Agreed, I was about to ask the same question, can you, (R1FF), tell us what you ate yesterday for instance? I'm not poo-pooing your ideas, I would love to lose weight, most would I'm sure also. What do you recommend eating on an average day? Can this be done by someone who doesn't cook?--my cooking skills are turning the microwave to Hi or Lo.
As to the importance of optimum physical fitness for tennis, perhaps at the ATP 100 level, but in the Senior Age Group tournament level, I've seen players who shouldn't be lifting their shirts to towel off. Tennis is more of a fine motor skill sport, more akin to being a classical musician or opera singer, who don't need to be perfect physical specimens to perform. With good technique, strategy and tactics a fattish player can beat an Osain Bolt.
I recommend cutting out anything that metabolizes into glucose (and that includes cheap protein sources). Namely, carbs. The reason I do not call it “low carb” or subscribe to any of the brands like Atkins or Paleo is because those do not stress what too eat, as much as what they tell you what not to eat. And I think that sets a person up for failure.
Quitting sugar can cause some pretty significant withdrawal symptoms. So my program has been focused on how to “kick” the addiction in as little time as possible with as little discomfort as possible (I’ve seen 3 people puke from it, looked like any other hardcore narcotic withdraws). If people are going to give up 80% of their current diet, you better give them something satiating that they can replace it with. But I dont see FAT stressed enough in these other “diets”, probably because fat has been demonized for so long it wouldn’t be wise marketing. Getting the average person to flip & accept that fat/cholesterol are good, is a tough sell. We’ve all been indoctrinated to some degree.
Average person I help gets thru in 11 days. But it still takes roughly 30 before your body is fully fat adapted and physical & cognitive performance returns and improves.
Yes, cutting out the carbs is an oversimplification of the process. The other aspects include replacing all those carbs with nutient dense & filling calories such as red meat, eggs, & full fat dairy. 70-80% of my daily intake is fat. The rest is protein. Imagine that, I lost 45 lbs from eating mostly fat!
But that is the natural state of the human body (ketosis). Fat should be your primary fuel source. And glucose should come from the liver via excess protein being metabolized via glucogenesis.
You dont need to be measuring out all your food like I do (I track all I eat & all physical expenditure and been doing so for almost 2 years). I treat this like a research project tho. That isn’t required of anyone else. By simply sticking to the right categories of food, the fat-to-protein ratios naturally take care of themselves. But it is critical that you eat enough. I’ve seen plenty of overzealous enthusiasm lead to thinking they can starve themselves. That’s a recipe for failure. As are a few other non-diet factors I lay out.
Lifestyle changes are NOT easy. And that is exactly what a nutrition overhaul is, unfortunately. Getting thru the first 14 days really is the hardest part (physically) and where the least amount of help can be found online from simply searching “low carb”.
The MENTAL aspect of a lifestyle change is MUCH harder to overcome and where 75% of my help comes in. I believe that the motivation factor is ultimately what determines our success. For example:
- Every person Ive helped has lost weight & felt better
- NOT every person I’ve helped has stuck with it
- The first question I ask is “what is your motivation for a lifestyle change?”
- If you tell me “weight loss” I can guarantee certain failure
- 100% of the people who only are seeking weight loss fail in my experience. Myself included if I hadnt discovered the other benefits that carried more meaning to me. Sure, better sports performance is nice. But my true motivation came when my back pain subsided. Lifelong back pain, GONE. That is why I still havent relapsed into eating pizza. My motivation changed from weight loss to pain loss by day 3. Each person has to find their own motivator tho that is personal to them.
- Weight loss is temporary in that I can guarantee those results, but once you hit that goal, what incentive is there to stay the course? People dont really care about being healthy or avoiding disease. They may claim it, but their actions tell a different story.
- Every person that has taken the time to figure out a long term and genuine motivator, stays the course indefinitely.
- Oddly enough, other motivators such as “avoiding disease” ... “I want to be healthier” .... “I want to live longer to see my grandkids grow up” are all pretty worthless motivators. People dont really care about cancer until they’ve got it, and even then, they dont REALLY care to change behavior. I’ve found that some of the most trivial motivations can be the best, the key is that they are TANGIBLE and not abstract.
- So find your motivation first & foremost. It’s the fundamental building block and best weapon against a culture that is constantly offering deviation from one’s goals.
- Weight loss is a natural byproduct of getting healthy. Nothing more. If you’ve made weight loss the goal, there are many ways to achieve it but they are generally not sustainable or healthy. Let the weight loss become the side effect, everything gets easier with that mindset.
And yes, you do need to be able to cook. You do not have to be great at it. But if you dont have the time or effort to cook yourself dinner with real food once a day, that’s a bigger issue in itself. Cooking is a basic lifeskill. If you can prioritize learning a better backhand, you can learn to cook a restaurant quality steak.
There’s a lot more detail than all this. Including the science behind it (of which few actually care about LOL). Like I said, DM me if interested. Im typing this from my phone so it’s not easy and Im sure much is lost in translation.
Oh, and my typical daily intake is as follows:
Early Lunch (500-600 calories): eggs, some fresh mozzarella
Dinner (1500 calories): steak with butter on it
....
Just because you’ve seen already good players who aren’t physically healthy, doesnt mean they wouldnt massively improve from better health. I’ve helped 2 very good tennis players kick sugar and their games did improve, a lot. If you dont think your nutrition habits affects cognitive function, you’re wrong.
and that counting points is just useful for boosting pride (I reply that if pride depends on a tennis match, it can be easily destroyed...)
