Hi @debourgknecht1
I am the Dietitian for Uphill Athlete. I just wanted to try and answer your question and provide a bit more structure. I would try to keep this whole process of dietary change as straight forward and simple as you can.
From your initial post it sounds like you were simply just over eating on calories. When we are in a calorie surplus we can gain weight regardless of dietary composition. It is fantastic you have been trying to adjust your diet intake to match the energy demands of your training.
As others have highlighted we are all individual due to e.g. age, fitness level, training volume and load, sport, main event goal and these will all have an influence on diet composition.
When I start to work with any uphill athlete client when I provide custom nutrition plans I will reduce carbohydrate intake if I feel carb intake is higher than necessary to support adaptations to endurance training. I would reduce carb intake to around 150-200g / day that is approx. 2-3g/kg/bw of carbohydrate per day. Or more simply you can reduce your intake of carbohydrate on a day to day basis and just include carbohydrate in the one – two meals before a high intensity/strength/climbing session and in the meal following this session. I would also encourage carb intake in the meal/snack after a fasted session / long day on the hill. Some good tips to reduce carbohydrate is increase vegetable intake and swap portions of carbohydrate for lower carb starchy vegetables such as carrots/beets/parsnip/squash/pumpkin. This will still allow you to have a nice portion of food on your plate whilst reducing both energy and carbohydrate intake.
What is also important is to make sure you include a source of protein at every meal, post training and pre bed (as I think some one has also highlighted). Aim for approx. 25g of protein at each meal (1 x chicken breast, salmon steak, 40z steak etc) in recovery and 30g pre bed. Protein is the most satiating of macronutrients and this will not only help with muscle recovery but also help keep you feeling full and satisfied when we reduce any foods in our diet.
Eating fat will enhance fat oxidation but it is not a necessity to eat a high fat diet to improve performance, ultimately you need to do the endurance training to gain the physiological adaptations that will enable your body to burn more fat as a fuel source and obviously get better. Naturally when you reduce carbohydrate, to maintain weight you will increase fat intake. Increasing fat intake is absolutely fine but even eating lots of fat, if you are in an energy surplus this will cause weight gain (as you have discovered). You do not necessarily need to go all out on the low carb high fat diet to achieve your training and fitness goals, particularly if you are a climber I would certainly recommend including carbs around your climbing training and climbing performance.
Your plate at each meal should compose of:
– 1/2 full of vegetables (go for the green ones more so too e.g. spinach, kale, cabbage)
– 25g of protein
– A serving of healthy fats e.g. nuts/seeds/avocado/oily fish/olive oil/olives (you will also get some fat from your protein containing foods).
– A small portion of nutritious carbohydrate around high intensity exercise e.g. brown rice/sweet potato/quinoa/oats (portion size will depend on energy demands/type of next training session but go with approx. one fist size amount). You can replace for lower carb options e.g. veggies/beets/parsnip/squash at other meals.
Making these dietary changes you should also naturally start to feel a desirable adjustment in your body weight/body composition. If there is a goal weight you would like to achieve that is realistic for your climbing goal, then a safe weight loss strategy can be employed to get you to that race weight. As someone again has highlighted it is quite difficult to maintain race weight all of the time, therefore it is good to start to get used to your training weight/off season weight/racing weight variations. Our body weight adjusts naturally through out the year and it is understanding what and how brings about this change.
In terms of your recent body weight gain, It is unlikely you have gained this much muscle mass in 2weeks (if this is since your initial post). I agree with Scott above that due to the increase in carbs it may be additional weight from water (for every 1g of carbohydrate you store in your muscles you also store approx. 1g of water). You do also in fact need some fat in your diet so cutting it out completely is not perhaps the most ideal approach. However making drastic improved changes in your diet quality will certainly have had a positive impact on how you feel. I would need to take a look at your current diet intake and training plan to determine what is really going on and what are your specific dietary needs with out trying to guess.
I hope this has been helpful.
Rebecca
