Optimum Nutrition for Amateur Athletes

food strategies & tools to help you achieve a lean, athletic physique 

Physiques are not made in training, they're made in the kitchen and dining room. A lean, muscular, performance-orientated body is the result of every choice you make when it comes to food. In a world that values instant, easy solutions to food, you can be one of the physique-elite, simply by making better decisions and eating a human-appropriate diet.

Featured Optimum Nutrition Post



"What about the sustainability of low carb nutrition?" It’s the response from almost any registered dietician and many lay people when

Sustainability of Low Carb Nutrition

Appropriate Human Diet

Much of what we hear about healthy nutrition is simply wrong. The diet that humans are eating today is not the food that we're designed to eat. The result is weight gain, muscle loss and a host of diseases.

Sustainability of Low Carb Nutrition
Simple Guide to Nutrition Research
Low Carb Workout Nutrition
The Low Carb Athlete

Page [tcb_pagination_current_page] of [tcb_pagination_total_pages]

Supplements

Supplements are intended to add things to your diet that are missing. If you're eating a nutrient-rich human-appropriate diet, you should very rarely need supplements.

Should You Use Food Supplements?

Page [tcb_pagination_current_page] of [tcb_pagination_total_pages]

Simple Cooking Skills

Learning some simple cooking skills, saving your favourite recipes and using these makes food preparation quick, easy and makes sure you get the nutrition you want.

Italian-Style Meatloaf
Katsu Chicken Recipe
Easy Frittata Recipe
Protein Iced Coffee Recipe
Easy Hollandaise Sauce Recipe

Page [tcb_pagination_current_page] of [tcb_pagination_total_pages]

Focus on Nutrients

A focus on nutrients rather than calories yields far better results, in body composition, satiety and health. 

Learn the Secrets of Athletes Who Consistently Perform at the Highest Level

Get Your Free Copy of the "Athlete Success Principles"

Simply fill in the form below to join my email list to get your free copy of the "Athlete Success Principles" report. You'll receive the occasional email with more tips and instruction to make the most of your training.

Optimum Nutrition 

Optimum nutrition is a very complicated subject. At least, it is if you believe everything that dieticians and nutritionists would have you believe.

Really, it's not difficult at all. What makes it difficult is an attempt to make our modern, 21st century western diet fit into some sort of healthy template.

Once you come to understand the shenanigans and vested interests that have contributed to the way we eat today, you have the opportunity to simplify your nutrition plan and focus on what really gets results.

The basis of optimum nutrition is getting back to the foods that support human health.

Contrary to what dietary guidelines and various pressure groups have sold us since the 1970's and 80's, the foods that provide the greatest amount of nutrition and, therefore, best support human health are animal foods.

  • Meat
  • Fish
  • Dairy
  • Eggs

These foods provide us with a high level of very absorbable protein. Nothing in nature provides protein at those levels without potential negative effects. For example, the only food that comes close to animal foods for bio-available protein is soy. But soy also comes with a number of potential negative effects. One can argue all one likes about the levels and effects of phytoestrogens, but they're there and I don't like the potential risk. No other plant food comes close on the levels of bioavailable amino acids as there are in animal foods.

Also, leucine, the amino acid most important for muscle growth is far easier to get from animal foods.

Another factor to consider is the sheer amount of plant food you need to eat in order to get optimal amounts of nutrients. In contrast, you can get almost all the nutrients you need from 250g of beef!

Finally, there are at least 15 nutrients that you cannot get from plant foods. The most prominent of these is vitamin B12, but vitamins A and K, carnitine and creatine are found almost exclusively in animal foods.

Almost any vegetarian athlete who has supplemented with creatine has seen huge performance improvements.

Optimum nutrition matters more than all the training you do. You cannot outrun a poor diet.

>