Gymnasts and low-carb
Steve McCain
According to a recent NBC Sports article, Olympic gymnasts have jumped on the low-carb bandwagon. And they do it because they need plenty of quick energy for the intense activities they perform.
With rock-hard biceps and abs that would make a bodybuilder jealous, Stephen McCain doesn’t need to lose weight. Yet count him as a devotee of the increasingly popular low-carbohydrate diet.
A 2000 U.S. Olympian trying to make it back to the Games this year, McCain started doing the high-protein, low-carb thing well before it became the biggest diet fad in the country.
“I used to think it was all about carbs, carbs, carbs to get the energy,” he said. “But over time, I realized I performed better when I kept that stuff in check.”
That’s because gymnastics, unlike swimming or long-distance running, is considered an “anaerobic” sport, one in which short, intense bursts of power are much more important than endurance.
“Over the span of a three-hour workout, we’re probably only up on the equipment for 15 minutes,” McCain said. The longest routine for a man or woman is the floor exercise, which lasts between 60 and 90 seconds.
Thus, having lots of complex sugars stored up — the kind produced by carbohydrates — does not help a gymnast that much. Those energy spurts are best provided by a diet high in protein. Most gymnasts try to get between 60 percent and 70 percent of their calories from proteins (like meats and cheeses), the rest from carbs (like whole-grain pasta, fruits, vegetables) and fats (like oils from peanuts). And, as has been proven by all the Atkins, South Beach and Zone diets so popular these days [Atkins, South Beach and Zone. Sigh. I guess MD and I are destined to be the low-carb Rodney Dangerfields forever], high-protein regimens help gymnasts keep their weight down.
Thanks to Fred Hahn for sending me the article.
Mike, here’s how you can get all the press coverage you’d ever want and more:
Find some way to suffer an injury that requires treatment with a steroid. When the steroid causes you to balloon up to 280 pounds, the kind, loving people at PETA will make sure your picture is everywhere and they will send faxes about you to every major press outlet in the country.
Oh sure, they’ll conveniently fail to mention that you were a lean, mean fightin’ machine before the injury and that all the weight gain was due to the drug, but never mind … everyone will know who you are.
By the way, my wife informed me that she saw a story on the news this morning about how some people are allergic to wheat gluten … the story ended with the reporter reminding the viewers to always consult with a doctor before giving up wheat products — because you will be missing all those important B vitamins and could suffer health consequences.
I guess that explains why Eskimos, Native Americans, and most people who ever lived just sat around being sick all the time.
The amount of critical thinking that goes into some of the things one sees in the news is jaw-dropping.
Doc, John Grisham doesn’t have to worry about his book being out of date by the time it hits the shelves, nor is he trying to change the thinking of entire populations. Also, you HAVE been published, and so you have your credibility established. I find it unlikely anyone would group you with Colpo simply for using the technology that’s available.
Anyway, II was more thinking about the downloadable stuff for things you said the publishers don’t like, such as kids’ nutrition on low carb or future subjects you’d like to write about more completely. They could be more than a blog post and less than a book, and could be updated at will.
Just do what everyone else with internet access does: surf the web to find every site that relates to your subject or profession and takes notes on every feature you like. Then use all those things as templates (which makes it different from copying…) and voila – new web identity.
Oh. Yes, I see what you mean. Problem with the ebooks, though, at least vis a vis the mainstream press, is that I get paid for what I write in the mainstream press. I don’t know if that applies to an ebook. At least not without appearing Colpo-like. As to the new identity, maybe I’ll start scrounging to see what I can come up with.
Cheers–
MRE
Thought you’d be interested in this study:
Omega-3 fatty acids, but not statin therapy, cuts mortality and hospitalizations in heart failure.
European Society of Cardiology Congress 2008 / The Lancet
http://www.theheart.org/article/898959.do
You beat me to the punch. I saw this article in The Heart, but I haven’t pulled the paper yet. If it looks as good as the press report, I’ll post on it.
Cheers–
MRE
MRE: If it looks as good as the press report, I’ll post on it.
I was surprised the results were as good as they were, since they only used 1g/day.
If i wanted to lower my weight, which i will down the line i would do it via a low carb diet. Nothing fad like about it- plenty of fat and protein and most of the carbohydrates coming from vegetables and fruit. Depending on what type of person you are and how quickly you want to shed fat i would do a normal 5×5 strength routine and monitor my diet or if i need to lose some weight quickly i would do some sort of metabolic conditioning in combination.
You don’t have to publish an e-book per se to have it available as an e-book. Although unfortunately limited to those owning an Amazon Kindle book reader, it is up to your publisher to make this option available on Amazon. I checked and PPLP is not a Kindle download. Nor is Protein Power. Nor is your new book. My wife loves her Kindle so your publisher is missing a market segment.
I’ll pass the message about Kindle along to our various publishers. Unfortunately, it’s not our call.
Who owns the digital rights to your books? I notice they aren’t available for download, at Amazon anyway.
http://www.amazon.com/Protein-Power-Lifeplan-Michael-Eades/dp/0446678678/ref=pd_bbs_sr_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1220379426&sr=8-3
The various publishers own the digital rights. It’s up to them to make the books available digitally. I can whine, but there’s not a lot else I can do.
Regarding a post further up, about having a lot of carbs when on a low-carb diet.
Do you consider it to be bad for the body to overload on carbs when it’s used to eating low carb? Or does it have an evolved mechanism from our ancestors stumbling over honey?
I do think it’s bad for the body to overload on carbs anytime. See today’s post for the reason. But that doesn’t mean that I don’t do it myself from time to time. If you’ve been on a low-carb diet for a long time, it’s even worse because blood sugars generally go higher than if your are habituated to a high-carb diet already.
Hi Dr Eades:
“That’s because gymnastics, unlike swimming or long-distance running, is considered an “anaerobic” sport, one in which short, intense bursts of power are much more important than endurance.”
So far, so good…
“Thus, having lots of complex sugars stored up — the kind produced by carbohydrates — does not help a gymnast that much (???). Those energy spurts are best provided by a diet high in protein. (???)”
Of course, I assume that they mean fat + protein instead of only protein.
I have a question about glycogen vs fat use during short intense (anaerobic) 4 – 5 seconds exercise. Scientific literature refers to creatine phosphate and later glycogen as the main fuels in that type of exercise. Where does fat comes into play?
I read somewhere metabolics adaptations ocurrs and intramusclar tryglicerids are used instead glycogen. Can you give me some references?
Curiously, nobody asked you a similar questions to mine in this post.
Thanks
Miguel
They obviously mean high in fat. Meat and cheese aren’t 60-70 percent protein as the article asserts, but are 60-70 percent fat. During anaerobic exercise glucose is used as fuel. Fat can be used only in the presence of oxygen.
[...] Gymnasts and low-carb | The Blog of Michael R. Eades, M.D. Not sure what to make of this. I can't imagine low-carb being good for athletes. As far as I know anaerobic exercise is not fueled by protein but by a combination of the phos****en and glycolytic systems which respectively rely on ATP and carbohydrates. What am I missing? I know this isn't D and S. Just thought it would be interesting. Or should I just post it there? __________________ Na skorost! Zhostko! Davai! Tyanut! Vot tak vot! "Men are going to die tonight, and I am gonna kill them." Training Log: http://www.sherdog.net/forums/f49/flair-iron-s-p-conditioning-jiu-jitsu-993434 [...]