A Runner's Dilemna

[Ottawa]

A good friend at work that is into Marathon running has discussed LC/PP several times. Most running coaches advise carb loading, and a multi-meal approach to prepare yourself for a run. He sent me this article for the Ottawa Race Weekend, formerly the National Capital Marathon. The part I found most annoying was "Staying Injury Free" with Carbohydrates. "Eating for sport means following a carbohydrate rich diet – and one of the main reasons is to help minimize the risk of injury.", definitely irks me when I have experienced how much faster we heal eating less carbs and more protein.

http://www.ncm.ca/index.php?&page_id=105&lang_id=1

I took the test and scored 13/28 and I think that most of us would fall within a few points of this. The choices available in the Canadian food groups http://www.sfu.ca/~jfremont/cfg1.html (http://www.sfu.ca/~jfremont/cfg1.html) stress grain products as well as low fat, although it is currently under review.

To clarify, the Nutritionist from the article is an avid Canadian Food Guide advocate which is very similar to the American Food Pyramid. I said that I would review it here just to get some ideas. He agrees with the principles found in PP but has always voiced some concern over runners needing “fast fuel”.

February - Rate Your Plate

Rate your plate to see what your nutrition habits are now. Complete this test to see what you’re doing right and where you need to make changes.
Give yourself 2 points if the statement describes what you do every day.
Give yourself 1 point if the statement describes what you do sometimes.
Give yourself 0 points if the statement never applies to you.
1. I eat a variety of foods from the different food groups at EVERY meal.
2. I drink at least 8 cups of fluids (water, juice, milk, soup, etc) throughout my day and never lose more than 1% of my body weight in a training session.
3. I eat the most colourful vegetables and fruits.
4. I eat good sources of fibre such as whole grain products, fruit, vegetables and legumes.
5. I include low-fat sources of calcium and vitamin D such as milk or fortified soy beverages in most of my meals and snacks.
6. I have a protein rich food at least twice a day (i.e. cheese, meat, fish, poultry, eggs, legumes, soy protein, nuts/seeds).
7. eat a plant protein at least once a day (i.e. legumes, nut butters, miso, tempeh, tofu, soy protein, nuts/seeds).
8. I have a vegetable or fruit with each meal and snack.
9. I use highly unsaturated liquid oils (e.g. canola oil, soy oil, olive oil, safflower oil, sunflower oil, corn oil, flax oil, hemp oil, pumpkin oil, walnut oil).
10. I make sure the foods I eat are safe (cold foods cold and hot foods hot).
11. Throughout the day I never go more than 3-4 hours without feeding my body.
12. I wait until I am hungry to eat.
13. At mealtimes I stop eating as soon as I feel full.
14. I always rehydrate and refuel within 1 hour of working out.
Total your score and see how your eating habits rate.
Score results:
0 - 12 You need to make some changes…the sooner the better!
13 - 19 Not bad, but you could be making better choices….
20+ You have pretty good eating habits – keep up the good work!
The long-term goal is to change your eating habits so that you get a score of “2” on every question.

Do we have any runners or endurance sports people on board?

[Mitra]

Not me! But Anthony Colpo's (http://theomnivore.com/home.html) site has one or two articles, I think. As well as weight training he cycles. I think he said that the weight training is fine on low carb, but that he adds extra carbs for the cycling.

There's also an article on ketogenic diets and athletic performance (http://www.proteinpower.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=6&d=1141961312) in the resources section here.

[laughingW]

That's outdated info. If one wants to do marathon-type endurance sports, while eating lower carb, The Paleo Diet for Athletes is out now.

a goofy review from Runner's World:

http://www.runnersworld.com/article/0,5033,s6-197-0-0-9048,00.html

[Gaelen]

Linked on this site are some electronic FAQs from PPLP from the old eatprotein site. They're here (http://www.eatprotein.com/faq/populations.html#endurance) in the "Getting Started" section, but the specific recommendations for athletes are:

Athletes
How does this diet affect endurance athletes?

Quite well, once you've adapted to using fat as your main fuel for exercise. This process may take a week or two. Carbohydrate restriction causes a slight depletion of the glycogen stores. For a few days this condition may cause some slight fatigue and a feeling of being "out of gas." But it is the slightly glycogen-depleted state that encourages the body to turn to fat as the preferred metabolic fuel for muscle. And even in a lean person, there's a lot more fat than glycogen to draw from. In studies done at the naval air station in San Diego, Captain Charles Gray has shown that after adapting to the low-carb state, naval recruits not only equaled their previous endurance level, but also surpassed it. In many other countries that do well in athletic events, athletes tend to load up on fats more than they do on carbohydrates because all the recent studies show that "fat loading" promotes better athletic endurance.

Will the Protein Power Plan cause a decrease in endurance and athletic performance?

Absolutely not. In fact, studies have shown just the opposite-that people on a higher fat diet actually have much more endurance. This may sound wrong because it is so common for athletes to "carbo load" before a big endurance event. The whole idea of loading up on carbs is outdated nutritional advice. A problem that the U.S. athletes have had for a long time, because they carbo load before their event, is that when people switch from a high-carb diet to a higher-fat, low-carb diet, there is a decline in athletic performance at first. The reason is that enzymes have to adapt to the low-carb diet. But the decline is temporary, usually lasting three or four days-a week at most. Once athletes have adapted to the low-carbohydrate diet, studies uniformly show athletic endurance increases.

