For the past several months I’ve been experiencing serious performance decrease in my sport, especially in cycling. Trying to find the root cause I stumbled on such an interesting term as RED-S. According to Wikipedia:
“… an athlete’s bone density may decrease, but may not yet have dropped below her age-matched normal range. These signs can be considered “occult,” as no one symptom may be severe enough to seek medical attention, leaving the Triad to go unnoticed or untreated…”
Sounds pretty serious. I needed to rule out the possibility of having a low bone density so I went ahead and booked an appointment for the DEXA scan. Why DEXA?
A dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DEXA) scan is a low-radiation x-ray that accurately measures how much of your body weight is made up of fat, muscle, and bone. It also measures the bone density. Tt tells you your total body fat, muscle, and bone, and breaks it down by body part. I cared less about the body fat and muscle – just tell me what’s my bone density.
I did my test at the place called Studio Athletica in Toronto. I would recommend this place for the several reasons:
Location – 5 Stars
Customer service – 5 Stars
Overall experience – 5 Stars
Pricing – 5 Stars
Eye Opener
I did get the number I was looking for, however I also got a lot of other very interesting information about my machinery. Let’s dive in!
Below you see three pictures of me:
Bone (left)
Muscle (middle)
Fat (right)
Lean Mass
According to the readings, my lean mass is 138 lb (63 kg), while total weight is about 156 lb (70 kg). Lean mass is the sum of all the muscle and soft organ tissue (internal organs, ligaments, connective tissue, etc.). What makes the rest 20 lb? Not the poop – Fat. Fat mass includes all the fat found within the organs of the body as well as the subcutaneous fat found under the skin. 8.8% of Sasha is made out of fat. Below is a breakdown:
This is the off season and I gained about 2-3 kg of my typical weigh. Even considering that 8% seem to be on the edge of health/performance. Below is the picture of me one month before this DEXA. I was about 2 kg lighter then, therefore I would assume that my body fat was 1-2% lower. However, to give you an idea of what 6-8% body fat looks like:
RSMI
Next screenshot shows the more precise body fat percentage as well as RELATIVE SKELETAL MUSCLE INDEX (RSMI). What that is? RSMI helps to determine your risk for sarcopenia.
Sarcopenia is a disease associated with the aging process. Loss of muscle mass and strength affects balance, gait, and the ability to perform daily living tasks.
It basically tell how old you are. Not too old yet, according to the readings. Also, with such a low body fat %, I might need to consider putting on some weight, as 8% is almost critical for my sport.
Resting Metabolic Rate (RMR)
This is interesting, as it shows how much energy your body needs just to keep you alive. This energy is just enough to maintain your body temperature, heartbeat, and keep you breathing.
My machinery requires about 1,700 calories a day not to die. This makes me wonder, how would that look in terms of food?
1700 CALORIES worth of FOOD
Salmon Filet 1,9 KG
Oatmeal 455g
Sweet Potatoes 1,5 kg
Avocado 1 kg
Ok ok, I got distracted here… Basically, what I showed you is that to simply stay alive, mine and yours bodies require quite a bit of food. Try to eat almost 2 kilograms of salmon or 1,5 kg of sweet potatoes! Then multiply in by 7 to estimate the weekly intake. Also consider the thermic effect of proteins vs carbs and fats… I definitely underestimated the energy requirements of my body.
Muscle Balance in Body
This is a comparison of my body’s right to left muscle mass symmetry. Despite the fact that I am right-handed, left side of Sasha appears to be stronger. Abnormally big heart, bigger left arm, leg, runk… everything is bigger on the left side:
Main Takeaways
Bone Density is within good range. It’s not included in this report, however I got the results separately.
Resting Metabolic Rate is 1,700 calories/day, which is a lot of food.
I might consider putting on some weight, as 8% body fat is pretty low – almost critical for my sport.
The restaurant business is rapidly evolving. People are looking for ways to eat well with minimal effort. With this new concept, a whole world of opportunities lie ahead. Below, I have outlined some statistics as an appetizer.
Based on marketing research published by Statista.com, online food delivery industry in Canada has doubled in revenue over the past 2 years: from $1,539M to $2,959M. Platform-to-consumer deliveries, which take up the smaller part of the revenue share has tripled from $434,7M to $1,136.9M in only two years.
The number of online food ordering & delivery users has shown significant growth from 8.6M in 2017 to 10.78M and expected to reach the mark of 15.19M by 2023.
“Millennials” with low to medium income are the major users of online food delivery services.
Also, according to a Statista survey, 70% of consumers order food delivery from quick-service restaurants and 44% of consumers order food delivery at least once a month.
Top 5 countries that adopted online food delivery services are:
China (Revenue: US$40,239M)
USA (Revenue: US$22,073M)
India (Revenue: US$7,730M)
United Kingdom (Revenue: US$4,869M)
Japan (Revenue: US$2,518M)
Despite similar mentality and close location to United States, Canada makes only US$2,004M in revenue, more than 10 times less than its neighbor.
The fastest growing markets are:
Hong Kong
Singapore
Netherlands
United Kingdom
USA
No need to dig deeper. You’ve got the idea and you are hungry for more.
Waiter! Bring the main dish!
Where did it all start?
No seats, no reservations, no waiters to sweet talk over a glass of cabernet sauvignon. Dark kitchens — are kitchens with the sole purpose to fulfill online delivery orders.
Maple was a food delivery startup that launched in 2015 in New York. The restaurant prepared and delivered meals, had its own online delivery apps, delivery staff, and kitchens. Top chefs would prepare the main menu and have satellite kitchens provide the complementary dishes. This cut the costs of opening an actual restaurant, which allowed them to provide premium dishes at an affordable price. Well… they Failed. Maple did not thrive for several reasons, which you can read more about on Startup Cemetery.
