Kelly Frankson DOT COM

How it started…For the last 3 years Crossfit Vancouver has had a “Flab Challenge” where individuals measure their body composition at the beginning of September and then again 3 months later.  Prizes go to the individuals who loose the greatest % body fat and gain the most lean muscle mass (based on % change).  This year, when Craig Patterson, owner of Crossfit Vancouver, posted the launch of the flab challenge on crossfit.ca he commented that as long as people follow Zone proportions (40%carbs, 30%protein, 30%fat) they will see results no matter what they are eating within those proportion.  He gave an example of drinking scotch and eating wings.  Despite losing 20lbs while following the zone a couple years back, I voiced my concern with the comment made and argued that from a health and performance perspective WHAT you eat is more imporatant than HOW you eat it.  Over the next 48 hours over 100 comments were made on the site and before I knew it, we had entered into a micro/macro nutrient war.

The Rules…It was decided that we would each take a team of individuals willing to make changes in their diets.  Pattys team-”Team Shaggers”- would eat what ever they wanted as long as it was in zone proportions.  My team-”Team Machine”-would eat as much as they wanted as long as they followed “Clean Eating” principles as defined by a document published on kellyfrankson.com.  To ensure that affects on performance were considered, benchmark workouts were added to the mix:

• Fran (21/15/9 thrusters & pull-ups) to test the effect on metabolic conditioning,
• Murph (1 mile run, 100 pullups, 200 pushups, 300 squats, 1 mile run) to test the effect on endurance and
• Max front squat to test the effect on strength. (See In Retrospect Note 1)

Selecting the Teams…Initially we were going to select 4 individuals.  As we began to choose our players we realized that a number of outside variables come into play.  For example, I had two new guys who were willing to fully commit to changing their diet but it was determined that anybody who has been doing crossfit for less than 6 months is going to see gains regardless of diet and therefore could only be a “supporting” member.  I was also accused of “cherry picking” as some of the top performers in the gym asked to join “Team Machine”.  To me the fact top performers wanted to follow what I was recommending was encouraging.  Plus gains are harder to come by by people who are already at the top (although commitment levels tend to be higher as well).  16 people played along with Team Machine in some shape or form.  Ten participated to the full extent; Six others lived cleanly for the 3 month period but did not do the scans; and then there were several other “armchair” players. 

Patty went on a recruiting mission for “Team Shaggers” but ran into compliance issues of people not wanting to measure everything they ate and dropping out.  Some of “Team Shaggers” final team members reported 60-70%compliance making the afffects of diet changes hard to compare. (See In Retrospect Note 2)

The Process…A section was added to kellyfrankson.com where Team Machine posted comments about how they were feeling, the challenges they were having, any questions that they had as well as recipes and tricks to make clean eating easier (many of the comments are included in the raw data appendix).  In typical Crossfit Vancouver fashion, friendly trash talking between the teams started to occur as people on both sides began to see improvement in performance numbers.  More and more nutritional articles started to be posted on both kellyfrankson.com as well as Crossfit.ca and the community unknowingly underwent a 3 month crash course in nutrition.  People who had never paid much attention to what they ate all a sudden began to follow along at home.  I knew that it was all worth it when one long term member of Crossfit Vancouver who was not part of either team made the following comment:

“I  learned more about nutrition in the last three months than he has learned over the last 20years of participating in sports.”

We made it a game and people took interest.  Other quotes from non participants included:

“I accepted the fact that I’m not a top performer, but until recently I didnt realize the commitment that it took to be a top performer. I see Max drinking his gallon of milk, sack walking around with his green jars, Joy cutting out rice, Machine backing up what she preaches with her actions…”

“At the end of the day, everyone who participated in the flab challenge and/or the micronutrient challenge showed serious dedication to their health. It was really inspiring to see people working so hard towards positive change.”

Results…Some huge performance gains were made on both sides (results are attached in the raw data appendix), but this could have to do with several factors other than nutrition alone.  It’s interesting to note that while both teams were successful in lowering their body fat %, most of Team Shaggers (following the zone) lost lean muscle mass while all of Team Machine (Clean eating relying on a significant amount of Protein) increased their percentage of lean muscle mass. (See In Retrospect Note 3)

In addition to the great gains made by those who participated, the quotes above reflect that the benefits of this challenge reached much farther than just the participants.  The numbers do not even come to close to justifying what this challenge did for Crossfit Vancouver the community.  After publicizing the Micro/Macro Nutrient war throughout the Flab Challenge, we saw more drastic improvements as a whole (from individuals who were not on either team) than we have seen in any of the previous flab challenge offerings.

