How to get more carbs in diet?

Brian Lawyer · 12-19-2009, 08:12 PM

I have been studying a lot more on nutrition lately in an attempt to clean up my diet. I have no desire to lose weight or gain weight. I just want good recovery from my workouts and general healthiness. As a frequenter of the CA and CF websites I know zone and paleo stuff. I have also been reading quite a bit of Rob Wolf's materials.

My question is if I want to go on a stricter Paleo type diet how do I get my carbs in without grains? For example, I loosely follow zone proportions of 5 block meals and 2 block snacks, or about 19 blocks/Day. I have been following this for years and it works well for me as far as my goal of weight maintenance. However, I do not know if I could be getting better sports performance from cleaning up my diet some. So I started working more paleo type meals but I would have to eat a crapload of vegetables to make a 5 block meal. What am I missunderstanding about Paleo...

Derek Weaver · 12-19-2009, 08:18 PM

The best way to get more carbs in the diet is to eat more of them.

With slightly less smart-assery... sweet potatoes/yams, and fruit work fine.

Expecting to get enough carbs from veggies in order to sustain or improve performance is a pipe dream for most.

Steven Low · 12-19-2009, 11:17 PM

Fruits and veggies are mostly carbs...

Jay Cohen · 12-20-2009, 05:05 AM

Brian;

I have at leat 10lbs of frozen 1lb bags of mix veggies(broc, Cauf) in my freezer at all times, Wal Mart .98 per lb and eat about a 1.5 bags a day, yams, berries(frozen Sam's Club), easy to get carbs, but you do have to EAT them and prepare them enough diff ways not to get bored.

Few pieces of fruit a day, problem solved, if not much fruit and you do not want to add a tad of Oatmeal, then bottom line, eat more veggies, day in, day out. More color the better.

PS. Sauerkraut at around 1.28 for two lb bag is a bargain and it's a fermented food, double bargin.

Jay Ashman · 12-20-2009, 08:06 AM

sweet potatoes, squashes, fruits..

its rather simple

Brian Lawyer · 12-20-2009, 12:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Derek Weaver

... sweet potatoes/yams, and fruit work fine.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jay Cohen

...yams, berries(frozen Sam's Club), easy to get carbs, but you do have to EAT them and prepare them enough diff ways not to get bored...add a tad of Oatmeal...

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jay Ashman

sweet potatoes, squashes, fruits..

Thanks guys. I was unaware sweet potatoes were acceptable. They used to be a staple in my diet. I would normally cook up enough chicken breast, sweet potatoes, and brocolli to make about 4 meals every Sunday night. Then I read somewhere, Paleo I think, that sweet potatoes were not good.

The reason I get so confused with nutrition stuff is because I can never figure out when authors are talking to an audience that wishes to lose weight versus an athlete who only wants high performance and has no desire to lose weight.

I have the zone and Paleo books, but I think those are geared towards people trying to lose weight and generally not very athletic people. So they confuse me even more. Robb Wolf has lot's of good resources, but I have the same problem with him, that is deciphering if he is talking to some fatass or an athlete. He's got a sample 16 block zone diet on his website but I have a feeling if I started following that I would start melting away.

Then on the other end of the spectrum, I have this book called Nancy Clark's Sport Nutrition Guide Book. At one point several years ago I think this book was a staple for sports nutrition, it is in like it's 4th edition now. However, I think it is geared more towards marathon runners. Plus Nancy Clark goes contrary to all other books in that it recommends tons of pasta, grains, etc.

It's so confusing!!

Jay Ashman · 12-20-2009, 02:16 PM

Brian, nutrition is the easiest part of training, IMO. Sure, we all have little questions about certain things here and there, but don't overthink it too much.

Eat good quality food and you will be fine. If you need more carbs, eat more sweet potatoes and fruits, be easy on the dried fruit and fruit juices though.

I eat a bowl of oats with protein, peanut butter and cinammon on rest days at times because I want to, but usually I am no grains (unless a crave strikes then all bets are off).

Mike ODonnell · 12-20-2009, 02:21 PM

Embrace the sweet potato....as mentioned above several times over. Don't worry about 100% Paleo.

Don't make this more complicated than it needs to be, try new things and then find what works for you.

Jay Cohen · 12-20-2009, 02:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mike ODonnell

Embrace the sweet potato....

The makings of a great T Shirt

Darryl Shaw · 12-21-2009, 06:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Brian Lawyer

Then on the other end of the spectrum, I have this book called Nancy Clark's Sport Nutrition Guide Book. At one point several years ago I think this book was a staple for sports nutrition, it is in like it's 4th edition now. However, I think it is geared more towards marathon runners. Plus Nancy Clark goes contrary to all other books in that it recommends tons of pasta, grains, etc.

It's so confusing!!

The only significant difference between the nutritional requirements of endurance athlete and strength athletes is endurance athletes generally have greater requirements for calories, carbohydrates and protein (link) per kg of BW than strength athletes. This means you can take what you learn from Nancy Clark's Sports Nutrition Guide* and adapt it to the paleo diet by substituting roots, tubers, fruit and honey for the grains the authors say you should eat.

* A Complete Guide to Sports Nutrition by Anita Bean is a better book IMO.