CrossFit Diet and Supplement Practices Get Deep Dive in Published Paper

Dietary practices and supplement usage among CrossFit athletes were the focus of a Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition article, which came out on July 4th from of The Department of Human Performance and Health at the University of South Carolina Upstate.

Remind me: In 2021, Morning Chalk Up encouraged readers to complete a survey to support the study, spearheaded by Matt Brisebois, PhD, CSCS, who attends a local CrossFit affiliate.

Over 2,500 complete responses were collected for evaluation, and the questionnaire was reviewed for clarity by a Registered Dietitian, a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist, three CrossFit coaches, and a retail nutrition store owner.

Why it matters: Conversations around the safety and/or effectiveness of the functional fitness methodology are no stranger to the world of academia, however the specificities around diet and supplementation across the CrossFit community have remained relatively unknown and uncategorized. However, this paper is certainly a jumping off point for closing that gap. Some notable insights include:

• 60.1% of participants report practicing a particular diet; most frequently reported options include Macro Counting (18.6%), Intermittent Fasting (7.7%), and Paleo (6.1%)
• The top three reasons for following a diet were to improve overall health (45.6%), decrease body fat (29.2%), and improve CrossFit performance (25.2%)
• Protein powder, creatine and pre-workout were the most commonly consumed supplements, and participants reported consuming them to improve recovery (52.6%), improve overall health (51.4%), and increase muscle mass/strength (41.7%).

Go deeper: While we just briefly skimmed the surface of findings, there’s a wealth of information around how athletes commonly measure hydration, the correlation between CrossFit coaches and their health habits, results broken down by gender and age group, and more — click here for the full article.