By the way, while immersing myself in Weston A. Price Foundation-related reading, I came across a claim that baking bread using traditional sourdough methods does something to the gluten that makes it far less allergy-triggering, and possibly even safe for celiacs. Seems there’s one little link in the protein chain that’s been identified as the trigger for celiac symptoms and other gluten-related health issues. The human gut can’t break it down, but bacteria can. And bacteria are one of the components of a wild-caught sourdough starter.

I’ve also heard that sprouting grains changes the protein structure as well, not to mention giving the baked end product a nutritional profile closer to that of vegetation. I know that I can have one or two slices of Ezekiel bread in a day when I’m in ketosis and am not knocked out of it. I would be curious to try again from fasting glucose now that I have a meter, and then test myself after eating a slice, to see how far I spike if at all.

The work by Tabata is particularly illustrative and Tabata intervals (20 seconds hard, 10 seconds easy for 4 minutes) were shown by him to be very effective for fat loss, anaerobic improvement, and, surprisingly, improvement in aerobic capacity. The websites of Clarence Bass and Art Devany are excellent sources for further information about intervals and how to remain functional with age (both Clarence and Art are about 70). Clarence has a good discussion about Tabatas specifically plus some other studies of different high intensity intervals. Unfortunately, Art now requires a fee to view his site.

On a personal level, I can attest to the effectiveness of Tabata intervals. I used to conclude my weight training sessions with 15-20 minutes of a conventional aerobic activity, usually a rowing machine or uphill walking on a treadmill . When I learned about Tabata intervals at about age 50 I substituted my aerobic component with 4 minutes of Tabatas on the rowing machine. During the next 6 weeks my weight dropped from 217 to 202 lbs, and I was NOT trying to lose weight. Nothing else changed in my diet or exercise routine (which also includes competitive tennis). The weight just came off by itself.

High intensity intervals appear to work by causing a change in metabolism. They are certainly not long enough to consume many calories. On days that I do Tabatas (and twice a week is enough) I notice a different feeling in my body the rest of day. Something is happening which I can only describe as a feeling of warmth. I have since taken my weight lower to match what it was at age 25-30 and have done this without loss of muscle mass or strength, which is the other major advantage of intervals over long steady pace aerobics. Tabatas and uphill sprinting are the tools I’ve used to achieve this. The good dietary advice contained in this web site and Art Devany’s (which is quite similar to this one) will take you a good distance, but the right exercise tools are needed to take you further.

I agree that if any exercise will help one lose weight, it is high intensity exercise or resistance exercise. I’m just not sure how much, and I know it’s not as effective as diet alone. I probably need to look into this a little further and post on it.

From my understanding of studies I have seen, main sources of energy for extended exercise are muscle glycogen and plasma glucose. Muscle triglycerides and plasma free fatty acids are also important energy sources, but glucose is required in the reaction to utilize these sources. (Krebs Cycle). In a marathon or endurance event, when you run out of glucose, you “hit the wall.” In your low-carb studies, what kind of exercise where they participating in and where were their main sources of energy coming from?

There are numerous studies throughout the medical literature showing that people often (not always, but often) increase their endurance on low-carb diets, but only AFTER adapting to said diet. It’s beyond the scope of the comments section to write an entire post on all the whys and all the studies. Maybe I’ll do a post on this subject at some point. Until then, go to PubMed, enter ‘low-carbodydrate diet’ and ‘endurance’ in the search function and take a look.

As far as ‘hitting the wall’ goes during marathons, long endurance events such as marathons are usually fueled by fat, not glucose. When people have a chance to adapt to low-carb diets, they do well in these events. The type of races that requires glucose are sprints and other anaerobic exercises.