Type of bind: Paperback
Format: Bargain Price
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 414
Printing Date: April 30, 2005
Sale Popularity Level: 730051
Other books you might be interested in perusing:
Editor's Notes and Comments:
Product Description:
The coach of one of the world's greatest athletes-Lance Armstrong-outlines his incredible nutritional program, which will help anyone take his or her fitness to the subsequent level of peak performance.
Chris Carmichael's Food for Fitness provides the nutritional information any active man or woman needs to achieve his or her health and training goals. Along the way, Carmichael outlines his revolutionary eating program for everyone-from weekend warriors to those just trying to lose a few pounds and be more fit.
Most diets focus on treating a problem, pitting nutrient against nutrient in a battle over what can be eaten. Active men and women need to think of food as fuel that enables them to achieve their goals. In this context, all nutrients play integral roles and the emphasis is on consuming the right foods, in the right proportions and at the right times, to yield the energy we need to perform at an optimal level.
Chris Carmichael's Food for Fitness includes:
* step-by-step methods for matching your eating to your activity level;
* menu plans for home-cooked meals, restaurant dining, and on-the-go snacks;
* exercise plans that lead to improved fitness; and
* inspirational accounts from real people who have bettered their lives with this program.
User popularity level:
Rated by buyers -
Hi Folks,
I just finished this book that I got as a gift this past summer. It's written by Lance Armstrong's prior trainer/nutritionist, so right off the bat you know your not reading a book written by just any chum.
It can prove very useful book for both beginner and advanced athletes wanting to learn or solidify the fundamentals of good, sound dieting as and training concepts.
It's thorough - it covers the importance of heart-rate targeted training (he provides instructions on how to run 'field-tests' used by his company to find your training HR). He goes over macronutrients (their importance, roles, recommended daily ratios, good/bad carbs/fats). He goes over young, old, and pregnant athletes.
I've concluded that this book is better suited for endurance athletes. Sure, Carmichael helped train one of the best endurance athletes ever, but Carmichael does say that his nutritional formula (which varies depending on the time of the year, which divides into training periods) is roughly 65% carbs, 22% fat, 13% protein.
I'm mainly a strength athlete. In tracking the percentages of my daily macronutrients, I learned that I feel optimal when I get 20-25% of my day's worth of calories as protein. Likewise, optimal when I get around 20-25% of calories in fat. That leaves my carbs at about 50-60% of my day's calories. He argues that a higher carb diet better replenishes glycogen stores, aids muscle repair, and provides energy - but I feel mentally and physically better when I stick to my percentages (I tried his percentages, as well as other extreme percentages such as the one in the mostly fruitarian raw vegan diet). I don't know if this is because of my body type (a concept he does not discuss) or because of my type of training.
I also disagree with his view on carbs and feel that it is a bit incomplete. He categorizes carbs as empty carriers or nutritious. I think there are damaging carbs - I feel markedly worse after a snickers bar and feel it worsens my cardiovascular endurance. They also provoke a high glycemic response. This is an important concept that has helped me succeed athletically once I took it into account. Two other concepts not discussed are food alkalinity and their potential to promote bodily inflammation. I believe these are important concepts that DO make a difference in training.
The bottom line is that this guy has A LOT of experience in the field of athletic performance an nutrition (he himself was an elite athlete). He runs an athlete training company and, thus, trains a lot of top athletes. He has seen what works and doesn't. It's just that I think it's better suited for endurance athletes, and that it's a bit incomplete since it lacks discusion about body type (and possible resulting dietary alterations), glycemic index and load, as well as carbs that can potentially hinder your performance. (And not just because you could be eating something more nutritious in their place...but because they're bad for you!)
Beyond all that, the book contains a bunch of pages of cooking recipes (which I didn't look at, I'm happy with my cooking; maybe later), and advice on eating on the go. In a few parts of the book he pubs his PowerBar products, but it only caused chuckles and didn't degrade the quality of his advice.
Recommended read.
Rated by buyers 
-
Learn how to keep your body perfectly fueled for any athletic endeavor. Charts will help you compare various health food products to help you make the right decisions for your diet.
Rated by buyers -
Well for starters let's say this book is a little technical and spread out. There is lots of information but it is spread out all over the place. That is the bad news. The organization is spread out in seventeen chapters over four parts. Some parts are more beneficial than others. The good news is that there is everything you need to know in this book about keeping your body fueled at the optimun level for a top performance, whatever you choice of exercise is. The best section is probably the part entitled "The Best Fuels for the Job." Within this section you can find your guide to carbohydrates, low carb diets, fats, proteins and other useful information about minerals and vitamins and fueling for performance before, during and after. There are charts to compare the different products(protein powders, energy drinks and recovery drinks) on the market for you to choose the one that best suits your needs. There are also many charts with comparisons of nutrients found in different foods to help you make a choice for which is best for your tastes. The training regimen is detailed with suggested meals and is just to linear for my tastes. I like to pick and choose so for me this book was too regimented. I bought this book when it very first came out and have read it on and off since but have recently incorporated some of the receipes found in the back of the book into my lifestyle. Since I am more a free form cook, I use many of the ideas as a springboard for my own imagination in the kitchen. However there are several receipes that are great as is. The empahsis on nutrition and the benefits of certain foods is the books strong point and can benefit many people, even people who are not atheletes. If you are into health and are active in some type of endurance sport than this book will be of help you get the most out of your body. If you are sedentary and want to get off your duff this book might help you see you can still eat many of the foods you like(but others you will have to cut)as you begin to become more active. Overall this book can have a good effect on your lifestyle.
Rated by buyers -
I chose this book because I trust Chris Carmichael's knowledge and experience with athletes. He is not trendy or strict, but instead realistic and straight-forward. He helps you design YOUR plan.
Easy recipes in the back, also!
Rated by buyers -
Within 3 weeks of implementing the basic concepts I noticed a massive difference in my ability to train productively on successive days and that my soreness after long runs of 10-20 miles was drastically cut.
One of the great things about this book is that you can apply it's concepts in a macro or micro level pretty easilly, from grams to food groups to eating for specific training cycles.
The organization and layout could use some cleaning up, but the content makes up for it. It has plenty of sample diets, though it could use a little more.
Truly outstanding!
Find other books like this one:
