Diet for Golf (and general quality of life)

General Discussion
#1

With Phil’s coffee back in the news after his win, I figured I would start a thread where we can discuss diet and ideas on how to improve it to help our golf as well as general quality of life overall.
If you’ve never heard it before, Phil became a pretty hardcore faster a few years back which helped get him into the best shape of his life apparently. The most notorious of his fasts were the 6 day, special coffee and water only fasts you can see here (along with the coffee recipe I think he still uses):

According to this more recent article, he is now doing weekly 36 hour fasts as well as a 3 day fast every few months:

The key with these fasts combined with healthier eating is not only about weight loss, but probably most importantly for golf, controlling inflammation. Personally, I’ve never done a multi-day fast, but I went from ~180lbs. to ~140lbs through intermittent fasting (no calories before 10am or after 5pm). I’m going to get back on routine for that. I break fast with a Phil-like coffee blend, but have started using CBD oil as my primary anti-inflammatory addition.

Any other diet thoughts or questions about fasting out there?

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#2

Intermittent fasting has helped me lose weight but it’s hard to maintain if you don’t have a consistent daily routine (or at least it was for me!)… when I was working in an office, it was much easier. I’d skip break five days a week and lunch 2 days a week.

It was a great way to create a caloric deficit… which is the only way to lose weight.

I’m not sold on the other health benefits, but if it works for you, it works.

I need to get back to better diet and more exercise!

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#3

Damnit… now I’m motivated to start dieting / fasting again… I’m going with tea over coffee as I love tea and have plenty in the house…

Time to start skipping breakfast again. Eat clean elsewhere and walking the course / lifting weights.

#4

I’ve been thinking the same thing, and my fitness guru–Marty Gallagher has been urging IF on me. One thing he says, and I hear a lot–is slow cardio in the am before eating is a really good thing. I’m wondering if I get my lazy ass up early before work, get to the course and walk 9-18 will I be both getting my golf in and dramatically affecting my fat loss. Double nails.

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#5

IF has helped me lose weight, but I don’t think it’s for everybody. I’ve never been much of a breakfast person so it isn’t too hard for me to have dinner at 6pm and then not eat until 1pm the next day. Then lunch and dinner are “normal” so my calories for the day are lower. For others just looking for weight loss it may be easier to just eat 3 smaller meals.

I did do a 3 day fast once years ago and really did NOT enjoy it lol. I just wanted to try it, but I can’t say it “reset” me or anything like that. It is interesting how your hunger just comes and goes and for stretches I really wasn’t hungry.

These days I will IF maybe a few days a week, but mainly I just try to eat better. I do believe there are things like IF you can use for weight loss, but it’s mainly Calories In vs Calories Out and unless you are getting a LOT of exercise you need to keep calories down to lose weight. The human body is REALLY efficient and working out for even an hour doesn’t burn as many calories as many people think.

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#6

Not diet but if I don’t stretch hip flexors, piriformis, hams and groins for 10 minutes 4-5 times per week I get back pain and sciatica.

I do 10 mins of the stretching and some sort of exercise about 4 times a week now after my kids go down. A lot of the time I feel very lazy and will just stretch and walk on my treadmill for 20 mins and it makes a huge difference vs doing nothing.

I have really lowered the bar for a “successful” workout and it is helping me to actually be a bit consistent.

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#7

I at one point lost 130 lbs in less than a year doing intermittent fasting, paleo, and CrossFit. I’ve since put some back on - life, stress, time - but this week I’ve decided it’s time to get back on it because I just baseline don’t feel great.

Is it stupid to worry about my golf swing when I slim down and get healthier? My “fat guy” swing is locked in right now.

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#8

This.

I’ve read/heard that some people get super focused when they’re doing IF.

I didn’t do it very long (a couple days), so that may have played a role. But I was SO hungry that it was hard to focus - not easier.

I agree with your other point, too (about eating smaller meals). I think it’s important to think about HOW you got fat in the first place.