Next was Travis Kalanick – former CEO Uber & UberEats. He began exploring the concept of delivery only kitchens and launched the company called CloudKitchens.com. Based on FORTUNE his startup already valued at $5 billion.
“… billionaire quietly raised $400 million from Saudi Arabia’s sovereign-wealth fund in January in a deal that could value CloudKitchens, his delivery-only restaurant company, at $5 billion…”
Business Insider Magazine, Nov 7 2019
“Since 2017, Uber has helped start 4,000 virtual restaurants exclusive to its Uber Eats app. The other — the one Kalanick is focusing on — is “ghost kitchens,” a name for those that have no retail presence and serve as a meal preparation hub for delivery orders.”
FORTUNE Magazine, November 8 2019
According to South China Morning Post, CloudKitchens planning to enter the China market – the biggest food delivery market.
This is the big one, literally. Rebel Foods today is the largest internet restaurant company in the world, by a wide margin. Their revenues and number of restaurants both grew 4X over the past 2 years.
REBEL Foods launched in 2016 and quietly raised $125 million in fresh capital from the Indonesian delivery service Go-Jek, Coatue Management and Goldman Sachs — now operates 235 kitchens across 20 Indian cities. The company processes two million orders a month. They offer cloud kitchens to every kind of cuisine imaginable under one roof. Their main competitors on the market are UberEats and the food delivery company Zomato, which itself has plans to open more than 100 cloud kitchens by the end of this year (2019). Zomato is not about the food preparation — but rather renting facilities, kitchen equipment and software to restaurants.
“Rebel Foods have zero location risk as each kitchen serves multiple brands (think a fully equipped, state of the art, 5-star hotel kitchen). This is fundamentally the power of building what we popularly call a “cloud-kitchens” serving some of the most daring food brands on the internet.
Medium, March 7 2019
Rebel Foods found specific patterns of food delivery business on Indian market. The discoveries they made shined the light on several opportunities:
Rebel Foods found specific patterns of food delivery business through the Indian market. The discoveries they made shined a light on several opportunities:
Late-night ordering
Takeaways
Multi-national cuisines
Pizza was amongst the top searched food item
Indian cuisines outnumbered any other cuisine by a huge margin in terms of being ordered
Biryani as a dish came out on top for consecutive multiple years amongst the most ordered
Deliveroo is quite unique and deserves a special attention.
Deliveroo’s Editions kitchens launched in April 2017. These delivery-only kitchens, sometimes known as ghost restaurants, allow restaurants to access customers in locations without needing High Street premises, thereby reducing set-up costs compared to a full-service restaurant. Deliveroo uses its data to identify areas where customer demand for certain cuisines is high and predicts which restaurants are likely to succeed there.
Wikipedia
In addition, Deliveroo provides the delivery service as well as marketing and order taking, allowing it to provide food from restaurants that do not normally offer a delivery service.
Sensing the Opportunities
Online food ordering and delivery services catalyse the change restaurant businesses are going through. The days of waiters, reservations, and long wait times will soon be in the past. A new generation of young people set a trend for efficiency. Efficiency can be achieved by following the path of least resistance. Amount of “work” it takes to eat out at a restaurant, is often unjustified. Not to mention the Canadian winters. No one wants to go outside when it’s negative 25 celsius. If you are simply looking to satisfy the hunger and don’t care about the restaurant experience it is absolutely unnecessary to spend the time commuting and waiting in lines. We are not going to Subway, Freshii or other healthy food restaurants for the “experience”. We are simply getting food to eat. High-end restaurants still have their place, as they serve an entirely different purpose. They provide an experience for special occasions and nights out- not every day living.
Dark Kitchens deliver benefits to all the parties involved.
Restaurant Owners
Lower costs The operator doesn’t have to worry about rent, shop-fitting or design, or other property-related costs with dark kitchens. Highly sought-after locations with high footfall and top-class staff are expensive to find and keep. If you don’t have to accommodate diners, employ waiters, or invest in decorative furnishings, then you obviously face considerably fewer costs.
Online Restaurants Incubator Delivery Kitchen saves foodpreneurs from high rent. A low rent translates to both lower Capex and Opex cost. Our cloud kitchens are very lean in operational sense. With less staff and kitchen equipment, we enable new foodpreneurs for a low-risk venture. It is possible to start a cloud kitchen staff with as little as 2 to 3 people. As the operation is limited to a kitchen, the total Capex cost is much lower than a restaurant in a common sense. Our platform is essentially a launchpad for anyone with a slim budget, allowing them to start earning money and quickly breaking even.
Real estate owners on major streets not only charge high rent but also charge up to 9 months of deposit. A cloud kitchen gives a first-time food entrepreneur a fighting chance to be successful. A low rent also allows the restaurant brand owner to serve customers at lower prices and creating value.
Test the Menu Restaurants can safely test the new menu offering while minimizing potential loss which otherwise would be higher if done to the detriment of restaurant operations. Utilizing Delivery Kitchen, restaurants can launch a new menu in parallel to its main production process. This way the “main kitchen” remains working at 100% of its capacity without dedicating human resources and kitchen space to fulfill the new meal orders. This could be a great way to promote the restaurant by offering seasonal specials or special menus on the occasion of the holiday whether its Thanksgiving, Christmas or Easter specials.
Test the Market Canada is as multicultural as it can get. In particular Toronto’s population is made up of 51 per cent of residents born outside of Canada, but is also home to 230 different nationalities, which makes it far more diverse than Dubai. Indian cuisine might work well in Markham, Brampton, Mississauga, Etobicoke, and Scarborough – where majority of Indian-Canadians reside. However it might be difficult selling “biryani” in North York, among an asian and eastern european population. Delivery Kitchens have developed the network of kitchens across markets with different demographic landscapes. We offer an opportunity to expand via delivery to areas without incurring the costs of a fully-functioning restaurant. This allows eateries to “test the waters” in different markets with minimal financial risks. Fail Fast!
