The Dean Karnazes diet
Dean Karnazes is an ultramarathoner whose most recent exploit was to run 50 marathons in 50 consecutive states in 50 consecutive days. Not a bad feat. His endurance seems almost superhuman, and, based on what I’ve read about him, I suspect it is. A recent article in the magazine Wired explained how he got started running 14 years ago.
DEAN KARNAZES WAS SLOBBERING DRUNK. IT WAS HIS 30TH BIRTHDAY, and he’d started with beer and moved on to tequila shots at a bar near his home in San Francisco. Now, after midnight, an attractive young woman – not his wife – was hitting on him. This was not the life he’d imagined for himself. He was a corporate hack desperately running the rat race. The company had just bought him a new Lexus. He wanted to vomit. Karnazes resisted the urge and, instead, slipped out the bar’s back door and walked the few blocks to his house. On the back porch, he found an old pair of sneakers. He stripped down to his T-shirt and underwear, laced up the shoes, and started running. It seemed like a good idea at the time.
He sobered up in Daly City, about 15 miles south. It was nearly four in the morning. The air was cool, slightly damp from the fog, and Karnazes was in a residential neighborhood, burping tequila, with no pants on. He felt ridiculous, but it brought a smile to his face. He hadn’t had this much fun in a long time. So he decided to keep running.
When the sun came up, Karnazes was trotting south along Route 1, heading toward Santa Cruz. He had covered 30 miles. In the process, he’d had a blinding realization: There were untapped reservoirs within him. It was like a religious conversion. He had been born again as a long-distance runner. More than anything else now, he wanted to find out how far he could go. But at that exact moment, what he really needed to do was stop. He called his wife from a pay phone, and an hour later she found him in the parking lot of a 7-Eleven. He passed out in the car on the way home.
Now (or even when I was 30 years old) I couldn’t simply throw on an old pair of sneakers, head out the door, and run 30 miles. Drunk or sober. I would have to be worse than slobbering drunk to even consider it. I’m not sure I could throw on a pair of sneakers any time in my life and even walk 30 miles, much less run them. Not without training for it, and the article implies that he was not previously a runner. This is obviously a guy who is just put together right for the sport of running. I don’t know what the ultimate effect will be on his knees and hips, but for now, he seems to be doing okay. As I say, he’s put together right for it.
This same article lists the 12 secrets to his success. I was keen to see if he had any dietary advice, and sure enough he did. Number 4 on the list.
4. EAT JUNK – LOTS OF IT
You wouldn’t believe the stuff Karnazes consumes on a run. He carries a cell phone and regularly orders an extra-large Hawaiian pizza. The delivery car waits for him at an intersection, and when he gets there he grabs the pie and rams the whole thing down his gullet on the go. The trick: Roll it up for easy scarfing. He’ll chase the pizza with cheesecake, cinnamon buns, chocolate éclairs, and all-natural cookies. The high-fat pig-out fuels Karnazes’ long jaunts, which can burn more than 9,000 calories a day. What he needs is massive amounts of energy, and fat contains roughly twice as many calories per gram as carbohydrates. Hence, pizza and éclairs…
I’ve received numerous emails and comments about the high-calorie, high-carb diet that Michael Phelps consumed on his way to eight Olympic gold medals. What I tried to tell all those who communicated with me about it is that it is possible to eat this way if a) you’re young, and b) if you’re burning a zillion calories in intense physical activity. As Mr. Phelps ages, he won’t be able to keep up the same intensity of activity. If he continues to eat the way he does now, he will not be the better for it. I would predict that he would become obese. And it’s not just Mr. Phelps to whom this happens. It’s called the ex-jock syndrome. Many professional athletes struggle with obesity when their playing days are over. There activity level falls but their food intake doesn’t. And they pay the price.
But what about Dean Karnazes? He is 44 years old, way beyond the age of most professional athletes who have retired and gotten fat. Why has he escaped while eating the enormous amounts of high-carb foods he does. A couple of reasons. First, he is still active as evidenced by the 50 marathons in 50 days. And, second, he doesn’t eat all the high-carb foods all the time. (I suspect that Michael Phelps doesn’t either.) I intentionally left off the last part of his recommendation to eat lots of junk. Here it is:
When he’s not in the midst of some record-breaking exploit, Karnazes maintains a monkish diet, eating grilled salmon five nights a week. He strictly avoids processed sugars and fried foods – no cookies or doughnuts. He even tries to steer clear of too much fruit because it contains a lot of sugar. He believes this approach – which nutritionists call a slow-carb diet – has reshaped him, lowering his body fat and building lean muscle. It also makes him look forward to running a race, because he can eat whatever he wants.
Apparently Mr. Karnazes is as smart as he is fit. He eats everything that’s not red hot or nailed down while he’s running, but he eats what sounds a lot like a low-carb diet when he isn’t. Which makes a lot of sense. When you are burning the calories that he does on his long runs, the body will use up most anything you put into it. And it doesn’t matter what it is. I’m sure that due to his conditioning Mr. Karnazes is highly insulin sensitive and has low circulating insulin levels. If you want to eat like he does, it’s a simple matter: run like he does. Otherwise, you’re better off eating like he does when he’s laying around the house.
Let’s hope he doesn’t end up like Jim Fixx. Here’s an interesting study on heart disease risk among “master” marathoners:
http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/548311
I can appreciate the grilled salmon – but so much of it? I think I’d grow sick of it pretty fast. I know I couldn’t do without fruit – I eat more berries than any robin I know.
