How to Eat Like a Strongman

Columbu received his degree from Cleveland Chiropractic College in 1978. He’s married and has a 10-year-old daughter, Maria. “Most of Maria’s friends are told, ‘Don’t eat this and don’t eat that.’ I say, ‘Eat the pasta.’ She eats everything. And she is in the best shape of all of her friends. What I’m saying is, to put a kid on a diet is devastating, in my opinion.”

The two-time Mr. Olympia has become a respected expert in nutrition, sports medicine, and kinesiology. He does special training programs for sports injuries, and the list of celebrities who have sought his bodybuilding advice includes Sylvester Stallone, whom Columbu made sign a contract promising that he wouldn’t even swallow a vitamin pill without seeking Columbu’s approval first.

But he doesn’t spend his whole life in the gym anymore. Columbu works out for maybe 20 minutes three times a week. He still sees Schwarzenegger all the time, but they gave up the constant training in favor of tennis. “I started playing tennis with Arnold in 1995, and we play on weekends. I mix up the sports … tennis, cycling. I like hiking.”

As to diet, he pretty much eats the same way he did when he was competing, except that he eats less (about 120 grams of protein per day). He recommends eating high-quality proteins. In order of importance, these are: eggs, fish, dairy, and meat (including poultry and pork).

Eggs are the highest quality protein, he points out, and still the most important to any fitness program. He notes that most dietary guides are wrong when they say eggs cause cholesterol problems. In fact, egg yolks contain enough of the fat emulsifier lecithin to neutralize cholesterol in other foods. Columbu cites a study: “In a group of 100 people, the first group ate eggs. The second group drank only milk. The third drank milk and ate eggs. And people thought, that third group is really going to have high cholesterol. But the eggs lowered the cholesterol, even in the group drinking milk.”

Much of Columbu’s information goes against conventional wisdom. “Let’s say you’re going to the gym at 3 p.m. Breakfast isn’t important. Bread and eggs is perfect. Lunch is when you eat a big meal with carbohydrates. Why? Because you can’t go to the gym without energy. But if you eat that for dinner and you don’t burn it, it will store as fat overnight.”

He stresses eating smaller meals and more frequently and that high-protein diets require extra Vitamin B6. Also, check the labels for sulfur dioxide, prevalent on fruits and vegetables. “You can’t digest it, and it bloats your stomach. People say they can’t eat grapes. It’s not true. It’s the sulfites.”

But the biggest tip for anyone who is looking for a flatter stomach and smaller waistline is that many folks on high-protein diets require hydrochloric acid and enzyme supplements. The body just doesn’t make enough on its own, especially past age 26.