Offer Better Prices Delivery Kitchens allow restaurant owners to invest the majority of their financial resources into creating delicious dishes, testing new menu items, and expanding their digital footprint. They can lower the price on their menus as they don’t need to generate additional revenue to cover investment in other areas of the business.
GoCommercial
Offering free meals and caffeine is actually a highly effective — and cost-effective — means of motivating and controlling young employees.
Strategy+business.com, May 2016
More and more companies are offering free lunch. Restaurants and catering services within close proximity greatly benefit from such a trend. However, high rents and startup costs in a prime corporate sector make it tough for smaller restaurants to enter the market.
Most restaurants that are working with food delivery services focus to deliver one meal to one person/family at different places and times. Corporate lunch startups have figured out that group dining can deliver profitable margins. As a result, 35% of these VC-funded concepts were founded only in the past 5 years. Delivery Kitchens allow smaller restaurants and cuisines to expand the corporate market.
Delivery Kitchens offer space for your cloud kitchen in prime locations where you get access to the corporate customers. You can develop and test corporate catering offerings and create lunch/dinner options to serve businesses within the surrounding radius. This is a great opportunity to safely test the market, develop new menus, and increase your customer reach.
Focus on FoodQuality Minimizing daily operational disruptions that are associated with operating a full-size restaurant frees a lot of time, energy and resources. Now restaurant owners can focus more on the things they love – cooking great food.
Become more Efficient Delivery Kitchens allow restaurants to become more efficient by lowering per- customer costs in the technology, marketing, infrastructure, and customer support realms.
Faster Packaging Packaging food is another important aspect of food delivery and it takes up about 25% of your time. Delivery Kitchens work on creating effective solutions to help optimize packaging.
Extend the Opening Hours A lot of people order food after hours. According to McKinsey’s, the highest-volume days for the online platforms were Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, when 74 percent of orders were placed. Lower operational costs and less staff required to operate the kitchen allow restaurant owners to extend operational hours. Being opened while the rest are closed simply means more orders and gives an enormous competitive advantage over the restaurants that can’t afford late evening operations.
FasterOrder Processing and Meal Preparation Delivery Kitchens offer the service of receiving and processing incoming orders by our professional centralized order receiving center. This allows restaurant owners to unload the kitchen staff from dealing with orders and increase efficiency of meal preparation. We take the job of receiving and processing the orders through online delivery platforms. We make sure that no orders were missed, all the missing information was confirmed with the customer and instructions were passed onto your cloud kitchen for immediate execution. Once received, your kitchen staff immediately begins meal preparation.
Restaurant Customers
Better Food No more shiny banners, storefronts, or other marketing tricks to attract customers into the eatery. When ordering online – food quality is the only thing that matters. Restaurants place all their focus on creating the best foods they can.
Cheaper Food Restaurants are able to minimize operational costs, which translates into more affordable menu prices. With lesser expenses, smart restaurant owners will strive to make their prices more competitive, which will attract more customers.
Richer Selection of Food Options With a lower entry barrier, more foodprenuers will be able to enter the market and expand the variety of meals being offered. People ordering foods will have a greater selection.
Faster Food Delivery Kitchens offer restaurants a more efficient way of order processing, which lowers your wait times. Shorter wait – tastier food – happier you.
Online Food Delivery Platforms
Large players like UberEats, DoorDash, Foodora are working closely with established brands to help them identify the items / cuisine that are in high demand in their area. And then these existing restaurants are creating virtual kitchens within their existing kitchen, with a curated list of items that are working well on the overall UberEats platform. While this is great for established restaurants, it makes it harder for “smaller fish” to break into the market.
Delivery Kitchens serve as a “Big Brother”, helping smaller restaurants to enter the online food delivery market. This brings more customers to online food delivery platforms and increase their revenue respectively.
Fast food drive-thrus, cuisines, and local restaurant chains need to re-think the way they operate. We don’t need to follow the food, food now comes to you, on demand.
Delivery Kitchen invites food chains as well as independent restaurants and food truck owners to lease space in one of our facilities for a monthly fee. DeliveryKitchen offers a lot of benefits mentioned above and can increase your sales while reducing the overhead.
oleksandr.tereshchuk1@gmail.com
References:
Online Food Delivery – Canada: Statista Market Forecast. (2019, June 1). Retrieved November 29, 2019, from https://www.statista.com/outlook/374/108/online-food-delivery/canada.
Howell, J. P., & Wanasika, I. (2018). Travis Kalanick. Snapshots of Great Leadership, 276–282. doi: 10.4324/9781315110066-39
Marinova, P. (2019, November 8). Ex-Uber CEO Travis Kalanick Is Betting on the Rise of ‘Ghost Kitchens’. Retrieved November 30, 2019, from https://fortune.com/2019/11/08/uber-travis-kalanick-cloud-kitchens/.
Бурых, Е. (2019, September 19). С черного входа: что такое “темная кухня” и как она меняет ресторанный бизнес: ForbesLife. Retrieved November 30, 2019, from https://www.forbes.ru/forbeslife/383769-s-chernogo-vhoda-chto-takoe-temnaya-kuhnya-i-kak-ona-menyaet-restorannyy-biznes.
Roy, S. (2019, March 18). Building a multi-million dollar internet food brand. Retrieved November 30, 2019, from https://medium.com/swlh/building-a-multi-million-dollar-internet-food-brand-d6669db33d76.
Deliveroo. (2019, November 19). Retrieved December 1, 2019, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deliveroo.
