A good friend of mine sent me this FiveThirtyEight article about what happened to an average Joe, Mark Webster, who tried to eat like the Rock for a month. He works at a desk all day (like yours truly) and was inspired after reading an article.
I’ve been a peripheral fan of the Rock ever since my college days, but was never a die hard fanboy (like I am with Marcelo) so I’d never taken it upon myself to do any outside reading on him.
The main take away is that it takes A LOT of work. The regimen included:
- Ate 7 meals a day
- 50 min of cardio 6 days per week
- 60-90 min of weights 6 days per week
By the end of the 30 days, both his strength and body composition improved.
I actually spent some time looking through Mark’s site, Rockingfor30days.com where he goes into further detail.
To see what he ate and what his workout regimen was, go here. It looks like the cardio was elliptical and the weights were divided into chest, legs, arms, back, shoulders, and back to legs for all 6 days.
Here’s a graphic Mark created with the macronutrient break down and cost for all the food he ate!
Total Calories: 5050 (!!!)
Carbs: 563 gm (Definitely not ketogenic!)
Fat: 94 gm
Protein: 466 gm (Holy cow!)
Just looking at this makes me feel full.
Also, I’m not a fan of seafood, so just the thought of all that cod grosses me out.
Here are some highlights from Marks blog:
Cooking the fish is ridiculous. I need to figure out a better approach here. Cooking six pounds at once is quite an endeavor.
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In between cardio and weights is the first meal of the day. It’s awkward eating at the gym. I basically sit in a chair in the lobby area, and consume cod, eggs, and oatmeal. I am conscious as to whether the cod smells as people walk in.
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Yesterday I had the realization that the massive amount of food I’m eating is preventing the muscle soreness I expected from working out so hard.
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Honestly, the food preparation is the hardest part of this challenge. You’re tired and want to take it easy. You want to go to bed early every night so you’re well-rested when waking up at 5am. But every few days, you have a massive job of preparing 12-18 meals. It’s exhausting.
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The good thing about being on this eating plan is I know exactly what I’m putting in my body. When combined with the exertion information from my Fitbit, I’m getting a fairly good measurement on “calories in, calories out.” According to that data, I’m running at a surplus of between 1,000-1500 calories a day. I have yet to gain any weight, which is odd. I have never been a believer that losing and gaining weight is solely a function of calories, and that it is highly dependent on the foods you choose to eat. This challenge is supporting that view so far.
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To answer the question of why cod, it’s because cod has a high protein to calorie ratio, and has low levels of fat. If you’re looking for an alternative, just google “Cod nutrition” and look at the nutritional information. Then google another fish you’re considering, and see how it compares. Most white fish, like pollack or whiting, are fairly close and make good alternatives.
If you have the time, definitely head on over to his blog for the read. Kudos to him for sticking to the diet and logging it all. I did something similar in the beginning of my blogging days here with nutritional ketosis, and can relate to all the misteps and struggles.
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*Image found here