Racing Weight: How To Get Lean For Peak Performance (2009) - Plot & Excerpts
I did not expect to rate a book about sports nutrition with 5 stars. It deserves 5 stars for 3 reasons- the content is useful and important, the topic is well researched and based on data, and the author (Matt Fitzgerald) is an excellent writer. I do not know how many other authors are an English major, sports journalist, athlete, and certified sports nutritionist. The combination results in a fantastic book!The main premise of the book is that endurance sports performance is best when the athlete is at the optimal body weight and leanness. Excess body fat is the enemy of performance in every endurance sport. Fitzgerald describes six specific practices that he considers the keys to weight management success of top athletes. The practices can also benefit other athletes. I consider myself more of an extreme fitness buff than an athlete, but still think the practices are worth a try. The practices are:1. Improve your diet quality. Fitzgerald talks about various measures of diet quality. He indicates glycemic index is not a good measure of quality because it isolates one characteristic of food, pulls it out of context, and blows it out of proportion. Although there is an association between glycemic index and food quality, there are high quality high GI foods. Fitzgerald indicates the only truly useful measure of a food's value is its total concentration and balance of nutrients. He created the Diet Quality Score (DQS). The score considers the intrinsic wholesomeness of foods, balance, and moderation. Foods are divided into six high quality categories (fruits; vegetables; lean meats and fish; nuts and seeds; whole grains; dairy) and four low quality categories (refined grains; sweets; fried foods; fatty proteins). He provides a scoring system so you can evaluate your current diet and determine what changes will improve the quality. It will take some work at first, but the need to score your diet should decrease ( or disappear) after you establish healthy eating habits. No foods are forbidden, but low quality foods bring down the score. Chapter 11 includes good examples for each of the high quality categories. 2. Manage your appetite. Fitzgerald emphasizes appetite management instead of calorie counting. He provides information about real hunger (belly hunger) and hedonic hunger (head hunger- the desire to eat for pleasure). How much we eat is determined by fullness, portion size, and environment. He provides information to help manage the negative effects of portion size and environment. 3. Balance your energy sources. This section includes a lot of information about the importance of carbs. Fitzgerald is the first person to make a convincing case to me that high glycemic index carbs were not invented by the devil. He includes information about the Zone and Paleo diets and why they are not optimal for fueling athletes. He presents scientific evidence and doesn't bash the higher protein diets. 4. Monitor yourself. Athletes need to monitor performance, diet, weight, and body composition. The book describes tools to use for monitoring. Over time, it is less important to monitor diet because the nutrition practices become habit. 5. Time your nutrition. The timing depends on training schedule. In general- carbs early and protein late. The schedule he describes is the opposite of what I follow. His explanation makes sense, so I will make some changes and experiment. 6. Train right. Interesting claim by Fitzgerald- "Despite an increasingly popular belief to the contrary, exercise is the most powerful factor in successful weight management." This claim is one that he does not explain or support well enough. He indicates more than 90 percent of people who succeed in losing large amounts of weight and keeping the weight off exercise regularly. However, he does not mention people who exercise and are not at a healthy weight. Many fitness experts emphasize that you cannot exercise away a high calorie crappy diet. Fitzgerald's statement makes sense within the context of this book, which is focused on pairing diet and performance. Fitzgerald provides information about the proper balance of high and low intensity training. Athletes should spend more time on low intensity training, but high intensity training is essential for performance improvement. Strength training is an important component of training for endurance sports. The book includes specific strength exercises for different endurance sports. After the chapters on the six practices, there is information about training schedules. This information is useful for athletes preparing for an event. There are also chapters on specific high quality goods, diet examples from endurance pros, and specific populations. The specific populations include gluten free, vegetarian, older, and younger. I was not surprised to learn that I entered the older category at least a decade ago. I better speed up the process and apply the information from the book to my life NOW !!I highly recommend this book to any athlete or fitness buff who wants to improve their performance. Fitzgerald is the author of other books on nutrition, running, and training. I plan to read more of his books and may become a groupie! Racing Weight felt a bit critical of athletes that choose to forgo animal products, but otherwise this book is absolutely brilliant. Fitzgerald is not critical of those who choose to abstain from animal products for ethical reasons, merely states that one can be healthy and consume animal products. I appreciate that, and that he included a section for vegetarians and vegans. He did go on a bit longer than needed when trying to argue for meat and dairy as part of a healthy diet though. Overall, it's incredibly accessible and a useful guide of even the most novice athletes.
What do You think about Racing Weight: How To Get Lean For Peak Performance (2009)?
pretty good book. definitely gave me a lot to think about, and it was very interesting
—HollyEarle1
Handy well-written guide, but not with a whole lot of new information.
—lizpirake
Interesting enough but not sure I really got all that much out of it.
—thinkingofme
Covers all areas of weight loss for athletic performance.
—andybaby365