It’s one thing if you just eat a lot of calorie-dense foods. It doesn’t even have to be “junk” food. You might just love PB, which doesn’t fill me up at all, but costs a lot in terms of calories.

In this case, you can swap out some calorie-dense foods for less calorie dense foods and you’ll drop the weight. Or maybe do IF.

However, if you have a problem with eating - whether that’s binge eating, habitually eating at night, or whatever else it may be - you may be better off learning how to eat healthily and relatively normally (x meals/snacks per day, portion control, etc.) than doing something as restrictive as IF (8 hours on, 16 hours off). Otherwise, you might make your issues with food worse rather than better.

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#9

I went from 300 to 240 in 3 months and my swing only got better… (sadly, I’m back above 300)

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#10

Definitely agree with everything here about considering what you eat and your relationship with food. I do think there is true physiological benefit to fasting though. That’s why pretty much every culture in human history has ritualized some sort of fasting and it’s only recently that we’ve gone away from it.

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#11

I do 100% agree that fasting can help change your relationship with both food and hunger… you can very quickly figure out when you are “hungry” and when you “need food”… it’s definitely a lesson I need to relearn.

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#12

Yeah I never got that great focus thing from IF. Honestly I have probably had ADHD my whole life so I would need meds not fasting lol.

I do find I just feel better in general during the fasting time. I’ve had gastric issues since I can remember and I try to make sure I drink a lot of water, have fiber and I gave up soda to really help things, but not eating for 12-18 hours is honestly when I feel the best…until I get hungry of course.

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#13

Up until I hit 40 I could eat and drink pretty much anything I wanted for as long as I wanted, eg daily banqueting and boozing like a king on 14d all-inclusive vacations. When I hit 40-41, I started getting gut issues. Early 2012, a month into a new job and following an all-inclusive Christmas break, my gut got super bloated each and every time I ate, even salads. This lasted a couple of days. I found I need to eat probiotics daily to manage my gut otherwise I can feel crud for days. Also the banqueting/boozing had to get kicked into touch obviously. Getting old sucks!

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#14

My wife and I eat a lot of fruits and vegetables. Fish or chicken 2-3 per week and red meat, rarely. Exercise (stretching, weights, walking on/off course) is almost daily. I’m 5’11’ and my “playing” weight in high school was 177. Fifty-two years later it’s 177.

I think Phil is spot on about the inflammatory aspect of diet. We have made efforts to significantly reduce “flammatories” and increase “de-flammatories” in our diet. That, and portion control.

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#15

Why do you think CBD oil is an anti-inflammatory?
How much and how often

#16

Early studies have shown some anti-inflammatory effects.


I use a few different things from Kanibi (oil, softgels, gummies) and will take 25mg of active CBD around 3 times a day. I reviewed CBD/Kanibi previously for the main site:
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#17

I’m a believer in the anti-inflammatory aspect of diet. When I hit my 40’s (will be 55 soon) I was noticing the aches and pains more and more. A better diet and some supplementation really seemed to make a difference. I find Turmeric works really well for me. I’ve been using CBD recently, but haven’t always seen a big difference with that yet.

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#18

What type of IF did you practice mainly? I’ve just started what I see called the 16/8 method. Basically no calories between 8pm and 12noon. Only zero calorie fluids during that period and your “normal” 2 meals from noon to 8pm.

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#19

Same for me. Sort of a loose 16/8. Dinner can vary from 5 to 8 pm and then I just have water, black coffee and plain tea until 12-2pm the next day. I do this 3-7 times/week.

I counted calories for about year maybe 10 years ago and that was helpful. I don’t like counting calories regularly, but it was good to do it for awhile to realize how much I was consuming and what portions really looked like. I still try not to overdo lunch. I know I need about 1800 calories/day and I try to keep lunch to 800 or less. We usually have a healthy-ish dinner and there is generally room for some dark chocolate and red wine now and then.

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#20

About the same, but I shoot for 10-6 and only Sunday-Thursday. I keep Fri./Sat. as anything goes days.

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