Gross, D. (2016, May 11). What Companies Gain from Providing Free Lunch to Employees. Retrieved December 1, 2019, from https://www.strategy-business.com/blog/What-Companies-Gain-from-Providing-Free-Lunch-to-Employees?gko=398a4.
Hirschberg, C., Rajko, A., Schumacher, T., & Wrulich, M. (n.d.). The changing market for food delivery. Retrieved December 1, 2019, from https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/technology-media-and-telecommunications/our-insights/the-changing-market-for-food-delivery.
Place of birth for the immigrant population by period of immigration, 2006 counts and percentage distribution, for census metropolitan areas and census agglomerations – 20% sample data. (2009, March 27). Retrieved from https://www12.statcan.gc.ca/census-recensement/2006/dp-pd/hlt/97-557/T404-eng.cfm?Lang=E&T=404&GH=8&GF=535&G5=0&SC=1&RPP=100&SR=1&S=10&O=D&D1=1.
– How you been my friend? Haven’t heard from you for a while! – Doing great, better than excellent? That’s Awesome! Glad to hear. – What you been up to? Wow, you achieved so much. You accomplished a lot! Congratulations!
You try so hard to sound happy. Don’t, or you will start shooting rainbows out of your ass. I don’t believe you. I know you too well to recognize the bullshit you try to feed me with. I see a tired person in front of me. Dark circles around your eyes tell the truth. Shaky voice and hectic body language proves the opposite. You are tired, you are exhausted… You desperately need some rest.
You learned how to push yourself pretty hard. You are the overachiever – “A type”. You mastered the skill of setting a goal and going after it. You are self-motivated, disciplined and hardworking. That’s all great, but there is no balance to it. All your achievements come with tax. What is your tax? Sleep deprivation? Poor blood works? Constant hunger and overeating? Anxiety? Moodiness? Loneliness? Muscle pain and constant soreness? Or maybe even suicidal thought from time to time? Tell the truth, let it out. What does it cost to live your lifestyle?
You need to rest. You have to take a break.
Sit down and listen to a little story about magical place – a Place of Power.
There is a place in Canada that has tremendous healing power. It is located in Huntsville – a small town, about 2.5 hours driving north from Toronto. This place is unique with its nature and people.
Two young birds live side by side in Muskoka woods. Megan and Sequoia live off-the-grid in a tiny cabin, right by Muskoka River, on the edge with Heaven.
Ask Sequoia about his plants. Feel the passion person has to his green friends. Feel the bright energy he projects out of his blue eyes when holding his tiny cactus. Don’t interrupt and listen. He thinks of himself as introverted person, but I promise, you never met more extraverted introvert before. He keeps a baseball bat in the forest washroom in case of bears. He own his second world war survival kit in case of zombie apocalypse. He is thoughtful and takes a great care of his partner – Meagan.
Let Megan be your guide into the world of Yoga and meditation. Don’t try to understand or rationalize the things she tells you, but sit back and let her explode your mind. A wise and strong woman lives in tiny body of hers.
Both are rare and unique species among human beings. Open minded, kind and bright people. Vegetarian, they will teach you simple meal recipes that not only taste great, but make you seriously consider going plant based eating.
Wake up in the morning and instead of checking your phone, go check the river. Celebrate new day by meeting sunrise at the beach. Take off you clothes and jump into the river from the tree.
Breathe in!
So many things to do here So much to explore
CYCLING
RUNNING
A State of the Art Running Track
SWIMMING
HIKING
CANOEING
This is the place where not only your mind finally gets rested, but also your body releases tension and stress that it held for so long. Your mind slow down, yous heart slows down:
Only one night of deep sleep in the tiny house will significantly drop your resting heart rate (RHR), and switch your body from sympathetic to parasympathetic mode.
There are so many ways to loose weigh: fast & slow, simple and overly complicated, cool and “sexy” & long, boring… People find motivation from all sorts of things and reasons that are uniquely different for each individual. We are not going to explore the infinite world of weigh loss psychology, dietary restrictions or any other topics of such matter in this chapter.
Being an athlete, you are motivated more by performance rather than just the looks. It’s obvious, the lighter athlete is, the less weigh to carry, especially in sports like cycling or running. The ideal weight is the weight, where you perform at you best, WHILE staying healthy. “Race weight” is not to be kept year round and achieved only for short periods of time during competition season or major athletic events.
In this post you will find the information with real life examples to teach you simple and basic approach to a short-term weigh cut. This technique is slightly adjusted to meet demands of high energy expenditures of endurance training, however it can also be adopted by non-athletic population.
This example uses 150 lbs athlete who tries to loose few kilos to meet his/hers ideal race weight prior to major competition.
Starting Weight: 68 kg Goal Weight: 65 kg Time: 3 weeks Loss Rate: 1 kg/week
1. Determine your Energy Intake
First of all, you need to determine what’s your current energy intake level or “maintenance level”. To do so, you will record everything that goes into your mouth for one-two weeks. There are numerous phone apps and online calculators that will allow to pull up foods nutrition data and estimate energy equivalent of the foods you eat. You need to have a very good idea of how much you eat on a daily and weekly basis. Below is example of 150 lbs athlete daily energy intake:
Such energy intake allows this athlete to maintain his current weight with current level of activity. Multiply by 7 and get the following number:
Weekly Calorie Intake : 21,042 Calories
IMPORTANT NOTE: Calories consumed during exercising (sports nutrition, energy bars, gels, chews, isotonic drinks etc) are not to be included in energy intake calculations.
2. Determine you Energy Expenditure
Now that you have a good idea of how much you eat in terms of numbers, next step is to calculate how much energy you expand. Modern fitness trackers, such as FitBit, Garmin, Apple Watch etc. allow you to guesstimate your energy expenditures during your trainings. Keep in mind that this number is far from being precise, however is used consistently it will allow you to get a general idea of what your body expands and have a rough number of calories used to fuel your trainings.