I am an athlete who "carbo loads" before my events. Why doesn't the Protein Power Plan support this concept?

When you're on a higher carbohydrate diet, the whole premise is that you're trying to stuff a lot of glycogen into your glycogen stores so you can run on it. But no matter how full you stuff them; they can get only so full, which lasts only a few hours. You can't run on glycogen for longer than that, so athletes "hit the wall." They run out of steam and they have to switch over to burning fat. If they started burning fat right at the beginning, they'd do much better. The other problem with carb loading is that becoming carbohydrate-adapted often means your insulin levels are increased. And in the face of elevated insulin levels, you can't access the fat stored in your fat cells. And the fat in your fat cells is you most important and most potent source of energy in any kind of endurance event. Remember, you get 9 calories of energy from 1 gram of fat versus 4 calories of energy from 1 gram of carbohydrate. No matter how well somebody's doing athletically, on a high-protein plan he or she could probably do better once allowed to adapt.

If I'm participating in a 3-5 hour athletic event, how should I plan to eat the day of the event?

If you have been following the Protein Power Plan, your body will utilize fat as its main energy source. You will basically be eating the same, with the addition of "snacks" during the event. Make these snacks small amounts of carbs combined with protein and healthy fats. An example would include bite size pieces of protein/carbohydrate bars, grapes, nuts, trail mix, etc. Glycogen stores tend to become depleted after about 90 minutes of continual exercise, depending on the intensity of the exercise. A small snack about every 30-40 minutes, after the initial 90 minutes of exercise, along with plenty of water and electrolytes will carry you throughout the event. Do not take in carbohydrates alone, whether in food or drink form. Carbs alone will increase your insulin levels and not allow fat to be released for energy metabolism. Skeletal muscle restores its glycogen levels at the highest rate during the first two hours after exercise, so be sure to replenish with low starch carbs, protein and healthy fats at this time.

I am a body builder, training for a competition. How do I incorporate a low carb diet into my routine?

A lower carb diet is the perfect plan for a body builder. It is very important to know what your lean mass weight is because your maintenance protein intake will be based on that amount times your activity level which will be somewhere around 1 to 1.2 grams or higher, of protein per pound of lean mass. Because your protein intake may get as high as 300-400 grams of protein per day, it is important to eat small amounts about every 1 -3 hours. Your carbohydrate intake will be well less than half of your protein intake, eating mainly the fibrous vegetables and a few fruits. Keep your fat intake to healthy choices and at a moderate level so as to force your body to burn stored fat as its energy source. This is what gives you that "cut, lean" appearance. Drink a couple of gallons of water a day and replace those electrolytes.

[Ottawa]

Thanks all for the various inputs. I'll send him the link.

[starship]

Why does he add carbs for cycling?


Not me! But Anthony Colpo's (http://theomnivore.com/home.html) site has one or two articles, I think. As well as weight training he cycles. I think he said that the weight training is fine on low carb, but that he adds extra carbs for the cycling.

There's also an article on ketogenic diets and athletic performance (http://www.proteinpower.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=6&d=1141961312) in the resources section here.

[Mitra]

This is what he said:

First, let's start with the science: studies have found that performance in lower level endurance activities (around 60% VO2max) is unaffected and sometimes even enhanced by low-carb.

However, higher level endurance activity (80%VO2max) is negatively affected. A study which assigned males who were placed on a regimen of cycling training at 80%VO2max to either high- or low-carb found that those on the latter regimen fared much worse.

Now, my personal experience with myself and as a trainer: Even on a strict keto diet, most otherwise sedentary individuals engaged in weight training and moderate cardio, after undergoing fat adaptation, will have no problems fuelling their daily activities.

Powerlifting-style weight training, as it is typically performed (heavy weights, low reps, long rest between sets), does not make deep inroads into glycogen stores. Again, after fat adaptation occurs, most should have little trouble here. Bodybuilding training can be a different story IF it extends long enough, consists of enough higher reps, short rest, and frequent enough workouts.

My own experience: after going strict keto, I had no problem whatsoever fuelling my weight training workouts and brief intense cardio sessions. But when I recently bought a new bike and returned to the hills a couple of months back, my energy and performance on the bike eventually started to suffer. My times got slower, my rides felt harder, I was getting passed during rides by people who had no business passing me...off the bike, my legs started feeling heavy and tired--classic signs of glycogen depletion. My arms and torso felt fine, indicating that the cycling was tapping into my leg muscle's glycogen stores much faster than what my low-carb diet could replace them. The problem wasn't insufficient calories or fat, as I was eating plenty of both and was maintaining my weight.

To tackle the problem, I started having big carb feeds again after rides, as in 150-250g of carbs, usually from white rice noodles (I can hear all the Paleo purists gasping in disbelief) and a wee bit of dried fruit. My performance picked up immediately...in fact, I beat my best time on one of my favorite rides a few weeks ago.

[starship]

Thanks for posting that. I have cycled while in ketosis, but only 10-15 miles a day for cardio training. No racing or time times for me.

I have just started today to achieve ketosis again, and gut it out to drop 30 more pounds. After that, I might elect to supplement carbohydrates to increase performance. The only reason I want to drop more weight is to cycle better, but I can be patient.