8 Responses

1. A trustworthy and sensible book on nutrition for athletes.

   June 28th, 2009

   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!

2. The role of food in your well being

   June 28th, 2009

   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 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.

3. Perfect Body Fuel

   June 28th, 2009

   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.

4. Must Read

   June 29th, 2009

   Quite simply this book is a must read irrespective of whether or not you are an athlete. It explains clearly the human body’s dietary/biochemical needs and the food groups that meet these needs. In doing so it exposes the misinformation used to sustain fad diets and food products that are manufactured for commercial, not health, reasons. I am a well educated, professional science writer and serious masters athlete and this book was still a revelation in the way it delivers information and facts that are immediately useable when you next do your groceries shopping. It will change your life in many ways, not the least of which will be its healthy extension.

5. Useful Information, with limitations

   July 2nd, 2009

   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 discussion 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.

6. Best Sports Nutrition book published

   October 1st, 2009

   very easy to understand and i follow it closely. i don’t feel I am sacrificing eating anything.

7. Cyclist Bible

   December 17th, 2009

   This is an excellent book. Real world view points no matter what the age or skill level.

8. Disappointed

   February 20th, 2010

   I was looking for advice on losing weight. It is really difficult to train and lose more than just a few pounds at the same time, and I figured that this book would at least give a few pointers. A blurb on the cover says “Lose weight” but once you get into the book there is little information. The word Weight is not even in the index. The short chapter on Wisdom for Older Athletes was good, but it’s only 6 pages long. I’m going to check out the book Racing Weight which looks interesting.