The example below used Garmin Fenix 5 watch and Garmin Connect App to determine energy expenditure:
Average Weekly Expenditure: ~20,500 Calories
Because the athlete consumes about the same amount of energy as what he expands, he is able to maintain his current body weight. To loose weight he needs to create energy deficit.
3. Create Appropriate Deficit
It is estimated that 3,500 calories equals about 1 pound (0.45 kilogram) of fat. Therefore we can make an assumption that you need to burn about 3,500 caloriesto lose 1 pound. We also assume that cutting about 500 – 1,000 calories a day from your maintenance level, will make you lose about 1 to 2 pounds a week. Sounds simple, isn’t it?
Below is example of adjusted energy intake with a goal of loosing 2 kg of body weight in three weeks.
Adjusted Daily Macronutrient & Caloric Intake:
Because of very active lifestyle and a lot of aerobic type training, given athlete needs to make sure he maintains proper glycogen stores in muscles and more importantly – in liver. The goal here is to keep eating as many carbohydrates as possible, while loosing weight. Therefore fats – is the first macronutrient that will need the adjustment.
Fats 25%
Healthy fats are really important for proper body function and hormonal health. About 10 years ago a healthy fat intake was suggested to be 1/2g per 1 kg of body weight. This is when “fat free” products became popular. Modern guidelines suggest the minimal fat intake to be around 1g/kg of body weight. For 150 lbs athlete, minimal dietary fate intake should be no less than 70g of dietary fats per day. It is really important not to go below the minimal amount as it can harm your hormonal health!
Proteins 25%
Healthy protein intake for active people is suggested to not exceed 2-2.5g/kg or 1g/lb of body weight per day. For the athlete with weigh of 150 lbs (70 kg) its 150 g of protein per day.
Carbohydrates 50%
The rest, half of your calories, will be coming from carbohydrates. Again, such high carbohydrate intake is necessary to fuel athlete’s trainings. Ideally carbohydrates will be coming from complex and low glycemic load sources. This is necessary to keep blood sugar within healthy levels.
Energy deficit of 576 Calories/day made our athlete loose 3 kg in one week. Not all the weight loss came from fat, partially it’s a water weight. Anyways he reached his “ideal race weigh” three times faster than expected. This is a very rapid weight loss, not ideal scenario for long term health and performance. Such fast results could also have an impact on nervous system, making the person apathetic, demotivated to exercise and pessimistic about life in general. In case if you loose more than 1 kg a week, you might want to slightly bump your daily energy intake by 100 calories. This will not stop the weight loss, but it will make it healthier and more sustainable in long run.
Meal Examples
Below are few examples of complete meals designed to fuel athlete’s body post-workout with weight loss goal in mind. These meals come from organic and “clean” foods and contain proper amounts of macronutrients to fuel athlete’s body post exercise activity.
More detailed nutritional guidelines to proper fueling, types of foods and timing discussed in section solely dedicated to Sports Nutrition.
IRONMAN Marbella 70.3 is over and Kona race is in 2 weeks. I took about 10 days of recovery and this is the first somewhat serious bike workout.
Since Hawaii race will be done in much warmer climate than I’m used to, I need to train for that. To do so, I implement the “heat training“. I am not using fan + wearing warm cycling pants, windbreaker, long-sleeved shirt underneath and a heat.
10′ easy spin
Complete 75′ ride holding 150-175 At the top of the 20th min put in 5×5′ bouts at 205-210W on 3′ soft pedal
5′ easy spin
FUEL No fueling. Workout performed in PM. Properly hydrated and eaten.
I totally failed to complete this workout as prescribed. Again… I am beyond being disappointed with my bike performance over the past 2.5 months. I’ve been steadily declining up to this point, where I can barely hold 140 Watts… I try so hard, I put so much effort, but I keep on failing and failing. I am not enjoying the workouts. With so manny failures I am afraid of bike. I don’t even want to touch it. My confidence on the bike is below the ground. I absolutely HATED this workout.
What is wrong? I can’t find the answer. What am I doing wrong? What is missing? I need help, I can’t figure it out on my own.
Lessons Learned:
Didn’t learn anything… Besides that next time use the “standart mode” instead of “erg” on the trainer.
There are so many diets that promote incredible results with weight loss, muscle gain or overall well being. How many diets or different approaches have you tried in pursuit of your goals? How many times have you failed? Don’t rely just on somebody’s opinions or suggestions to eating. I encourage you to take proactive approach and learn what works and what doesn’t, specifically with your body. Create your own “perfect” diet to live a long and healthy life.
I can not overstate the facts that we are what we eat and our health totally depends on what we put in our mouth. Every human being is unique and different is so many ways. Therefore there is no universal recipe or diet that will give you all that you want. You got to realize that you are the only one responsible for your health and there is not a single person in the world that would have the answer to what works and what doesn’t for your body. Don’t get me wrong, there is a lot of good information on the internet and books, but you got to take the initiative in your hands and figure out what works specifically for YOU. Luckily you live in the age, when genetic tests are freely accessible to the public. 10-20 years ago, food intolerance or DNA tests were done only in sophisticated laboratories by scientists. Today you have the luxury of access to a lot of blood testing tools that can help you improve your health and live longer.
Food Intolerance Test is one of such tests. I did it at the lab called Dynacare in Toronto, Canada. The test costed me $250.
What this test will tell you?
The test will show show how your body reacts to certain foods that you eat. It will help to discover food intolerances you were not aware of that could compromise your health and well being. Results of the test will help you to create a diet that suits specifically your body’s needs. It help you to see the correlations between the foods you eat and the way you feel. I can also explain why you had some of the food intolerances symptoms. Some intolerances symptoms include and not limited by:
Bloating
Anxiety
Headaches and Migraines
Fatigue
Astma
Joint pain
Arthritis
Weight gain
Itchy skin etc.
