Perhaps it’s the earth consciousness of the prototypical climber, but vegan and vegetarian diets seem to be more popular than normal in climbing circles. There are a number of famous vegetarian and vegan climbers, such as Steph Davis and Alex Honnold, and their public commitment to these animal-friendly diets only increases such diets’ popularity further. […]
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Dietary Collagen Is Worthless
Awhile back when I was in Taiwan visiting a friend, his then girlfriend (now wife) took us to a little restaurant and ordered a small feast. One after another, the dishes arrived at our table, and were mostly fabulous. A less fabulous dish, however, was the pile of gelatinous, cooked fish skin adorned with colorful roe “sprinkles”. While it […]
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Fructose
Fructose may be the single most well-known—and most despised—food sugar. Since it entered our public spotlight, numerous wellness gurus and associated types have cast aspersions on its safety and linked it to any number of disease states. So much has fructose been derided that even among those who don’t vilify sugar, it is often mistrusted. Given a choice […]
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The Sports Nutrition Pyramid
Occasionally, I come across articles that try to simplify sports nutrition by dispensing with most common “good practices” as unnecessary (like nutrient timing, macro goals, etc.). Usually, their core message is that you should just follow your instincts—eat what you want, when you want, and not worry about the specifics. I get why they’ve adopted this approach—it’s hard and […]
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Why You Need More Oxygen to Burn Fat than Carbohydrates (and How This Affects Your Climbing)
I’ve written before about how carbohydrates are more oxygen-efficient than fat, which is a boon for climbing of all types; what I haven’t really addressed is why. Far from being a dry, biochemical fact of interest only to physiology enthusiasts, knowing exactly how carbohydrates derive their advantage can inform everyone about their diets, as well as […]
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Weight Loss Timing
If your goal is to “get lean” and you have only a small-to-moderate amount of weight to lose (less than 5-10% of your total weight), then you shouldn’t approach weight loss as a year-round endeavor. Rather, you should approach it as a single phase in your yearly training cycle so as to not interfere with […]
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Understanding the Balance of Your Metabolism
Your metabolism is a complicated subject, and frequently misunderstood. Yet understanding how it works—at least basically—can make you feel tremendously more comfortable with your diet, because your metabolism is at the heart of whether you gain, lose, or maintain weight. Most people think of the relationship between weight loss and weight gain as dichotomous, with only a […]
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Clarifying Protein Intake
Protein is the hardest macronutrient to understand, and questions routinely crop up surrounding it and its intake. I’ve tried to answer every big question in my protein series (which is a great place to start if you’re clueless about how protein works!), but there are still some aspects that I routinely get queried about. If you’ve […]
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No, Magnesium Does Not Help You Poop
A bit of an odd topic this week, but one I often hear about from fellow climbers. While the question of magnesium and poop quality isn’t directly relevant to climbing, one of the bigger purposes of this site is to dispel the misinformation flooding the internet and provide a credible source for accurate information. So does magnesium help […]
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A Primer On Losing Weight (Part 2)
Last week, I posted Part I of this two-part article series on losing weight. Most of what I covered in the previous article dealt with misconceptions and scientific realities of weight loss, because it’s my view that the best way to approach any diet is from a standpoint firmly rooted in scientific evidence. This week, I’m […]
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