dense diet of unprocessed foods, then put them on a program that isn’t specialized in any one aspect, such as CrossFit? As a whole, which group would perform better? There may be a few standouts from the crappy diet group, but as a whole, I think we all know what the results would be. Look at the American populace and tell me diet has no effect. And a diet that is “pretty good according to most nutritional arguments” doesn’t mean it’s good.

Sorry for the ramble…turned out a bit longer than expected.

Well I wish someone would tell me what a good diet is without stirring up a dozen different arguments from random people. I think the answer is that there is no “good diet” that everyone can agree on. I follow a lot of stuff from Berardi. No, I don’t eat all free range organic hormone-free meats that were raised on a diet of flax and Biotest supplements but I follow Berardi’s advice as close as possible within reason.

I’m just saying that I think there are other modalities much more important than nutrition when our focus is sprint performance. Seriously, you guys worry about drinking diet soda. How about worrying about training hard???

And you ask what the results of a study would be comparing different diets? I’m not too fond of “studies” because I can find a study that supports just about any argument I could think of! Just look at all the HIT “studies”! Creatine can help me increase my strength right? Or increase my number of reps in a set?..or maybe not. It’s helpful to take a multivitamin right? no? yes? maybe? How much protein do I need? 50grams? 200grams? U get the point.

A calorie isn’t a calorie?

Just another study relating to the debate of what calories are? Obviously from the other side of the argument (it wouldn’t be as fun if it agreed now would it). I think it brings up many of the same points and agrees with you for the most part SK12789, but shows that the differences between different calorie intakes are actually rather small, and attempts to show that well a calorie is a calorie.

I also agree with mortac8, within reason it is pretty hard to totally screw up a diet, most of the time your body knows what it needs, and having a big mac or soda isnt going to kill you, someone who eats right and doesnt train will still run 13 in the 100, someone who trains and doesnt eat right can still have amazing results.

Unless you plan on running 10.0 sometime soon look at the big picture, go for the .1’s of a second as Charlie says and not the .01’s or .001’s. Obviously there is nothing wrong with having a great diet and it will infact help, but it is the least of problems for most athletes.

Also do you have a link or reference to the 1000 calorie study, I find that a little much to believe.

It shows that thermodynamically a calorie is a calorie, just as that article I posted stated. But there is some biological difference that gives this result:

Diets high in protein and/or low in carbohydrate produced an {approx}2.5-kg greater weight loss after 12 wk of treatment.

Obviously, something is going on that makes a calorie of carbohydrate affect the body differently than a calorie of protein or fat…that was my point.
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You’re right, having a Big Mac or soda every once in awhile isn’t going to kill you. And it may not add tenths to your 100 either. When processed foods begin taking the place of normal foods on a frequent basis, you may experience some decline, be it in overall health or athletic performance. Michael Phelps wasn’t the best swimmer in the last Olympics because of his diet…he was the best swimmer in the last Olympics in spite of his diet.

Unfortunately, finding that article online is impossible…but it’s called “Metabolic study in human obesity with isocaloric diets high in fat, protein, or carbohydrate.” It was published in 1957 in Metabolism 6:447-460 by Alan Kekwick and GL Pawan. This is the best I can do without running to the library (sorry, not that interested):

In another study, 14 obese patients were fed 1000-kcal diets containing either 90% protein (5 g of CHO), 90% fat (10 g of CHO), or 90% CHO (225 g of CHO). Food available in each of the diets was unspecified. Each subject consumed the high-fat, high-protein, or high-CHO diet for 5 to 9 days before being switched to another diet. Twenty-one days later, all patients had lost weight, regardless of the order they had consumed the different diets. However, patients consuming 90% fat lost the most weight over 5 to 9 days, whereas those eating 90% CHO lost little or none; some even gained back some weight lost earlier on the 90% fat or 90% protein diets.

Anyway, I think we’re way off of the subject.

I agree. As long you’re getting enough calories to offset you’re training and you’re getting enough nutrients, you’ll be fine.

In the long-term however, abuse of transfats or other foreign substances could equal cancer.

SK12879,

I agree with pretty much with everything you said in the last post and the others in this thread.