How is test being done?
Your immune system, in response to external stress that come from food, produces antibodies called IgG. Your blood is being tested against 125 most common foods, while measuring the levels of IgG antibodies. This test determines if you have intolerance to certain foods and how severe the intolerances are.
Note: food allergy and intolerance are not the same. In response to allergy, your body produces IgE antibodies, which are different from IgG. Also while allergies usually cause immediate reactions, it can take few hours or days for the symptoms caused by food intolerances to occur.
My Intolerances
Egg Whites, Peanuts, Yeast (Beer) and Barley are on top of the list. That’s a no-no foods for me. Below is the full list of foods they tested me agains. Some other foods to keep an eye on are: pretty much all nuts and seeds, mustard, wheat, corn, potatoes.
Eat the rainbow. Eating variety of foods insures that you get the full range of important vitamins and minerals.
Once you eliminate some foods from your diet, you also loose the nutrients that came along with them. To replace the nutrients you need, use the table below to find “safe” replacements options for you.
Nutrients found in Common Foods
Know your body. Take full responsibility for your health and well-being. Learn what works and what doesn’t. Create your own “perfect” diet.
Past 4-5 weeks were hell. The taper began 5 days ago and my training volume has been decreased. Having failed so many times I am not looking forward to this workout. The race is in one weeks, but I am not excited, I am not confident. Not in a right place mentally or physically. I made an effort to eat more carbohydrates than usual two days prior to this workout. Staffed myself with oatmeal and quinoa right before bed on Thursday night, continued eating quinoa and oatmeal the entire day on Friday. Little to no fat or protein, carbs only.
Lessons Learned Last Workout:
Reduce fiber intake 1-2 days before
Two water bottles (1400 mL) on the bike last only for about 1 hour (30 km). During the race I will need to make 2stops to refuel at aid stations (First at 33 km; Second at 58 km)
Highway 1 that goes north has nothing besides hills… and more hills. Good to work on hill climbing; Not good for speed work. Maybe riding West to East or vise-versa will have less hills.
BRICK
A brick workout is any workout that combines swimming, biking and/or running into a single session. The most common example is the bike to run brick, where you go for a run immediately after finishing a bike ride.
Fueling
Formula: min 0.25 – max 0.33 grams carbs per hour x body weight (lbs) Or min 1 calorie/hour x body weight (lbs)
The main focus is to maintain adequate glycogen levels in muscles and liver to delay fatigue and prevent “bonking“.
No FRUCTOSE!
0.33 g/h x 150 lb x 2.25 (2hr 15min) = 111 grams of carbs required.
Hydration
TheGOAL: prevent loosing more than 2% (1.5 kg) of body weight in fluids.
What I got
What do I need? Sweat Rate: 1400 mL x 2.25 = 3150 mL Sodium: 0.5 x 3150 = 1575 mg Carbs: (X / 4125) x 100 = 5% -> X=0.05 x 4125= 206 g of carbs!?
Results
Pre-weight: 69.9 kg Post-weight: 68.7 kg Liquids consumed: 1950mL (Left one bottle) Weight lost: 3.150 kg Sweat Rate: 1260 mL/hour
Total weigh loss: 3.150 kg (4%)
Not good 2% is maximum loss allowed
BIKE
Felt Strong! Holding 210 Watts felt easy. 300 Watts for a minute were easy as well. Even knowing I was planning on fueling with protein bars, it felt too easy to inject extra carbs to fuel the workout. Therefore I did not eat anything and completed the ride purely on very little sugar from isotonic drinks.
RUN
Felt Strong! Experiencing really bad digestive issues previously. I was going into the run worried they will come back. However I did not have diarrhea or even the slightest symptoms of it. Thats a Win!
Lessons Learned:
I reduced fiber intake two days before workout (starting Thursday evening) this helped to prevent GI issues. Also, NO FRUCTOSE and supplements or foods containing high concentrations on VITAMIN C.
“Carb Loading”worked. Making emphasis on eating more complex carbs such as quinoa, sweet potatoes and oats, two days before filled up my glycogen stores and made me feel strong. I even didn’t need to fuel during the ride. Also glycogen do not get filled up overnight. It took me about 36-48 hours to begin feeling better.
This the first time this year I was riding outside. For the past 5 months I’ve been training in my basement on a trainer. I am so happy to finally get outdoors and test this machinery I’ve been working on so hard.
BRICK
2 hours @ 210 Watts + 45 min Run off bike
A brick workout is any workout that combines swimming, biking and/or running into a single session. The most common example is the bike to run brick, where you go for a run immediately after finishing a bike ride.
The more time you have before workout, the larger meal can get. Also it shouldn’t be high glycemic because you don’t need the energy available any time soon. Instead give preference to “slow carb” with lo moderate-low GI. Also don’t forget to include protein.
TheGOAL: prevent loosing more than 2% (1.5 kg) of body weight in fluids.
What do I need? Sweat Rate: 1400 mL x 2.75 = 3850 mL Sodium: 0.5 x 3850 = 1925 mg Carbs: (X / 4125) x 100 = 5% -> X=0.05 x 4125= 206 g of carbs!?
What I got:
WATER + Beta Alanine & BCAA. All calories come from solid foods.
Total Calories: 1010 calories: 367 calories/hour Riding outside. No power meter.
Results
No weight/sweat data.