Congratulations to everyone who made some pretty big lifestyle changes.  The day I’ll never forget is when one of my new guys got his results.  He joined the flab challenge a bit late but went from living off of bread and pasta to following my guidelines by the book and was left speechless after the last week of testing.  He came into the gym while I was doing personal training and couldn’t even talk.  It was like a little kid on Christmas with his eyes wide open and the biggest smile I’ve ever seen on his face.  He just showed me his results and commented that :

” I’ve been trying to follow everything that you said, but didn’t really think it would actually work.” 

It’s pretty cool to watch people transform. 

 Closing Remarks…Nicole Carol gave me the best nutrition advice early in my Crossfit days and that is that you cannot rely on what anyone else says.  The best test subject is yourself. Humans are so complex, there are so many factors involved, what works for one person will not necessarily work for another. The key is to be patient and keep tweaking until you find something that works for you.  I encourage everyone to make use of the nutrition resources that are available and learn as much as you can to be able to make your own informed decisions and find something that works for you.

In Retrospect…Keeping in mind that this whole challenge was unplanned and put together on the fly, there are several things that I would do differently if I were to do it over.

(1) There should be more than one performance measure in each category to allow for a “bad day”.   Progressions also need to be considered (ie doing band pullups in September and kipping pullups in December or going from knee pushups to full pushups).  It would have been interesting to include blood work to see the effects on heath measures.  (Keep in mind that this whole challenge was unplanned and put together on the fly).

(2) Teams needed to be larger to compensate for people dropping out, injuries will happen (Team Machine lost two members due to injuries), and commitment levels are hard to determine on the onset (this was the biggest factor for Team Shaggers).

(3) We should have gathered more baseline information from each participant (typical diet, performance levels, routines….) to be able to determine what other factors changed over the course of the challenge.

Raw Data:

TEAM SHAGGERS
Sex	Age	CF Experience	Fran Dec	% change	Murph Dec	% change	Front Squat	% change	Body Fat	% change	Lean Muscle	% change
Male	Mid 20s	>1 year		21.5		15.08		-1.67		20.38		-2.06
I really just got into this to see what the zone could do differently for me.  I would say it is hard to completely judge based on just a couple months of data, but here are my personal observations:  I lost 22 total pounds, 8 fat and 3 lean mass.  The decrease in weight made a lot of things easier especially body weight stuff.  Times got a lot better in both Fran and Murph but front squats suffered a bit.  Another benefit is I look better and feel more confident at 12.5% body fat than I did at 15.7%, however I feel like muscle recovery has suffered quite a bit.  Prior to starting the competition I felt like I was getting to a point where I wasn’t sore all the time but it seems I am more sore more of the time having changed my diet and dropped a bunch of fat.  That being said, I am currently on my longest run without a significant injury since starting crossfit.  Oh I was eating 17 blocks a day of protein and carbs and closer to 25 blocks of fat.
Male	29	>1 year		35.60		5.25		21.62		11.90		1.50
Being in a challenge definety made me more inclined to eat along the  zone strictly to see how far I could go in getting the best results. Toughest part was not being able to find a suitable food source when working hours  that were long or throughout the night. and sometimes feeling a strong  craving for sugar.  Im planning on being pretty good for the Xmas holidays then going to  cleanse all sugar from my diet and try and get my candida back in  line.
Male	Mid 20s	>1yr		10.00		(27.94)		4.35		2.34		0.11
Male				20.49		7.66		11.27		5.98		(1.26)
		Shaggers Boys AVG		21.90		0.01		8.89		10.15		(0.43)
Sex	Age	CF Experience	Fran Dec	% Change	Murph Dec	% Change	Front Squat Dec	% Change	Body Fat Dec	% Change	Lean Muscle Mass	% Change
Female	Mid 20s	3 yrs crossfit	6:11	9.73	#####	4.8%	135	17.39	23.30%	-6.88%	97.7lbs	-3.08
Summer didn’t spend much time in the gym-drank lots, ate poorly, but did lots of playing outside, past through month, in the gym more but nothing outside.  And I definitely wasn’t 100% with the diet…I ranged from 60-90%adherence, but probably got it 70% right.  So not stellar.  That said, my clothes look better and I still swear that I’m harder than I was in September.
Female	Early 30s	6 months CF	8:11	40.84	#####	4.9%	125	19.05	24.6%	40%	96.7lbs	-3.59
I have to admit even though I was on licious living (a company that distributes zone proportioned meals), I cheated…a lot.  It was hard to be totally good considering who I hang out with (too much port and scotch about the house).
Female	Early 20s	>1yr				15.5		6.9		7.72		-0.45
Not bad I suppose for me not trying too hard, and only like 65% on the diet really..plus a two week holiday in that time period.
		Shaggers Girls AVG		25.29		18.66		14.45		2.68		(2.37)
			% Change	Fran		Murph		Front Squat		Body Fat		Lean Muscle Mass
		Team Shaggers:		23.6%		9.3 %		11.7 %		6.42 %		(1.40)%
TEAM MACHINE
Sex	Age	CF Experience	Fran Dec	% Change	Murph Dec	% Change	Front Squat	% Change	Body Fat	% Change	Lean Muscle	% Change
Male	Early 20s Student	2years CF	2:32	10.59	#####	4.61	285	3.64	10.6%	23.74	140	2.27
Male	Early 30s Desk Job	4months CF	16:05	23.59	#####		205	115.79	18.30%	29.34	159	4.38
In addition to making a complete overhaul of his diet, he has also been consistently showing up to the gym 3 times a week and working his ass off!
Male	Late 20s	4 months CF		27.38						24.65		0.95
Work in a desk job and lived off of cereal before the challenge.  Being involved in a “competition” definitely played apart of it, however that being said, now that its over I am continuing the same basic habits.  Toughest part was  Not being hungry, I find I’m hungry quite often.  I was told to eat more fats, I didn’t find that helped.  I was surprised giving up some of my favourite foods wasn’t as difficult as I thought it might be.  Replacing hamburgers with steak helps. I’m curious, I did my best to keep sugar based stuff out of my diet (juices, sweets, as well as checking labels) but I continued a heavy dosage of fruits.  I definitely have more fruits then veg.  But I fully intend on continuing zero breads, and things heavy in sugar.  I wont be quite so hardcore however as  I will enjoy some rice and occasional pasta however that will still be in small doses. Once a week type thing.  I am curious to see if I have some pasta now if I actually notice some sort of energy boost in a workout or if I just feel sick.  I’ve always understood pasta to be good for energy, I’ve never experienced that even when I was quite active.
Male	Early 40s	>1 yr		8.92		19		14.63
		Team Machine Boys AVG:		17.62		11.81		44.69		25.91		2.53
Sex	Age	CF Experience	Fran Dec	% Change	Murph Dec	% Change	Front Squat Dec	% Change	Body Fat Dec	% Change	Lean Muscle Mass	% Change
Female	36	10 months		Same	5 min improve	8.8	130	13.04		6.11		1.21
I’m really enjoying the clean eating. I was pretty much eating that way before so this isn’t much of a change. However, I am cheating (being lazy) less often than I used to. And I do notice it in how I feel. Most of the time, I feel well-nourished, and not remotely bloated “too full”. I feel “light” and yet strong. When I do cheat, I notice that I feel it in my gut. I just feel “fat”. Probably because my body isn’t digesting the food as well as when I eat cleanly.
Being part of the challenge definitely helped stay clean.  The touhgest part was sticking to it when having meals with friends at restaurants.
Last few years my eating habits improved dramatically.  So even before i started the challenge, I already ate pretty darn cleanly.  Virtually everything I bought was organic.  And virtually nothing in my kitchen came in a box or can – ie. not processed.  However, i did still eat out a fair bit although I no longer ate fast food and only occasionally ate take-out/delivery.