I am just saying that calorie counting is still a pretty good basis to start with in trying to maintain a healthy weight or gain weight. Obviously as you have pointed out there are differences between how the body reacts to carbs compared to protien or fat, but I think that in most people, especially sub-elite atheletes, this minor difference won’t account for much in terms of performance. And the little difference can be countered by watching your weight and making some minor adjustments if its that big of a deal.

And obviously you can not fully neglect what you eat, also like you said, eating all your calories in butter won’t allow you the same success as a well balanced diet, clearly there is something related to the nutrition or lack there of in food or there would not be such a booming supplementation market.

But as long as your diet is decently balance I do not see any great advantage to a very thorough planning of nutrition.

I compete in the over 40’s…for most people the rest of their life will be a lot longer than their ‘athletic’ life.
You eat rubbish, ur body becomes rubbish; you read rubbish and mix with rubbish, ur mind will become rubbish.
In vets/masters athletics 99% of the time the athletes who have looked after their bodies, eaten well and trained intelligently come to the fore. Prob is if you eat st as an athlete…ur likely to still eat st when you no longer train. Ur eating habits are a time-bomb, eat crap and your organism will start to self-destruct in ur 30’s onwards.
Im sick of hearing guys say that nutrition doesnt matter, its idiots like that have made US kids the unhealthiest/obese on the planet, close on their heels is the UK where too many people let their kids eat junk and say diets dont matter.

Timberlake,

Cry me a river if you think I’m making US kids fat. I couldn’t really care less about society anyways. I’m saying that trans fats(McDonalds, Chocolate bars, chips… aka everything you could probably classify as junk) are foreign substances that don’t exist in nature. Obviously, you should avoid these because they are essentially a poison. Drinking a can of pop or two, on the other hand, is probably the least of your worries.

High fructose corn syrup and white sugar are foreign substances that don’t exist in nature too…it’s only through heavy processing that these substances are available. :wink:

its bullshit to think that nutrition doesnt matter. if you take an athelte feed him crap he may run 9.9 in the 100m and a change of diet may only make 100th of a sec difference but is that not important. if your a real athelte everything you do should be geared toward making urself better even if the gain in performance is tiny. so yes you may be getting gains and doing well eating crap but you wil lnever know how good you could be. this is same thinking behind individuals who think they can pop a pill to make thmesleves a better athlete . everyone wants a simple and fast solution and are not willing to do what it takes to do it right. you have to sacrafice atleast as much as you want to gain, sometimes more.

I really do feel that nutrition makes a whole lot of difference in an athlete’s lifestyle. I for one feel a whole helluva lot better when I eat great during the day and then go train, as opposed to eating crap (fast food, no fruit/veg, etc…) and trying to perform at a good level. There have been times that I have set some session PB’s on eating shit (rarely), other times where I have done great when eating great (most of the time). I think that as long as you are steering clear of the junk and foods that really shouldn’t be consumed on a regular basis, then you should be OK (that means every once in a while; sparingly!)

This is a discipline really just like any other part of training. It’s all part of what you’re trying to accomplish; why work so hard in your training if you’re not eating like you should? It seems like it’s almost a lazy way out. Just my opinion, I’m not perfect in regards to eating clean ALL of the time, but generally I feel athletes should be aware of what to eat to yield them the best results of what they’re shooting for.

My 2 cents!

Agreed!

Perhaps there’s plenty of ”indirect psychology” in this matter as well. When you ARE properly prepared you will perform better. Moreover, when you ARE properly prepared and you KNOW you ARE properly prepared – including long term nutrition (not just trying to fix your eating habits a few days before a meet) – you find yourself consistently expecting yourself to perform well all the time.

Obviously, a Mig Mac now and then won’t hurt anyone’s performance, especially if such consideration never enters the mindset of the athlete. However, when doubts about “I could have eaten better… done this and that better… etc.” then we will more easily find uncertainty and disturbances in performance as well.

For sure, the best situation should be such that the athlete knows he’s well prepared (nutritionally in this case) and also knows he can afford to have a soda, Mig Mac or beer once in a while without doubts entering his mind… then nothing will disturb him.

Incidentally, I have seen many top-level athletes enjoying themselves with less-than-optimal food before a meet… but let’s not think that’s the norm during the majority of the training year. When the general outlines (long-term) are good, anything can turn into kerosene in the short-term.

wot about when you have kids blink? Perhaps you’ll care a little bit more…