My Fats, Carbs, and Proteins

I am 29 and after a change in career I am trying to live my best life. I have gotten back into Track and Field competing in the shot put and discus, use swimming as a form of cardio, do weightlifting to support my throwing, and go surfing on the Gold Coast for downtime and fun. This post will analyse why I eat the way I do and my body composition goals, looking at my ideal body composition, protein requirements for my physical activity, fat selection, and carbohydrate use.

Shot Put and Discus have a reputation for producing overweight mass monsters that look like they could go play rugby and somehow be too muscular for it. My goal is to look like the old-school throwers of the 70s and 80s. Yes, they were on large amounts of steroids, but they were lean, with one of my idols Wolfgang Schmidt being my height (195cm) and only 115kg, looking like a Roman or Greek statue. This body composition I feel is ideal because realistically you do not get any strength or speed boosts from fat cells, and I believe the reason modern strongmen and throwers maintain such a large fat amount is not about the fat giving them an advantage; rather that losing weight crashes metabolism and makes them feel unable to compete at their highest levels. My goal is to give myself a diet which provides plenty of energy to operate but allows me to remain at a lean body composition.

Strength-based sports like Shot Put, Discus, and Olympic Weightlifting require abnormal amounts of muscle. Typical programs advise that to gain muscle you need to consume ~1.6g/kg of lean body mass. Amounts of over 2g/kg have been documented but they suffer from the law of diminishing returns. For this reason I use a whey supplement in my diet and aim for 200g of protein per day to fuel this muscle. Likely more than I actually need, the high intake ensures I gain what I need. I also use 40g of gelatin per day to support tendons, ligaments, and support fat loss over muscle wasting. The gelatin specifically aims to get glycine, which according to research by Brad Marshall should also aid in metabolism by helping to keep my mitochondria and cells clear of metabolic by-product that slows down metabolism. To help aid this I also look at my fat intake, specifically omega-6 fatty acids.

The Croissant Diet 2.0 — the subtitle of my blog site — suggests that I aim to use principles inspired by Brad Marshall’s work on the interactions of long-chain saturated fats (LCSF) vs polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) on the body. I therefore in my diet prioritise LCSF, specifically stearic and palmitic acid, to aid in loss of visceral fat by causing physiological insulin resistance and blocking uptake of energy into fat cells. To achieve this I conversely aim to avoid PUFA. PUFA is a highly criticised molecule, and to keep it neutral the reason I avoid it is due to its ability to allow adipose tissue to continue to uptake energy when it should not. Since switching to this way of eating I have found that I feel more satiated from food and have seen consistent weight loss. To this end I will continue this method to help me manage my ability to process carbs.

I am not carnivore, I am not low-carb. I consume carbs because I like them. I have tried low-carb and with the amount of physical activity I do it becomes gross trying to ingest that much fat. So I consume between 200–300 grams of carbs. I do try to keep it low-fructose though. When transitioning to the Croissant Diet I did have a large portion as sugar but that was to get used to the types of foods, also because I was consuming a lot of dairy. I am cutting that back to mostly glucose or sources that lack fructose to help keep my liver healthy.

To conclude, my aim is to lose fat and build muscle to support a lifestyle of activity. To achieve this I will be consuming 200g protein, keeping PUFA under 10g and keeping stearic and palmitic acid high, and keeping carbs clean and below 300g.

References

Protein & muscle synthesis

• Morton, R. W., et al. (2018). A systematic review, meta-analysis and meta-regression of protein supplementation and resistance training. British Journal of Sports Medicine, 52(6), 376–384.

• Kerksick, C. M., et al. (2018). ISSN exercise & sports nutrition review update: Research & recommendations. Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition, 15(1), 38.

Gelatin / collagen & tendon support

• Shaw, G., et al. (2017). Vitamin C–enriched gelatin supplementation before intermittent exercise augments collagen synthesis. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 105(1), 136–143.

Glycine & metabolic health

• Nunes, E. A., et al. (2022). Glycine intake improves metabolic health. Nutrients, 14(3), 490.

Saturated fat vs PUFA metabolic model

• Dresner, A., et al. (1999). Effects of free fatty acids on glucose transport and insulin signaling. Journal of Clinical Investigation, 103(2), 253–259.

• Ramsden, C. E., et al. (2021). Re-evaluation of the diet-heart hypothesis. BMJ, 372.

Obesity & metabolic impact

• Monteiro, R., & Azevedo, I. (2010). Chronic inflammation in obesity and the metabolic syndrome. Mediators of Inflammation, 2010.

Conceptual framework

• Marshall, B. (2019). The Croissant Diet. Fire In A Bottle Blog