Female	Mid 20s	1 yr	6:22	4:48	#####		122	39.13	16.6	10.75	120	6.58
Generally I feel very good. Not too many cravings for the bad stuff anymore, except when I get really hungry. I broke down earlier in the week and ate a bunch of Smart Food popcorn… not sure why I had such a craving for it, but I was at the grocery store and it was easily accessible to me. I guess it wasn’t the worst thing I could have eaten, but I’m still not proud of it. I am finding that it is becoming much easier to be around other people when they are eating/drinking ‘forbidden’ foods, such as the other day when we had birthday cake and doughnuts at work (I resisted!). One thing I’ve noticed, though, is that I am insatiably hungry – this has been going on for about a month and I can’t figure out why I just can’t seem to get enough calories in me. Some days I will eat a 3-4 block breakfast and be absolutely starving two hours later. Proportionally, I am definitely eating more blocks of protein and fat than I am carbs, but the carbs I am eating are not as dense as what I used to eat (more fruits and veggies instead of grains).
I did my first Bodycomp scan in Sep 07 before I started training at CrossFit. Between Sep 07 and Feb 08 I lost 0.5% bodyfat, but also lost 1.9% lean muscle mass, despite making gains in strength and performance.  At that time, I was basically vegetarian, and trying to follow the Zone diet to a certain extent, but obviously not consuming enough (or good enough quality) to support my training. In April 2008 I started eating meat on the recommendation of Patty and insistence of my doctor, but I was still eating a lot of garbage (junk food) for snacks, as well as tons of grains. I was following the Zone for my meals, but then ruining it with too many carb/fat snacks and desserts. In September I started Kelly’s clean eating plan, and for the first time in my life I was actually getting all my carbs from fruits and veggies instead of grains and junk food (except for the occasional cheat). I’ve also just started weighing my proteins on a kitchen scale, and discovered that I am eating way beyond the 16-18 blocks of protein that I thought I was eating per day. In fact, I am eating around 24-28 blocks of protein per day, on average. I guess that explains the gain in muscle mass! My carbs are at around 14-18 blocks, depending on the day, and my fat blocks are generally equal to my protein blocks. So for me, the combination of clean eating and a higher protein/fat and lower carb diet seems to really work well. Based on my results over the past couple of months, and based on the way I have been feeling, I think I will stick with this. I’ll probably relax a little bit on the junk food (hey, everyone deserves a treat now and then!), but on the whole, this sort of diet seems to be really conducive to high performance in the gym (and gains in muscle mass). The only thing I really have to fix now is my sleep schedule. I think that a consistent 7-8 hours per night would make all the difference in the world to my recovery rates.
Female	Early 30s	1 yr						8		1.8		0.96
The past week was easier than expected. I cut out sugar/flour etc.starting on Monday and it was fine. I have been feeling a bit off all week but not due to cravings, sort of feels like I have low blood pressure. Not sure of it’s just my body getting used to it. I did drink a beer and eat some popcorn Friday night and had brunch at a friend’s house this morning which included a bit of pancake and 1/2 a croissant, otherwise on track. The big thing I noticed was poor recovery after work outs. After Wednesday’s tabata squats my quads were tired. They were dead after Thursday’s raggedy ann to the point that they were spontaneously buckling when walking and very painful to touch. Went to the climbing gym Thursday evening and just flailed.
It’s definitely been interesting eating the “clean” diet versus the typical “zone”.  I have not seen the overall weight loss I thought I would from giving up sugar. I was a true chocolate addict and have had maybe 4oz total in the last 7 weeks. My eating habits being what they are, I think I would see more loss in overall weight on the zone but have stayed true and been eating what I want just to see what happens, even though I likely won’t be winning the flab challenge.  Performance wise though, I did a full Fran in 12:02 compared to jumping pull ups and 55lbs in 17:45 (granted that was Feb and I was wearing a cast).  Tonight I did the full Murph in under an hour which was my goal.  Not only do I not feel dead now but I picked up speed in the last 6 rounds or so (which I promptly lost on the run).  Since I was more slack at the beginning of the challenge I don’t have comparison numbers other than the squat but overall I feel better and am performing better.   I should say, a big factor is that I have been more consistent with attendance.
Female	Early 30s	6 months				7.6		34.78		1.79		0.87
In fear of gaining fat due to completely changing the way I train of years of isolated weight training for over 10 years it has been 34 days in which I have not trained like that. Crossfit 6 times a week, box 3 times a week and adjusted my diet just a bit cut down on starchy carbs my body fat was down point 3 percent (which is HUGE for me) down 1 kg in weight and did lose equally fat & muscle. When I started cf classes in Sept. My max front squat was 115lbs now 155lbs max deadlift was 205lbs now 250lbs my Murph was 50:40 with girl pushups and purple band and now its 46:49 with black band but my pushups are solid. I just have to check my Fran time. I am ecstatic!
			Machine Girls AVG	4:48		4:48		17:42		2:42		9:43
			% Change	Fran		Murph		Front Squat		Body Fat		Lean Muscle
			Team Machine AVG	22.9%		10%		34%		15.5%		2.5%