Alcohol makes you dehydrated. Starting to run in a dehydrated state is insane. He made it but you better don’t try. I can’t respect people that do stupid things that I wouldn’t do, just because they do it. Sorry.
I’ve recently started on this low-carb lifestyle, thanks to this blog, and so far so good. I’ve lost weight and I feel surprisingly good. Now I want to start running again like I used to do when I was not 40 pounds overweight. I have been, as per your advice, keeping my carb intake for the day to 50 grams and less; however, I found that I cannot run doing this as I have no energy. I’ve tried having almost all of my day’s carbs all at once just before I run and this has helped a bit. So what should I take from this thread? That, as long as I’m running that day I can eat more than 50 grams? I’m glad I found this article because I was doubting this low carb thing, at least for a person who wants to run. It makes sense though, a “caveman” would not have been running a lot. S/he would have done plenty of walking with the occasional short burst of speed.
OOps. This thread is a year old. Well, I typed it so I’ll post it.
Thanks for this site Dr. Eades.
Dr. Eades, this is a well written and fascinating article on endurance and low carb diets.
http://www.nutritionandmetabolism.com/content/1/1/2
Dr. Eades, is the “slow-carb” eating style the same as “clean eating”?
I haven’t a clue. I’ve never heard the term “clean eating.” Anyone out there know?
Clean eating, if you didn’t get an answer yet, is a very popular term in bodybuilding. It simply means eating whole foods in as natural a state as possible. For example, salmon, green beans, and tomato slices would be a clean meal. Calories come from nutrients that are good for the body. No processed foods or manipulated foods if possible. When body builders “eat clean” they avoid fast food, too. Check out bodybuilding.com or fitness sites and you will see lots of text about “eating clean”. I love the sound of it, don’t you? Sounds SO virtuous!
@chainey 27. August 2008
I’m guessing that a) Dean Karnazes passed you on a trail or b) you are a former patient of doctor Eades, unhappy about something. Either way, you are vindictive and asinine, full of half-assumptions and vitriol.
There are so many ridiculous assumptions in your post that I feel like handing this over to my daughter to refute while I go ponder something worthwhile. But I’m here, so I’ll suffer you for a few minutes.
Dean was married. That’s why a good-looking girl in a bar while he was drunk is a bad idea. If you missed that part, maybe Eades can direct you to an optometrist.
You say Dean’s 50 in 50 was ‘superficial’. I mean, come on, Chainey. All you had to do was open another window and look on google and you would have read that Dean was running to raise awareness about obesity. How unbelievably shallow of him.
You also attack doctor Eades, saying that he was trying to come off as ‘hard-bitten’ (what?) and sardonic (huh?). Did we read the same article? Do you have access to a dictionary? Because those terms just don’t apply. Doctor Eades comes across as a humble, curious and passionate doctor with an abiding interest in athletic nutrition. You call him a Hunter S. Thompson wannabe. Really? Do you think he made the wrong career choice and just sits home, lamenting his usefulness and life-saving abilities?
I think I’ll hand this over to my daughter now.
[...] The Dean Karnazes Diet. [...]
Dean K-whatever is not a runner. Yeah, great story. Right. Hot chicks hitting on you, running 30 miles drunk. Nope Dean Kar, Kan, oh whatever…………
I used to like to follow dean on his running, I was surprised when he fell off the radar somewhere outside missori somewhere?
if he is being truthful about everything he is saying he does, and I have no reason not to believe him that is incredible. do you realize if he wanted to he could probably finish the appliacian trail from start to finish in no time?
as for paleo diet, I have to say that link referring to if the neanderthal had access to it then eat it? I had to laugh at that one, pasta, ice cream wasn’t available at that time,that made me laugh even more, considering that people are basing a whole diet/exercise/health program on something that never even existed.
if you would do your research you would see they have no fossils of that apeman. in fact they have none of a apeman at all not even close. but we know dinosaurs existed, even tiny ones, surely if tiny dinosaurs fossils are found why not a greater size as a apeman? by their fossils remains and they have 1000′s of them around the world in musuems.
I would be leery of following a diet based on a fantasy picture of man’s distant past. besides how much meat does gorillas and chimps really comsume? most are vegetarians, chimps will eat some meat but eat mostly fruits, insects and seeds, pods etc.
I am all for a slow carb diet. considering that the lower the gi the more nutritious carbs are. the higher gi the less nutritious, that should tell you something.
I love a good hamburger too, but I tried to eat a low carb diet once a few years ago lasted about 3 months, couldn’t stick to it since I started to despise meat and wanted fruit. I am a big dairy lover despite advocates against it, but I don’t care what they think, I do better if I get plenty of eggs and milk (whole milk was a problem) but 2 percent was perfect and I just love cheese, don’t eat alot of it, can’t even if I tried. I like almond milk and coconut milk in my protein drinks.
I believe our bodies give us clues/cues as to what they need and try to tell us if we just listen to them.
I did however wonder about deans obessivness for running or ability to run so long. I mean how many people can run night and day covering 100-300 miles? also I wonder if he has a defect in survival instincts that stop you (called central fatigue) when your overdoing it, maybe his is turned off? maybe that is the problem with these master athelets they lack the survival triggors that stop them from over doing it? that is why you find them dead on the side of the road during training.
they don’t have a shut off button don’t know they are tired and are destroying their body without knowing, it, kind of like people born without pain receptors they can break a bone and not know it.
Rosa
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Eating good organic food is the go if you really want to diet.
Doug Graham is the guy to listen to regarding athletic nutrititon.
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