Functional Diet for the Tactical Athlete

[Barkadion]

When I am on extended holidays I have no issues getting my calories in and hitting that 3000 + with real quality food. When I am at work and dealing with odd shifts is when I start to have some trouble. When you finish at 3 am and your next shift is at 4pm the next day it starts to screw with your appetite a bit.I find myself having to force food down and with the limited window for sleep, nutrition, life and training I find that setting time to eat is what I generally don't quite get right. In the past I would just skip sleep, but I have actively been focusing on improving this part of my training life.

Now I am not trying to make excuses and say the old" Woe is me, I have it so hard " as I have been doing pretty well to mitigate some of the negatives by upping my recovery work and sleep quality, but I am considering different options that will let me work out something sustainable.

One thing I have been having success with is making sure that the meal at work I eat is good quality and not takeaway. If I eat my takeaway at work I feel lethargic, don't recover as well from limited sleep and can't train well the next day. If I eat a mostly healthy meal in my shift then I wake up in a much better state to train or whatever is planned before returning to work and repeating the cycle again. I find that if I eat my takeaway on my day off it has less of a negative effect even if I train before work the next day.

I still need to work out how to meet my calories, but at least the above is a positive.

Oh I see.. I have done night shits years ago. That was a killer in a way. I gained weight, got addicted to caffeine, and felt grumpy all the time. I remember waking up on the highway driving home at 7AM.. not fun..

Well.. good luck!

[Maxrip13]

Oh I see.. I have done night shits years ago. That was a killer in a way. I gained weight, got addicted to caffeine, and felt grumpy all the time. I remember waking up on the highway driving home at 7AM.. not fun..

Well.. good luck!

Haha it is all part of the fun and I actually love the later shifts for some reason, but something has to suffer and for me it's calories and that side of recovery from training. I do like to bring things up because maybe someone will be able to give me a little titbit of info that helps that extra 5%.

I definitely agree on the whole not being afraid of carbs being very important for an athlete who needs to eat on the run occasionally. I have been having some success with fancier deli meats (prosciutto/sopressa) and hard style cheese (wasabi flavoured is my favourite) with some good quality butter on a nice roll or two. These meats have higher calories and protein content.

If I am not on the road and will have time to eat I find a nice mushroom risotto with the same deli meats or chicken plus some frozen veg thrown in is faster and easier to eat at a desk than trying to cut up a steak or big chunk of chicken breast. Even eating the above I would be lucky to top 2500 calories without a chocolate bar or two thrown in somewhere.

That first meal of the day is my biggest issue. I am thinking a protein smoothie and some toast might be the way to go for a while.

[Barkadion]

Oh I see.. I have done night shits years ago. That was a killer in a way. I gained weight, got addicted to caffeine, and felt grumpy all the time. I remember waking up on the highway driving home at 7AM.. not fun..

Well.. good luck!

Haha it is all part of the fun and I actually love the later shifts for some reason, but something has to suffer and for me it's calories and that side of recovery from training. I do like to bring things up because maybe someone will be able to give me a little titbit of info that helps that extra 5%.

I definitely agree on the whole not being afraid of carbs being very important for an athlete who needs to eat on the run occasionally. I have been having some success with fancier deli meats (prosciutto/sopressa) and hard style cheese (wasabi flavoured is my favourite) with some good quality butter on a nice roll or two. These meats have higher calories and protein content.

If I am not on the road and will have time to eat I find a nice mushroom risotto with the same deli meats or chicken plus some frozen veg thrown in is faster and easier to eat at a desk than trying to cut up a steak or big chunk of chicken breast. Even eating the above I would be lucky to top 2500 calories without a chocolate bar or two thrown in somewhere.

That first meal of the day is my biggest issue. I am thinking a protein smoothie and some toast might be the way to go for a while.

My favorite shake now is kefir, 2 scoops of protein powder, and banana. Feels like a complete meal..