Pre-weight: kg Post-weight: kg Liquids consumed: 2000 mL Sweat Rate: mL/hour
Total fluid loss:
BIKE
Right the second I clipped into the pedals, Ialmost lost balance. Riding on a trainer doesn’t require you to keep balance and I got to re-learn how to. Took only about 10 minutes to adjust. It was VERY windy. Strong side and front facing winds were blowing consistently throughout the ride. The wind was so strong, so I couldn’t let go one of my hands to reach back for a protein bar. Instead of 3 bars, as planned, had 1.5. There we A LOT of hills. Literally no flat stretch on the road. It was not quite the ride I was hoping to have, however I tried to stay positive and enjoy it as much as I could. It was certainly nice to get outside of my basement. Wasn’t feeling strong. Two water bottles I had mounted on the bike weren’t enough, felt thirsty.
What’s good?
Did a lot of hill climbing. Ironman 70.3 Marbella has 1400 meters of climbing on the bike course. It will help to prepare for the race.
Used different muscles, keeping the balance and fighting the wind.
Tested my bike in action, making sure everything’s working properly.
RUN
First 10 minutes felt really weak in legs. I think I went too hard on a bike part. Hills after hills after hills… Around minute 10, had to pause the workout to use the restroom. Not critical. I wen’t into the run with full stomach. I think reducing the fiber a day before will help. Finished the run to the best of my abilities.
Lessons Learned:
Reduce fiber intake 1-2 days before
Two water bottles (1400 mL) on the bike last only for about 1 hour (30 km). During the race I will need to make 2stops to refuel at aid stations (First at 33 km; Second at 58 km)
Highway 1 that goes north has nothing besides hills… and more hills. Good to work on hill climbing; Not good for speed work. Maybe riding West to East or vise-versa will have less hills.
For the past 5 years that I spent living in USA, I got accustomed to its cost of living at different cities and pricing politics at the grocery stores. I love shopping at the farmers markets and would always give preference towards fresh, organic produce over it’s cheaper alternatives. Moving to Canada made me reassess my spending behaviors, as the cost of healthy foods seemed to be more expensive, compared to where I’m coming from. Out of curiosity and the will to save some money I made a little experiment. I was wondering of how much do I have to spend to continue eat as clean and healthy as I’m used to. Particularly I was interested to see the costs of meats, as they tend to be the most expensive item on the receipt.
While doing my calculations I also converted prices from CAD (canadian dollars) to ukrainian hryvnia for my Ukrainian friends.
According to Dr. Google ₴1 = $21
With my level of physical activity I stick around with 1 gram of protein per pound oflean weight, or approximately 2 grams per 1 kg of body weight. When it comes to the source of protein, I typically give preference to fish, chicken and beef. I stay away from eggs, dairy or “engineered” sources, aka protein bars etc. From time to time I would supplement with organ meats and protein shakes, but only as an addition to my daily meals. Based on my meat preferences, and the fact that I’m pretty lean, I calculated weekly protein requirements off my weight of 68-70 kg:
One week (7 days) worth of protein: 150 g/day (1 g * 1 lb of lean body mass).
If we translate it into the cooked foods, it will look like this:
Cooked:
Wild Salmon: 4.5 kg (10 lb) * 150 = 600 g/day
Chicken Breast: 3.3 kg (7.3 lb) * 150 = 500 g/day
Angus Beef: 5 kg (11 lb) * 150 = 700 g/day
Raw:
Different factors can play a role in how much your meat shrinks. The cut of meat and cooking methods are the main factors. Dry-cooking methods like roasting yield the most shrinkage.
Using 25% shrinkage as the guideline I calculated the amount of raw product I will need to buy in order to get the needed amount of protein after cooking.
Wild Salmon: (4.5 kg (10 lb) * 25%) + 4.5 kg (10 lb) = 5.6 kg (12.3 lb)
Chicken Breast: (3.3 kg (7.3 lb) * 25%) +3.3 kg (7.3 lb) = 4.1 kg (9 lb)
Angus Beef: (5 kg (11 lb) * 25%) + 5 kg (11 lb) = 6.3 kg (14 lb)
With these numbers in mind I went to the grocery store…
Wild Atlantic Salmon
12.49 lb (5.66 kg) = $82.31 (₴1728.5)
$82.31 / 7 days = $11.7 /day (₴245.7)
Cooked in the oven at 425 F for 20-30 minutes, with no oils.
Raw: 12.49 lb (5.66 kg)
Cooked: 10.4 lb (4.7 kg)
I LOVE SALMON. This is my most favorite source of protein, but unfortunately the most expensive among three. It’s a great source of Omega-3 fats that are so essential to counterbalance the Omega-6 ones that are so prevalent in modern foods. Too much of this fish may cause bloating and gas.
Chicken Breast
9.33 lb (4.2 kg) = $37.05 (₴778.05)
$37.05 / 7 days = $5.30 /day (₴111.3)
Raw: 8.7 lb (3.95 kg) (after removing from packaging and re-weighting myself. Delta: 0.63 lb (300g))
Grilled: 2.85 kg. Delta: 2.42 lb (1.1 kg) lost in cooking.
My preference towards chicken is somewhere between fish and beef. It’s still a bit hard on digestive system, but I like it because of it’s price accessibility and “purity” of protein.
Angus Beef
10.78 lb (4.9 kg) = $53.82 (₴1130.2)
$53.82 / 7 days = $7.7 /day (₴161.7)
Raw: 10.78 lb (4.9 kg)
Grilled: 6.72 lb (3.05 kg)
Delta is minimal.
Beef is not my favorite among three meats for the following reasons: it’s hard on digestion system; cooking of it takes more time and leaves a lot of mess to clean; it’s hard to chew on and it always stuck in your teeth. The main reason why I still implement beef into my diet is because of its fats. I never shy away from buying the fattest pieces of meat, as the animal fat it contains is essential for hormonal productions in our bodies.
