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Is a diet important to getting strong?
i know you have to eat a lot of food but besides that does it matter?. I kno if u want to lose weight it does but for strength idk. I eat fast food junk food all kinds of crap but i still have a six pack.

 
Fast food is actually fairly ideal if your goal is to get strong, lots of calories and saturated fat.  In your situation, given your activity level you arent gonna get fat any time soon, id be hitting the golden arches HARD.

Wow… I wish i could delete your post.
 
How can you choose processed food over healthy whole foods?
 
You can get saturated fat from healthy non processed food… SO DUMB!
 
I can’t believe you just suggested that he opt for fast food…
 
I would only recommend it once or twice a week… that’s IT!! You one have one body… take care of it!
 

Fast food it is. You can get saturated fats from healthy food but you would have to eat a lot more healthy food to equal the calories you would get from somewhere like mcdonald. Plus fast food tastes great!

i DONT agree with you.. you should NEVER promote fast food!!!

 
I am reminded of an old saying…
“In theory, practice and theory are the same.  In practice, they aren’t.”

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what is this in Reference too?

Well we arent saying this is the diet for a person thats trying to lose weight or ton down. We are trying to get strong and you need a ton of calories to do that.

 
 
thanks you!! i am happy you see this point

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what is this in Reference too?[/QUOTE]

It is in reference to the fast food thing.  You can use every piece of science and research at your disposal to dismiss a “fast food” type of diet, but the fact is that in the real world you wont find many guys squatting 800lbs or clean and jerking 400lbs that have not built a lot of that strength on hamburgers and pizze.  This goes across the various strength sports, shotputters or hammer throwers, strongmen, powerlifters, and even weightlifters.  If you are trying to get bigger and stronger, an excess of calories and saturated fat seems to be key, and there is no easier way to get it than McDonalds or pizza.  If you have never had to force feed yourself on a daily basis to the point where you want to throw up and heaven in your mind is a day that you DONT have to eat, you just cant understand.
If you want to be lean, if your struggling to stay down in a weight class, if health is your main concern, sure, its not ideal.  But if you are 200lbs squatting 400lbs, and you want to be 240lbs squatting 600lbs, then hit the drive through.  And the title of this thread was pertaining to a diet for getting stronger, not a diet to get lean or support optimal health.

Ok ok ok .. i see  your point.. I guess that is reality but i don’t agree with it personally..
 
I would not want my child getting involved in a sport that require him to eat this crap to be strong and successful.. I personally don’t think its healthy and goes against everything i believe it.. I see  your point and i will not argue with you because you obviously have more experience then me. However I would love to meet an Olympic lifter that just eats cleans whole foods with additional supplementation and liquid shakes if need me..

 
Laura,
Most OLers do have pretty decent diets, the majority are lifting within a weight class and have to maintain weigh, not gain weight.
And, no one is sayiing that you should eat this way your whole life, I agree that this would NOT be good.  But I don’t see anything wrong with really shoving the food down for a couple of months if you want to pack on some muscle.
In any sport, from OLing to marathon running, the folks who are really competitive take things to an extreme that ceases to be healthy.  This is just how it is in competitive sports.

So Glenn basically the more food the better?

 
Like i said i see your point… I am not in competitive sports so this concept is foreign to me… I guess following this diet for a couple of months “for competitive elite athletes” is not the worst thing… You just make it sound like they have to eat like this all the time..
 
In most of your post you promote fast foods filled with high cholesterol, sodium, unhealthy fat and carbs that will make your insulin spike through the roof…
 
You never mention/promote healthy eating which bothers me… I am just thinking about the long run with these athletes and not so much about the present moment or their Olympic lifting success… I think that’s were we differ…
 
But i see your point!!  
 

We dont eat fast food everyday. We eat a lot of home cooked meals too. And basically anythin i can get my hands on. Basically we eat watever food i can get my hands on. Healthy and non healthy

i guess its working for you now..
 
I am curious to see what you will say and look like 10-15 years from now

Well i plan on still competing in 10yrs. Im only 20 so i still have a good amount of time left in me. And even when i stop competing i dont think i will ever stop working out. It may not be to the level i do now but i thing i still workout a decent amount.

i dont think you got my point… ok.. then i would like to see your health status, joints, tissues, knees, back, ect in 20 years from now..
 
i would be curious to see how much wear and tear the sport does.. i could be completely wrong but i see alot of retired pro body builders, and lifters with many injuries .. “I am talking about pr status here” not just someone that works out

Olympic weightlifters tend to have less injuries then body builders and power lifters. Because of the flexibility we require to do the actual lifts it helps us from having issues later on in life. Obviously there are people that end up with issues but not as many compared to football, or body building and so on. I kno a lot of guys that competed in the olympics for the U.S. and there in there 50s and still walking around. Most of them still lift too. Not as often as they use to but a couple times a week. there was a guy 82yrs old that competed in one of the local meets in august last yr.