[Blackmetalbunny]

One thing I have been having success with is making sure that the meal at work I eat is good quality and not takeaway. If I eat my takeaway at work I feel lethargic, don't recover as well from limited sleep and can't train well the next day. If I eat a mostly healthy meal in my shift then I wake up in a much better state to train or whatever is planned before returning to work and repeating the cycle again. I find that if I eat my takeaway on my day off it has less of a negative effect even if I train before work the next day.

I still need to work out how to meet my calories, but at least the above is a positive.

I live in Singapore, and sometimes by default, lunch happens to be some greasy oily crap sold at roadside hawkers... it makes me feel like I've drank a metric tonne of poly-unsaturated vegetable oil.

I get why you're having some difficulty in getting the calories in, but you definitely sound like a candidate for protein-pulsing diet.

[Tyr0331]

Interesting Joe Rogan episode with Robb Wolf regarding diet. Anyone listen to this one yet?

https://youtu.be/DrnGCExhsnM

[Maxrip13]

Interesting Joe Rogan episode with Robb Wolf regarding diet. Anyone listen to this one yet?

https://youtu.be/DrnGCExhsnM

Any chance of cliff notes haha... Joe rogan annoys me for some reason on his podcast and I struggle to watch it.

[Tyr0331]

Interesting Joe Rogan episode with Robb Wolf regarding diet. Anyone listen to this one yet?

https://youtu.be/DrnGCExhsnM

Any chance of cliff notes haha... Joe rogan annoys me for some reason on his podcast and I struggle to watch it.

He talked a lot about the paleo type diet and high fat low carb. One thing he mentioned that I thought was interesting was how red blood cells and certain parts of the brain have to feed off glucose so when people are trying to get into ketosis but not quite there they are hurting in those areas

Other talk about how certain people benefit from high fats and others don't. Eating high saturated fats with sugar is the worst overall

[ectional]

Do you guys have any tips for someone who's wishing to move away from counting calories? It's kind of gotten tedious to weigh everything and scan every barcode for myfitnesspal. From past experiences I feel like I'm just going to underestimate my intake and gain unwanted weight.

[Geidi]

Do you guys have any tips for someone who's wishing to move away from counting calories? It's kind of gotten tedious to weigh everything and scan every barcode for myfitnesspal. From past experiences I feel like I'm just going to underestimate my intake and gain unwanted weight.

How long have you been counting calories? If it hasn't been long you might want to continue with it until you can estimate or guess. You can speed the process up by picking 5-6 meals you really like and repeating them through the week.

I personally don't think counting calories is necessary if you're doing a strength and conditioning combo. Guesstimating works for me. I use the old palm-sized-serving of protein, palm or two of carbohydrate, and thumb size serving of healthy fats. I believe that's roughly equivalent to 30gms protein, 30-60grams carb, and not sure about the fat. Adjust number of meals (or servings) up or down based on your goals. Since starting TB I like to err on the side of eating more, not less....so even if I'm fairly certain I've hit my mark for the day I try to eat an extra healthy snack or meal on top of that.

[ectional]

How long have you been counting calories? If it hasn't been long you might want to continue with it until you can estimate or guess. You can speed the process up by picking 5-6 meals you really like and repeating them through the week.

I personally don't think counting calories is necessary if you're doing a strength and conditioning combo. Guesstimating works for me. I use the old palm-sized-serving of protein, palm or two of carbohydrate, and thumb size serving of healthy fats. I believe that's roughly equivalent to 30gms protein, 30-60grams carb, and not sure about the fat. Adjust number of meals (or servings) up or down based on your goals. Since starting TB I like to err on the side of eating more, not less....so even if I'm fairly certain I've hit my mark for the day I try to eat an extra healthy snack or meal on top of that.

I've been counting for a few years now. And usually enter the bigger meals but it feel kind of ridiculous having to weight stuff like green beans and broccoli which have very few calories and like almonds. Yeah I had 31 almonds today, good to know.