First, let me address why I would like to lose some fat. First there's the obvious: I want to have abs of steel, I want people to see each individual ab muscle in broad daylight. But there is another reason why I would like to lose some fat: it slows me down. Using various methods, from the zone calculator to electrical impedance, my body fat is somewhere between 12-18%. I now weight 205, so that's 25-37 pounds of fat I'm carrying around. If I could lower that to, say, 8%, I would be losing 9-15 pounds (just guessing here, since I'm not sure much I would weigh with 8% bf). For anyone who's worked out with a weight vest, the difference of 10 pounds can make a difference.
So I happened upon this post at Byers gets diesel, and let me tell you this is a high quality blog, full of great info. Here are some points I picked up from her interview with Mathieu Lalonde, a man with quite a list of credentials in chemistry. These are just a few points taken from the interview, and applied to my current situation. I encourage anyone interested to read the entire article. Here are a couple of points I've taken away from the article.
Point #1:
The source of the calories is just as important, if not more, than the total number of calories itself.
In other words, follow a paleo diet because this will eliminate insulin-spiking foods. Although I already know this, it is yet another reminder for me to remove dairy from my diet. It will be hard, because I find it to be a convenient source of protein, such as my oatmeal breakfast or my fruit smoothie recipe. Other than dairy, I feel like I have a very clean zone diet, with my carbs coming from fruits and veggies.
Point #2:
Fat is healthy and should be your friend.
As Lalonde tells it:
...fat consumption triggers the release of N-
Zone? Check. Always hungry? Check. Looks like I need to start consuming more fat. At first I was resistant to the idea of cutting carbs and increasing fat because I thought the zone was all I needed. However, it's starting to look like this kind of modification will help me out. The more I understand the reasoning behind this kind of modification the more I am mentally up for it.
Point #2:
Ideally, one would only want to consume enough complex carbohydrates to be able to perform optimally during exercise, with the remainder of the calories consisting of protein and fat.
So I need to figure out, probably through trial and error, how many carbs I need, and let everything go from there. According to the Zone calculator, I need somewhere between 21-23 blocks a day if I'm lifting heavy weights daily. ...That is a LOT more than the 16 blocks I was consuming for most of the winter/spring. I don't know what's triggered this sudden rush of hunger, but I like it. Speaking of feeding the hunger....
Point #3:
Not eating enough will make one sluggish and become more likely to over train (or under recover).
I would try to paraphrase as to explain why this is so, but Mr. Lalonde does such a great job of explaining I would only muddle it up. According to Lalonde:
The problem isn’t necessarily one of basal metabolism, which tends to slow down when a significant caloric deficit is created, but rather of energy stores. If food intake is insufficient for replenishment of muscle and liver glycogen, intense bouts of exercise such as CrossFit may become somewhat more challenging. That is because the amount of glycogen used by the body increases with the intensity of the exercise. The glycogen stores of someone on a low calorie diet may not be able to supply sufficient quantities of glucose to maintain a high level of intensity for the duration of the workout.
I've noticed the recent increase in hunger has been accompanied by an increase in a sense of fatigue. It seems that because I'm not eating enough to have sufficient stores of glycogen. So I need to eat more in order to have enough energy (glycogen) to survive through these workouts. But you still need to run a caloric deficit to cause the body to burn off fat right? Yes you do, but figuring out how much and by what method can be tricky.
Point #3:
For some people, the zone diet is all you need, for others a ketogenic-cyclic-low carbohydrate diet might work.
What is a ketogenic-cyclic-carbohydate diet? Well, ketosis is when you don't have enough glycogen for the task at hand, so your body turns to fat as an energy source. Burning fat for energy? Heck yeah why don’t we all do that?!? Not so fast. Because burning fat takes up more oxygen then burning glycogen, less oxygen reaches the muscles and inhibits performance. So while you are burning fat, that's because you have no other choice, and a drop in performance is almost guaranteed. The cycle part means you time your intake of complex carbohydrates based on when you need your glycogen stores replenished (This could relate to post workout meals, which is reference later). I think will be a last resort for me, as I feel that I have many other aspects of my diet with which I can improve upon. However, Lalonde makes one comment that applies directly to me.
A male CrossFitter on a Paleo diet with an already low body fat level between 10% and 15% can further decrease his body fat level with a ketogenic cyclic low carb diet, but performances will suffer to some extent.
Still, I feel like I can go a lot more Paleo and should consistently eat more per day before I try going ketogenic. Harold once ended up in a ketosis state and did not enjoy the drop in performance.
Point #4
If you have great insulin sensitivity, then a post workout (PWO) meal is a great way to get carbs to work for you and maximize performance and recovery.
Although it isn't crystal clear how to tell if you have insulin sensitivity, I get the idea if you've been paleo or zoning for a while you should be sensitive. Given that I never crave sweets and have been zoning for over a year now, I think I'm pretty sensitive. (Side note: Last week I snacked on like 10 Tostitos chips, made me feel like crap for hours.) Katie commented on one of my posts that I might be a candidate for a PWO meal, looks like she was right. This will take up another post after I research PWO meals.
So in conclusion, it looks like I will attempt to make two modifications: 1) try to eliminate dairy and peanuts from my diet (this will be really hard), and 2) increase my diet to 22 blocks. I don't want to make too many modifications because if I make too many changes I won't be able to figure out what works. If these two mods work, then everything will be hunky-dory and I’ll be shredded like this guy. If they don’t, or if my fat loss plateaus again, then I will look into adding PWO meals.
I find the increase to 22 blocks a little crazy because 21 is listed for a hard gainer, 1 block more than even a X-large male. I always figured X-large meant someone 6'6" weighing 280, but perhaps it's all relative. The increase means I'll have to switch to 5 block meals, with some 4 block snacks. ...That’s actually not too far away from what I've been eating recently, where I was eating 5 four-block meals (basically had two snacks together).
I have also started to incorporate Paleo Kits into my daily routine. Although they are fairly expensive, I find them worth the convenience. I'm going to count them as lunch, since they have 5 blocks of protein. What I usually eat as a 4 block lunch will now be my 4 block snack.
Looks like I'm really starting to tweak this stuff. I always figured that by simply zoning and crossfitting I would end up with a body fat % under 10, but it looks like I'm going to have to kick it up another notch in order to lose more fat. There is always room for improvement, and I'm glad because otherwise things would get boring.
