freediving diet: when should one start?

[Lil Dragonfly]

I'm trying to figure out if going on a freediving diet is something that will improve my performance now, or if I shouldn't bother with it until later.

On one hand, I am very sensitive to the effects of what I eat. More so than everyone else I know.

On the other hand, I'm still somewhat of a noob. In FII courses you're not supposed to learn diet until level 3, and my instructor says that the class I need to sign up for is level 2. I'm sure you've all seen the family guy episode where Stewie wants to learn how to swim, and shaves his body like an olympic swimmer thinking that will help...I don't want to be silly like that.

 

[hteas]

Lil Dragonfly,
Just eat healthy; fresh fruit and vegetables, limit protein and fats, plenty of complex starches: no fad diets, just good food.

 

[hank49]

I agree with hteas.
An overall healthy diet is a good thing.
I also find that eating the right foods for breakfast affect me on hunting days. I eat a huge bowl of oatmeal sweetened with honey. Sometimes a protein shake or bananas with egg white and milk shake. This will last me from 7 am to about 2 or 3 pm. If I go again, I eat only peanut butter sandwiches.
If I eat any meats at all, I get bad heartburn. After about 15 free dives it feels like the food is trying to come back up and I have to keep swallowing. forget the tomatos and onions. (The typical central American Spanish foods....ugghhh. they taste great but make me feel like shit in the water)
I drink coconut water, water and gatorade.
I think alsol that the older one gets, the more one notices how different foods affect you. I'll be 55 in a month but when I was 25, anything worked.

 

[Lil Dragonfly]

I already do eat healthy. When I said "freediving diet" I meant anything more bizarre and extreme.

 

[ReefTroll]

Ask Benny B about his freediving diet....

 

[Lil Dragonfly]

I will do that thanks.

 

[Lil Dragonfly]

So, what do you guys think? Insane diet: should I go for it?

 

[Goran Colak]

Plain and simple NO

Just eat healthy, normal diet. I will not avoid proteins, you need them while training especially in basic training period... So eat normal balanced meals, with non fat proteins and complex carbs... like I sad normal healthy balanced diet.

Before competition, you might want to make some glycogen reserve in your liver, so lets say 2-4 days of just complex carbs, fruits and low proteins, on last day none... Avoid milk and milk based products in lets say last week or so... Take enough iron, fol-acid and B vitamin.

Most important of all, train hard and relax during the dive

 

[Lil Dragonfly]

Non-fat proteins? I have to eat fatty fish (sardines, salmon, trout, etc.) and nuts daily because of a medical condition. Hope this is ok.

 

[Goran Colak]

Well balanced diet needs to have fat in it, and fish is probably the best source of it.

 

[MikkoP]

Why should I avoid milk-based products?

 

[fflupo]

mucous builds up which isn t beneficial for the eq.


http://forums.deeperblue.com/freediving-training-techniques/62973-apnea-diet.html

 

[MikkoP]

Mm, it seems that drinking milk doesn't increase mucus formation. Unless you believe it does, which will cause a placebo effect.

http://www.apneanutrition.com/mucus.pdf

Goran, was the mucus formation the reason why you suggested avoiding milk, or is it some other reason?

 

[Goran Colak]

Well i don't know about milk-mucus being only placebo, I have read a lot of papers how milk is no1 food for mucus buildup... but then again there is other reasons, like Ph balance and Lactate production...

 

[hteas]

Just a thought on the milk test:
The double-blind test may show the placebo effect to be true, but it occurs to me that the real issue may be that some of us are more tolerant of milk than others, and those consuming milk-like products and are sensitive will increase mucous production, while those most tolerant of milk will feel no effect, because there is none for them.

 

[cdavis]

There is little question that milk product consumption increases mucus production ( with associated eq prolems) in some, but not all, divers. I don't care what any "double blind" study shows. I'm pretty resistant, but getting off milk products does have effects that I can feel at the limits of my hands free eq ability. I like milk, so its not enough to be worth getting off. My oldest son is very sensitive. Just about can't dive without getting off at least a week in advance. For him,its a big deal. By the way, he didn't believe it would make any difference.

Connor

 

[hank49]

If I put a lot of milk on my oatmeal, it gives me gas, which if I rip one and it resonates inside my wetsuit on the surface...I swear the snappers dive for cover.

 

[MikkoP]

You can disregard all the double blind studies you want, but I personally tend trust them much more than my personal experiences. Depending on, of course, how well some study has been planned and executed. It's amazing how easily you can start to believe in something and how hard it is to change your mind afterwards. Double blind tests are pretty much the only way to control placebo effect, observer-expectancy effect and other bias.

Anyway, it's possible that milk has some mucus formating effects. I haven't gone too deep into the subject and other studies about it, mostly because I don't find it that important. I haven't been able to notice any difference at all, whether I drink milk before deep diving or not. So I usually drink it, because I like it. BTV and hands-free equalization with a mask will work well anyway. If you feel that it's important for you to leave dairy products out, go ahead if that makes you feel better.

 

[Lil Dragonfly]

I've decided to cut out desserts entirely. Whenever I eat them (not very often, but still...) my lungs hurt. So I'm going to listen to what my body is telling me.

As soon as this box of brownies is finished, no more

 

[ReefTroll]

I will do that thanks.

Lol, I was making a sarcastic reference to his love of pies and beer.