I just received John Berardi and Michael Fry's
Grappler's Guide to Sports Nutrition the other day. It was well worth purchasing. I'll try to give a quick review of what you would expect to find inside. You can find the TOC here:
http://www.grapplersnutrition.com/we...tionsample.pdf.
Chapter 2 (the first section is your typical book intro)
Berardi goes over the 10 habits he has made the core of his nutrition programs. You can find them on his website(
http://www.johnberardi.com), and anyone who is familiar with his work has probably already come across them. As simple as they are there is a lot behind them, and they have had noticeable effects on my body immediately. My energy levels have gone up, my work outs are better utilized, and my recovery has improved. I was beginning to think I was getting old before I started following these rules.
My weight hasn't really changed yet, but I switched from a very low carb diet to this diet so it's hard to tell yet. Low carb diets cause you to retain less water so my water weight has gone up from the switch. Because of this my muscles look fuller and I would expect to be heavier but I'm not. My weight has stayed about the same and I think I look a little trimmer in the midsection so it's possible that I've lost some body fat. I'll have to wait and see how things go after a little more time.
What is amazing as that all of this is happening as I'm eating a lot more food. I'm actually getting a full 25-50% more calories on average but haven't gained weight. If you've found yourself chronically dieting to stay in a weight class (or just because you've fallen into the typical American diet pattern) you'll appreciate the amount you get eat on this plan. It's much easier to follow a program that allows you to eat this much, IMHO.
Chapter 3-The superfoods
A nice list of foods with added health benefits. Helpful for creating a shopping list.
Chapter 4-Workout & Competition Nutrition
Info on things such as workout and post workout shakes, etc. A lot of stuff I was already familiar with but I often find myself amazed at how few of my work out partners practice.
Chapter 5-Supplement Strategies
The authors prefer to stick to the basic supplements, as do I, so don't expect to see a lot. No NO2 boosters and what not, just a few basic supplements that are proven safe and effective.
Chapter 6-Sample Menus
I was a little disappointed in this chapter. I would have preferred more menus. Instead it has one set of meals that are reprinted over several pages with the serving sizes modified to adjust for different sized athletes and different goals of training. I would have preferred that they explained the process of calculating the amount of calories or serving sizes you would need based on your weight and goals and then used the space to present more meal variations.
Chapter 7-Food and Weight management
They get into the reason why I am able to eat more now without gaining weight. Offers a more advanced view of the energy balance than just "calories in - calories out = weight gained or lost".
Chapter 8-Cutting Weight
The gold mine of this book. In here you'll find techniques of how to lose water weight fast, without working yourself to death in sweats. More importantly it goes into how to get re-hydrated in time for competition, and how much weight is too much weight to cut given the amount of time you have to re-hydrate.
Chapter 9-Outcome based decision making
Simple guide to monitoring your results and adjusting your diet.
Bottom line: Great book. Lots of solid basic info that ties together to make an easy to follow and effective eating plan. It's not just for grapplers, any athlete that needs to make weight can benifit from it.