Conclusions:
As expected, salmon is the most expensive source of protein. It costs about $12 (₴252) a day to cover my protein needs with fish. Choosing chicken instead would drop price by half, only $5.30 (₴111.3) a day. Beef lays in between, with its moderate price of $7.7 (₴161.7) a day, and on the last place due to my personal preference.
Eating only salmon for a month would cost me about $329.2 (₴6913.2). Chicken: $148.2 (₴3112.2). Beef: $215.3 (₴4521.3).
I can save money the following ways:
Alternate fish and chicken on a weekly or bi-weekly basis
Modern “trendy” diets, aka Keto, Paleo, Carnivor, Vegan etc., made us perceive carbohydrates as evil. There are so many things that impact the way our bodies absorb and process foods. Every person is unique, with his set of hormones, digestive microflora, physical and mental stress loads etc… When it comes to developing a healthy individual diet a lot of variables need to be taken to the account: macronutrient content, caloric load, glycemic index, meal timing and a lot more.
For a while I’ve been wondering if the order we consume nutrients during the meal impact glucose response. I’ve been thinking, will it change anything if we eat proteins first and carbs later or in reverse order. Eventually everything mixes in the stomach anyways, so is there is a difference to the order we eat? I found the answer and I am excited to share my finding with you.
After searching for a while I found this recent research made by Dr. Alpana P. Shukla that brings up the term – food order. The term “food order” refers to the sequence of the nutrients consumed during the meal. Turns out that timing of carbohydrates consumption during a meal has significant impact on the blood glucose level response. The research shown that when the carbohydrate component of the meal is consumed at the end of the meal or last, the effect on the glucose level will be way smaller that if the carbs would be consumed on the beginning of the meal. In other words, if you start your meal from eating proteins and vegetables first and save the carbs for the end, it wont cause the blood sugar level go up high. The table below shows that carbs eaten last resulted in 37% less of a blood sugar spike and 49,6% less of insulin response:
This is fascinating! Simply by switching the order you eat your food you can control you glucose and insulin levels in control and loose or maintain your weight. I am also fascinated to see how it can help people with diabetes and other insulin related deceases.
Protein pre-loading. Another, related study showed that taking whey protein drink shortly before a high-glycaemic-index meal (your favorite pancakes or pasta), lowered the insulin response by 28%:
“The results showed that over the whole 180 min post-meal period, glucose levels were reduced by 28% after whey pre-load with a uniform reduction during both early and late phases”, (Jakubowicz, D, July 10, 2014).
The study published by The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition in July 2005 proved the previous one:
“Whey proteins have insulinotropic effects and reduce the postprandial glycemia in healthy subjects. The mechanism is not known, but insulinogenic amino acids and the incretin hormones seem to be involved”, (Anders H Frid, July 1, 2005).
I like how they put “the mechanism is not known” in a study, but it doesn’t matter. What matters to us that is it works. Simply have a whey protein before your carb loaded meal and you won’t skyrocket your blood glucose levels up. When choosing whey protein, I suggest looking at isolate as it usually has the least amount of added sugars. Make sure you check the label for sugars content as you don’t need more than 3-5 g of sugars per scoop.
Does eating this way impact satiety? Yes it does. The research showed that protein consumed first, suppressed the ghrelin hormone level. Ghrelin is the “hunger hormone” because it stimulates appetite, increases food intake and promotes fat storage. Good news, keeping your food in order will make you feel more full and you will eat less.
Here is the study published by Diabetes Care journal. The experiment was done in 3 ways:
Carbohydrate-first meal: carbohydrate (bread and orange juice), followed 10 min later by protein (chicken) and vegetables;
Carbohydrate-last meal: protein and vegetables, followed 10 min later by carbohydrate;
Sandwich: all meal components together, each half consumed over 10 min with a 10-min interval in between.
Below are the results:
Main takeaways:
The order in which you eat carbs and proteins matter. It is not only “how much” and “what not to eat”. Optimal timing of carbohydrate consumption during a meal have a big impact on blood glucose levels and as result on your health and body composition;
You can loose weight by simply eating protein and vegetables first and carbohydrates at the end;
Never eat carbohydrates alone. They should be consumed as a part of the meal, followed by protein intake;
Taking a whey protein drink before meal reduces blood glucose spike;
Eating proteins first make you feel more full for longer;
References:
Shukla AP, Dickison M, Coughlin N, et al. The impact of food order on postprandial glycaemic excursions in prediabetes. Diabetes Obes Metab. 2018;1–5. https://doi.org/10.1111/dom.13503
Aronne, L. J. (2018, February 23). Effect of Food Order on Ghrelin Suppression. Retrieved November 11, 2018, from http://care.diabetesjournals.org/content/early/2018/02/22/dc17-2244
Shukla, A. P., Iliescu, R. G., Thomas, C. E., & Aronne, L. J. (2015, July 01). Food Order Has a Significant Impact on Postprandial Glucose and Insulin Levels. Retrieved November 11, 2018, from http://care.diabetesjournals.org/content/38/7/e98
Jakubowicz, D., Froy, O., Ahrén, B., Boaz, M., Landau, Z., Bar-Dayan, Y., . . . Wainstein, J. (2014, July 10). Incretin, insulinotropic and glucose-lowering effects of whey protein pre-load in type 2 diabetes: A randomised clinical trial. Retrieved November 11, 2018, from https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00125-014-3305-x?TB_iframe=true&width=921.6&height=921.6
Anders H Frid, Mikael Nilsson, Jens Juul Holst, Inger ME Björck; Effect of whey on blood glucose and insulin responses to composite breakfast and lunch meals in type 2 diabetic subjects, The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Volume 82, Issue 1, 1 July 2005, Pages 69–75, https://doi.org/10.1093/ajcn/82.1.69