Your diet is extremely important to getting strong. You have to have the proper amount of protein in order to recover after workouts (and promote growth). Take a look into BCAA’s (Branched Chain Amino Acids). Leucine has been shown to be the most important amino acid for muscle repair. Load up on it!

 
 
Like i said i see your point… I am not in competitive sports so this concept is foreign to me… I guess following this diet for a couple of months “for competitive elite athletes” is not the worst thing… You just make it sound like they have to eat like this all the time..
 
In most of your post you promote fast foods filled with high cholesterol, sodium, unhealthy fat and carbs that will make your insulin spike through the roof…
 
You never mention/promote healthy eating which bothers me… I am just thinking about the long run with these athletes and not so much about the present moment or their Olympic lifting success… I think that’s were we differ…
 
But i see your point!!  
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Laura, just to be clear, I am not promoting fast food for health.  And in a perfect world, sure, I would rather folks ate more healthy.  But often it is damn hard to stuff enough calories down of healthy food.  When I was competing I couldnt do it, so I understand how some others cant also.
you could be talking to a bunch of powerlifters and they would tell you the same thing.  The ameture BBers that I have known have also eaten insane amounts of food, much of it that would be unhealthy in your eyes, when they were on cycle and trying to grow.

Glen. Like i said i see your point… I STILL don’t agree with it and wouldn’t condone it but sometimes people have to do what they have to do.
 
It’s not impossible to eat ALOT of healthy calories however it is easier to eat fast food and get those calories down.
 
Personally if it were me, I would suck it up and eat ALOT of healthy carbs fats and proteins… I would NEVER opt for fast food (the easy way out)..Tto me it’s not worth it… I have one body, and one life, i would not take any risks for a HOBBY…
 

Interesting… I wonder why Olympic lifters have fewer injuries.

Were did you get these facts from?


I would think Olympic lifts required more technical skill?

 

Interesting… I wonder why Olympic lifters have fewer injuries.

Were did you get these facts from?


I would think Olympic lifts required more technical skill?[/QUOTE]
Olympic weightlifters do have fewer injuries than almost any other athletes in the world. That has been a proven fact over a long period of time. It really is a pretty safe sport if taught correctly.

Yes!! It taught correctly… i see dumb people in my gym trying to execute these lifts and it’s scary to watch…
 
They were never trained and showed properly… that’s why i think it’s dangerous
 
 
 

I think it is farely well documented that you have to just make sure you get adequate amounts of protein/carbs/fat in your diet. I mean, that is no new crazy science. Obviously there will be arguments about healthy vs. unhealthy food, but, you just have to make sure you are consuming enough calories to help you recover and grow. That is the bottom line.

Ya but the people in regular gyms trying to do the lifts arent olympic weightlifters. They dont compete. Even people that compete at local meets for fun have some kind of coach. You have to have one so you kno the rules. A lot of the rules for olympic lifting are set for safety measures. Like ur elbow cant touch your knee. Comparing people that compete in lifting to people in a normal gym is like comparing a pro baseball player to a 5yr old with a bat. Neither the 5yr old or the people in a normal gym kno much about the sport. the 5yr old jst knows u hav to hit a ball wit a bat. And a person at a regular gym now that the weight goes over your head. Anything becomes dangerous if you dont know how to do it

Yep! I agree 100% 
 
When i referred to Olympic lifting being dangerous and more prone to injuries; i was refereeing to the average gym goer preferring these lifts without a trainer/coach.
 
You are right, Training with heavy weight especially over your head (with momentum and power) can be VERY dangerous.  I think if anyone wants to add “heavy” Olympic lifts in their routine they should not try to learn it on their own…  
 

I think if you want to do anything at a high level u need coaching. If you want to run a full marathon its smart to get a coach cuz that could be dangerous. Your first day training ur not gonna try and run the whole thing ur kill yourself. If you want to do anything well its recommended to get a coach or trainer. At least in the beginning

calories in vs calories out, it seems if you are very active and burning a lot of calories whats wrong with eating or even takeing your kid to the GOLDEN arches!!!!